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LEFT ST. LOUIS 195 ST. LOUIS the vast and fertile Mississippi valley makes it one of the greatest commercial cities in the United States. There is an immense trade in breadstuffs, grain, pro- visions, lumber, hides, agricultural prod- ucts, hardware, boots and shoes, tobacco and cigars, quarries, steel castings, drugs and chemicals, dry goods, electrical prod- ucts, soap and candles, wooden-ware, etc. The automobile industry is of great im- portance. Commerce. — The city has direct com- munication with more than 6,000 miles of rivers. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, the imports of merchandise ag- gregated in value $18,638,711. Banks. — On Sept. 1, 1919, there were 6 National banks in operation, besides many private banks and trust companies. The total resources of the banks in 1920 were $659,220,721, with $463,944,744 in deposits. The exchanges at the United States clearing-house in the year ending Sept. 30, 1920, aggregated $8,065,368. Education. — The St. Louis public school system is recognized by educators as one of the most complete in the United States. It has 124 public grade and high schools for white and negro pupils. The grade schools include one school for the deaf, one for dependent and delinquent chil- dren, 13 for backward pupils and two open-air schools for children tubercularly inclined. A system of parochial grade and high schools is maintained by Catho- lic institutions for Catholic children. St. Louis has St. Louis University, and Wash- ington University, with its celebrated school for girls— Mary Institute. St. Louis University is the oldest Catholic university in the West. The Medical Department of Washington University, which is operated in connection with Barnes Hospital, constitutes the most ex- tensive medical institution in America. Many other hospitals with most modern equipment give St. Louis one of the best hospital systems in the country. The City Hospital is recognized as among the most complete municipal institutions in the West. The Ranken School of Me- chanical Trades is one of the most com- pletely equipped mechanical trade schools for boys and men in the United States. Hosmer Hall, Lenox Hall, Forest Park College, Mary Institute are among the other educational institutions. Churches. — One of the finest groups of representative architecture in the city is at Kings Highway and Washington ave- nue, where the four corners are occupied by magnificent churches — Temple Israel (Jewish synagogue) ; First Church of Christ, Scientist; St. John's Methodist Episcopal, South; and Second Baptist. The new cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Church in St. Louis. The struc- ture cost $3,250,000, the main altars $100,000, and the organ $50,000. The old cathedral occupies the site of the first church built in St. Louis, shortly after the landing of Laclede in 1764. Pope Gregory conferred favors on this old cathedral which no other church in the world has except the Basilicas in Rome. Christ Church Cathedral, the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of Mis- souri, is the first Protestant church founded west of the Mississippi river. The Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Associa- tion maintain commodious central build- ings and branches in various sections of the city. Finances.— In 1919 the total bonded debt of the city was $13,999,706. The assessed property valuation in 1919 was $765,722,620; tax rate $23.50 per $1,000. History.— On Feb. 14, 1764, while what is now Missouri was a part of Upper Louisiana, Auguste Chouteau, a young trader, with about 30 men, arrived at the site of the city to establish a permanent post. The spot had been selected the pre- vious year by Laclede. France had ceded the whole of Louisiana Territory to Spain in 1762. Spain ceded it back in 1800, and in 1803 France sold it to the United States. In 1896 the city was swept by a destructive tornado that overthrew many buildings, destroyed shipping, and tore out a shore span of the great bridge. Several hundred lives were lost and many rendered homeless. Tower Grove Park and Shaw's Gardens were greatly in- jured. In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held at St. Louis. The attendance was 19, as compared with Chi- cago 28 (1893), and Paris 50 millions (1900). ST. LOUIS, the capital of the French colony of Senegal in West Africa, on a small low island near the mouth of the Senegal river. Bridges connect it with N'dar Toute, a summer watering-place, on the right bank, and with the suburb of Bouetville, the terminus of the rail- way, on the left bank. The mouth of the river is rendered dangerous by a shifting bar of sand. The great ocean steamers land goods and passengers at Dakar, on Cape Verde, 163 miles to the S. W., and thence they are conveyed by rail. The climate is not healthy; water is supplied by an aqueduct 7 V2 miles long. There are a cathedral, governor's palace, etc., and a public garden. Pop. about 25,000. ST. LOUIS, a river in Minnesota which rises in St. Louis co. in the N. W. part of the State. Its course is S. and S. E.; it flows into the W. extremity of Lake Superior, 9 miles from Duluth, and is about 200 miles long.