BALTIMORE of the United States of America, situated on the north side of the Patapsco river, about 14 miles above its entrance into Chesapeake Bay, 38 miles ISLE, of Washington, and 97 miles S.W. of Philadelphia. Its latitude is 39° 17' N. and longitude 76° 36' W. The harbour is defended by Fort M‘Henry. (It was during the bombardment of this fort in 1814 that Francis Scott Key, a prisoner on one of the British ships, wrote “The StarSpangled Banner.”) The area of Baltimore was about doubled by an extension made in 1888. The region annexed extends to a line 2 miles north of the old northern boundary, and about 2 miles west of the old western boundary. The present area is about 32 square miles. Population (1880), 332,313; (1890), 434,439 ; (1900), 508,957. The death-rate in 1890 was 22’9, and in 1900, 2P0 ; of the whites (1900), 19-0, and of the coloured, 31-1. The coloured population was (1880) 53,716, (1900) 79,739 (79,258 negroes). Of the total population in 1900, 243,280 were males, 265,677 females, 440,357 native-born, 68,600 foreign-born. Out of 141,271 males 21 years of age and over, 10,152 were illiterate (unable to write), of whom 1261 were native whites, 2921 foreign whites, and 5785 negroes. Baltimore was among the earliest American cities to be provided with a general system of electric car-lines; and since 1890 there has been a rapid suburban growth, Boland Park to the north and Walbrook to the north - west being two of the principal new suburbs. In 1899 the total assessed valuation of real and personal property was $388,242,020, the tax-rate $21.58 per $1000, and the net public debt $32,928,106. The water-supply of Baltimore was very greatly increased in 1881 by the introduction of water from the Gunpowder River (in addition to the old supply from Jones Falls), the source of supply being at a point about 11 miles north of the city. The cost of the work, including the building of three new reservoirs, was about $4,000,000. The entire water system of Baltimore is now capable of furnishing about 200,000,000 gallons daily. To the park system was added, in 1895, Clifton Park, acquired through the purchase from the trustees of the Johns Hopkins University of Clifton, the handsome estate of the late Johns Hopkins, comprising 252 acres. The parks are maintained from the proceeds of a tax of 9 per cent, on the gross receipts of the street railways (with certain exemptions as to the annexed district), which tax now amounts to nearly $300,000 annually. The new court-house, completed in 1899, is a building of great beauty, chaste and dignified. In it all the courts (except the United States courts), the land records, the library of the Bar Association, &c., are accommodated. Opposite the court-house is the post-office, a large granite building, completed in 1890. Congress has also made provision for a handsome custom-house. An event of the first importance in education, not only to Baltimore but to the whole United States, was the foundation of Johns Hopkins University, which opened its doors in 1876. Its endowment, under the will of Johns Hopkins, a Baltimore merchant and financier, who died in 1873, was valued at more than $3,000,000. The devotion of the revenue thus placed in the hands of the trustees chiefly to the establishment of advanced university studies, somewhat on the plan of the German universities, constituted a new departure of the first importance in the history of higher education in America. (See Johns Hopkins University.) In 1888 was opened the Woman’s College of Baltimore, an institution endowed and controlled by Methodists, but non-sectarian in its spirit. The Bryn Mawr School, founded by Miss Mary E. Garrett in 1885, and the Latin School of the Woman’s College are important girls’ schools preparatory to college. The
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number of public schools is now 183, with 1802 teachers, an enrolment of about 65,000 pupils, and an annual expenditure of about $1,400,000. In 1900 there were in the city 160,379 persons of school age (5 to 20 years inclusive). Baltimore has a number of medical schools, of which the most important are that of the Johns Hopkins University, that of the University of Maryland (founded in 1807), the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Baltimore Medical College. The chief law school is that of the University of Maryland. Among the dental schools is the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, chartered in 1839, the oldest dental college in the world. The Maryland Institute maintains a very meritorious school of design, covering drawing, painting, and sculpture. The Peabody Institute carries on an important conservatory of music. The Walters Art Gallery, although a private collection, is thrown open to the public during part of the year. Of the important foundations instituted in Baltimore, outside the field of education, the most noteworthy is the Johns Hopkins Hospital, for the endowment of which the founder bequeathed half his fortune. The principal (about $3,000,000) of the fund has not been trenched upon, the buildings having been erected out of the income. The hospital was planned and constructed under the advisory supervision of Dr John S. Billings, of the United States Army Medical Corps. It provides clinical facilities for the medical school of the Johns Hopkins University, for the accommodation of which it also has extensive laboratories. The buildings are situated upon a tract of 12 acres, and are twenty in number; the beds numbered 320. It maintains a training school for nurses of the highest order. The Sheppard Asylum for the curative treatment of the insane was opened in 1890 upon the basis of a bequest made by Moses Sheppard in 1857. The endowment was more than doubled in 1898, through the bequest of Enoch Pratt, a Baltimore merchant and financier, the bequest being coupled with the condition that the name be changed to Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. It is now the most richly endowed hospital for mental diseases in the United States. Other notable institutions inaugurated within the past two or three decades are the M‘Donogh School, the Samuel Beady Asylum for Female Orphans, and the Wilson Sanitarium for children. Baltimore was without a free circulating library until 1886, when the Enoch Pratt Free Library was opened. This institution has a central building and seven branches, and possesses about 200,000 volumes. Mr Pratt gave the buildings and the sum of $833,333.33, upon condition that the city expended $50,000 annually upon it. The growth of manufactures in Baltimore has been rapid; the capital invested in manufacturing has risen from $38,500,000 in 1880 to $92,700,000 in 1890; the number of employees from 56,300 in 1880 to 83,700 in 1890; the annual amount of wages from $15,000,000 in 1880 to $36,000,000 in 1890. It is estimated that the amount of capital invested is now more than $150,000,000. The Abbott Iron Works have been abandoned and the sugar-refining industry has ceased to exist; on the other hand, the steel works of the Maryland Steel Company have been established at Sparrow’s Point, representing an investment of about $8,000,000. The export trade has steadily increased. The total of exports for the fiscal year ending 30th June 1901 was $106,239,081. During the preceding year the exports of breadstufts amounted to $37,997,080; sheep and cattle, $5,139,864; copper, $16,656,875; cotton, and its manufactures, $8,360,193; provisions (meat and dairy products), $20,304,582; and tobacco, $6,797,534. The imports are much smaller, the
