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from the foot of Main-street, embracing some 10 acres, is reserved for the landing, and usually presents a scene of great activity. The shore is paved with stone from low water mark to the top of the first bank, and furnished with

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The first building on the left is the iron front clothing store of Sprague & Co. The Post Office and Custom House are in the structure with the Grecian front. Mitchell & Rammelsburg's Furniture Warerooms, Shillito's Dry Goods' establishment, and tower of the Unitarian Church, appear beyond.

floating wharves, which accommodate themselves to the great variation in the hight of the river. From 60 to 80 steamboats are often seen here at once, presenting a scene of animation and business life.

The Ohio River, at Cincinnati, is 1,800 feet, or about one third of a mile,

wide, and its mean annual range from low to high water is about 50 feet the extreme range may be 10 feet more. The water is at its lowest point of depression usually in August, September and October, and the greatest rise, in December, March, May and June. Its current, at its mean hight, is three miles an hour; when higher, or rising, it is more, and when very low it does not exceed two miles. The navigation of the river is rarely suspended by ice. The city is supplied with water raised from the Ohio by steam power, capable of forcing into the reservoir 5,000,000 gallons of water each twelve hours. The reservoir is elevated about 200 feet above the bed of the Ohio, and is estimated to contain 5,000,000 gallons.

In point of commercial importance, Cincinnati occupies a front rank in the west. By means of the numerous steamers which are constantly plying to and fro on the bosom of the majestic river, which rolls gracefully on the south of the city, and the several canals and railroads which enter here, Cincinnati is connected with every available point of importance in the great and highly productive valley of the Mississippi. The trade is not, however, confined to the interior: and a vast amount of foreign importation and exportation is done. The pork business is carried on more extensively here than at any other place in the world.

Manufacturing is entered into here with great energy, and employs a vast amount of capital. Numerous mills and factories are in operation, besides founderies, planing mills, rolling mills, saw mills, rolling mills, flouring mills, type founderies, machine shops, distilleries, etc. Nearly all kinds of machinery is driven by steam, and there are now about 300 steam engines in operation in the city. Steamboat building is an extensive and important business here. Among the most important branches of manufacture is that of iron castings, implements and machinery of various kinds, as steam engines, sugar mills, stoves, etc., some of the establishments employing hundreds of hands. The manufacture of clothing is also a great interest; and in the extent of the manufacture of furniture, the factories surpass any others in the Union. Cincinnati is also the most extensive book publishing mart in the west. The total value of the product of the manufacturing and industrial pursuits of Cincinnati, for 1859, was ascertained by Mr. Cist to sum up more than one hundred and twelve millions of dollars. Among the heaviest items were, ready made clothing 15 millions; iron castings, 6 millions; total iron products, 13 millions; pork and beef packing, 6 millions; candles and lard oil, 6 millions; whisky, 5 millions; furniture, 33 millions; domestic liquors, 34 millions; publications, newspapers, books, etc., 2 millions; and patent medicines, 2 millions.

Cincinnati was the first city in the world to adopt the steam fire engine. The machine used is of Cincinnati invention, by Abel Shawk. The fire department is under pay of the city. It is admirably conducted, and so efficient. that a serious conflagration is very rare. The huge machines, when on their way to a fire, are drawn through the streets by four powerful horses moving at full gallop, and belching forth flames and smoke, form an imposing spectacle.

Cincinnati has the first Observatory built on the globe by the contributions of "the people." It is a substantial stone building, on the hill east of the city, 500 feet above the Ohio, named Mt. Adams, from John Quincy Adams, who laid the corner stone of the structure, Nov. 9, 1843. The tel escope is of German manufacture; it is an excellent instrument, and cost about $10,000.

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The public buildings of Cincinnati are numerous, and some of them of beautiful architecture. The Mechanics' Institute is a substantial building, erected by voluntary subscription. The Ohio School Library and that of the Mechanics' Institute are merged in one, which is free to the public: it has

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The Eagle on the summit is perched 110 feet above the pavement. The Opera room is about 100 feet each way, and from the floor of the Parquette to the crown of the dome is 82 feet; it has three tier of boxes, and a seating capacity of nearly 3,000 persons.

24,000 volumes. The Catholic Institute, which adjoins it, is an elegant and capacious structure with a front of freestone. The Cincinnati College edifice is a large building of compact gray limestone. In it are the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce and the Young Mens' Mercantile Library Association. This association has 2,500 members, and a library of 20,000 volumes, beside all the principal American and foreign periodicals. The Masonic Temple, corner of Third and Walnut, cost about $150,000. It is one of the most beautiful and imposing buildings in the Union. The material is a light freestone, and the style Byzantine. The County Court House is the largest building in the city. It cost more than a million of dollars: its front is of gray limestone, and the whole structure is of the most durable character. Among the theaters of the city, Pike's Opera House, for the beauty and exquisite taste shown in its construction, has a national reputation. It cost with the ground, nearly half a million of dollars: its magnificent opera hall is justly the pride of the citizens. Among the 110 churches of the city, the Catholic Cathedral, on Eighth-street, is the most imposing. It is 200 feet long and 80 feet wide, with a spire rising to the hight of 250 feet, and cost about $100,000.

Cincinnati has its full share of literary and benevolent institutions. It has 5 medical and 4 commercial colleges, the Wesleyan Female, and also St.

Xavier Colleges. The common school system is on the principle now in vogue, of graded schools. The scholars are divided into three classes-the common, intermediate and high schools. And these, in turn, are graded, one year being given to each grade. A child is taken at six years of age, and at eighteen graduates at the high school, with an education based on the common branches, and completed with some of the languages and higher branches of science.*

Cincinnati is the center of many extensive railway lines, running north, east, south and west, and also the terminus of the Miami Canal, extending to Lake Erie and Toledo, and the Whitewater Canal, penetrating the heart of Indiana. Population, in 1800, 759; in 1810, 2,540; in 1820, 9,602; 1830, 24,831; 1840, 46,338; 1850, 118,761; in 1860, 171,293; the suburbs, Covington and Newport, would increase this to about 200,000.

Cincinnati is noted for the successful manufacture of wine from native grapes, particularly the Catawba. The establishment of this branch of industry is due to the unremitting exertions of Mr. Nicholas Longworth, a resident of Cincinnati for more than half a century.

Prior to this, the manufacture of American wine had been tried in an experimental way, but it had failed as a business investment. Learning that wine could be made from the Catawba grape, a variety originating in North Carolina, Mr. Longworth entered systematically into its cultivation, and to encourage the establishment of numerous vineyards, he offered a market on his own premises for all the must (juice), that might be brought him, without reference to the quantity.

"At the same time he offered a reward of five hundred dollars to whoever should discover a better variety. It proved a great stimulus to the growth of the Catawba vine in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, to know that a man of Mr. Longworth's means stood ready to pay cash, at the rate of from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a gallon, for all the grape juice that might be brought to him, without reference to the quantity. It was in this way, and by urgent popular appeals through the columns of the newspapers, that he succeeded, after many failures, and against the depressing influence of much doubt and indifference, in bringing the enterprise up

*The forcing system prevails in the graded schools of our large cities to an alarming extent. It would seem as if, in the opinion of those who control these institutions, Providence had neglected to make the days of sufficient length, for children to obtain an education. In some of our large cities, doubtless many children can be found, on any winter night, between the late hours of 8 and 10, busy pouring over their books-a necessity required for a respectable scholarship. Many. if the writer can. believe alike teachers and parents, break down under the system. Others, doubtless, are to reap bitter fruits in after life, in long years of suffering, if, more happily, they fail to fill premature graves!

H. H. Barney, Esq., formerly superintendent of the public schools of Ohio, himself with thirty-two years of experience as a teacher, thus expresses his views on this subject:

"This ill-judged system of education has proved, in numerous instances, fatal to the health of the inmates of our public schools, exhausting their physical energies, irritating their nerves, depressing and crushing, to a great extent, that elasticity of spirit, vigor of body, and pleasantness of pursuit, which are essential to the highest success in education as well as in every other occupation.

Parents, guardians, physicians, and sensible men and women everywhere, bear testimony against a system of education which ignores the health, the happiness, and, in some cases, even the life of the pupil. Yet this absurd, cruel system is still persevered in, and will continue to be, so long as our public schools are mainly filled with the children of the poorer and humbler classes of society, and so long as the course of study and number of study hours are regulated and determined by those who have had little or no experience in the education or bringing up of children, or who, by educating their own offspring, at home or in private schools, have, in a measure, shielded them from the evils of this stern, rigorous, unnatural system of educating the intellect at the expense of the body, the affections, the disposition, and the present as well as life long welfare of the pupil.”

to its present high and stable position. When he took the matter in hand there was much to discourage any one not possessed of the traits of constancy of purpose and perseverance peculiar to Mr. Longworth. Many had tried the manufacture of wine, and had failed to give it any economical or commercial importance.

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Situated on the banks of the Ohio, four miles above Cincinnati.

It was not believed, until Mr. Longworth practically demonstrated it, after many long and patient trials of many valued varieties from France and Madeira, none of which gave any promise of success, that a native grape was the only one upon which any hope could be placed, and that of the native grapes, of which he had experimented upon every known variety, the Catawba offered the most assured promise of success, and was the one upon which all vine-growers might with confidence depend. It took years of unremitted care, multiplied and wide-spread investigations, and the expenditure of large sums of money, to establish this fact, and bring the agricultural community to accept it and act under its guidance. The success attained by Mr. Longworth* soon induced other gentlemen resident in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and favorably situated for the purpose, to undertake the culture of the Catawba, and several of them are now regularly and extensively engaged in the manufacture of wine. The impetus and encouragement thus given to the business soon led the German citizens of Hamilton county to perceive its advantages, and under their thrifty management thousands of acres, stretching up from the banks of the Ohio, are now covered with luxuriant and profitable vinevards, rivaling in profusion and beauty the vine clad hills of Italy and France. The oldest vineyard in the county of Hamilton is of Mr. Longworth's planting. The annual product of these vineyards may be set down at between five and six hundred thousand gallons, worth at present from one and a half to two dollars a gallon; but the price, owing to the rapidity of the consumption, will probably ad

"Mr. Longworth was always curious after new and interesting things of Nature's producing. It was the remark of an old citizen of Cincinnati, that, if Mr. Longworth was to be suddenly thrown, neck and heels, into the Ohio River, he would come to the surface with a new variety of fish in each hand. His chief interest in horticultural matters, however, has been expended upon the strawberry and the grape. The perfection of variety and culture to which he has, by his experiments and labors, brought these two important fruits of the country, have established their extensive and systematic cultivation in all parts of the west."

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