Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/437

 estate sales were over $70,000,000. The present population of Greater Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh and Allegheny) is conservatively placed at over 550,000.

The figures of the total output of furnaces, mills and factories are so enormous as almost to set present estimates at defiance. Such a wonderful era of prosperity, such wonderful opportunities for swift acquisition of riches have never been witnessed in the world before; and certain resulting effects have been witnessed which might have been foreseen. That these effects are not at all surprising—that they are not widely prevalent, and might reasonably have been expected to be much greater, can be easily shown. The habit appears to have become chronic among professional paragraphers to assume a necessary decay of manhood as a resultant of accumulated wealth. But Goldsmith would have been the first to declare himself merely a licensed poet; that he molded no prophetic verse.

In view of the city's far-reaching reputation for grime and unloveliness, it would seem well to mention a fact that is cause for general surprise to visitors, namely, the beautifying of streets and parks, and the construction of fine driveways in the suburbs. The natural beauty of western Pennsylvania can only be realized when one leaves the business part of the city and plunges into the districts adjacent, where conditions are found that suggest what must have existed before man's transforming had converted the earth to his own uses. It is doubtful whether any community, east or west, has done so much in so short a time, to make the surrounding country accessible. In various directions about Pittsburgh fine, hard, smooth macadam roads extend for many miles. Even roundabout some of the suburban towns, as Sewickley, twelve miles down the Ohio, one can travel by carriage or automobile over excellent roads for long distances through a region showing diversified scenery of great beauty.

Fine parks were never more essential anywhere than in Pittsburgh; and it is mainly owing to the munificent generosity of Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, whose gifts to the city amount to about ten million dollars, that the great need has been supplied. Schenley Park is situated accessibly, and consists of seven hundred and fifty acres. The topography lends itself admirably to landscape gardening. Nobler or finer trees can not be found anywhere, and the bold hills, small streams and deep valleys have been made use of in an artistic way. Highland Park lies on the hills overlooking the Allegheny River, in the north-east environs of the city. The carrying out of the artist's plans has caused the construction of winding shady drives; and the features include an artificial body of water known as Lake Carnegie. Reservoirs which supply the eastern division of the city with water are located