Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/71

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In the year 1897, $3,399,672.43 were appropriated to the Bureau of Gas; but in that year the city (through its Councils and the Mayor) leased the gas works to a private corporation, so that now the city has to maintain a department for inspection only.

The population in 1800 was 70,287, the budget $68,485.92; the per capita expense, therefore, 97 cents. The population in 1899 was approximately 1,115,000; the budget $30,958,382.88; the per capita expense, $27.76. This great increase is due mainly to the fact that the city does more for the citizen than it did one hundred years ago, and is constantly doing more, and partly to the fact that a much larger territory is covered.

In 1897 Philadelphia had 433 public schools, with 3,465 teachers; in 1800 there were none. In 1899 there were 2,191 policemen, commanded by 6 captains, 34 lieutenants, 196 sergeants, with 23 patrol wagons, and requiring an appropriation of $2,732,483.31; in 1800 there was a handful of constables, paid out of an appropriation of $18,000 'for lighting and watching the city', and another of $156 for 'patrolling streets on the Sabbath day' In 1899 there were 46 fire engines, 32 combination wagons and chemical engines, 15 chemical engines, 13