© Leon Dadmun, Boston, 1903
THE HARVARD YARD
Boston is the home of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a famous training college in applied sciences; Simmons College for women; the Harvard Medical College; Boston College (Roman Catholic); Boston University; the Normal Art School; the Conservatory of Music; the Emerson School of Oratory; and other schools of high standing. Harvard, the oldest and largest university in the country, has its home in Cambridge. Radcliffe, a college for women, whose pupils receive the same courses of instruction as the students in Harvard, is also in Cambridge. Tufts College is in the neighboring city of Medford, while in the beautiful hill town of Wellesley, a suburb of Boston, is Wellesley College, a woman's college of high rank.
But now, if we hurry, we shall be just in time to see the children flocking in crowds to one of their many playgrounds. Here they find swings and other apparatus for sport; and here they may play tennis, baseball, or football in the spring, summer, and fall. In the winter months they may make use of the ice, which is kept in good condition for the skater. In the various districts, also, are swimming pools and indoor gymnasiums, where old and young meet for recreation as well as for physical training.
Having seen Boston at work and at play, we now ask ourselves where the food comes from to feed this vast multitude. Its meats, flour, and grain of all kinds are brought into its huge freight stations from the West. Its great ocean trade with the ports in the South as well as in Europe and Asia supplies other food necessities and luxuries. New England is a great dairy center, and much of the city's milk, butter, and other dairy products comes to Boston each morning from New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. The purity of the milk is carefully watched, and it is impossible to buy even a pint of milk in anything but a sealed jar.
Boston's drinking-water is equally well guarded. The water, as well as the sewage, is under the control of the Metropolitan Water and Sewage Commission. There is a high-pressure distributing station at Chestnut Hill, which gives power sufficient to force water to the highest of Boston's buildings.
The sewage of the down-town sections of the city is collected in a main drainage system, pumped through a tunnel under Dorchester Bay to Moon Island, held in large reservoirs, and discharged into the water when the tide is going out. The sewage of the outlying districts is conveyed to various places in the harbor and discharged into the water at a depth of thirty or forty feet, where it can be quickly carried out to sea.
Our stay in Boston is now at an end. Not only have we traveled over many miles of her streets and visited her famous State House, her busy wharves, and her interesting playgrounds, but we have reviewed many events of her thrilling history. What of all we have seen or heard is it most important for us to remember? First, that Boston is the fifth city in size in the United States; second, that she is the capital city of Massachusetts; third, that she is the chief trade center of New England; and fourth, that among America's cities she ranks second only to New York in foreign commerce. Then we must not forget the important place she holds in the early history of our country.
As we traveled into Boston, so we will journey out again. And with the last of the great city fading from our view, we call to mind the large-hearted Blackstone and say to ourselves, “Quite a change from the hermit's home on the sunny slope of Beacon Hill.”
BOSTON
FACTS TO REMEMBER
Population (1910), nearly 700,000 (670,585).