Prior to the establishment of a pension system by the Crane Company, Mr. Crane personally pensioned employees whom sickness or old age had overtaken with out their having been able to lay by enough to support themselves and their families. Through the Crane Company, in 1899, Mr. Crane gave to each employee five per cent of the total amount the employee had earned during the previous year, as a New Year's present. This has been the practice each year since, except that, last year and the year before, the amount was ten per cent.

Mr. Crane has always taken an active interest in social, economic, political, and educational affairs, and has been prominently identified with many important movements. He is a student and writer upon educational problems. In his articles and pamphlets he places great emphasis upon the distinctions between an educational system adapted to meet the wants of the masses, and a system suit

able for training a favored few. He lays great stress upon the importance and practical value of manual training in the grade schools. In September, 1892, Mr. Crane equipped a manual-training room in one of the Chicago grade schools, and employed a special teacher to give instruction in woodwork in the higher grades of several of the schools. In 1900, recognizing the success of his first experiment, he provided the necessary means for making possible manual training in the lower grades. This year Mr. Crane has provided twenty-four scholarships, of $300.00 each per year, to enable young men to prepare themselves as teachers of manual training, and has provided the funds for opening manualtraining departments in five more grade schools. In recognition of Mr. Crane's interest in the public school system, the Chicago Board of Education has recently named a new school the "R. T. Crane Manual-Training High School."

If I have but you?

-HELEN M. QUINN.

Pipe-Arch Bridge in Washington, D. C.

THE

HERE is, it appears, a pipe-arch bridge in Washington, D. C., which, in point of size and structure, entirely outclasses that described in a recent issue of this magazine (June, p. 514), which we believed at the time to be the only one of its kind in the United States.

The bridge in question spans Rock Creek, a stream dividing Washington from old Georgetown. The entire weight of the structure is supported by two arched mains 200 feet in length, with a rise of 20 feet, each arch consisting of 17 cast sections of pipe having a thickness of 11⁄2 inches and an inside diameter of 4 feet. The sections are flanged, and are secured together by heavy rivets. Iron trusses are secured to the pipes, and receive the weight of the roadway.

The bridge was built about 1860, and was designed by General M. C. Meigs,

at that time Chief Engineer and Constructor of the Washington aqueduct. It forms a portion of Pennsylvania Avenue; and its mains originally conveyed the whole of Washington's water supply into the city. For a period of nearly twenty years, it acted also as a railway bridge, the horse-cars of the Washington and Georgetown Railway Company passing over it, and it was also the chief means of communication between the two cities. By Act of Congress, the company was forced to remove its tracks from the bridge about 1880, though this action was bitterly opposed by General Meigs, who contended that the bridge as designed and constructed was strong enough to support any weight put upon it, and that the removal of the tracks reflected discredit upon him and his assist

ants.

Prior to the removal of the tracks from the bridge, there was considerable discussion regarding the advisability of

strengthening it with a truss-work of iron, because it was probable-so stated the advocates of the improvement-that continual jarring of the bridge would weaken the mains and cause leaks to occur. This also was opposed by General Meigs, however; and, as far as it is possible to learn, no changes in the structure were made. The bridge has now been in use nearly half a century, and seems to be as strong to-day as when it was first built.-HY. CHAN.

ing filled with infantry and artillerymen, whose heads, of course, or bodies, are not in any way seen by the enemy.

It is difficult to imagine a more curious spectacle than this fortress on wheels running at twenty miles an hour, and coming suddenly, during war manoeuvers or actual battle, upon hostile troops engaged in wrecking the railroad. The "fortress" bears swiftly down upon them, nor can they make the least impression with their rifles upon its im

Fortress on Wheels

IT is well known that a railroad is a vital necessity for the supplying of a large army with provisions, clothing, and ammunition; and in order the more effectually to guard against their military railroads being destroyed or interrupted, the military cabinets of the world are now more and more using "armored trains" made of plates of steel, out of the sides of which project the deadly muzzles of small quick-firing cannon.

In the first truck is concealed the engine; and, as this is the most vital part, it is protected by special plates of nickelsteel, such as are used to cover the vital parts of battleships and cruisers.

The armored train, as used by the military powers of to-day, usually consists of three trucks, the two hinder ones be

pregnable steel-clad sides. Moreover, the terrible quick-firers whose muzzles pro ject from the train, have a range of two or three miles; and so dreadful havoc may be wrought among the marauders. before they get clear away.

These armored trains, which appear to move entirely on their own account, are found most useful by the scientific armies of to-day in quickly moving small bodies of troops to vulnerable spots on their lines of communication; and nothing more embarrassing can be imagined than a rolling fortress of this kind, which it is practically impossible to wreck save with heavy artillery, and which may make its appearance at the most awkward moment.

The engine driver is usually an officer of high rank; and the gunners and infantry greatly enjoy serving in the train,