After more than ten years of experience with a gas plant managed by a municipal bureau, the city, through its Councils, became convinced of the desirability of private management, and, December 1, 1897, The United Gas Improvement Company took charge, under a lease which was highly favorable to the city. This lease provided for the return of the works to the city at the expiration of 30 years, and besides, through the co-operative clause, has made available for the city treasury annually a sum of money which, beginning in 1908 with $268,459.16, reached in 1912 the sum of $1,369,966.12. Since the transfer of the lease The United Gas Improvement Company has expended for permanent improvements $17,500,000, all of which revert to the city with the gas works provided that the lease runs the full term of 30 years. Besides this, the company furnishes gas free to the public lamps and cleans, lights and extinguishes them. The value of this free service in 1898 was upwards of $500,000, and the sum increases in ratio as 300 new lamps each year are added. The quality and candlepower of the gas have been greatly improved, and the general service rendered has been of such a nature that Philadelphians as a rule look upon the transfer of the works to private management as a blessing.

A comparison of present and past conditions may be pertinent. The Gas Works under city management were a heavy drain on the city and were being operated at an ever increasing loss. The service was inadequate. The plant was a physical wreck. Advancement in the use of gas to increase comfort in the home and efficiency in the industries with attendant economy was not helped or encouraged. Today the plant is being operated, not only at a great profit to the lessees but at a great financial gain to the municipality. The service is equal to all requirements. The plant and equipment are in the finest condition that modern methods make possible. The householder in his home, the business man in his store, the manufacturer in his factory are being helped in every way to better living and working conditions and save money by using

gas.

The word "Improvement" in the corporate name of the United Gas Improvement Company has been made a living gospel in all branches of the service. Every complaint from a consumer is reccived and adjusted in a spirit of patience and fairness. The most expensive experiments and equipment are maintained to secure the very best quality of gas and to deliver it at proper pressure to the burner. High salaried experts in every branch of the business are maintained; most thorough tests of appliances are made under scientific conditions, to the end that the consumer shall have appliances of utmost efficiency which will operate with the greatest economy. Offices have been established in every section of the city-nine in all-to facilitate the transaction of business with consumers. Instructors are engaged to go to the home and help the housewife in her use of gas. In a word, the policy of helpfulness has been pursued-not in a philanthropical sense, to be sure, but on the principle that it is good modern business policy.

From the one use which was foreseen for gas in the beginning, there are today more than a thousand uses. Most of these are in connection with manufacturing processes. But the greatest use of all is in ranges and water heaters in the homes. Today there are very few homes in the city in which the meals

are not cooked with gas, and in consequence the coal range is being rapidly eliminated.

In the factory gas has had a revolutionary effect, and this particularly in Philadelphia, which is above all a manufacturing city. This clean, reliable, quick source of heat and power, going into the gas engine, the gas furnace, or any one of the thousand appliances in use, entailing little space and no fuel or ashes storage room or troubles, has made for a better quality of product, more sanitary conditions and withal economy.

For 15 years after the lease, the affairs of the Company received the direct supervision of Thomas Dolan as President. In March, 1912, Mr. Dolan resigned his office and was succeeded by Samuel T. Bodine. Mr. Dolan, however, retained the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Other officers of the Company are: First Vice-President, Randal Morgan; Second VicePresident, Walton Clark; Third Vice-President, Lewis Lillie; Fourth VicePresident, W. F. Douthirt; Fifth Vice-President, Paul Thompson; Treasurer, Lewis Lillie; Secretary, George W. Curran.

Employing more than 3,000 persons, and actively interested in all civic and industrial betterments, The United Gas Improvement Company, lessees of the Philadelphia Gas Works, is one of the vital agents in the city's life and progress.

Omnibus lines were introduced and the stages were soon running in every direction through the city, and even to outlying sections, although the riding was made uncomfortable by the cobble stones which presented a very uneven surface. The omnibus differed from the old stage coach in that it was longer and the seats instead of running transversely extended the length of the vehicle on both sides; thus the passengers sat facing each other. It could accommodate about twelve to fourteen riders. The door was in the rear, and the passenger, after entering, handed his fare through a hole in the roof to the driver. When an occupant of the vehicle desired to alight, he pulled a strap attached to the driver's leg, which strap extended through loops in the roof to the door. The driver loosened the strap, and the passenger pushing against the door, opened it and went down two or three steps to the street.

Cab stands were authorized by Councils to be located in different sections of the city at well known localities, and the rate of hire was fixed at twentyfive cents for short distances and a dollar an hour. An additional charge was made for the conveyance of baggage. Long lines of these cabs were stationed. at the corners of certain streets in the business sections of the city, generally in close proximity to the railroad stations and hotels. Summer and winter, in all kinds of weather, clear and foul, by day and far into the night, the drivers and horses could be found at their posts. The horses with drooping heads, their check reins loosened while they were at rest, would seemingly doze most of the time. Many of them were fed their noon-day meal without going to the stables, and the locality frequently emitted a very unpleasant odor. The drivers, a class by themselves, called "Jehus," wearing high hats that were out of date, stood in groups on the sidewalk with whip in hand and discussed the questions of the day until a customer appeared, when they would suddenly rush

in his direction, pushing each other, often roughly, aside, to secure him as a passenger.

The market houses which had lost many of their picturesque features of earlier days had so gradually and so extensively encroached upon the highways as to occupy the middle of Market street from Front to Eighth street, and on the same street from Fifteenth to Seventeenth street. On Callowhill street long sheds stretched out from Fourth to Seventh street, and on Spring Garden street from its beginning at Sixth street to Twelfth street. They were also constructed on South Second street from Pine to South, and on North Second from Coates to Poplar, on Girard avenue north and on Shippen street south. There had also been sheds erected in Southwark, Kensington and Moyamensing. The early market houses had been a feature of the city life, and no visitor ever came to Philadelphia that he did not make a personal inspection of them. The butchers in their immaculate aprons, the farmers with their produce of every kind, the vegetable and fruit stalls were commented upon favorably by all strangers; but the city's traffic had grown to such an extent that the market houses blocked the streets and interfered with travel. They were not as neat and tidy as they had been and were infested with rats, and there was now made a determined effort to remove them and to erect in their stead market houses fronting the streets but not occupying the center of them. was sometime, however, before the movement was actually set on foot and many years before most of the principal sheds were removed, some, in a few localities, still lingering as a simple reminder of what they once had been.

From Colonial days it had been the custom on Sundays, during the hours of worship, to block off by chains all streets running past the churches. This custom had been retained up to this time, and it caused, necessarily, great annoyance and inconvenience to those who were required to use the highways. Sometimes a long detour had to be made, and drivers had to go out of their way many blocks to avoid the chains. Even the mail coaches were delayed in their progress. Before the custom was done away with, however, an appeal had to be made to the Legislature, and, strange to say, the clergy and churchgoing people entered a strong protest against the repeal of the law. The Legislature, however, deaf to this protestation, passed an Act doing away with this relic of medievalism.

Many changes were made in the appearance of the public squares, the old wooden fences that had surrounded some of them were removed and iron railings erected in place of the same. Centre Square, at Broad and Market streets, was intersected by Market street running east and west, and by Broad street running north and south, and instead of remaining one large common, the land was transformed into four squares, and these were surrounded by tall iron railings until the ground was covered by the Public Buildings.

CHAPTER XXII.

PHILADELPHIA, A LITERARY CENTRE,

PERIODICALS.

NEWSPAPERS. THE THEATRES.

HILADELPHIA still retained her reputation as the literary centre of

P the country. It was a day when magazines or periodicals were all

the rage.

The first publication of this character in this city was the Saturday Evening Post, in 1821. It had among its editors, Thomas Cottrell Clarke, Charles J. Peterson, Henry Peterson, Rufus W. Griswold, Morton McMichael, and others of little less distinction. It made a boast of its circulation, which was about seven thousand copies a week, a mere bagatelle as compared with its circulation to-day under the direction of its enterprising owner, Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis. Then there were magazines published as "The Album," "The Lady's Gazette," "The Casket, or Flowers of Literature, Wit and Sentiment," and "The Lady's Garland," the names indicating the character of the publications.

Louis A. Godey came upon the scene in 1830, and built up successfully his "Lady's Book." Articles from the pens of the leading writers of the day appeared in its pages. It made so great a reputation, obtained so large a circulation, and paid authors so liberally, as compared with the meagre sums they had heretofore received that even such men as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and N. P. Willis were from time to time regular contributors, and afterwards Edgar Allen Poe, Bayard Taylor, T. Buchanan Read and Charles Godfrey Leland frequently published their articles within the covers of this popular magazine. Peterson's "Lady's Book" also for a time made a stir in the literary world. Then came "Graham's Magazine," perhaps the best edited of all the periodicals of that day so far as real literary worth was concerned.

William E. Burton, the comedian, in 1837, ventured upon the publication of a periodical, which he called "The Gentleman's Magazine." He associated with him Edgar Allen Poe, but their connection unfortunately did not last long. There was friction between the editors and the undertaking was found to be unprofitable, and in time the magazine was sold to George R. Graham, who combined it with "The Casket."

Poe's genius was not recognized at this time as it should have been. He had not the faculty of advertising himself or his works. Being of a nervous, sensitive, irritable and retiring disposition, he somehow or other failed to impress himself as strongly upon his age as he should have done. He did not know how to make friends and to keep them. He was in this particular, much like a distinguished artist of a later date who possessed the gentle art of making enemies. He was continually in debt, and at times reduced to absolute. want. He sold to the publishers his greatest works for a mere pittance, and for his criticisms, which were always incisive, penetrative and written in the highest literary form, he was paid only four dollars a page.

One of the houses in which Poe lived while in this city still stands to this