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their own; The New Bedford Cordage Company ships its manila and hemp products, spun and twisted by New Bedford workmen, everywhere that rope is used; The Pairpoint Manufacturing Corporation's glass and silverware grace the tables of luxury throughout the United States, and in its paper mill department this concern. makes cones, tubes and cops, used in all cotton mills, and keeps several machines running the year round making the little paper cylinders which, when filled with powder, become the firecrackers with which Young America celebrates the Fourth of July; the Taunton & New Bedford Copper Company makes copper printing olls and all sorts of copper and yellow metal products; the Crescent Manufacturing Company, a comparatively new industry, weaves silk dress goods of the finest texture; the Oneko Woolen Mills, the only woolen manufactory in the city, makes suitings and all sorts of woolen weaves; the E. E. Taylor Company turns out welt shoes as fast as 500 employees can put them together; the Continental Wood Screw Company manufactures iron, brass and machine screws and wood screw machinery; the Standard Ring Traveller Company and the New Bedford Shuttle Company make travellers and loom shuttles used in cotton mills; the Blackner Cut Glass Company produces cut glass and decorated table ware; J. C. Rhodes & Co. manufacture eyelets for various purposes: Snell & Simpson bake buscuits and crackers and ship them to all quarters; the breweries of Dawson & Son and Smith Bros. manufacture beer,

ale and ice; the Bay State Chair Company sends its reed furniture throughout New England and the middle states; the Weeden Manufacturing Company makes many of the mechanical toys used by the American children; James L. Humphrey, Jr., manufactures ice; The George L. Brownell Estate manufactures fine carriages, hearses and ambulances; the Lambeth Rope Company manufactures cotton driving rope for the transmission of power; the Anderson Textile Manufacturing Company makes tape novelties for package wrapping. There are other industries doing a smaller amount of business, and there is room in New Bedford for many more.

New Bedford's banks are capitalized. for $2,920,000, including the First National, $1,000,000; Mechanics' National, $600,000; Merchants' National, $1,000,000; New Bedford Safe Deposit & Trust Company, $200,000; Fairhaven National, $120,000. The savings bank deposits at the close of business Dec. 31, 1908, amounted to $25,841,430, divided as follows: New Bedford Institution for Savings, $16,548,996; New Bedford Five Cents Savings Bank, $9,292,435. The savings bank dividends in 1908 amounted to $922,560. The two co-operative banks, the Acushnet and New Bedford, with a capital of $1,000,000 each, have out 18,628 shares. No bank in New Bedford ever refused to pay a hundred cents on a dollar, on demand, and even in times of panic, the stay law was never resorted to.

Pages might be written of the excellence of the fire department. the park

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system, the public and parochial schools, the New Bedford Textile school, the new Industrial school to be opened this month, the general good order and sobriety of the people, the hospitals and charitable institutions, the churches, the stores, the amusement places, the social organizations, did space permit. All these things add to the comfort and satisfaction of the people, and perform their part toward making the city attractive as a home.

New Bedford's newspapers serve the city well. There are three dailies printed in English, "The Morning Mercury," "The Evening Standard, and the "Daily Times." The "Standard" and "Times" run Sunday editions. There are two French dailies and one Portuguese daily, besides numerous weekly papers printed in various languages.

New Bedford's local transportation

service is furnished by the Union Street Railway Company; the Dartmouth & Westport, running between New Bedford and Fall River, the New Bedford & Onset, operating between New Bedford and Cape Cod points; the New Bedford, Middleboro and Brockton, a part of the Old Colony system, operating between New Bedford, Taunton, Middleboro and Brockton. There is a trolley freight service between New Bedford and Providence, and New Bedford and Cape Cod points.

The steamer connections are operated by the New England Navigation Company, running a daily line between. New Bedford and New York (freight in winter and passenger and freight in summer); the New Bedford, Marthas Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company, running daily between New Bedford, Woods Hole, Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket; and the New

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Bedford Towboat Company, running daily trips in summer to Nonquitt and Cuttyhunk, and winter mail trips to the latter place. New Bedford is also a point of call for the Insular Navigation Company, running a packet steamer between Lisbon, the Azores and the United States; there are also regular packets to and from the Cape Verde Islands, and St. Helena.

One of New Bedford's proud possessions, as a municipality, is the water works system, which furnishes an unlimited pure supply from Little Quittacas Lake. The specially designed Leavitt engines located at the pumping station are acknowledged by water works engineers to be the finest in America. Water for manufacturing purposes is ten cents per one thousand gallons.

Gas and electricity for street lighting and commercial uses are supplied by the New Bedford Gas & Edison Light Company. The city is served by two telephone companies, the Southern Massachusetts, a part of the Bell system; and the Automatic, an independent line.

A few words as to New Bedford's growth. When New Bedford became a city, in 1847, the estimated population was 16,000. The national census of 1850 gave the number of people as 16,443; in 1860 the number had grown to 22,300; between that time and 1865, when the state census was taken, there was a falling off, the census of that year showing only 20,855; in 1880, fifteen years later, the growth had reached only 26,845. Then New Bedford began to put on weight. In 1885, the increase was to 33,393, in 1890, 40,733; in 1895, 55,251; in 1900, 62,442; in 1905, 74,362; in 1906, by a special census, 79,078. Since 1906, only the figures issued by the assessors, based upon the number of polls, have been the guide for estimate. This year's enumeration, made by the assessors in May, has produced 23.956 polls, which, by the method of computation, indicates 95,824 people. A conservative estimate of 100,000 is not a bit too large at this writing. The prediction is made that

on Jan. 1, 1910, New Bedford will have 115,000 people.

The real and substantial growth of the city is shown by the record of building operations kept at the building inspection office. Since Jan. I, 1909, to the first of September, the estimated cost of new buildings begun is $4,937,900; the inspector of buildings has issued 675 permits to build since Jan. 1. In the case of the new mills, the estimated cost does not include equipment, but the structures alone.

The statistics of the building department for the past five years tell a remarkable story, as the following table will show:

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A glance at these figures shows that this year's building will be practically three times that of any previous year.

The assessors' valuation is $77,796,381.25, divided as follows: Real estate, $46,670,900; personal, $29,609,325; banks, $1,516,156.25. The tax rate for the current year is $19 on $1,000. Comparison cannot be made between this rate and the rate in other cities, without an explanation. New New Bedford levies no special taxes. The city lays out streets, paves, curbs and waters them and treats them with dust preventive applications, provides schools, police and fire protection, collects garbage and ashes, etc., all of which are included in general taxation. The only expense which an abutter is called upon to pay, outside of his tax, is the expense of granolithic sidewalks, if laid, and one half the expense of lateral sewers. Trunk sewers are laid at the common expense.

One more reference, and New Bedford's story, so far as the limit of this article will permit, it told. This reference is to public buildings now in

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