Trans-Mississippi&International Exposition

Official Guide Book to Omaha, Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition

• Subtitle: Illustrated with Fifty Half-Tone Plates, and Indexed Map of Omaha
• Date: 1898
• Publisher: Megeath Stationery Company
• Publication Place: Omaha, NE
• TEI XML: transmiss.book.guide.1898.xml

 

Official Guidebook to Omaha and Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

Illustrated with Fifty Half-Tone Plates, and Indexed Map of Omaha.

Published by MEGEATH STATIONERY COMPANY, 1308 Farnam St., Omaha, Neb. 1898.

POKROK ZAPADU PRINTING CO.

 

To the Public.

This, according to our contract with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition Company, is the official and only authorized Guide Book to the Exposition.

Megeath Stationery Co.

Copyrighted, 1898, BY Megeath Stationery Co.

On June 1st we will issue a revised edition of this Guide Book, which will be a full and complete guide to the Exposition Grounds. About fifty pages will be added and especial pains will be taken to make the additional illustrations cover all points of interest. A chart will be inserted which will show the location of all buildings, exhibits and concessions, and all information will be given which will be of value to the visitor.

Megeath Stationery Co.

INDEX TO CONTENTS.

PART I.—THE EXPOSITION.

PAGE

Agriculture, Horticulture, etc.....22

Amusements.....32

Architecture.....12

Art Exhibit.....20

Bee Industries.....22

Conventions for 1898.....39

Department of Exhibits.....18

Electricity.....22

Exhibitors' Agency.....18

Fisheries.....24

Government and State Participation......10

Indian Exhibit.....30

Irrigation.....29

Live Stock and Dairy.....22

Machinery.....24

Manufactures and Foreign Section.....24

Military Encampment.....32

Hines and Mining....24

Music.....26

Officers of the Exposition.....40

Origin and Government.....9

Site, The.....12

Transportation.....29

Woman's Department.....26

PART II.—OMAHA.

Amusements.....76

Art in Omaha.....72

Banks and Banking.....86

Blocks and Buildings.....132

Cemeteries.....132

 

PAGE

Churches.....126

City Government.....58

Clubs.....80

Council Bluffs.....57

Distances from Omaha.....142

Educational Institutions.....64

Express Companies.....120

Freight Depots.....120

Government Building.....84

Hack Ordinance.....78

History of Omaha.....47

Hospitals.....114

Hotels and Boarding Houses.....124

Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben.....80

Libraries.....62

Lodges and Societies.....82

Manufacturing.....92

Map of Omaha.....143

Military Organizations.....112

Missouri River.....54

Nebraska.....53

Newspapers and Periodicals.....85

Parks and Boulevards.....104

Passenger Stations.....120

Picnic Grounds.....79

Population.....59

Public Halls.....135

Public Improvements.....59

Real Estate.....87

Residences.....110

Retail Business.....88

Signal Service.....84

Stock Yards.....102

Street and Avenue Directory.....137

Street Directory.....141

Street Railways.....135

Ticket Offices.....119

Trans-Mississippi States.....54

Transportation.....118

Union Pacific in Nebraska.....56

Viaducts and Bridges.....122

Water Supply.....60

Wholesale Interests.....91

Woman's Club.....66

Young Men's Christian Association.....68

Young Woman's Christian Association.....68

 

Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

ORIGIN AND GOVERNMENT.

The Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress in convention at Omaha in 1895, formulated the following declaration, which was introduced by its president, the Hon. W. J. Bryan:

"WHEREAS, We believe that an exposition of all the products, industries and civilization of the states west of the Mississippi river, made at 30me central gateway where the world can behold the wonderful capabilities of these great wealth producing states, would be of great value, not only to the Trans-Mississippi states, but to all the home seekers in the world; therefore,

Resolved, That the United States Congress be requested to take such steps as may he necessary to hold a Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in the Near 1898, and that the representatives of such states and territories in Congress be requested to favor such an appropriation as is usual in such cases to assist in carrying out this enterprise.

The citizens of Omaha, thoroughly alive to the importance of this great undertaking, immediately took steps to carry out the ideas embodied in this resolution.

A temporary organization was at once effected and in January of the following year articles of incorporation of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition Association, signed by one hundred of the substantial business and professional men of Omaha, were filed with the secretary of state. This corporation is capitalized at $1,000,000 and its government is vested in a board of fifty resident directors. Its officers con-   sist of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, with an additional vice president for each Trans-Mississippi state and territory.

For convenience in conducting - the immense amount of business which necessarily arises, the following- departments were formed : Ways and Means, Publicity and Promotion, Buildings and Grounds, Exhibits, Concessions and Privileges, and Transportation. The managers of these departments were chosen from and by the board of directors for especial fitness in their respective departments and they collectively form the executive committee.

GOVERNMENT AND STATE PARTICIPATION.

According to an act of Congress passed in 1896, the Trans- Mississippi and International Exposition was granted recognition as a national and international exhibition, with the attendant rights to import exhibits free of duty, to strike memorial medals through the mints, and to enjoy all privileges heretofore extended to international expositions. The bill carried an appropriation of $200,000 for the erection of a government building and the placing of a suitable government exhibit therein. By direction of the President, the State Department has extended invitations to all the governments in the civilized world, to prepare exhibits and take part in the Exposition. The Postoffice Department has authorized the issue of a new series of postage stamps of nine denominations in honor of the occasion and the designs are typical of the settlement and early history of the western country, which this Exposition is held to commemorate.

Aside from the stock subscriptions and the government appropriation, vast sums will be expended by the various states of the Union, foreign governments, societies, and individual exhibitors. Nebraska has appropriated $100,000, Douglas County $100,000, and the City of Omaha through its park board will probably expend a like sum in improving and beautifying the Exposition grounds. Iowa made a preliminary appropriation of $10,000 in 1896, which will probably be increased to $50,000 within the next few weeks. Illinois appropriated $45,000, Montana will have $30,000 at its disposal; Missouri, while without a state appropriation, is through its commercial bodies and individual  

  citizens, making an active effort to eclipse all other states in its great display of products. Wisconsin, Georgia and other eastern and southern states will have large and handsome building's, wherein to the best advantage to display their manufacturing, agricultural and mineral resources, while South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, California, Texas, and in fact almost every single Trans-Mississippi state is making collections and preparing exhibits for the most extensive exhibition of minerals, live stock, fruit and agricultural products that was ever g-athered together in the history of the world.

THE SITE.

The main part of the Exposition lies slig-htly more than a mile north of the business center of the city. Three of the main street car lines go directly to one each of the three main entrances, while the Belt L,ine connects it with all of the railroads which enter Omaha. Kountze tract, 670 feet wide and about half a mile in length, is the site of the main group of building To the east and at right angles with the Kountze tract and connected with it by a viaduct, lies the bluff tract, about sixty acres in area, stretching along the bluffs and overlooking the Missouri river. This will be devoted to state buildings and concessions. The remainder of the Exposition grounds, consisting of about eighty acres, lies north of the Kountze tract and west of Sherman Avenue, and is connected with the bluff tract by a second viaduct. Here will be found the live stock exhibit, and the model irrigation and beet sugar fields, and here the amphitheatre, race course and atheletic fields will be located. At the south side of this division will be the space devoted to concessionaries, extending across the viaduct into the bluff tract on the east, and south from the western end to the grand court. The irregularity of the Exposition grounds presented opportunities for great variety in architectural and landscape gardening effects which add greatly to the beauty to the general plan.

ARCHITECTURE.

A fancy seems to be more or less prevalent, judging from some of the written and spoken comments on the Trans-Mississippi Exposition plan, that it largely drew its inspiration from the scheme employed at Chicago. "Influence of Chicago"—  

  "reminiscences of the White City"—"revival of the Columbian scheme"—and so on, have become rather tiresome phrases in connection with the coming- event. This, however, was bound to be the fate of every important exhibition since Chicago made her memorable display.

In certain particulars it is quite true that the Trans-Mississippi scheme recalls that of the World's Fair—such particulars as every exhibition of the kind must have in order to exist successfuly. That is, it includes buildings, staff-covered and filled with exhibits ; grounds, set forth with grass and trees, and further embellished by a sheet of water ; various provisions foi the comfort of visitors ; the whole enclosed by a fence, with turnstiles for entrance and exit. But here the likeness ends, comparison of Trans-Mississippi plans and views with those published in magazines, etc., during the development of the Columbian Exposition, shows to even an ordinal eye the entire dissimilarity of the two schemes, as well as of their individual buildings and features. It was not any lack of admiration for Chicago's splendid achievement that led the architects-in-chief of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Messrs. "Walker & Kimball, to rely- on their own creative powers for the designing of this latest plan. There was really no reason why it should not be ai entirely original one, depending on no preceding- one whatever for its inspiration ; and this is precisely what has resulted.

To begin with, our exposition is not on so large a scale as that of Chicago, though very much larger than those of Nashville and Atlanta. It is also far more symmetrical and has more of a "central idea" than an) r of its predecessors, as ; glance at its plan will show. The lagoon, of a beautiful and unique form, was evolved out of dry land by clever engineering, and is fed from an artesian well and the city water works. Its development at the western end into a broad clover-leaf shape, gracef ully suggests the place of honor for the United States Building, where that representative of our government finds th( best point of view as well as the site most appropriate to its official dignity. This, by the way, is the first instance where the government headquarters have been given their proper precedence over other buildings at an exposition.

It may be said in passing that this building is far superior in design to the corresponding one at Chicago, which, it will be  

  remembered, failed to meet the expectations of connoisseurs in architecture. This end of the lagoon, called the Mirror, is the most important point on the grounds; and it is from this locality that the best view of the exposition is to be had.

Looking from the Government front, the eye travels along the lagoon, about a half mile in length, between two rows of the majestic buildings, forming the main court, and finds a resting point on the flowered and pinnacled terraces at the opposite end before crossing the viaduct to the bluff, a picturesque bit of lane rich in festal attractions, with the Missouri lying between it anc sunrise.

From that beautiful group of buildings clustered about the lagoon, it would be hard to single out any one for special praisi above its fellows. They are all correctly classic in design—a point of likeness to the Columbian plan ; but instead of the brilliant uniform whiteness of those structures, these are daintily decorated in color with occasional gleams of gold, the staff surface, even when plain, being given a warm creamy or ivory tint less trying to the eye than the dead white of marble or its imitation. To many tastes, the varied colorings of past Paris expositions, were much more gratifying than the snowy walls of the famous White City.

The Agriculture Building is one which will draw great attention for the richness and originality of its ornament, no less than for its very beautiful proportions. The free use of common farm yard motives—turkeys, ducks, and the like,—in its ornamentation will prove most taking to the popular fancy, while this freedom has not interfered a whit with the closest adherence to the canons of classic architecture.

The Fine Arts Building is distinguished by an open-air court, dividing the edifice into two sections—"Twin Buildings" so called ; and will be in its scholarly and graceful treatment, a fit setting for the collection of artistic gems that is now assured. The sculpture surmounting all the buildings is notable for its strength of conception and execution. A list of the architects for the several buildings comprising the main group, who were carefully chosen as representatives of the profession in different western cities by the architects-in-chief, include : Cass Gilbert, of St. Paul ; Eames & Young, of St. Iyouis ; J. J. Humphreys, of Denver; S. S. Bemaii, of Chicago; Dwight  

  Perkins, of Chicago; Fisher & Laurie, and. Charles F. Beindorf, of Omaha. The manner in which the)' have acquitted themselves, as shown in their buildings, makes comment on their choice superfluous.

The two arches facing- each other across the lagoon are especially individual in their character, and yet wholly unlike each other. The Administration Arch, a building- to be used as headquarters for the Exposition officials, is perhaps the most striking- of the two, and more markedly foreign in its air, being akin to many European monuments of the arch form and having a certain Gallic grace about its airy headpiece of spires, that will appeal to the trained eye of travelers. The Arch of the States, not yet erected, will furnish the state entrance and be a permanent momento of 1898. This arch is simple and stately in outline, intended to be built from very light stone of uniform tint, with a frieze of enamels, showing the coats-of-arms of the Trans-Mississippi states in colors.

It is safe to predict, that the exquisite Miniature City, with its display of curious and attractive exhibits gathered from both near and distant lands, will cause a thrill of delighted amazement to many thousands of people for whom this section of our continent has heretofore been the great unexplored American desert.

DEPARTMENT OF EXHIBITS.

This department is under the direction and control of Mr. E. E. Bruce as manager, with Mr. H. B. Hardt as assistant. Different divisions of its work are carried on by bureaus, independent one of another, but all subject to the jurisdiction of the department itself. The bureaus are: Fine Arts ; Education; Agriculture: Horticulture, Floriculture, Forestry and Irrigation ; Live Stock and Dairy ; Bee Industries ; Transportation ; Manufactures and Foreign Section ; Machinery ; Electricity ; Mines and Mining ; and Fisheries.

EXHIBITORS' AGENCY.

This agency has been organized with Mr. O. C. Holmes as manager, for the purpose of giving facilities to such exhibitors as do not wish to place special representatives in charge of their exhibits.

 

Manufactures Building.

 

ART EXHIBIT.

The collection of the Art Exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition has been placed in the hands of Mr. A. H. Griffith, now director of the Detroit Museum of Art. with an Advisory Board, consisting- of the directors of the Western Art Association, with Mr. Paul Charlton as its chairman.

Active work has been going on in connection with it since the summer of 1897, and the results already secured, promise to carry out fully the idea with which it was begun, viz : That the collection of pictures should be thoroughly representative, wide in scope and of the highest excellence possible to be secured in the available collections, public and private, in this country, and from artists and collections abroad. Honorary commissioners have been appointed for most of the states and foreign countries, among them M. Ferd. Meyer, Paris; Rollsshoeven, England; De Groote for Holland and Belgium: General Crosby, Massachusetts; Cyrus J. Eawrence, Esq., for New York; Daniel Baugh, Esq., for Pennsylvania; R. Hall McCormick, Esq., for Illinois, and many others similarly well known in business and artistic circles. Provision has been made for the absolute protection of the more important pictures in fire and burglar proof vaults, and the twin buildings in which the collections will be housed, were designed by Messrs. Eames & Young, of St. Louis, to give the most perfect fire protection and at the same time wall space and lighting far more adequate than has housed any recent permanent or temporary exhibit. Instead of medals and diplomas, usually so little desired by artists, there is a guarantee fund for the purchase of at least $5,000 worth of pictures shown at this exhibition, which meets the desires of exhibitors, both domestic and foreign. In addition to oil and water-color paintings, and pastels, there will be a large exhibit of old masters in the modern photographic reproductions; an important exhibit of the modern methods of fine art reproduction, and the exhibit of mural cartoons and paintings promises to be the most important yet shown in the United States. The cut of the building gives an adequate idea both of its architecture an extent.

Communications in regard to the Fine Arts Exhibit should be addressed to Mr. A. H. Griffith, up to April 1, 1898, at Detroit, Mich.; after that date at Omaha, Nebraska.

 

Fine Arts Building.

 

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, FLORICULTURE, FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION.

Under the care of this bureau all sorts of modern appliances of agriculture will be exhibited, while agricultural products will be displayed in a way to demonstrate their respective values in the Trans-Mississippi region. In this connection, an irrigating exhibit in operation has been planned to cover ten acres. The Horticultural Building is one of the most beautiful and extensive on the grounds and will practically demonstrate the magnitude and promise of the fruit-growing industries of the Great "West. This bureau is collectively under the superintendency of Prof. F. W. Taylor.

BUREAU OF LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY.

Hon. J. B. Dinsmore is commissioner of this bureau, which has live stock and poultrj r exhibits so planned as to offer features of interest throughout the Exposition period. The relative values of different breeds of milch cows will be tested by the manufacture of butter and cheese in the Dairy Building. All live stock exhibits will be held in the months of September and October.

BUREAU OF BEE INDUSTRIES.

In the Apiary Building will be arranged exhibits of great value to bee keepers, from hive and flower to the honey ready for shipment. Its interest to the visitor is assured by the commissioner for this bureau, Hon. E. Whitcomb.

BUREAU OF ELECTRICITY.

This bureau is under the direction of Prof. R. B. Owens. Special exhibits of electrical interest in this section will be of electricity in agricultural work ; long distance power transmission ; Recent application of electricity in power distribution ; electricity in mining ; electro-metallurgical processes ; long distance telephony. Other features of interest will be search lights, high frequency and high potential apparatus, electricity for domestic use and the transmission of intelligence by Hertzen waves.

 

 

BUREAU OF MANUFACTURES AND FOREIGN SECTION.

Over these two bureaus the department has retained exclusive control, both to preserve harmony in the classification and grouping of the immense variety of exhibits, and to insure foreign exhibits equal consideration with those of domestic origin.

BUREAU OF MACHINERY.

In the Machinery Building will be found all kinds of useful machinery, much of it in actual operation and driven by electricity transmitted by belt or wire from the Power Plant Annex, whose powerful engines constitute in themselves a wonderful exhibit. While there will be an extensive exhibit of mining and other machinery used in the Trans-Mississippi country, the display will by no means be confined to that class. All the recent inventions and improvements in machinery of all kinds will be in evidence. Prof. C. R. Richards is commissioner of the Machinery Bureau.

BUREAU OF MINES AND MINING.

This bureau has charge of the display of ores and minerals, of live exhibits illustrative of the process of metal-refining, etc. The Mines and Mining Building will far outrank in the size and variety of its exhibits anything of the kind heretofore seen in this or any other country, and will demonstrate the position of the Trans-Mississippi region among the foremost of mineral producing countries.

BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

Upon the recommendation of Hon. W. L,. May, U. S. fish commissioner for the Nebraska district, the United States Government has consented to take charge of the fisheries exhibits, and by a series of grottos and cases of glass will make a display which, for purposes of beauty as well as of instruction, has never been surpassed by any exposition of pisciculture.

 

Mines and Mining Building

 

MUSIC.

The elaborate musical programs that are now being- prepared will insure the grandest musical, festival, continuing from the opening to the closing day, that was ever known in the West. It is intended to make this one of the strong points of the Exposition and it is certain from the proposals already received that this will be an occasion long to be remembered as the grandest musical entertainment that the highest talent of this and foreign countries can produce. While at this writing dates cannot be given it is an assured fact that the most noted bands and orchestras of Germany, France, England and other foreign countries will be present, among them the famous Mexican Military Band. The greatest soloists from all countries, including Italy, Austria, and Germany will participate while oratorios and grand operas will be presented on the most elaborate scale. There will be a vast assemblage of the Swedish singing societies of this country and choruses of thousands of voices will be given.

WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.

The Woman's Department consists of two representatives from each of the six congressional districts of Nebraska, with eleven fiom Omaha, two from South Omaha, and two from Council Bluffs, Iowa. It has charge of the educational features of the Exposition both as to exhibits and congresses on educational, scientific, and philosophical subjects, and of various classes of woman's work.

There is to be no woman's building, as the department is of the opinion that there is no occasion in this age of the world for separating the work of men and women, but there will be a building devoted to the use of girls and boys, and this will be under the jurisdiction of the Woman's Board.

Although the funds for the erection of the Girls' and Boys' Building have been contributed by the children and young people of the Trans-Mississippi region, the work of collecting them has been accomplished by women to the number of several hundred, who have been associated with the Woman's Depart  

  ment as patronesses, and who have gathered the contributions from their respective neighborhoods.

The building will contain a hall where lectures and addresses will be given, where children may be entertained, and where they will in turn entertain their friends, and where various new ideas in the line of school and class work will be elaborated through living exhibits. It will have a creche where young children may be cared for and a restaurant where wholesome food of a sort suitable to children will be provided. The building will also contain exhibits of interest not only to boys and girls, but to parents and teachers.

The educational exhibits will be of two classes : Collective exhibits from schools, and individual competitions by enrolled pupils. Under the first-class some very interesting collections of school work will be shown. The Nebraska Exposition Commission has purchased space sufficient for the exhibit of the school resources of the state, and collegiate institutions, special, professional, and technical schools will be well represented.

Under individual competitions a series of topics is suggested in six lines of work, viz: Histor3% composition, penmanship, drawing, manual training, and nature study. These have been arranged for all grades and ages, from the kindergarten to the universit)'. The exhibit is entered in the name of the pupil, upon an entrv fee of twent^vfive cents. When the competitions close, April 15th, the awards of gold, silver and bronze medals will be made, and exhibits winning prizes will be placed in the Exposition without further charge.

The Congress Committee will endeavor to provide, through a series of programmes, for the discussion of some of the topics of public interest, which are not represented in the various conventions which are to be held in connection with the Exposition. Several days will be given to the consideration of art, subdivided as may seem feasible, but with sessions devoted especially to architecture and ceramics. Music will be given a congress of from three to five days. Literature will embrace an Authors' Congress and a Librarians' Conference. Public matters will be considered under at least two heads : Municipal Problems and Public Health. Philantropy will receive attention through a conference on charities and corrections and there will be a con-   gress of Liberal Religions, as well as one for the consideration of all forms of Christian activity. The women will be associated in several conventions. The W. C. T. U. will have a programme. So will the General Federation of Women's Clnbs and the P.E.O. There will also be a Mothers' Congress.

IRRIGATION.

The irrigation exhibit will perhaps be of more actual value to the western states than any other feature of the Exposition. A field of ten acres, under the charge of the Department of Agriculture, will be operated as an irrigated farm. Here will be displayed the latest and most approved methods of irrigation and there will be shown the possibilities of diversified farming under this system. Irrigation has done much already toward reclaiming the arid lands of the west, and the extension of a perfected irrigation system will add millions of acres to the valuable farm lands of this country.

TRANSPORTATION.

This exhibit includes all articles designed for carrrying purposes from a cash carrier to an air ship, and from a baby carriage to a Pullman palace car or a powerful six drive wheel engine. It will show the gradual transformation of the Indian canoe into the modern man-of-war, the heavy lumbering- ox cart into the latest pneumatic tired horseless carriage, and the old-time coach into the modern vestibuled train which makes its run across the continent at the rate of a mile a minute. Here will be displayed the first railroad engine ever used in America, together with many others, which collectively illustrate the gradual improvements to the present time. In the Transportation Building, on steel tracks running through the main aisles, will be exhibits of the latest and most palatially equipped trains of cars, locomotives, day coaches and palace sleeping cars ever shown at any exposition.

A special feature will be made of all kinds of vehicles and conveyances, resulting- from application of the principles employed in bicycle construction, together with new methods of producing- motive power. In the transportation of visitors about the grounds the horseless carriages will be found a great   improvement over the wheeling- chairs used at the World's Fair. All of the latest improvements in vehicles, such as the motorcycle intended to replace carriages, and farm and other heavy truck wagons operated by compressed air and electricity, will be displayed for the examination of visitors.

The marine feature of the Exposition will be one of the most extensive ever prepared for public inspection. It will show the Roman and Viking g-alleys of ancient times as well as the latest improvements in the war and passenger ships of the present day.

INDIAN EXHIBIT.

An exhibit of extraordinary interest, both to the casual observer and the student of ethnology, will be the gathering of the representative types of all the different Indian tribes on the North American continent. This will show in the most graphic manner the progress of the Indian towards civilization. It will show tribes in the utmost state of savagery, with their appropriate abodes, dress, utensils, weapons, games and amusements, forms and ceremonies, ceremonial objects, burial structures, etc., and it will show the highly civilized tribes, with their modern dwellings, their printing- presses and their books in the Indian language. The civilized tribes of the Five Nations of the Indian Territory, living under their own form of government, will here show their traits, their peculiarities, their weakness, and on many points their superiority over their white brethren. Incident to the encampment will be exemplified the nrysterious side of the character of the red man. The folk lore of the Indian— rich in legends, the system of heraldry in use for ages with its sig-ns and symbols, mysterious sig-nincance and ceremonies, and the different kinds of decorations, the sig-nincance of the device, its origin and the ceremony accompanying* its consecration, will all illustrate a new departure in the line of ethnological research adopted by Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology.

There will be a reproduction, historically correct in all its details, of the last great council of the amalgamated tribes of the Kiowas and Apaches. This encampment will cover about four acres and consist of 250 tepees. This will be only a part, however, of the great Indian town, as it is intended to bring- at least twelve types of each of all the different tribes now livingin North America.

 

Arch of States

 

MILITARY ENCAMPMENT.

The proposed mobilization of the troops of the regular army and the National Guard at Omaha during the Exposition, will be the largest military assemblage held in the United States since the mustering out of the troops at the close of the civil war, The greater portion of the troops of the regular army has each year been detailed into moving columns for the practice of tactical maneuvers, and the National Guard has held annual encampments in each state for the same purpose. It is thought that their formation into a great army would produce results in the form of field practice not attainable in any other way. It would at the same time be an object lesson to the vast crowd: assembled here of the military strength of this country not realized by the ordinary citizen in these days of peace.

There will probably be a large encampment of veterans of the war at Omaha during the Exposition, as at the Buffalo encampment of the G. A. R. a movement was inaugurated to that end.

AMUSEMENTS.

That part of the Exposition devoted strictly to the amusement features of the great show is exceptionally strong. Applications have been made to the Department of Concessions for space, which would cover more than ten times as much ground as is at the disposal of that department. Consequently there has been abundant opportunity for careful selection, and onl) r those attractions which provide novel and interesting entertainment have been accepted. For each concession granted, the management has exacted guarantees that the execution of the design will follow the proposal in every respect. The active investigation which has been going on in the direction of mechanical and especially electrical novelties since the World's Fair, will insure the most striking display ever produced at any exposition. The following is a short description of a few of the many strong attractions which the Department of Concessions is considering:

Sherman's Umbrella is a stupenduous mechanical invention, which will stand 350 feet high and be anchored in a stone foundation 30 feet deep and 75 feet square. It will be 40 feet in diameter and consist of iron and steel. The ribs of this gigantic umbrella   are to be 110 feet in length, at the extremities of which the curs are to be suspended. There will be sixteen of these cars, with a carrying capacity of about forty each. The lower platform will also be used for passengers and will accommodate about 200. When the umbrella is closed these cars will touch the ground, uid when raided the passengers will enjoy a ride in a merry-goround at an elevation of 250 feet. As this will be constructed on me bluff many feet above the river, a splendid bird s eye-view may be had of the country for miles around, the city, and the entire Exposition grounds. At night the tower will be brilliantly illuminated by electricity, while at the apex a powerful search light will be placed. This stream of light may be seen at a distance of one hundred miles.

The Submarine Theatre. One proposition which has met with much favor by the Exposition authorities, is the proposal nstruct a lake with a correct representation of a Turkish harem on a Boating island in the center of the lake. The entrance to this harem will be by mean, of a diving car, which plunges beneath the surface oi the water and descends to a depth of thirty feet. During this submarine voyage the passengers are given a beautiful view of fish and plant life through the glass sides of the car. At the bottom of this lake the visitors find themselves in the mosl exclusive part of the harem. This is a beautiful, glittering grotto, in which the favorite beauties of me sultan's fairy land are grouped in artistic pictures, the whole being brilliantly Lighted by a submarine system of colored electric Lights.

Wild West Show. Daring feats of horsemanship, the pony express, the Indian attack on the old-time stage coach, skillful footing, cowboys, scouts, hunters and trappers, with representation of their daily life, a reproduction of the Custer massacre, and other historical incidents, will make up the continuous exhibition of the Wild West Show.

Cyclorama of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, will be an historically correct reproduction of this famous battle. This scene will vividly depict in life-sized figures the contending armies. In the foreground are seen heavy bodies of troops engaged and the artillery working their guns, supported by longlines of infantry in reserve, awaiting the coming charge. On   the flanks the cavalry appear cutting, slashing and hewing with their heavy sabers in their attempt to break the stubborn lines. [unclear] The field is strewn with the dead and dying, with dismoun [unclear] cannon, and the discarded implements of war. Now and then through the rising smoke may be seen the glare of the heavy guns as they belch their contents into the advancing ran The wonderful realism of this great spectacle will bring forcible to all minds the heroism, the grandeur, and the awful havoc one of the great battles of history.

Colorado's Crystal Cave will occupy 3,000 feet of space. The exterior will represent a Colorado mountain, covered with rock [unclear] and the natural trees and shrubs. Visitors will enter through widening shafts, studded with electric lights into brilliant illuminated apartments, where the state's mineral resources will be artistically displayed. In the center of the main chamber an elaborate fountain will discharge the different mineral water for which Colorado is noted, while from mysterious caverns which echo the strains of soft, sweet music and add enchantment to this beautiful fairyland.

Wine Cascade. The wine makers of California are preparing a minature reproduction of the great Niag-ara. The rocks and precipices at the falls will be represented in glass, while the water will be represented by the red wine of California. 100,000 g-allons of wine will be used and after the torrent passes over the falls, it will be returned by hidden conduits to continue it ceaseless course.

The Electric Theatre is a handsome building, capable of seating 150 persons. The interior is tastefully fitted up, the walls being hung with painting-s, and together with the effects from the stained glass windows, the appearance is very beautiful Among the many novel scenes presented will be the different phases of day and night, such as "Midnight," "Dawn," "Day," "Sunrise," "Noon," "Approach of Storm." "Passing of Storm and Rainbow," "Sunset," "Moonlight," "Stars," etc. Night and the Thunderstorm are represented by Mephistopheles, who gives fantastic dances. Day and Dawn are portrayed by a beautiful young lady, who enlivens the scene by an artistic skirt dance. The Approach of Storm is heralded by heat and chain lightning which gives the most weird effect imaginable.

 

Novel Electrical Displays. The recent inventions and pertinents in electricity by Edison, Lord Kelvin. Thomson, einmetz, Trask, Peabody and others, will be illustrated in endless ways. Mr. Stieringer, who designed the electrical fountain at the World's Fair, has been engaged as consulting eletrical engineer of the Exposition. The effects obtained in the night illumination of the Exposition grounds will be of iterest to scientists as well as a most delightful revelation to the great crowds of pleasure seekers. Among the many wonerful sights provided by this agency will be an electrical garden, showing the various hues and tints of the flowers by gleans of colored screens and powerful searchlights, and demontrations of searchlight effects on moving waters the Missouri river for a long distance and also the bluffs on either side, showing strange and wonderful effects developed by the aid of electrical science.

Shooting the Chutes is one of the most healthful, invigorating and joyous amusement in the list of outdoor sports. The plant to be erected at the Exposition will represent an outlay of about $25,000, and will be the largest in existence. It is built something after the fashion of a huge toboggan slide, starting from the top of which boats filled with passengers rush down the steep incline and bound over the water in the lake.

The Scenic Railway, about two-thirds of a mile in length, is operated by the force of gravity, aided at times by an endless cable. The train passes over a road showing some very beautiful scenery prepared for the purpose. Sometimes high in the air, again passing through tunnels illuminated by electrical flash lights in colors.

Moorish Village. This will be one of the largest and most pretentious of the amusement features of the Exposition. In the first building several optical illusions will beshown. Beyond the series of Moorish arches is a Large open air area, planted with trees and decorated with fountains, flowers and statuary, after the style of a Moorish court, where concert and regular highclass vaudeville will be given. The first of its buildings is a low structure, with two dome capped towers in staff gilded and made to resemble repousse gold. Towering above this building and forming the further side of an open court will be the palace, the   main feature of the group, in the form of a mosque with large central dome and corner spires. The intervening court, with its frivolous open air theatre, will be a veritable tropical garden, masked from the public street by a double colonnade of Moorish arches, roofed with tiles. Next beyond this green and gold creation will be a Moorish house, correct in all its details, and groups of shops, gay with eastern rugs and metal trinkets. The large central building, surmounted by a magnificent dome, will be the Moorish palace, and in it will be displayed an interesting series of tableaux and figures in wax, together with a Chamber of Horrors and a Devil's Cave. The costumes and swords alone for one of the large groups will cost $15,000, and more than $75,000 will be expended on the interior of the palace.

Moorish Mystic Maze consists of a labyrinth or maze of mirrors, unspeakably bewildering to the visitor. From the polished surface of the plate glass mirrors, placed at different angles, dozens of reflections transform yourself into a marching regiment and the slightest gesture is taken up and produces effects indescribably rediculous. From the moment of entrance all traces of entrance and exit disappear, and you have the novel experience of being lost, in company with a hundred reproductions of yourself. The effect of this scene is heightened by being brilliantly illuminated by electricity.

Other Novelties. A miniature train, consisting of a locomotive, tender, four observation cars, one box car and caboose—in all twenty-nine feet long—will be operated daily for the transportation of children. The cars are forty-one inches long and fourteen inches wide, and two children can be comfortably seated in each car.

An elevated railway will convey passengers to and from various points on the grounds on pedal propelled machines, operated on a double track of steel rails.

A miniature Nicaragua canal will be produced by a representative of the Chilian government, showing the typography of the Isthmus and the engineering feats accomplished and necessary to be accomplished before the completion of the real canal.

The German, Irish, Chinese, Tyrolean, Moorish and other typical national villiages, will show the true home life, architecture, costumes, etc., of the people represented.

 

Horticulture Building

 

Among hundreds of other attractions will be the famous Mexican Military Band, Hag-enbeck's Animal Show, Moqui Indian Snake Dance, Old English County Fair, the Scenic Railway, moving picture features, a Chinese Theatre, with its endless performance, "Old Vienna," showing quaint types and customs of the people who inhabited the Austrian city centuries ago, the "Blue Grotto," with all its beautiful electrical effects will be produced on a grand and elaborate scale, a number of historic buildings, wonderful labyrinths, formed with mirrors and illuminated by electricity, an Old Plantation Scene, strange and wonderful water crafts and horseless carriages and numberless other attractions, new, beautiful, interesting and instructive—so far superior to all description that we must call this chapter closed.

BARRETT-JOHNSON CO.,

Importing Tailors.

Display of fine woolen goods. During Exposition year the best products of the looms of England, France, Germany and America will constantly be on display at our store. We cordially invite visitors to the Exposition to call and inspect them. We will be glad to take your measure and place it on file so that in the future you can order from us by sample if you see fit to favor us with your patronage. We have been established in Omaha ten years and enjoy a large patronage, built up and maintained by making stylish and durable clothing at a moderate cost. BARRETT-JOHNSON CO., 1507 Farnam St., Omaha, Neb.

Sam'l Burns, China and Glassware. This is one of the finest and most extensive lines in Omaha, and the goods are marked low enough to gratify the desire for possession. The Art Rooms in the basement are among the attractions of the Exposition City, and they emphasise their motto: "Visitors and Purchasers Equally Welcome."

Shorthand and Typewriting. A. C. Van Sant's School of Shorthand and Typewriting, 717 N. Y. Eife Bldg, Omaha, Neb.

Cleland & Smith, 1403 Douglas Street, Omaha. Groceries. Fine canned fruits and vegetables a specialty.

Oxford European Hotel, S. W. Cor. 11th and Farnam Sts. Omaha, Neb. Office No's 306-308 South 11th St.

 

CONVENTIONS FOR 1898.

Omaha will this year be pre-eminently the convention city. There are already more conventions of state and national importance booked to be held in this city during the Exposition than were ever held in any city in the United States in a single year. The following is a partial list of those already secured:

National Cricket Clubs.

National Indian Institute.

Swedish Epworth League.

National Philatelie Society.

national Dental Congresses.

National Council of Women.

Society of American Florists.

Nebraska Dental Association.

Nebraska Poultry Association.

Liberal Congress of Religions.

Nebraska Veteran Free Masons.

American Forestry Association.

American Fisheries Association.

Swedish Evangelical Convention.

Dairymen's National Association.

Travelers' Protective Association.

National Good Roads Parliament.

National Bee Keepers' Association.

National Eclectic Medical Society.

Nebraska Eclectric Medical Society.

National Electric Light Association.

Old-Time Telegraphers' Association.

American Association of Nurserymen.

American Institute of Homoeopathy.

Danish Lutheran Church of America.

National League of Republican Clubs.

Nebraska State Jeweler's Assciation.

National Association of Postal Clerks.

Nebraska State Masonic Grand Lodge.

Grand Commandery Knights Templar.

Nebraska State Pharmaceutical Society.

National Convocation of Woman's Clubs.

American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Association of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Nebraska State Association of Undertakers.

National Household Economic Association.

Nebraska State Homoepathic Medical Society.

National Encampment of the Sons of Veterans.

Western Traveling Men's Accident Association.

Fire Underwriters' Association of the Northwest.

Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M.

National Detectives' Association.

Nebraska Betail Dealers' Association.

Scottish Rite Masons.

Nebraska Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias.

National Funeral Directors' Association.

General Assembly of United Presbyterian Church.

United States League of Building and Loan Associations.

The Society of the United States Military Telegraph Corps.

Annual Convention of American Cemetery Superintendents.

American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations.

 

Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

June 1 to November 1, 1898.

Officers.

Gurdon W. Wattles...President

Alvin Saunders...Resident V. Pres.

Herman Kountze...Treasurer

John A. Wakefield...Secretary

Carroll S. Montgomery...General Counsel.

Executive Committee.

Zachary T. Lindsey...Chairman, and Manager Department Ways and Means

Edward Rosewater...Manager Department Publicity and Promotion

Freeman P. Kirkendall...Manager Department Buildings and Grounds

Edward E. Bruce...Manager Department Exhibits

Abram L. Reed...Manager Department Concessions and Privileges

William N. Babcock...Manager Department Transportation

State Vice Presidents.

Arkansas...Hon. W. G. Yincenheller...Little Rock

California...Hon. Geo. W. Parsons...Los Angeles

Colorado...Hon. Henry P. Steele...Denver

Idaho...Hon. B. P. Shawhan...Payette

Iowa...Hon. Geo. F. Wright...Council Bluffs

Kansas...Hon. C. A. Fellows...Topeka

Louisiana...Hon. C. Harrison Parker...New Orleans

Minnesota...Hon. Frank H. Peavey...Minneapolis

Missouri...Hon. John Doniphan...St. Joseph

Montana...Hon. W. H. Sutherlin...White Sulphur Springs

Nebraska...Hon. William Neville...North Platte

Nevada...Hon. H. B. Maxson...Reno

North Dakota...Hon. C. A. Lounsberry...Fargo

Oregon...Hon. B. S. Cook...Salem

South Dakota...Hon. Thomas H. Wells...Hot Springs

Texas...Hon. Robert Bornefeld...Galveston

Utah...Hon. Lewis W. Shurtliff...Ogden City

Washington...Hon. Geo. W. Thompson...Tacoma

Wyoming...Hon. Frank P. Graves...Laramie

Alaska...Hon. James Sheakley...Sitka

Arizona...Hon. Charles R. Drake...Tucson

New Mexico...Hon. L. Bradford Prince...Santa Fe

Oklahoma...Hon. Eugene Wallace...Oklahoma City

Architects.

Walker & Kimball. Boston and Omaha...Architects in Chief

Eames & Young, St. Louis...Fine Arts Building

S. S. Beman, Chicago...Manufacturers Building

Cass Gilbert, St. Paul...Agriculture Building

J. J. Humphreys, Denver...Mines and Mining Building

Dwight Perkins, Chicago...Machinery and Electricity Building

Fisher & Laurie, Omaha...Auditorium and Liberal Arts Building

Charles F. Beindorff, Omaha...Horticulture Building

John McDonald, Omaha...Nebraska Building

U. S. Government Commission.

Department of Agriculture...J. H. Brigham, President of Commission

Treasury Department...Charles E. Kemper, Architect

Department of the Interior...F. W. Clarke

State Department...W. H. Michael

Smithsonian Institution and National Museum...F. W. True

Department of Justice...Frank Strong

Post Office Department...J. B. Brownlow

War Department...Capt. A. C. Sharpe

Navy Department...Lieut. C. McConnick

Fish Commission...William De C. Ravenal

 

THE MILLARD.

J. E. Markel & Son. proprietors. Thirteenth and Douglas streets. Due largely to the liberality of the management, the excellence of the service and its unsurpassed table. The Millard is now considered not only the leading hotel of Omaha, but of the entire west. The building is a handsome five-story structure of brick, with 200 rooms and a frontage on two streets ; is convenient to business, and all street car lines pass the doors, and while practically tire proof, is provided with ample tiro escapes on every floor, and equipped with the celebrated Bon nor Stand pipe. Most extensive improvements have just been completed, and the hotel is now Lighted by electricity from a complete plant upon the premises. Freezing machines make all the ice used from pure boiled and filtered water. Sixty now bath rooms, with most modem sanitary plumbing, and perfect ventilation, have been added, and the kitchen equipped now entirely, including ranges and steam tables. We have no hesitancy in pronouncing the Millard one of the most modern hotels in the country, and visitors to the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition will find their stay at this celebrated hostelry most congenial.

THE HOTEL DELLONE,

located at the corner of Fourteenth and Capitol Avenue, is the only fire proof hotel in the state, and with the new annex, is also the largest. The hotel is conducted on the European plan; prices ranging from $1.00 per day and upward, and has a capacity of caring for 700 to 800 people daily. Street cars for the Exposition, South Omaha, Council Bluffs, and all depots, pass the door. The hotel was opened in August. 1896, by W. W. Coates, who is still manager. Meals are served OH both the cafe and regular plan at reasonable prices.

THE BRIDENBECKER RESTAURANT,

Oyster and Fish House, established in May. 1888. It is now, and always has been, the leading medium-priced ladies and gentlemen restaurant in Omaha. A nice, large and ventilated room. Good home-like cooking, quick service. We make our own pastry. The best coffee in the city. Lunches put up to take out.  

  Everything served in season. Meals served at all hours. Onehalf block each from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth street car lines. Farnam street cars pass the door. Telephone 821. Open all night; 1312 Farnam street. Omaha. Neb.

THE NEW MERCER.

The Exposition managers arc much pleased with the opening of this hotel to the public, which event was celebrated February 1. The Mercer is a seven-story brick structure, thoroughly fireproof and with its ISO rooms and 50 bath rooms was a welcome addition to the hotel accommodations of the Exposition City. The hotel will be under the management of Dick Smith, at one lime >tate representative and later senator. F. J. Coates, proprietor of the Riley, is president of the company and is making a specialty of conventions.

 

The Union Pacific. Bridge.

 

Omaha in 1863.

 

Early History of Omaha.

"The city is the nerve center of our civilization,' says Dr. Josiah Strong. This is demonstrated in "The Winning of the West," and the history of Omaha; its birth as a prairie hamlet and its magical growth into the splendid proportions of a commercial metropolis, is to some extent the history of the progress of civilization in the northwest. This marvelous growth has been attained within the memory and the span of life of the city's first settlers, who built their cabins on the west bank of the Missouri river in 1854. a succinct history of this nerve center of the Trans-Mississippi country has much of interest in it, even when limited to a general outline with detail- referred to their special departments.

Its early history has the charm of romance. The Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific ocean encamped on a plateau now forming a northwestern part of Omaha. In 1825 a J. B. Royce is said to have established an Indian trading post on the site of the present city of Omaha. But by tar the most important immigration of white men into Douglas canity was what is known in history as the "Mormon Advent," which occurred after the expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Ill., in 1844. After the departure of the Mormons, or from about 1H47 until 1853, there is no authentic record of white- visiting this section either as prospectors or for pleasure. The honorof being the first permanent white settler to stake a claim within the limits of Omaha is conferred by some upon Mr. William D. Brown; but the statements made in this connection by Mr. A. D. Jones, who is still residing in this city, would indicate that he is rightly entitled to this distinction.

In June. 1853 Dr. Enos Lowe Jesse Williams, Joseph Street. William D. Brown, and Jesse Lowe, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. organized a ferry and town company and determined on founding a town across the river.

By the treaty promulgated June 24. 1854, the Indian title to the land in Douglas county was extinguished, or nearly half a   century after the consummate wisdom of Jefferson had acquired from France for the United States the title to the northwest territory. Early in the spring- of 1854 settlers commenced to locate upon the new purchase from the Omahas. Among the settlers during this first year of Omaha were A. D. Jones, J. Fv. Johnson, Robert B. Whitted, George Armstrong, O. D. Richardson, John Davis, Mr. Seelej', Wm. Clancey, Lyman Richardson, Thos. Swift, Jeffrey Brothers, Harrison Jonson, John M. Thayer, J. C. Reeves, Jos. Hickey, Ben Leonard, Samuel E. Rogers, Gen. K. Estabrook, C. A. Downs, Mr. Dodd, William Rogers, A. R. Gilmore, W. P. Snowden, O. B. Seldon, A. J. Hanscom. J. W. Paddock, William Gray, John Withnell, A. J. Poppleton, Dr. George L. Miller. Lorin Miller, J. G. Megeath, and some few others. From 1854 to 1859 the settlers came and located in Omaha, whose energy, liberality, persistency, judgment, public spirit and foresight became important factors in the development of the embryo city. It is the first settlers who impress themselves and their character on the future. Powerful influences may, in later years, produce important modifications ; but it is early influence which is farthest reaching, and is generalsdecisive. And the city reflects today the sterling character of the early settlers.

The first survey of the city was made by the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company. When Nebraska was admitted as a territory on May 23, 1854. the gentlemen composing the company saw the importance of securing a town site on'the west bank of the Missouri. Mr. A. D. Jones was employed to make the survey, assisted by Captain C. H. Downs, who carried the chains and drove the stakes. Both these gentlemen are now living in Omaha, and they completed the work early in July. 1854. Mr. Jones laid out the town site so that it contained 320 blocks, each 264 feet square, intersected by streets 100 feet wide except Capitol Avenue, which was made 120 feet wide. Alleys 20 feet wide run through the blocks, and the lots were made 66x132 feet except business lots, which were given a frontage of 22 feet. The base line of the survey was Davenport street. The city receives the name from the Omaha tribe of Indians, and it is said that Mr. Jesse Lowe, deceased, suggested '"Omaha" as the name for the new settlement. Two traditions are connected with the word, one as follows : The name "Omaha," by Indian tradition,  

  originated in something like the following manner: Two bands of Indians met in deadly battle on the Missouri river, in which all on one side were killed, except one Indian, who had been thrown into the river. Suddenly rising from what his enemies thought was a watery grave, he lifted his head above the surface of the water and pronounced the word "Omaha," which none had ever before heard. Its meaning was, therefore, thought to be, that the supposed drowning Indian was above the water and not, as his enemies and those who heard it, supposed under the water. The other origin attributed to the word is: That the Omaha Indians, until comparatively recent times, were called the Mahas. The signification of the name being said to be "Theup-river-people." It is properly pronounced O-maw-haw, with no accent at all upon any of the three syllables.

It was not until the legislature of 1857 passed an act incorporating "The City of Omaha," and making "the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river" the east line of the city, that municipal government became a fact. On February 2, 1857, the new charter became a law. Prior to this the town had been Omaha City, but when the legal right to the pretentious suffix was bestowed, it was dropped and the town became simply "Omaha." Before this time the county officials had conducted the public business. The new law passed the business of "The City of Omaha" over to a mayor, nine aldermen, recorder, treasurer, assessor, and marshal. This was the genesis of our present government. The ma3'ors of the city have been: Jesse Lowe, 1857; A. J. Poppleton, March to September 1858; George Armstrong, Sept., 1858 to March, 1859; D. D. Belden, 1859; Clinton Briggs, 1860; George Armstrong, March, 1861, to Nov., 1862 B. E. B. Kennedy, Nov. 1862 to March, 1864; A. R. Gilmore, 1864; Eorin Miller, 1865; Charles H. Brown. 1867; George M. Roberts, March 1868 to June 1869; Ezra Millard, June, 1869 to April 1871; Smith S. Caldwell, 1871; J. H. Millard, 1873; William M. Brewer, April, 1873 to Feb. 1874; J. S. Gibson, Feb. 1874 to April 1874; C. S. Chase, 1874; R. A. Wilbur, 1877; C. S. Chase, 1879; James E. Boyd, 1881; C. S. Chase, Apr. 1883 to June 1884; P. F. Murphy, June, 1884 to Apr. 1885; James E. Boyd, Apr. 1885 to May 1887; W. J. Broatch, May, 1887 to Jan. 1890; R. C. Cushing, 1890; Geo. P. Bemis, 1892; Wm. J. Broatch, Jan. 1896 to May, 1897; Frank E. Moores, 1897.

 

Omaha Looking East From High School.

 

Two things materially aided the growth of Omaha and added their tribute of prosperity to crown with success the enterprise and sagacity of its founders. The first was the locating- of the territorial capitol at Omaha. Hon. Francis Burt, a native of South Carolina, was appointed the first governor of Nebraska after its organization as a territory, by act of Congress on May 30, 1854. Before the meeting- of the first territorial legislature, and in just ten days from his arrival in the territory, Governor Burt died. His secretary, Hon. T. B. Cummings, became acting governor. Governor Cummings designated Omaha as the place where the first session of the legislature should be held, and this act gave the opportune prestage over other rival claimants. For thirteen years and until in 1867, an act of congtess, providing for the admission of Nebraska as a state, was ratified bv the legislature in session in this citv, Omaha was made the territorial capitol. Of this the Hon. James W. Savage says: ''Whatever the motive or reason, the action of Governor Cummings settled the question so far as the first assemblage of the legislature was concerned, and gave to the ambitious little City of Omaha that prestage which enabled her, not without importunity, lavish expenditure of money, great parliamentary shrewdness and even at times a resort to the powerful logic of fisticuffs, to retain its position as the metropolis for nearly thirteen years." This advantage in the cradle of her infancy was seized to extend the city westward from the dreary "bottoms" and to establish upon the plateau the imperial tent of a commercial metropolis, the pride of whose strength is not yet.

The excitement connected with the "Pawnee war" broke the dull monotony of frontier life; and the rush for gold to Pike's Peak and the sands of Cherry creek made Omaha an outfitting and freighting point that filled our streets with life and caused business to thrive. While these added their tribute to our prosperity, they were not nearly so important to the cit3 r 's future welfare as the locating and building of the Union Pacific railroad, that was to touch the waste plains with governmental life for budding towns and fertile farms. As Dr. George L,. Miller, for many years the distinguished editor of "The Omaha Herald," so well phrases it: "Omaha was practically extinguished under the financial avalanche of 1857 and did not emerge from its effects until the advent of the railroads." With the approach of   the spring of 1859, however, came the return of the tide of immigration, and as this city was not regarded with the least favor not a few came to remain and to identify themselves with the city and surrounding country.

In 1860 Omaha had a population of 1861; in 1870, 16,083: in 1880, 30,518, and in 1890. 140,452. In ten years, we have advanced from sixty-fourth to twenty-first place in the list of American cities. The increase both in population and commercial importance has been rapid, and the present growth of the city is all that could be desired. Today "it delights us to remember these things," and the history of the city's rise and progress clothes the naked truth with the charm of romance.

NEBRASKA.

Nebraska was included in the Louisiana purchase and for many years formed a part of the northwest territory. It was organized as a territory in 1854 under the Kansas and Nebraska bill. It extended wot to the Rocky Mountains and north to the British possessions, having an area of 351,558 square miles.

The Dakotas, Colorado, and other states, were afterwards formed under separate territorial governments, and Nebraska consists at present of 77,510 square miles, the eleventh in area of the states of the Union. Nebraska was admitted as a state in 1867. The surface of Nebraska is chiefly an elevated prairie, very level in the central and eastern portions, but growing broken towards the north and west. The atmosphere IS dry and Invigorating, and owing to the elevation the extremes of heat and cold are not so noticeable as in other parts of the country.

The soil of Nebraska is mostly a rich mould, two to eight feet in depth. The staple crop is Indian corn, and on well conducted farms a yield of fifty to sixty bushels per acre is not unusual. Wheat, oats, barley, and all the crops common to the central west, are grown in enormous quantities. The soil of the state is particularly adapted to the cultivation of the sugar beet, and it promises soon to rank with corn as the staple product of the state. Several beet sug-ar factories have already been established, and others are in process of erection. Nebraska has always stood well as a stock raising- state, and large numbers of cattle and sheep are shipped in from surrounding states and fed   on Nebraska corn. Portions of the state, that have been subject to the drought, are being rapidly put under irrigation, and Nebraska is now capable of supporting an enormous population.

THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES

and territories, under whose auspices the Exposition is held, was no part of the Federal Union before 1803. The Louisiana purchase of that year, the annexation of Texas in 1845, the division of the Oregon country in 1846, the Mexican cession in 1848, the further cession in 1853, and the Alaska purchase in 1867, makes up the whole of that vast scope of country which now has almost one-third of the population of the United States, which includes more than one-half of the units of the states and territories and which comprises more than two-thirds of the of the total area of the United States. This country, with a breadth of more than two thousand miles and extending almost from the torrid to the frigid zone, has every variety of climate, every grade of elevation and every advantag-e of geological formation which could make it great and prosperous. Its population has increased in the last generation from six to twenty millions, and its wealth has increased at a far greater ratio. It produces practically all of the precious minerals of the United States and the development of its coal, copper, lead and iron mines has just begun. It includes within its boundaries nearly all of the sugar producing lands of the United States, the greater portion of the cotton belt, great forests of valuable timber, the best of fruit producing lands, and is the greatest grain and live stock region in the world. Education has kept pace with material progress; the free school has followed every settler's camp, high schools and colleges have grown with the cities, great universities have been founded, and now taking the least per cent of illiteracy as a basis, this region is the most highly civilized portion of the globe.

THE MISSOURI RIVER.

The Missouri river drains a basin of 527,690 square miles. This, with the lower Mississippi, whose tributary it is, forms a river 4,200 miles in length, the longest river in the world. The Missouri river is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Gal  

  latin and Madison rivers at Gallatin City, Montana, 4,132 feet above the sea level. Of this river 2,682 feet are called navigable, but owing- to the shifting - sand bars, navigation is slow, and since the advent of the railroads, unprofitable. The river is of considerable historic interest, as it was up this waterway that the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the mountains, and later was the only means of transportation for the material and supplies for the building of the Union Pacific railroad. In 1865 there were more than a hundred steamers in active service on the Missouri river, but now, in consequence of railroad competition, a steamboat plying the river past Omaha, would be looked upon as a curiosity.

THE UNION PACIFIC IN NEBRASKA.

The important part played by the Union Pacific in the development of the State of Nebraska cannot be estimated by any array of figures. The construction of the road, its rise and triumphs, are a part of the history of the state, and the record of the prosperity of the road also witnesses the growth and increasing wealth of this grand young commonwealth. Since that memorable day in July, 1865, when the first rail was laid, the Union Pacific has been a strong friend and helper to the state. Today the Nebraska division of -the road covers 1,245 miles of track—that is the main line, branches, and auxiliaries. Vast regions of fertile country have thus been opened up to settlers, and great areas of land brought by rail into close communion with the metropolitan centers and markets. Thriving cities, villages, towns and hamlets, have sprung up in every section traversed by the line; the state in twenty-three years has grown from 122,000 to over 1,250,000 inhabitants, and with a hundredfold increase in all the many sided phases of commercial, material, and intellectual prosperity. The beginning of this prosperity, this wonderful growth and progress, dates from the inception of the Union Pacific Railway. The men who made possible this work, who threw their fortunes, their health, their reputations into it, will one day stand in civil life like our great leaders in the war. Monuments to their enterprise dot the country between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains, between the Pacific and the Wasateh. They were the men who   had made possible a population within the next twenty years, between the Missouri river and the Pacific Coast, of fifty millions of people.

The history of the Union Pacific in full would require a volume for the story, and in the brief -pace at our command, we can only outline a few of the salient features of this great system. Everyone knows something of its early history: how its construction was demonstrated to be a necessity as a war measure; the great achievement of the engineers who had it in charge, and the wonderful story of the patient, heroic effort which finally surmounted all obstacles and triumphed over all obstruction.

For the building of a great railway develops incident as startling and romantic as can be found in the recorded pages oi history. The growth of the United State- west of the Alleghanies during the past fifty year.s, is due not SO much to free institutions, or climate, or the fertility of the soil, as to railways. If the institutions, and climate, and soil had not been favorable to the development of commonwealths, railways would not have been constructed: but if railways had not been invented, the freedom and natural advantages of our western states would have beckoned to human immigration and industry in vain, civilization would have crept slowly on in a toilsome march over the immense space that lie between the Appalachian ranges and the Pacific ocean: and what we now style the great West, would be, except in the valley of the Mississippi, an unknown and unproductive wilderness.

COUNCIL BLUFFS,

five miles east of Omaha, is a city of 30,000 inhabitants. While this city had a place on the maps since the Lewis and Clarke expedition, it was not until 1839 that it had a permanent population. It was in that year that a company of soldiers established a fort on the present site of the city. But it was not until the Mormons, after their expulsion from Illinois, made this thelr halting- place before their journey across the plains, that Council Bluffs became a place of importance. The emigration from the eastern states to the g"old fields of California added largely to the growth of the city. This was the last town of "the States." and was consequently an important outfitting point. The city   at present is one of the most beautiful in the state of Iowa. It has 745 acres in public parks, noted for their natural beauty and the additional charm of well directed and effective landscape gardening. Council Bluffs is also noted as a summer resort. Lake Manawa, the delightful haunt of pleasure seekers, enjoys the distinction of being the most beautiful body of water in the west. Grand Plaza and Manhatten Beach have become the resorts of outing- parties for hundreds of miles around. The ample hotel facilities and the hospitable spirit of its citizens have added greatly to its natural advantages, and its popularity in this respect is increasing- steadily. As a distributing point for agricultural implements it ranks second in the United States. It has a number of large manufacturing institutions, prominent among which are those which produce products useful for agricultural purposes. The near proximity of Council Bluffs to the Exposition Grounds will make it a popular stopping place for visitors, and will probably tax its resources to the utmost.

CITY GOVERNMENT.

By virtue of its population, Omaha is a City of the metropolitan class in accordance with a law passed by the last legislature. Under its charter of 1897 the city is divided into nine wards, from each of which a councilman is elected by the entire vote of the city by a plurality of votes. Under the same charter the following- city officers are elected to serve for three years at the specified annual salary:

Mayor...$2,500

Police Judge...$1,200

City Clerk...$1,800

Treasurer...$4,000

Comptroller...$1,800

Tax Commissioner...$2,500

Nine Councilmen at...$900 each.

Other city officers are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council. The revenue for meeting the expenses of the city is derived almost wholly from taxation. Last year the levy was 54 mills on an assessed valuation of $17,415,948. As the actual taxable property of the city is about $200,000,000. the real tax is less than 5 mills.

The Police Force of the city consists at present of eightyeight men. As sixty members of the force are enrolled as patrolmen, with quick telephone connection with headquarters, so that   the whole force can be concentrated in one place in a very short time, the number of men, though small, is more effective than a much larger body under the old methods. In the year 1896, 6,184 arrests were made, of which 2,756 were convicted and 3,428 were dismissed.

The Fire Department, with headquarters in the City Hall, and with engine houses in the different portions of the city, has been very successful in keeping down Losses by fire. For the last three years the property destroyed by fire in this city has not averaged $100,000 per year. The department consists of the following companies: Pour engine companies, eight hose companies, three hook and ladder companies, and two chemical companies. This department is furnished with the most modern apparatus for the saving of life and preventing the destruction of property by fire.

POPULATION.

According to the United States census of 1890 the population of Omaha consisted of 140,452 souls. Of this population, 105,413 were native bi rn and 35,039 were foreign born. The Caucasian race claimed 135,794, while 4,566 were colored, 89 were Chinese and 3 were civilized Indians. Of the foreign born the following countries furnished the specified numbers: Germany 8,279, Sweden 6,265, Denmark 4.242. Ireland 4,067, Bohemia 2,675. England 2.455, Canada and Newfoundland 1,952, Scotland 892, Austria 834, Norway 624. Russia 613, Italy 536, Poland 526, France 244. Switzerland 208, Wales 141, Hungary 136, Holland 125. China B9, Belgium 23, Australia 14, Turkey 13, Spain 10, West Indies 9, Luxemburg 8, South America 6, India 5, Greece 5, Pacific Islands 5. .Mexico 4, Portugal 4. Africa 5, Japan 2, Atlantic Islands 2, Central America 1. Of the 42 remaining 22 came from Europe and 7 from Asia—countries not specified: while 13 were born at sea.

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.

While the first settled portion of Omaha was an ideal site for a city, being - a gently .sloping plateau with hills in the background, the expansion of the city met with serious obstacles. The hills, which added so much to the beauty of the earlier city,   were very steep, broken and uneven, and it is impossible for the stranger to realize the millions of cubic yards of earth it was necessary to move from the hills into the ravines before the city was brought to its present condition. While private owners paid for the grading of their lots to the street level, an immense amount of money was expended out of the public treasury to bring the streets to the required grade. The site of the city hall was naturally forty-five feet higher than it is at present. The city now covers twenty-four and one-half square miles. There are 600 miles of streets, eighty miles of which are paved with stone, brick, asphalt, or cedar blocks. The blocks are now being replaced by other material. There is now 125 miles of sewer. The sewerage system is remarkable in that it is the only system of equal magnitude with ventilated untrapped sewers. This renders them free from sewer gas. Aside from the main sewers, about thirty miles of lateral sewers on the combination plan have been built. All have automatic flushing tanks at their terminal points and are kept constantly clear. The sewerage system of this city cost $1,750,000. The City Hall was completed a few years ago at a cost of $500,000. Aside from this the city has expended large sums of money on the public schools, the park system and the public library, each described elsewhere.

WATER SUPPLY.

The water furnished by the Omaha Water Company is taken from the Missouri river at two pumping stations, the principal one being located at Florence, about seven miles north of the city. This pumping station contains machinery capable of handling fifty-eight million gallons of water per twenty-four hours, and is divided between the high and low service. The low service pumps take the water from the river through intake pipes and deliver it into the first of a series of seven settling basins, having a combined storage capacity of over eighty million gallons. The water in passing through these basins is over a number of overflows so constructed as to select the upper and clearer film of water and repeatedly subject it to the purifying influence of aeration. The sediment contained in the river water, in consequence of its almost quiet state in the basins, settles to the bottom and is periodically discharged into the;  

  river through large pipes provided for that purpose. During this process, the basin from which the sediment is being drawn, is thrown out of service, emptied and thoroughly washed with streams of water under high pressure.

From the last, and so-called clear water basin, the high service pumps take the water and force it into the distribution mains throughout the city, which system of pipes is in communication with a reservoir located on Walnut Hill, at an elevation of three hundred and seven feet above mean low water in the river, and having a storage capacity of eleven million gallons. The elevation of this reservoir, however, is not sufficiently high to furnish adequate pressure to the resident districts located on the higher portions of the bluffs, to provide which there are two pumping stations, with a combined pumping capacity of fourteen million gallons per twenty-four hours. One of these stations is placed at the reservoir on Walnut Hill, from which it receives the water and forces it to the required elevation. The second station, located on Twentieth street, near Poppleton avenue, performs a like service. Thus all the water furnished to the City of Omaha is pumped twice and a considerable portion of it three times.

In addition to the three pumping stations mentioned, there is a fourth, which is located at the river, within the city limits, at the foot of Burt street, and is used as an auxiliary supply station, ready at a moment's notice to go into operation, if required. This station is supplied with high and low service pumps, having an aggregate capacity of twenty-two million gallons for twentyfour hours, together with a system of settling basins similar in principle to the larger plant at Florence. It is estimated that the cost of this plant is approximately, five million dollars.

LIBRARIES.

The Omaha Public Library, at the corner 19th and Harney streets, is one of the substantial buildings of Omaha. Architecturally speaking, the style is Italian renaissance, the superstructure is of straw colored brick, with trimmings of terra cotta of the same shade. The main floor is used as a stock room with a capacity for 130,000 volumes. The second floor contains the reading rooms and Byron Reed collection. The upper floor is arranged for an art gallery.

 

High School Building

 

The land on which the building stands and the Reed collection of coins and manuscripts was a bequest of the late Byron Reed. The building- was erected at a cost of $100,000.

The library was organized in 1872, with 2,600 volumes. In February 1878, under the law of the state, it was made a free public library and today numbers 53,857 volumes.

The New York Life Law Library occupies rooms in the Life buildings, corner 17th and Farnam streets. It was opened in October 1889 and contains 8,250 volumes.

The Omaha Law Library Association in the Paxton Block. 16th and Farnam, contains 2,700 volumes.

Creighton College, 25th and California streets, has one of the finest college libraries in the state, having 1,600 volumes. The Professors' library has 7,000 volumes. To both of these libraries visitors will be admitted.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

It is greatly to the credit of Omaha, that during a period of unparalled material development, its educational institutions, in number and excellence, have kept equal pace. Thirty-eight public schools, twelve private schools and academies, and eleven colleges and universities, nearly all established within twenty years, is a record of which any community may well be proud.

The foundation of this mag-nificent educational system is, of course, laid in the public schools of the city, which is controlled by a board of education of fifteen members, and enjoying the oversight of an active and scholarly superintendent, and conducted by a staff of devoted teachers, are maintained in the highest state of efficiency.

In the city there are more than 30,000 school children; 17,000 of whom were in attendance last year and 13,000 of whom were in attendance nearly every day during the school year. The proper instruction of these children requires the services of supervisors, principals and teachers to the number of 340. Children are received at the age of five years and usually spend the first year in the kinderg-artens, thence passing- into the regular primary schools. The schools are graded on the usual plan, and the child  

  usually passes through the grades below the High school in eight years. He has in this time acquired, a good common school education, the elements of science, of vocal music and drawing, and a general knowledge of English literature. After these grades the pupil enters the High school, where at the end of four years, and at an average age of 18 years, he is fitted for business life or for entrance to some college or university. The records of the board show that the board has in its employ more than 400 persons, and that it expends for their salaries and other purposes nearly $400,000 each year. This money comes into the school treasury from fines imposed and licenses granted by the city, from the distribution of state school funds and from local taxation. The amount derived from other sources has been sufficiently large so that taxation for school purposes in Omaha has been comparatively light. For years, as the number of pupils has constantly increased, the average cost of educating each child has as constantly decreased.

The Omaha Woman's Club is a department club having a membership of between five and six hundred. Each of the thirteen departments has a leader, an assistant leader and a secretary, who conduct the work after the manner of advanced class work in school. Work in the form of topics is assigned beforehand and carefully prepared from the best sources, as in most of the departments no text books are used. There are departments for the following subjects: English history, education, art, domestic science, philosophy, social science, German history, current topics, current literature, parliamentary practice, oratory, English literature and music. The majority of these departments meet once in two weeks. They are subject to the government of the club; the various leaders with the executive officers making what is called the directory, which virtually manages the affairs of the club. It is the aim of the club, not only to stimulate study but as well to promote the social interests of its members, and further, makes it a point to identify itself with all advance and altruistic movements in the city. The general meetings of the club are held the first and second Mondays of each month from three to live o'clock. The programs occupying half of the time of these meetings are furnished by the respective departments, each department furnishing one program yearly. The remainder of the time is occupied by  

  business of a miscellaneous character. The officers for 1897 and 1898 are: President, Mrs. W. P. Half ord; first vice president, Mrs. I. R. Andrews; second vice president, Mrs. W. "W. Keysor; treasurer, Mrs. C. Rosewater; recording- secretary, Mrs. George Hoobler; corresponding- secretary, Mrs. C. E. Hering. Beginning with October, the opening of the club year, the meetings will be held in the parlors and auditorium of the First Congregational church. Visitors are admitted in limited numbers on recommendation of members.

Young Men's Christian Association, organized in 1868, erected their present building in 1887, at a cost of 5110,000. The membership at present numbers 1.250. The building is fitted up with a gymnasium, bath rooms, a library of 1,500 volumes, and a reading room, where may be found about 125 of the latest daily and weekly newspapers and magazines. There is also a room with implements for playing the most popular games. The gymnasium, containing the latest apparatus, is under the control of a physical director, who conducts his classes on scientific principles. Exercise is taken daily and the members are graded into classes according to their ability in gymnastics. The educational features of this institution are important, as its priveleges are not limited to members. Night schools are conducted from October to April and thorough courses are given in algebra, arithmetic, bookkeeping, parliamentary law and current topics, drawing, architectural, mechanical and freehand, electricity, elocution, English Bible, French, geography, geometry, German, Latin, penmanship, physics, political econom3', reading, spelling, grammar, shorthand, Spanish, steam engineering, t3'pewriting, telegraphy and vocal music. Men's religious meetings are held every Sunday at 4 p. m., and Bible classes at stated intervals. About 850 men make use of the privileges extended by this association every day. During the exposition open house will be kept for visiting members of all outside associations and all the privileges of the building will be extended, while the reading rooms will be open to all visitors whether members of the association or not. The building is open from 8 a. M. to 10 P. M., and on Sunday from 1 P. M. to 6 P. M.

The Young Woman's Christian Association has pleasant rooms in the Paxton Block, formerry occupied by the public  

  library. This association was organized in June, I893, and now has 500 members. The larg-e gymnasium will be arranged for the accommodation of visiting members during the exposition. A bureau will be established for the purpose of providing rooms and board for ladies visiting the exposition, and their gymnasium, bath rooms, reading rooms, and library will be at their disposal. Song service is held at 12 M. on Friday, with regular religious services at 4 p. m. on Sunday. Bible classes are held at stated times. The rooms are open from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m., and on Sunday aftjrnoon from 2 P. M. to 6 P. M.

Mrs. Hanchett's Class in History. Classes in history, American and foreign, have been conducted by Mrs. W. H. Hanchett for a number of years. Long and thorough courses have been given in American, English and German history, while three years ago Ancient Eg} r pt was taken up. The class is still devoting its energies to this subject. This class is open to any lady who wishes to take up the course of study.

Creighton University, founded and endowed in 1875 by Edward Creighton, and conducted by the order of the Jesuits, is entirely free. It is located on 25th and Calilornia streets and commands an excellent view of the surrounding country. The main building, a handsome brick with limestone trimmings, is devoted entirely to college purposes. It contains the professors' library, consisting of 7,000 volumes of rare and valuable books: the students' library of 1,600 volumes, selected for the students and entirely free; and a cabinet of physical apparatus, portions of which have been put on exhibition at various state and city exhibits. Aside from the main building there is an astronomical observatory, a chemical labratory, a photographic gallery, and a mechanical workshop.

John A. Creighton Medical College was founded in 1892. It occupies a handsome new building on the corner of 14th and Davenport streets, and will accommodate 400 students. The study of medicine in this institution consists of a four years' course of seven months each. The students have the benefit of the instruction and experience of a faculty of practical and experienced physicians and the advantage of attending the patients in the Creighton Memorial St Joseph's hospital and St. Barnard's hospital in Council Bluffs.

 

Brownell Hall.

Brownell Hall, 1512 So. Tenth street, under the control of the Episcopal church and. the immediate supervision of the bishop, and occupying- one of the pleasantest school sites in the city, is a boarding - school for young - ladies.

The Omaha Medical College was founded in 1881, and is the medical department of the University of Omaha. The attendance has gradually increased since its inception, and it has graduated many successful physicians, who are now practicing their profession in Omaha. The students have the advantag-e of attending - the hospitals in the city other than the Creighton Memorial St. Joseph's hospital.

The Academy of the Sacred Heart, located at 36th and Burt streets, is a boarding - school for young - ladies. While a Catholic school, differences of religion is no bar to admission. The ordinary branches are thoroughly taught, as well as long and complete courses in modern languages, music and painting. It has graduated a large number of students in the many successful years it has been in operation, and, together with the Brownell Hall, has drawn many young ladies from the eastern states to enjoy its educational advantages.

Belleview College, nine miles south of Omaha, and the theological seminary of this city; also parts of the University of Omaha are enjoying a large attendance.

ART IN OMAHA.

The period of greatest interest and activity in art in Omaha, when the art interests were united, and sincerely seeking a higher plan of knowledge and expression, were those years when the Western Art Association, under the able guidance of its president, Mr. G. W. Lininger, held its popular exhibitions and awarded its prizes and medals to the successful artists.

The first fall exhibition of the association was held in 1888 in the splendid gallery built by Mr. Ljninger, in connection with his residence at Eighteenth and Davenport streets, for the valuable collection of works of art he had secured in his travels around the world. This collection of paintings is on free exhibition to the public, and thousands of visitors avail themselves of the delightful privileges extended to them.

 

Lininger Art Gallery.

 

The gallery contains many choice and valuable pictures, representing both the modern men and the old masters. There are some marbles of purity and beauty, and rare antique vases and curios that it would be difficult to rival, and in many cases impossible to duplicate. In this lovely home of art, the Western Art Association held its monthly meetings, and listened to abie lectures by members of the association and invited guests from abroad.

Previous to the organization of the Western Art Association, there had been several clubs formed for the advancement of art culture and feeling in Omaha. The first was twenty years ago, when art in Omaha was void and without form. It was in 1877 when Mrs. C. F. Catlin organized a sketch class, which did pioneer work, until the ladies of Trinity church formed another club in 1879. which was succeeded in 1881 by the "Social Art Club of Omaha."

These were the first stars to shine in the firmament of art in Omaha, and they continued to illumine the art skies until the sun of the Western Art Association rose above the horizon.

When the association was at its zenith, it started an art school with casts and models, a north light and all the equipments of modern times. This was under the direction of J. Laurie Wallace. The school was finally closed, owing to the business depression that made its financial success impossible.

About this time the Omaha Sketch club was formed with a score of male artists and students enrolled as members. It also had a fine assortment of casts and bric-a-brac. Its evenings were spent in drawing from the living model. Its officers were: Albert Rothery, president; M. M. Henninger, vice president; Mark A. Pollock, treasurer, and J. W. Bennett, secretary.

These men finally scattered to different parts of the world, in pursuit of further art knowledge, and the sketch club, after dividing its casts and bric-a-brac among the members, became a thing of the memory only.

In addition to Mr. Laninger's gallery- of art, there are many fine private collections of art works, that are beautiful and costly.

Judge J. M. Woolworth has a collection that contains works by Herring, Corot, Rousseau, and others.

 

Lininger Art Gallery.

 

Mr. J. H. N. Patrick also has a fine collection, which includes works by the Dupres, George Inness, William Hart, Bierstadt, and others.

Herman Kountze, and many others of our wealthy citizens have private collections of paintings that are worth)- of extended mention.

In the outskirts of the city, near Florence, Mr. Fred Parker has a large studio built for his private use, and also owns a collection of paintings. He is a man of wealth, and will undoubtedly add to those he now possesses.

Among the Omaha artists who are meeting with deserved success, are J. Laurie Wallace, whose studio is in the Williams building, Fifteenth and Dodge; Albert Rothery, who was awarded the Western Art Association gold medal, whose studio is in the U. S. Bank building-, Twelfth and Farnam streets; J. K. O'Neill, who is in the Sheeley Block; Miss Fannie Snowden and Mrs. Francis Mumaugh, who make flowers and still life a specialty, and who, with Mrs. Fannie Bachman, china painter, are in the Paxton Block; Miss Melona Butterfield, ceramic painter, and who was awarded the g-old medal for the best china painting by the Western Art Association, also two World's Fair medals, and whose pleasant studio is in the New York Life building.

This is a brief synopsis of the art of Omaha to date. The city is filled with amateurs and connoisseurs, and all are looking forward with joy and expectancy to the opening- of the Art Palace of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, which will be under the directorship of Mr. J. H. Griffith, of the Detroit Museum of Art, who is eminently fitted for the position, and who will undoubtedly make of the occasion the greatest exhibition of works of art ever seen in the west.

AMUSEMENTS.

Aside from the usual round of social g-aities common to all of our western cities, the theaters form the chief diversion of Omaha people during- the winter. From the opening of the theatrical season early in Septemoer until the close in June, the two principal theaters supply a variety of attractions, ranging from heavy drama and grand opera, to cheap burlesque and farce comedy. During the summer months light opera or a popular  

  price dramatic company holds the boards at one of the theaters, thus affording continuous diversion to theater goers.

Athletic sports are the staple amusement of the younger part of the population during the summer, and baseball, bicycling, football, tennis and golf each has its hundreds of stories, and numerous clubs help to maintain the interest in each. The Y. M. C. A. gymnasium affords ample opportunities to those who find pleasure in the use of apparatus for indoor exercise Those fond of swimming and boating will find facilities for the exercise of these sports at Lake Manawa, three miles south of Council Bluffs, and Courtland Beach in East Omaha. Each of these lakes is fitted up with every appliance for furthering the sports, and during the entire season some kind of vaudeville entertainment is offered for the amusement of the guests.

Music is by no means a lost art in Omaha, for aside from the fine music furnished by the churches, and the regular open air band concerts, through the instrumentality of the various musical societies, the people are enabled to hear the best traveling artists in this county.

HACK ORDINANCE.

Rates of Fare.

First—For conveying one passenger from one railroad depot to another, when within two miles of each other, 50 cents. Each additional passenger (children excepted ), when of the same party or family and when the fare for all is paid by one person, 25 cents.

Second—For conveying one passenger from one point tol another within the following limits, to-wit: South side of Bancroft street on the south, north side of Grace street on the north. west side of Twenty-fourth street on the west, and the Missouri river on the east, 50 cents. Each additional passenger, within said limits, of the same party or family, 25 cents.

Third—For conveying one passenger one mile, or part of mile, outside limits named in second paragraph, 50 cents. Eacl additional passenger, when of the same party or family, 25 cents

Fourth—For conveying children between the ages of 5 and 12 years within the limits in paragraph 2, and for each mile part of a mile outside the same, 25 cents. Children under years free.

 

Fifth—For the use of any carriage or vehicle drawn by two or more animals by the hour with one or more passengers, with privilege of going from place to place and stopping as often and long as may be required, $2 for the first hour. Each additional hour or part of an hour, $1.

Sixth—In all cases when the hiring of a hack, coach, cab or other vehicle for the conveyance of passengers is not, at the time of the hiring thereof specified to be by the hour, it shall be deemed to be by the mile, and for any detention exceeding fifteen minutes, when so working by the mile, the owner or driver may demand at the rate of $1 per hour.

Seventh—For the use of any hack, cab, or other vehicle drawn by one animal, by the hour, with the privilege of going from place to place, with one or more passengers, and stopping as often and long as may be required, $1. Bach additional hour or part of any hour, 75 cents.

Eighth—Every passenger -hall be allowed conveyance, without charge, upon the vehicles herein named, or his or her ordinary band baggage, and each and every passenger paying tbe full fare of 50 cents herein provided shall be entitled to free Conveyance, upon the vehicles named, or the baggage wagons running in connection therewith, of one trunk not exceeding 150 Bounds in weight, 25 cents may be collected, and for each and fcvery trunk, not exceeding 150 pounds weight, belonging to pasmgers paying only 25 cent- fare. 25 cents maybe collected. The provisions of this section shall also apply to transfer and baggage lines hauling trunk- and similar baggage in connection with the carriage of passengers; provided, that when one or more trunks are taken from or delivered to point and under the conditions prescribed for wherein the carriage, unaccompanied by passengers, the same rate may be charged therefor as is allowed to be charged for passengers alone.

PICNIC GROUNDS.

Picnics are a great feature of summer life in Omaha. [Nearly every social organization gives at least one picnic annually. Every nationality represented in the city must enjoy its jSunday picnic. Excursion trains are run out from the city in all   directions loaded down with merrymakers for a day's outing- in some of the chosen groves in the vicinity. Smaller parties find numerous grounds nearer home, supplied with all things necessary to make these gatherings a pleasant success. Fairmount park and L,ake Manawa, while lying on the Iowa side of the river, are easily accessible to Omaha pleasure seekers. Courtland Beach, to which motors run from the city every ten minutes, surrounds a natural lake of beautiful water, to which has been added a neat little pavillion, bathing and boating conveniences, a menagerie and. switch back railway. Pries lake, seven miles north of the city and the various public parks are convenient and suitable places for the purpose.

CLUBS.

The Omaha Club is the oldest now existing in the city. It is a purely social organization, which numbers among its members many of the substantial business men of Omaha. A few years ago they completed a very handsome white stone club house, on the corner of Twentieth and Douglas streets, at a cost of about $200,000. The next most important of the large clubs is the Metropolitan, a Jewish club, also formed, for social purposes, and the owner of a fine club building on Harney street. The members of the Woman's club, elsewhere mentioned, are contemplating the erection of a building of their own. Athletic clubs, bicycle clubs, literary clubs, and clubs of travel, of sculpture, of painting, and of ceramics, each have a large list of enthusiastic members.

The Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben is a semi-social and semi-business organization. It was formed for the purpose of affording evening entertainment for the strangers who visit Omaha during the State Fair. For several evenings they give an electrical display with parades, which attract visitors from all over the west, and close the fete with a grand ball, which is the social event of the season. This organization, aside from its primary object of attracting visitors to the fair, has done more to unite the business interests of the city and to awaken popular enthusiasm in public undertakings than any other agency. To them is due to a great extent the credit of making the exposition possible.

 

Chamber of Commerce--Home of the Comercial Club

 

The Commercial Club, as its name implies, is an organiza tion formed by the business and professional men of the city, to further the commercial interests of Omaha. Its building, on the corner of Sixteenth and Farnam streets, contains the offices and halls of the club and the reception rooms for the entertainment of the guests of the city. The use of the halls is free to any association organized to promote the welfare of the city. The club has been especially active and successful in securing better transportation and insurance rates; in inducing outside capitalists to invest in Omaha enterprises; in opening up new territory to the Omaha jobbing trade, and finding new outlets for its manufactured products. During the past year it has exerted every effort to further the success of the exposition. The work has been mostly along the lines of securing a great attendance. 1 hrough its efforts the greatest number of important conventions ever held in any city in the United States in a single year will be held in Omaha during the exposition.

LODGES AND SOCIETIES.

Omaha is abundantly supplied with secret, beneficiary and social lodges and societies. Every association of any prominence in the United States is represented in Omaha. Her best citizens are members, active in their welfare and heavy contributors to their maintenance. Omaha is considered the fountain head in the northwest for fraternal news and advance thought along these lines. She is the home of many fraternal public speakers; headquarters of the Woodmen of the World, one of the largest beneficiary orders in the country, also the headquarters of the Knights of the Forest, are located in Omaha, the place of their birth; the Fraternal Union of America is a semiOmaha institution and its entire organization forces, consisting of seventy-five deputies, at work in thirty states, are, managed from Omaha. Other smaller institutions have headquarters in this city, some of which may yet develop into large permanent organizations, and thus contribute to the importance of Omaha as a great center of western fraternal interests. All information as to the different orders established here, with time and place of their meetings, may be found in the city directory. The list covers about eight pages of that volume.

 

New Post Office Building.

 

GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

The new government building, now nearing completion, has taken six years in construction. The site covers one block and was bought at a cost of $400,000. The dimensions of the structure are 135x218 feet, and the apex of the tower is 200 feet above the ground. It is, of course, entirely fire proof, being constructed of Colorado granite, with tile floors on steel frames. It consists of four stories and a basement. The first floor and the basement will be utilized by the postoffice department. The second floor will be occupied by the surveyor of customs, the collector of internal revenue, the railway mail service and the secret service. The third floor contains two large court rooms, offices for the federal judge, the clerk of the court, the district attorney and the United States marshal. On the fourth floor will be found the United States weather bureau and the jury rooms. The tower will contain one of the largest clocks in the country, the diaJ measuring twelve feet in diameter. The cost of the building is $1,000,000, making a total cost of $1,400,000. One of the interesting features to visitors is the glass mosaic ceiling of the vestibule, done at a cost of about $16,000. This is the first work of the kind attempted in the west, and is the special feature, which has added so much to the beauty of the great library buildings of Boston and Chicago and the library of congress at "Washington.

SIGNAL SERVICE.

Omaha is one of the points selected by the general government for the establishment of a Weather Bureau. L. A. Welch is in charge and under his management the people of this vicinity are becoming alive to the practical value of this service. The object of this service generally is to make forecasts of the weather from 24 to 36 hours in advance for the practical value of this knowledge as bearing upon agriculture and commerce. These observations are made from all points in the United States at precisely the same time, 8 o'clock A. M., 75th meridian time. These observations consist of: Noting the barometer reduced to sea level, temperature of the air, dew-point of the air, relative humidity, direction and velocity of the wind, state of the weather, kind of clouds—upper and lower, movement of clouds, and   amount of precipitation since last observation. This information is immediately placed upon the circuit in cipher and reaches almost simultaneously all the different stations in the country where the information is of value, as bearing- on their forecasts, and the main western office at Chicago and the chief office at Washington. As the reports of the whole west reach Chicago at almost the same time, forecasts are at once made up and telegraphed to all western offices, whence they are sent to all postmasters in country town.-, and there displayed by flags and bulletins. This news is generally widespread by 9 A. M. local time. The peculiar conditions of the climate in this section makes it unnecessary to take into account the conditions to the east. All forecasts are therefore made from observations taken here and to the west. The local office distributes 300 weather makes daily in and about Omaha and sends out by mail about 400 weather forecast cards, which are delivered by carrier in the morning.

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.

The newspapers of thecity have always worked harmoniously for the advancement of the city and the development of the west. To them, more than any other agency, is due the credit of proposing the Exposition and carrying it to a successful issue. There are six daily and thirty weekly, tri-weekly and monthly newspapers published in Omaha. There are two great daily papers in the English language. That two are enough to meet all requirements, is explained by the fact, that both issue morning and evening editions, with sometimes hourly specials, when the public interest demands.

The Omaha Bee, founded and controlled by E. Rosewater, has played a prominent part in the history of the west. From a very small beginning it has developed into one of the most farreaching and influential journals of the western half of the country. Its one-roomed office of twenty years ago has been transformed into one of the largest, most substantial, and most perfectly appointed newspaper buildings in the world. In politics the Bee is independent, but generally, especially on national questions, leans strongly to republicanism. The keen, incisive editorials in which the Bee has discussed all public questions, has given the paper an individuality of its own, and whatever   difference of opinion may exist as to its methods in conducting a campaign, there is never any doubt as to which side of the question it espouses. To Mr. Rosewater belongs the credit of first proposing the Exposition, and as manager of the department of publicity and promotion and as editor of the Bee he has labored untiringly for its success.

The World-Herald, as its name indicates, was founded by the consolidation of the World and the Herald. Gilbert M. Hitchcock has controlled -the paper from the first. Mr. Hitchcock, until his resignation, was an influential member of the executive committee of the Exposition directory and was manager of the department of promotion. His exertions were especially directed toward securing the mobilization of the troops of the regular army and the National Guards at Omaha during the Exposition. In politics the World-Herald is independent, but has been an earnest champion of free silver. It is working for the fusion of the populists with the free silver wing of the democratic party, and was the official organ of the Hon. W. J. Bryan in the late presidential campaign.

BANKS AND BANKING.

There are eight national banks doing business in Omaha and three in South Omaha. The combined paid up capital of these banks is $4,150,000. On October 1, 1897, they had deposits to the extent of 819.050,208. On the same date their reports sent to the comptroller of the treasury showed their resources to be $24,713,457. The majority of these banks are controlled and officered by men who have grown with the city, and the conservative manner in which this business is conducted, is a guarantee to the depositors, that the banks of Omaha are entirely safe. That business is improving in Omaha, is best shown by the reports of the clearing house. It must be remembered that the three banks of South Omaha are not members of the Omaha Clearing House Association, and that therefore the immense live stock transactions, which take place daily, are not included in this report.

Clearings for 1895...$ 190,643,238.87

Clearings for May...$ 19,041,300.22

Clearings for 1896... 210.141,334.28

Clearings for June... 19,760.848.55

Clearings for Jan... 17,738,899.70

Clearings for July... 19,717.056.73

Clearings for Feb... 15,812,144.02

Clearings For Mar... 18,456,444.39

Clearings for April... 17,513,507.53

Clearings for Aug... 19,331,558.28

Clearings for Sept... 23.230,190.18

Clearings for Oct... 25.613.457.91

 

REAL ESTATE.

Money has been made in real estate investments in Omaha. Money can be made again is being made now—in Omaha realty. There have been losses in this class of investments in Omaha, it must be admitted. So has there been depreciation in value in real estate holdings in all cities, and in farm property as well. tea in the past ten years have not been con lined to those met in real estate, however; stocks in banks, railroads, manufacturing- enterprises, mines, have all broken in value under the strain of the past decade. But shrewd men do not stop putting their money into investments because other men under unfavorable circumstances or through mistaken judgment have met loss in the same lines. So it is that the wise and far sighted investor will see in Omaha an attractive opening for dealing profitably in real estate. This for several reasons:

First, in the western city that is established as a business center for a large, fertile and constantly improving section of country, as is Omaha, it is always a certainty that real estate values will advance as the population increases and business expands. This is especially true of Omaha, one of the great gateways to the vast Trans-Missouri region, with its rapidly growing population, a region having products and importance sufficient to support its metropolis.

Second, during the prevalence of that remarkable business movement known as the "real estate boom of the '8O's," there was not in Omaha the wild speculation, and crazy buying and selling at fabulous prices that existed in nearly every other city of this class. Choice inside business property and the best located residence property, never attained the high figure reached elsewhere. There are g-ood reasons for this fact, which space prevents mentioning- here. It is also a fact that in the past few years of terrible depression, caused by panic and drouth in cruel succession, values of well situated property have not been reduced much below the figures of the boom days.

A third reason why Omaha's real estate interests are worth considering at the present time by the investor, is the fact that the purchaser now gets the benefit of special improvements paid for by the late owners. Grading, paving, sewer and sidewalk   taxes have all been a severe drain on real estate owners in the past ten years. He who buys now, will, in most cases, be relieved of this burden, and yet will have all the benefit of these improvements.

The foundation of the fortunes of nearly every one of Omaha's wealthy citizens has been laid in real estate. There seems to be no good reason why that which has been accomplished in the past ten or twelve years by judicious investment in Omaha real estate, may not be accomplished in the next ten or twelve years. Certainly there were never more tempting opportunities in that line, coupled with surer values, and more probable remunerative returns, than are those offered today in Omaha to the careful dealer in real estate.

RETAIL BUSINESS.

The retail trade of Omaha is one of the most important features in her mercantile operations. There are more than 1,600 individual firms engag-ed in the retail trade in Omaha, and whilst other cities may boast of a greater amount of capital invested in this branch of trade, the merchants of very few of them have passed through the late depression and are able to make as good a showing as can the retail merchants of Omaha.

Failures in business among them have been few and unimportant, whilst the evidences of growth have been apparent in spite of adverse conditions. Very few chang-es have taken place, and nearly all who were in business before the hard times began, are keeping store at the old stand, and today are better equipped for business than ever before.

About two years ago, the retailers of Omaha, believing that organized effort could accomplish more than individual work, organized the Omaha Retailers Association. This organization began active operations by directing its efforts toward the lowering of the then excessive rates charged for fire insurance. This was a popular movement and enlisted the united support of all retail merchants and property owners. This effort was so successful that a ten per cent reduction was secured on all business risks, and twenty per cent reduction on residence property and contents, and the end is not yet.

 

Interior View of Megeath Stationary Co.

 

The association next addressed itself to the securing of better depot facilities for the city of Omaha, and while it has not yet secured the Union Depot for which it has striven so hard, this improvement is nearer to the city than it ever has been before, and the fact that a depot building is now being built for the city is due in a large measure to the efforts of the Omaha Retailers Association.

Among the things which the Omaha Retailers Association, uid the retail merchants in general, hope to secure in the future, ire better collection Laws, the regulation of transient tradesmen rod fake dealers by a properlj adjusted License system, and various other reforms, which will especially help the retail dealers, and the public at large.

Never has there been a period when the retail dealers Omaha have so earnestly considered plans for bettering trade, and business in general, as at the present. They have most Liberally contributed of their means to every enterprise which ass been for the best interests of their city. They have shown heir patriotism to their home city and to their state, and to the krhole west by their loyal support of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

WHOLESALE INTERESTS.

As the railroad facilities of Omaha arc unsurpassed by am city west of the Mississippi river, and a^ its Location makes it the natural depot of supplies for the great agricultural, mining and stock raising regions of the west, it follows as a matter of curse that Omaha has built up great jobbing interests. There are about 250 firms, Large and small, engaged in the wholesale business in this city. They have a capital invested of fully $10,000,000, and their annual sales range from $40,000,000 to $60,000,000. The number of employes of all kinds engaged in liis business is about 5,000. There are about 2,000 commercial travelers resident in this city, who make periodical trips over their territory. The territory covered by these men collectively, extends from the Missouri river to the Coast, and from the British possessions to the Gulf, with the states of Iowa and issouri included. As the wholesale firms of Omaha meet all   the requirements of a highly civilized, people engaged in industries widely diverging- all the different lines of merchandise are represented in this city. In each of the more important lines there are several houses which employ from ten to twenty-five traveling salesmen each. The most important lines are agricultural implements, groceries, boots and shoes, dry goods, hardware, drugs, furniture, clothing, hats and caps, lumber, coal, rubber goods, paper, books and stationery, liquors, cigars and tobacco, fish and oysters, paint and glass, jewelry, toys and fancy goods, photographic supplies, stoves and ranges, seeds, surgical instruments, and many less important lines. Omaha has for some years been a port of entr3', and as importations from foreign countries are received here in bond, the delay and expense of clearing at a border port is avoided. Omaha ranks seventh among the interior districts in point of collections. As in point of population che settlement of this territory has barely begun, the wholesale firms of Omaha must steadily increase in number and importance.

MANUFACTURING.

Until comparatively recent years the people of Omaha and the west generally have been dependent upon the east for all manufactured products. But recently great changes have been taking place. On account of its situation in relacion to the great mining, stock raising, and agricultural states of the west, great factories have sprung up which equal, if they do not surpass anything of like kind in the world. With them, and dependent upon them, others have entered the field. While the development of the great coal mines of the mountain states is making it possible and profitable for all kinds of manufacturing to be carried on here successfully. Few even of the residents of the city are aware of the extent of the manufacturing interests now established. A careful investigation shows that all claims even made by this city are far too low. There are in this city today more than 200 industrial establishments, furnishing employ ment to at least 15,000 men, with an invested capital of about $35,000,000. The value of the annual total output of these establishments will exceed $100,000,000. In fact, it is extremely probable, that the packing houses alone within the next few years will exceed that sum.

 

M. E. Smith & Co., Incorporated, manufactures. Wholesale Dry Goods, Notions, and Furnishing Goods.

 

The packing houses are the greatest of Omaha's manufacturing plants. Their annual distributive sales amount to more than if 60, 000, 000. The number of men on their pay-rolls is 7,150, and they collectively draw a salary of a trifle over $3,500,000 annually. The capital invested in the five plants will exceed 110,000,000. Thirteen years ago the site of these immense buildings was a farm surrounded by other farms, lying four miles from the city. From the nature of their products it is certain that these institutions will grow in the future as they have in the past. With the great plant of Armour in operation, the competition between the buyers will become more keen with a tendency to higher prices which will attract shipments from a wider radius, while with the development of the farm lands of the western states, the conversion of the ranges into cornfields and tame grass pastures, the production of stock of a better grade will be increased tenfold. The business of this year shows an increase over that of last of about twenty-five per cent. More than ninety per cent of the stock received at the yards is slaughtered here.

While the killing of cattle and hog-s and their transformation into pork and beef is not a particularly elevating sight, the immensity of these institutions and the skill and celerity with which this work is accomplished, attracts many visitors. Thel stock yards are open to all visitors, but to go through the packing houses a pass is necessary. This can be obtained without difficulty by applying at the office. It would be a pleasure to give a description of all the enormous plants operated at South Omaha by the Armour, Swift, Cudahy, Hammond, and Omaha companies, but the lack of space forbids. We therefore select for our purpose the Cudahy Packing Co., which by reason of its volume of business and the great variety of its products, makes it representative of them all. The history of this concern shows a rapid and continuous growth from its beginning and furnishes: a fine example of what zeal, energy and business sagacity will accomplish. During the decade which marks its existence, has developed until now under the one corporate name, nearb a score of different kinds of manufacturing are carried on. Aside from the usual slaughtering- and curing departments, there are separate and complete factories for making soaps, commercial fertilizers, oleo oil, neutral lard, buttcrine, glue, beef extract pepsin and other pharmaceutical preparations. The company  

  also has its own extensive car, machine, blacksmith, cooperage and tin shops, box factory, refrigerator and tank car lines. This company has representatives and does business in every state in the Union and in addition sells every year products worth millions to various portions of Europe, Mexico, Canada, South America, Japan, China, etc. Its special brands, "Rex" and "Diamond C," have become the recognized standards of excellence wherever introduced, which accounts for the company's wonderful hold on its almost numberless patrons. The soap works, seven stories high and fitted with the most modern and complete appliances, are the latest addition to this great institution.

The plant of this gigantic company covers a ground area of twenty-five acres and a floor space of nearly eighty acres. The aggregate sales are more than twenty-five millions of dollars annually or an average of $80,000 for every single business day. Its outbound products and incoming supplies fill nearly 100 cars daily. And this is only one of the five great packing concerns of which South Omaha boasts. If the pace of the past ten years continues, the early part of the next century may see concentrated here the most extensive live stock and packing interests known to mankind.

The Smelting Works. The business of the Omaha and Grant Smelting Co. has reached such proportions as to make the operation of its great plant in Omaha one of the most conspicuous factors in the city's industrial activity. The history of the company's development, if written in full, would be a tolerably respectable story of the marvelous growth of smelting and mining operations in the western mineral regions. As long ago as 1870, so the record goes, the Omaha Smelting and Refining Co. was organized with a capital stock of $60,000. W. W. Lowe, John A. Haroach and E. W. Nash were prominentl) r connected with the organization, the latter being its secretary. Later, Leopold Balbach, C. B. Rustin, Charles W. Meade and others became identified with the company, and Charles Balbach was for a long time its general superintendent. In 1882 the company was reorganized and consolidated with the Grant Smelting Company of Denver, Colo. The capital stock was increased to $2,500,000, the name of the company changed to the Omaha and Grant Smelting Co. and Guy C. Barton, a new and influential member, was elected  

  president, with J. B. Grant of Denver, vice president, E.W. Nash, who had been prominently identified with the business from the beginning-, secretary and treasurer,. Edward Eddy, general manager and W. H. James, superintendent. Since that time, under the wise direction of the present general officers and the co-operation of their local superintendents the operations of the company have greatly expanded, until its position at the head of like institutions is generally conceded. In addition to its extensive works in Omaha and Denver this company controls and operates the line plant of the San Juan Smelting and Mining Co. at Durango, Col., and has important interests in British Columbia. The principal office of the company is in Omaha, where President Barton and Secretary Nash reside. The Omaha works include an extensive roasting and smelting department, the refinery, and a complete blue stone plant. Base bullion from Denver, Durango, Salt Eake City and Clayton, Idaho; rich gold and copper mattes from the Black Hills smelters and Trail Creek, British Columbia; cyanides from the extensive Mercur district, Utah, and great quantities of furnace and mill products from other localities are refined in Omaha, so that the total output of precious metals and baser products run well iuto the millions. A better idea of these items can be gotten from the following approximate figures for 1897: Gold, 325.000 ounces; silver, 12.750,000 ounces lead, 79,550,000 pounds; copper, 2,660,000 pounds; blue vitriol. 7,259,000 pounds. The approximate value of this year's output will be $18,000,000. From 500 to 700 men are employed at the Omaha works, and the pay-roll averages about $30,000 per month.

Carter White Lead Works is one of Omaha's largest manufacturing institutions, and on account of the nature of its product, has been operated here successfully. Being situated in the center of the flax producing country and at the same point with the largest smelter and linseed oil mill in the west, it is enabled to manufacture successfully the highest grade of white lead on the market. Another plant by the same company has been recently established in Chicago. The combined capacity of the two plants is 30.000 tons, and is the largest white lead manufacturing institution in the world. All the stock is owned by Omaha capitalists; $1,000,000 is invested, and the annual output amounts to over $3,000,000. Employment is furnished to about 200 men In addition to these two large factories, branch warehouses are   maintained at the following points: Now York. St. Louis Buffalo, .St. Paul, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New Orleans. Boston and San Francisco.

The Woodman Linseed Oil Works, the largest in the Trans-Mississippi country, is one of the oldest manufacturing institutions in Omaha, having been in continuous operation since 1S72. During that time it has manufactured over 5.000,000 bushels of flaxseed into linseed oil and linseed oil cake. The process of manufacturing at these works is called the old process, because the oil is extracted from the seed by hydraulic pressure, which is theoldest and only mean.-, of producing oil without contamination with chemical liquids, that not only produce an inferior quality, but renders the oil impure. In connection with the mill r is one of the largest elevators in Omaha, with a capacity of 800,000 bushels of flaxseed, while several large tanks have a capacity of 500,000 gallons of linseed oil. Within the next few months new and improved machinery will be added, which will not only increase the capacity of the works, but will largely increase the number of men employed.

Sugar Beet Factories. With the assured success of the cultivation of the sugar beet in this and surrounding states, the establishment of factories for the purpose of manufacturing sugar has become a necessity. The actual experience of several years cultivation shows that this product can be produced in this vicinity with a saccharine strength almost double that of the Old World. To meet the requirements of this new industry, a great beet sugar and glucose plant will be constructed in South Omaha during the exposition year. Another of perhaps still greater proportions will be built in East Omaha. The location of Omaha in the midst of this district makes it the natural center for such manufacture and the next decade will probably see dozens of factories in full operation here with a capacity equal to supplying the markets of this country.

The Breweries. Omaha has four large breweries, the output of which is largely taking the place in the western states of the beer which had been formerly shipped here from Milwaukee and St. Louis. The amount invested in these breweries is about $1,750,000; the annual capacity about 375,000 barrels. The number of men employed is about 150.

 

The Willow Springs Distillery is one of the most perfectly appointed plants of the kind in the world. The finished quality of its products has created a general demand and the plant is consequently generally run to its full capacity. This is about 3,000 bushels per day or slightly over a million per year. In connection with the distillery, an important cattle feeding- plant is maintained and about 3,000 head of cattle are required to prevent waste. There are about 175 men engaged in the work proper, the cooper shop and the care of the cattle.

The Firm of Farrell & Co. has been engaged for a number of years in the manufacture of syrups, molasses, jellies and preserves, baking powder, and a number of other articles. They are also extensively engaged in the manufacture of tinware. This firm has been very successful and has built up a stead}trade, which covers the whole Trans-Mississippi country.

The National Oil and Paint Co. of this city manufactures all the kinds of paint known to the trade. They cover, with their traveling salesmen, nine of the surrounding states.

It is impossible in a book of this nature to give an adequate description of the various industrial institutions located here, and we must be content to name some of the most important. There are more than a thousand men engaged in the working of iron, in the manufacture of structural iron, boilers, engines, locomotives, and agricultural implements. Three clothing manufacturing firms, with an invested capital of $1,000,000 give work to nearly a thousand employes. The Bemis Omaha Bag Company supply the grain and flour trade of the west with the product of their factory. There are twenty different cigar factories • in the city employing each from four to thirty men. There are a number of printing houses and blank book manufacturers. There are three large confectionary establishments. There are aside from those already named, from one to five firms engaged in the manufacture of each of the following articles: Baking powder and extracts, envelopes, boxes, brick, brooms, pearl buttons, carriages and wagons, sash, doors and blinds, health food, corsets, crackers, steam pumps, saddles and harness, horse collars, tinware, lead and shot, marble and granite works, mirrors, flour, patterns and models, pickles, vinegar and mustard,  

  caskets and. coffins, refrigerators, shirts, stock food, and remedies, jellies and preserves, syrups and molasses, trunks, umbrellas, yeast, musical instruments, jewelry, boots and shoes, furniture and mattresses, hats and caps, tents and awning's, wire, tiles, nails, artificial stone, and a number of others.

THE STOCK YARDS.

The present site of South Omaha was thirteen years ago nothing but farm and pasture land. Today it is one of the three greatest live stock markets in the world, and at the present rate of growth will soon be second, if not finally first. Five great packing houses, with other industries incident to a live stock market, have built up a city of over 15,000 inhabitants, which is probably the most bustling, thriving and substantial city of its size in the world.

The cause of the phenomenal growth of this great industry is found in the fact, that Omaha is situated in the midst of the great corn belt and to the east of the great stock ranges. which extend from the British possessions to Mexico and the Gulf. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, the four great corn producing states, surround this common center, and find a market here for their finished stock, while at the same time it is the nearest market to the ranges of Montana. Washington. Oregon, Idaho. Utah, Colorado, Nevada, the Dakotas. "Wyoming and Indian Territory, which furnishes an inexhaustible supply of both cattle and sheep to be either slaughtered here, if in condition, or to be fitted for the block by feeders in this corn belt. These reasons, with the perfect railroad facilities and the great packers established here.—Cudahy, Swift. Hammond. Armour and the Omaha Packing Co..—guarantee that the importance of this market can but increase with time.

The present capacity of the yards is estimated at 620 cars of cattle, 15,000 head; 375 cars of hogs, 25.000 head, 70 double decks of sheep, 15.000 head, and 50 cars of horses. 1,000 head. About 80 acres are now covered with pens, barns, sheds, and other buildings necessary for carrying on the business, while other land is being graded, to be used for the same purpose. The shedding, drainage and water service is perfect and quick transportation is arranged for by a network of tracks and switches. The cattle sold on this market in 1897 numbered 825.689 and brought  

  $25,245,360, an increase over 1896 of 255,174 head, and an increase in value of $6,418,435. Hog-s, 1.594,038, brought $15,241,480. increase over 1896 of 396,400 head, increase in value of $4,772,138. Sheep, 612.803, brought $2,174,550, increase over 1875 of 79,471. and increase in value of $1,257,887. Horses, 6,632, a decrease under 1896 of 3,021. Total number of cars received 60,083, an increase over 1896 of 16,319.

Largest receipts of stock in one day: Cattle, Sept. 20, 1897, 8,704; hogs, July 31, 1894, 20,684; sheep, May 21, 1896, 10,837; horses and mules, June 6. 1889, 718; cars, July 10, 1894, 490.

PARKS AND BOULEVARDS.

While the park board of Omaha, as at present constituted, is of comparatively recent origin, its work has been of incalculable value to the future of the city. A chain of parks, selected for their location and natural adaptability, now surrounds the city and are to be connected by a system of magnificent boulevards, a part of which is already completed. The principal objection to the location of the parks at the time of their selection was that they were too far from the heart of the city, but the desirability of residence in their vicinity and the gradual expansion of the city have brought them well within the limits. There are now eight parks aggregating 543 1/2 acres and valued at more than a million and a half.

Hanscom Park, the best known and most popular, lies in the southwestern part of the city and contains 57 1/2 acres. It was donated to the city by two of the pioneer citizens, Mr. A. J. Hanscom and Mr. J. G. Megeath. This park possessed great natural advantages which have been richly supplemented bv the artisan's skill. New roadways, bridlepaths, walks and entrances were made, and considerable grading done. Two lakes were provided at the south side, water being provided by the city waterworks. Both lakes are well stocked with fish that furnish amusement to the children who take delight in watching and feeding them during the summer season. In the winter both lakes are kept in good condition for skating, and this popular amusement attracts hundreds of people daily. A large greenhouse is maintained on the grounds, besides a pavillion where refreshments are served and a music stand for concert purposes.  

      The high order of the band concerts, which are given every Sunday during the summer months, are highly appreciated and attract immense crowds. The Hanscom park and North 24th street motor line goes directly to the park.

Elmwood Park, containing 215 acres, lies on the west side of the city. By a donation of Mr. Lyman Richardson, Mr. Leopold Doll, Mr. John T. Bell, and others, this park, containing 50 acres and located three and one-half miles west of the postoffice, became a part of the park system in 1890. Considerable money has been expended in improving- this park, which is a beautiful piece of ground for park purposes, being- partially covered with a growth of natural trees, among- which are some very valuable elms. A brook of pure spring- water runs through the park, furnishing- clear water for several lakes or pools at intervals along the ravine. The immediate surroundings embrace a variety of elevations valuable to a park of large proportions and when the board was selecting sites for parks, they recognized in this little park the nucleus for the main park of the city, and therefore the surroundings were acquired by purchase, $135,000 being paid for an additional 160 acres, enlargiug the park to 215 acres.

Fontanelle Park, containing 110 acres and located three and one-half miles northwest of the postoffice, was purchased for $90,000. Over 6,000 trees have been planted and cared for. but as yet little has been done toward the permanent inprovement of the park.

Miller Park. This eighty-acre tract, situated in the extreme north part within the city limits, was purchased for $75,000 at the same time that the other park purchases were made. It has a rolling surface in the center of which is a large depression providing a natural place for a lake of about eight acres. The building of the roads and surfacing generally has been completed, excavation for the lake has been made, dam and spillway built and about 5,000 trees planted.

Riverview Park is situated in the extreme southeast part of the city, and in many respects is the most beautiful in its natural advantages of the city's parks. After resorting to condemnation proceedings and settlement by compromise, this park of 60 acres  

  is now in possession of the city at a cost of about $79,000. It is well covered with a valuable growth of young timber and is fortunate in its topography, comprising as it does a pleasing variety of the smooth and level surface, as well as the rough and more broken land so desirable in a park of this nature. At different points of the more elevated portions of the park a magnificent view can be had of the Missouri river for miles in either direction, which gives the park the significance of its name— Riverview.

Bemis Park came under the control of the park board in 1889. having been previously dedicated by a plat of Bemis Park Addition. This park consists principally of low ground following the ravine from 34th to 37th street, with steep hills on either side. It contains about 10 acres.

Jefferson Square is the only piece of ground within the boundaries of the city that is left of the original dedication as platted in 1854, being one block of ground between 15th and 16th streets and Chicago and Cass streets. Frequent attempts have been made to divert its use to other purposes, such as school grounds, market house, postofhce, city hall. etc.. but it still exists as a park. Located as it is, in the center of the city, it is a very popular resort during the summer season and is the only one accessible to the large number of the laboring class living in that vicinity.

Belt Line Park consists of 3 acres in the western part of the city. Little improvement has as yet been made.

RESIDENCES.

Omaha is distinctly a city of homes. The resident portion is thickly built up with houses, which give to the casual observer the impression, that they have been built for homes in the fullest sense of the word. The old part of the city lies about Capitol Hill, and here are many of the homes of the pioneer citizens. To obtain the best bird's-eye view of the finest residences in Omaha, let a visitor board a westbound Farnara street motor; when the car reaches the crest of the hill, at 36th street, there in every direction are to be seen homes valued at from twenty to  

  fifty thousand dollars. This locality is known as West Farnam, and contains some of the finest buildings in the city. South 10th. an older street, is lined on both sides.with handsome homes, set well back from the street and surrounded by well kept lawns. Georgia avenue, on the south side, is for the space of two miles evenly built up with moderate priced homes. Being- the direct road to South Omaha, it is considered a fine location. On the north side, adjacent to the Trans -Mississippi grounds, lies Kountze Addition. It bears the same relation to Omaha that suburbs do to larger cities, being the business man's home. The North 24th street and 16th street motor lines connect it with the city.

MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Omaha, from its earliest history, has always been an important point in the military operations of the west. As the headquarters of the Department of the Platte is the base of supplies for the troops in the Indian campaigns, which took place almost every summer for a long period of years, Omaha is known the world over as a military city. This fact, with the influence of a regiment of regular troops stationed just outside the city limits, has so imbued the citizens with the martial spirit, that two companies of the National Guard were formed, and how well they have prepared themselves for the duties of the soldier, the record of their winnings in their various prize contests will show.

The Department of the Platte. The United States is divided into eight military divisions. That portion of the country occupied by the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming (except Fort Yellowstone, Wyo.,) and portions of Idaho and South Dakota form the Department of the Platte, with headquarters at Omaha, Brigadier General John J. Coppinger, commanding. This department comprises the 8th, 9th and a portion of the 6th Regiment of Cavalry, and the 8th, 12th and 22d Regiments of Infantry. These regiments are stationed at six forts in different portions of this territory. The entire force consists of 211 commissioned officers and 2,640 enlisted men.

Fort Crook, recently completed at a cost of $800,000, is garrisoned by the 22d Regiment of Infantry. Colonel C. A. Wykoff.  

  commanding. This regiment is divided into eight companies, and consists of thirty-five officers and 525 enlisted men, and a staff corps of two officers and seventeen men. It is located about twelve miles south of the city, and is reached by the Missouri Pacific railroad. There are also good roads for a carriage drive to the post, and in pleasant weather many visitors witness the daily drill of the soldiers. The 22d Regiment band, one of the best in the west, is one of the attractive features for visitors.

Omaha Guards, Company Q, 2d Regiment. Nebraska National Guards. Armory. Eighteenth and Harney streets. Organized October 24. 1887, now consisting of forty-eight men: H. B. Mulford. captain. Won prizes as follows:

Interstate drill, Omaha, 1889, 1st prize. Bronze Trophey.

National drill, Kansas City. 1890, 1st prize in maiden class $1,000.

National drill, Omaha, 1892. 1st prize gatling gun class, $500.

State drill. Lincoln, 1894, 1st prize. Governor's Cup.

National drill, Memphis, 1895, 1st prize in gatling sun class, $500.

State drill, Lincoln, 1896, 1st prize, Governor's Cup.

Competitive drill, South 0maha, 1894, 2d prize, $50.

Thurston Rifles, Company L, 1st Regiment. Nebraska National Guards. Armory, Seventeenth and Douglas streets. Organized September, 1893, now consisting of sixty men: W. J.Foy, captain. Won prizes as follows:

Competitive drill. South Omaha. 1891, 1st prize, $100.

State drill, Lincoln, 1894. 1st prize, forfeited on technical error and given to Omaha Guards.

National drill, Memphis, 1895, championship of the United States. 1st prize, $3,000 and Texas Cup. 2d prize in class B, $500. 1st prize, class C. $1,000. Discipline prize. $300. Best individual drilled soldier, $75.

High School Cadets, under direction of E. O. C. Ord, of the regular army, are divided into four companies, consisting of about fifty men each. They are developing into an extremely well drilled body of young men. and the progress made in the short time since their organization, is a surprise to all conversant with such matters.

HOSPITALS.

The numerous humane institutions which are scattered over Omaha, go to show that while its citizens are known as active, pushing, successful business men, devoting a great part of their  

  time to the art of making money, they have not neglected to provide for those less fortunate. Besides the asylums and homes of various kinds, there are a number of larg-e and well equipped hospitals capable of receiving and caring for all who may apply. The following are the most important:

Creighton Memorial St. Joseph's Hospital was founded in 1890. The Sisters of Mercy provided the grounds and a buildingwas erected out of a donation by John A. Greig-hton of over $200,000. The hospital is managed by the Sisters of St. Francis and about forty of who, as trained nurses, are in constant attendance on the patients. There are seventy-two private rooms, besides twenty-five wards, large and small, capable of accommodating more than 300 patients at one time. Aside from this there are operating rooms, dressing rooms, drug rooms, and private rooms for the officers. There is no restriction as to sex, creed or nationality. The hospital is free to those who cannot afford to pay, but the income for maintaining- the institution is derived from those patients who are able to pay for their care. Last year the total number of patients was 1339, of which 562 discharg-ed their obligations, while 777 were cared for free of charge. The hospital is located on the northeast corner of Tenth and Castellar streets, and is best reached by the Walnut Hill and south Thirteenth street motor line.

Emmanuel Hospital, 3402 Meredith, was founded in 1890 by Rev. K. A. Foglestrom. It is managed by the Emmanuel Deaconess Swedish Association, under the general auspices of the Lutheran church. There is room for thirty patients, and all are admitted without restrictions, who are in need of careful nursing and medical attendance. "While this hospital also is maintained by the income received from patients, no one is refused admittance on account of poverty. This hospital is reached by the South Omaha and Sherman Avenue line.

The Presbyterian Hospital, located at Twenty-sixth and Marcy streets, was founded eight years ago. The pioneer supporters included a few charitable workers in Omaha and a small institution with less than a dozen beds marked the beginning. The demand for a more elaborate hospital have led to the equipment of the present building, with fifty beds, including private   wards, and completely appointed operating and dressing 1 rooms. A resident physician chosen from the graduates of the Omaha Medical College, with the assistance of a corps of trained nurses, look after the comfort of the patients, and carries out the orders of the regular staff of visiting physicians and surgeons. The hospital is entirely non-sectarian, and its patrons include people of every creed. The needs and care of the hospital are looked after by a board of trustees, which confers with this view from time to time with the medical and surgical staff. No case, except that of contagious diseases, is refused admittance to the hospital. The location of the building is a quiet one. and the rapid development of the institution speaks well for its promoters.

The Douglas County Hospital has a front elevation of 400 feet and comprises a central building and two wings. It is located on tin- County Poor farm at the corner of Fortieth street and Poppleton avenue. It is maintained entirely by the county and is intended only for the poor. There are wards also for the county poor and insane. There is room for about 300 patients, and is usually taxed about one-half of its capacity.

The Clarkson Memorial Hospital, 1716 Dodge street, was founded by a bequest made by Bishop Clarkson, together with donations by hi- friends. It was first intended to he exclusively a childs hospital, hut adults are now admitted when the rooms are not occupied by children. It is under the general supervision of the Episcopal church, but patients of all denominations are admitted, and while it is known as a private hospital, it receives its share of the emergency cases sent by the city.

The Methodist Episcopal Hospital and Deaconess Home is located at 419 South Twentieth street. It has only thirty-five beds and is consequently nearly always taxed to its full capacity. It is under the care of a corps of trained nurses, who are doingactive and earnest work in relieving sickness and distress.

The Emma Flower Mission was founded by Mrs. Hoagdand in memory of her daughter Emma. Flowers are collected from all over the city and are distributed by a committee of ladies among the patients in the hospitals and private houses. "When the supply is over abundant, they are given to the poor of the city.

 

The State Institute for the Deaf and Dumb is situated in the northwestern part of the city. It is supported by direct appropriations by the legislature. Its location is one of the most sightly about the city. Its buildings are of brick, surrounded by a beautiful lawn in the midst of a forest of planted trees. The original structure was erected in 1869, the others have been added from time to time as the necessities required. The object of the institute is to give those children of the state who, by reason of deafness, cannot be educated in the public schools, an education, and the physical and moral development which will make them good and self-supporting citizens. The intellectual work is carried on in two departments, the manual and the auraloral. In the former by means of the manual alphabet, writing, signs and pantomine; the latter by means of writing, speech reading and action work. An art school and manual training school is conducted for the benefit of the students, and many of them attain great proficiency. It is one of the most interesting places to visit about the city, and visitors are always welcome.

There are a number of homes of various kinds about the city: the most important of which is the Nebraska Home for the Aged, at 1422 North Twenty-seventh street, and the St. James Orphanage at Benson. This latter institution, under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy, provides a home and school for about 150 orphans.

TRANSPORTATION.

That Omaha is an important railroad point, is shown by the fact that 5,000 men resident in the city are directly engaged in railroad work. This city has more than twenty distinct lines of road affording direct communication with every city of importance in the United States, especially is this true of the cities and smaller towns of the Trans-Mississippi country. It is this magnificent system of railroads radiating to every point of the compass that gives to Omaha the commercial supremacy which she now enjoys. A glance at the various roads leading out of Omaha from all directions will indicate its importance as a railroad center. Leading to the east we have the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago &   Northwestern, the Chicago. Ruck Island & Pacific, and the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha. Leading- to the north and northwest we have the Sioux City vS: Pacific, the Chicago & Northwestern, and the Fremont. Elkhorn & Missouri Valley. Leading to the west and northwest we have the Burlington & Missouri River the Union Pacific: the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Chicago & Northwestern. Leading to the south and southwest we have the Burlington & Missouri River, the Union Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, the Missouri Pacific. Leading to the southeast we have the Chicago, Burlington St Quiucy, the Wabash, and the Kansas City. St. Joseph & Council Bluffs.

Omaha is situated 200 mile* nearer the Pacific Coast than any other city of importance on the Missouri river, thus insuring better rates and prompter service. The headquarters and chief officials of the Union Pacific and other large trunk lines are located here, while it is the division headquarters of most of the balance. Several of the Large eastern and southern roads are contemplating building into Omaha. That two at Least will do so is an assured fact, while the road* to the west are constantly building feeder* and thus opening up new territory to the wholesale and manufacturing interests of Omaha As the railroads now here have been built in response to the demands of the trade which centers at this city, so will other roads be built, as this trade increases with the growth of the county.

TICKET OFFICES.

Aside from the general ticket offices at the passenger stations, the following roads maintain local office, where tickets are sold over their own lines and all outside connections:

Burlington & Missouri River in Nebraska, N. W. corner 15th and Farnam.

Chicago & Northwestern, S. W. corner 14th and Farnam.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, N. W. corner 15th and Farnam.

Chicago, Book Island & Pacific, S. E. corner 14th and Farnam.

Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, 1504 Farnam.

Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley, S. W. corner 14th and Farnam.

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, N. W. corner 15th and Farnam.

Missouri Pacific, N. E. corner 13th and Farnam.

Omaha & St. Louis. 1415 Farnam.

Omaha. Kansas City & Eastern, 1415 Farnam.

Sioux City & Pacific, S. W. corner 14th and Farnam.

Union Pacific, N. W. corner 13th and Farnam.

Wabash. 1415 Farnam.

 

PASSENGER STATIONS.

Burlington & Missouri River in Nebraska, 10th and Mason.

Chicago & Northwestern, 10th and Mason.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 10th and Mason.

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, 10th and Mason.

Chicago, St. Paul. Minneapolis & Omaha, 15th and Webster.

Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, 10th and Mason.

Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley, 15th and Webster.

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, 10th and Mason.

Missouri Pacific, 15th and Webster, Omaha & St. Louis. 10th and Mason.

Omaha, Kansas City & Eastern, 10th and Mason.

Sioux City & Pacific, 15th and Webster.

Union Pacific. 10th and Mason.

Wabash, 10th and Mason.

The Omaha Belt Line runs suburban trains around, the outskirts of the city, stopping- at the following- stations: The distance is measured by rail from the court house.

Oak Chatham, 3 miles, 22d and Boyd Druid Hill, W% miles, 35th and Sprague.

Lake St., 4Y 2 miles, 44th and Lake.

Walnut Hill, 5 miles, 40th and Nicholas.

West Side Junction, 6 miles. 42nd and Farnam.

West Side, 6 1/2 miles, 48th and Leavenworth.

Lawn, or West Lawn, 8 l / 2 miles, 50th and Center.

Seymour Park, 11 1/2 miles.

Deerfieid, 12% miles, on Belt line & Burlington R. R.

Portal, 15 miles. Belt Line & U. P.

EXPRESS COMPANIES.

The headquarters of the Pacific Express Company are located in Omaha and the prcsiden secretary, general manager and auditor are residents of the city. This company has a capital of $6,000,000 and controls 24.000 miles of road. Their new five story building, erected at a cost of $115,000. stands on the corner of 14th and Harney. They employ 123 men in this city and their monthly pay-roll amounts to over $10,000.

This city is also headquarters for the western division of the Adams Express Co. and headquarters for the Iowa and Nebraska division of the American Express Co. The various express companies have offices as follows:

Adams...1307 Farnam

American...1305 Farnam

Southern...1307 Farnam

Pacific...14th and Harney

United States...14th & Harney

Wells Fargo...114 So. 15th st.

FREIGHT DEPOTS.

Burlington & Missouri River in Nebraska, 8th and Howard.

Chicago & Northwestern, 9th and Jones.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 8th and Howard.

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. 9th and Jones.

Chicago, St. Paul. Minneapolis & Omaha, 14th and Webster.

Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, 9th and Jones.

Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley, 14th and Webster.

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, 8th and Howard.

Missouri Pacific, 15th aud Nicholas.

Omaha & St. Louis, 9th and Jones.

Omaha, Kansas City & Eastern, 9th and Jones.

Sioux City & Pacific, 14th and Webster.

Union Pacific, 9th and Jones.

Wabash, 9th and Jones.

 

New Burlington Depot.

 

VIADUCTS AND BRIDGES.

Three magnificent steel bridges span the Missouri river at Omaha, affording ample facilities for freight and passenger transportation to Council Bluffs and points beyond. The bridge of the Union Pacific Railway Company was completed in 1887 at a cost of over a million dollars. It is 1750 feet in length, 54 feet wide and has 10 spans. The bridge is 140 feet in height, 74 feet being below the level of low water. It will stand a pressure of over four tons to the square foot. It accommodates the greater part of the freight and passenger trains that cross the river at this point.

The same year a new wagon and street railway bridge was built by the Council Bluffs & Omaha Railway and Bridge Co. Its foundation consists of nine huge iron cylinders sunk to bedrock and filled with concrete cement. This bridge with its approaches is nearly a mile in length. 33 feet in width and 54 feet above high water. It accommodates the wagon traffic and street car service between Omaha and Council Bluffs.

A new bridge connecting Council Bluffs with East Omaha was completed in 1893 by the Omaha Bridge & Terminal Railroad Company at a cost of over a million dollars. It was intended as a quick outlet to the east for the manufacturing industries of East Omaha, and to facilitate the interchange of freight by the railroads coming into the city from the north with eastern roads. The bridge is intended for street car service as well as railroads and accommodates wagon traffic and foot passengers. As it is a low bridge, being only 10 feet above high water, and as it was necessary to provide for the passage of steamers on the river, it was built with a draw-span 521 feet in length. This is the longest draw-span in the world.

All the railroads which run through the central part of the city are laid in the ravine which divides the northern and southern portions of the city in the eastern part. To eliminate the danger of railroad crossings and for the better accommodation of wagon and street car traffic, three large viaducts were built within a few blocks of each other. The Tenth street viaduct is probably the widest and most substantial in the country. It consists of a paved roadway on a steel frame 60 feet in width, with a stone walk 10 feet in width on either side This via-  

  duct accommodates several street car lines and is the main hack and carriage drive to the Union depot. It was built under the direction of the Union Depot Company at a cost of $250,000.

The next viaduct is one block west of 11th street.

The 16th street viaduct is one of the main thoroug-hfares of the city and is crossed by the Sherman avenue and South Omaha street car lines.

HOTELS AND BOARDING HOUSES.

Omaha is well supplied with a number of hotels of the first class, with many others which furnish good accommodations at a very moderate cost. The city is well prepared to entertain all visitors, however great the emergency, as the hotel facilities of Council Bluffs and South Omaha can be readily drawn upon, being but a few minutes' ride away. The combined capacity of the hotels of the three cities is sufficient to care for about 50,000 guests. Aside from the hotels there is a vast number of boarding houses and private rooms with restaurants of all grades, so that it is safe to say, that during the exposition at least 100.000 visitors can be easily and comfortably cared for at one time. Other hotels are in contemplation and several large buildings will be remodeled for hotel purposes, so that it is probable that this estimate can be considerably increased. The prices range from 50 cents and $1,00 to $4.00 and $5.00 per day, with the majority at $1.00 and $2.00 per day. The following is an alphabetical list af the principal hotels of the city:

Aetna House (European), 102 No. 13th st. Rates, 25c to $1.00.

Arcade Hotel (American), 1213-19 Douglas. Rates, $2.00.

Arlington Hotel (American). 113 N. 13th st. Rates, $1.00 to $1.50.

Brunswick Hotel (American), 519 S. 16th st. Rates, SI 50 to $2.50.

Cambridge Hotel (European), 202 N. 13th st. Rates, 25c and up.

City Hotel (European), 324 S. 10th st. Rates, $l.00 to $1.50.

Colonade Ho el (American), 1423 Jackson. Rates, $1.50 to $2.50.

Hodge European Hotel (European), 107 S. 13th st. Rates, 50c to $1.00.

Doran House (American), 422 S. l8th st. Rates, $1.00.

Drexel Hotel (American), 620 N. 16th st. Rates, $2.00.

European Hotel (European), 424 S. 10th st. Rates, $1.00.

Goos Hotel (American), 1310 Cass. Rates, sl.00 to $1.50.

Henderson Hotel (American), 1519 Howard. Rates, $1.U) to $1.50.

Henshaw's European Hotel (European), 1509 Farnam. Rates $1.00 to $2.00.

Hotel Barker (American), 619 S. 13th st. Rates, $1.50 to $2.00.

Hotel Dellone (American and European), 14th and Capitol avenue. Rates. $1.00, $2 50 to $4.00.

Hotel Karbach (European), 420 S. 15th st. Rates, 50c to $1.00.

Klondyke Hotel (American and European), 619 N. 16tb st. Rates, 50c to $1.00.

Lange Hotel (American), 604 S. 13th st. Rates, $1.00.

Madison. The (American), 2102 Chicago. Rates, $2.00.

 

Dellone Hotel.

 

Mercer Hotel (American), 12th and Howard. Rates, $2.00 to $3.00.

Merchant's Hotel, (American), 1508-1510 Farnam. Rates, $2.00 to $3.00.

Merriam, The (American), 106 S. 25th st. Rates, $1.50 to $3 00.

Metropolitan Hotel (American), 1124 Douglas. Rates, $1.50.

Midland Hotel (American), 319 N. 16th st. Rates, $1.50 to $2.00.

Millard Hotel (American aud European), 13th and Doug-las. Rates, American, $2.50 to $5.00, European $1.00 and up.

Murray Hotel (American), 314 S. 14th st. Rates, $2.50 to $3.50.

Oxford Hotel (European), 306 S. 11th st. Rates, 50c to $1.50.

Pacific Hotel (American), 609 Pacific. Rates, $1.00.

Paxton Hotel (American), 1401-1415 Farnam. Rates, $2.50 to $5.00.

People's Hotel (American), 22d and Locust, East Omaha. Rates, $1.00.

Rudd Hotel (American), l0l7 N. 16th st. Rates, $1.00.

Schlitz Hotel (European), 316 S. 16th st. Rates, 75c to $2.00.

Shriner Hotei (American), 324 S. 26th st. Rates, $1 .no to $1 50.

State Hotel (European), 1312 Douglas. Rates. 25c and up.

Union Depot Hotel (American), 1021 Mas m. Rates, $1 25 to $1.50.

Utopia, The (American), 1721 Davenport. Rates, $1.25.

Vendome Hotel (American), 414-416 S. 13th st. Rates, $1.25.

Victoria Hotel (American), 1310 Dodge. Rates. $1.00 to $1.50.

Vienna Hotel (European), 1015 Farnam. Rates, 75c to $1.00.

Windsor Hotel (American), 10th and Jackson. Rates, $2.00.

CHURCHES.

The total number of church buildings in Omaha is 107. On account of the multiplicity of congregations the tendency of the architecture is toward buildings that will accommodate small audiences. As compared with older cities the churches here are comparatively new and their architecture is consequently of a more modern style. The design of the congregations has been the comfort of the worshippers and the cultivation of the devotional feeling within rather than to arrive at an Imposing exterior. The prevailing type of architecture is a one-storied church, with the auditorium arranged after the amphi-theater Among the earliest pioneers of Omaha were ministers of the gospel, and their number has gone on increasing with the growtr. of the city until now more than one hundred pulpits are filled with able and infiuental men Nearly all of the leading denominations are well represented here, as the following directory will show:

BAPTIST.

Beth-Eden, 819 S. 29th ave.

Beth-Eden Mission, 502 S. 18th st.

Calvary, 26th and Seward, Rev. Thos. Anderson, pastor.

Calvary Mission, 1715 N. 34th St., Rev. Thos. Anderson, pastor.

First Baptist, 35th and Farnam, Rev. T. L. Kelman, pastor.

Grace, 10th and Arbor, Rev. J. O. Staples, pastor.

Immanuel, 24th and Binney.

Olivet, 38th and Grand ave.

Zion, 2215 Grant, Rev. T. T. Wards, pastor.

German Baptist, 26ti and Seward, Rev. A. Bolter, pastor.

Swedish, 618 N. 18th St., Rev. P. Swartz, pastor.

First Baptist, Danish, 27th and Seward.

Mount Pisgah, 1123 Jackson. Rev. Robt. Jauuary, pastor.

 

Churches of Omaha.

 

CHRISTIAN.

First, 20th and Capitol ave.. Rev. J. M. Vawter, pastor.

Grant Street. 26th and Grant, Rev. u. E. Taylor, pastor.

Walnut Hill, 4420 Nicholas, Rev. Jos. Nicholas, pastor.

CONGREGATIONAL.

Cherry Hill, 5011 N. 42d St., Rev. L. S. Hand, pastor.

First. 19th and Davenport, Rev. F. A. Warfield, pastor.

German, llth and Center, Rev. F. H. W. Bruechert. pastor.

Hillside, 30th and Ohio, Rev. Jacob Flook, pastor.

Park Vale Chapel, 2944 Castellar.

Pilgrim Chapel, 102 N. 41st St., Rev. F. O. Jackson, pastor.

Plymouth. 20th and Spencer, Rev. H. S. Macayeal, pastor.

St. Marys Ave., 27th and St Mary's Ave,, Kev. S. W. Butler, pastor.

Saratoga, 25th and Ames, Rev. L. S. Hand, pastor.

EPISCOPAL.

Episcopal Rooms, Diocese of Neb., 24 Arlington Blk, Rt.Rev.G.Worthington. S. T D., L L. D., bishop; Rev. Canon W.T Whitmarsh, sec.

All Saints. 25th and Half Howard, Rev. T. J. Mackay, rector.

Church of the Good Shepard, 20th and Ohio, Rev. G. S. Walk, rector.

St. Andrew, 4042 Charles, Associate Mission.

St. Augustine, 33d and Francis, Associate Mission.

St. Barnabas, 519 N. 19th, Rev. John Williams, rector.

St. John. 1T06 N. 26th st.

St. Mathias. 1423 S. 10th. Rev. L. F. Potter, priest in charge.

St. Paul, 3211 California, Associate Mission.

St. Philips (Colored), 1125 N. 21st st.

Trinity Cathedral, 18th and Capitol ave., Very Rev. Campbell Fair, D. D., dean.

EVANGELICAL.

Emanuel, 2602 Marcy, Rev. G. J. Streicher, pastor.

Free, 12th and Dorcas, Rev. F. H. W. Bruechert, pastor.

Swedish Mission, 2222 Davenport, Rev. F. O. Hultman, pastor.

Zion, German, 2622 Sprague, Rev. Ernest Mehl, pastor.

JEWISH.

Congregation B'nai Israel, 1526 S. 13th st., Rev. Abraham Bransom, rabbi.

Congregation B'nai Israel, 1730 S. 13th St., Rev. Harry Grodzinsky, rabbi.

Temple Israel, 2332 Harney, Rev, Leo. M. b'ranklin, rabbi.

Russian Israelite Synagogue. 1212 Capitol ave., Rev. M. A. Zimman, rabbi.

LUTHERAN.

Grace, 1320 S. 26th, Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, pastor.

Kountze Memorial, 16th and Harney, Rev. A. J. Turkle, pastor.

St. Marks, 21s1 and Burdette, Rev. L. Groh, pastor.

St. Matthew's Mission, 14th and Center, Kev. A. J. Turkle, pastor.

First German, 1005 S. 20th St., Rev. E J. Frese. pastor.

St. Pauls. German, 28th and Parker, Rev. J. D. S. Her, pastor.

Deaconess, 34th and Meredith ave., Rev. E. A. Foglestrom, pastor.

Emmanuel, Swedish, 19th and Cass, Rev. P. J. Sward. D. D., pastor.

Emmanuel Church Mission, Swedish, 36th and Charles, Rev. P. J. Sward, D. D., pastor.

Salem, Swedish, 321 I S. 23d St., Rev. C. E. Living, pastor.

Norwegian and Danish, 1316 N. 86th st., Rev. J. N. Anderson, pastor.

Danish, 819 S. 22d, Rev. I.e. Paulsen, pastor.

Pella, Danish, 2215 N. 86th St., Rev. C. B. Christiansen, pastor.

 

Churches of Omaha.

 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL.

Bishop W. Nindi, D. D., L. L. D., presiding bishop.

Rev. John B. Maxfleld, D. D., presiding elder, Omaha district.

First Church, 20th and Davenport, Rev. John McQuoid, D.D., pastor.

Hanscom Park, 29th and Woolworth ave., Rev. F. M. Sisson, pastor.

Monmouth Park, 34th and Larimore, Rev. Frank Bross, pastor.

Seward Street, 22d and Seward, Rev. J. W. Robinson, D. D., pastor.

Southwest, 52d and Hickory, Rev. R. M. Henderson, pastor.

South Tenth St., 10th and Pierce, Rev. Geo. A. Luce, pastor.

Trinity, 21st and LSinney, Rev. F. H. Sanderson, D. D., pastor.

Walnut Hill, 41st and Charles, Rev. C. N. Dawson, pastor.

West Omaha, 37th and Marcy, Rev. Jas. Haynes, pastor.

German, 11th and Center, Rev. O. Kriege, pastor.

Swedish, 18th and Cass, Rev. C. O. Karlson, pastor.

Danish and Norwegian, Rev. Rasmus Wilhelmensen, pastor.

African. 18th and Webster, Rev. S. C. C. Owens, pastor,

PRSEBYTERIAN. [sic.]

Ambler Place, 42d and Marinda.

Bedford Place, 3028 Lalk, Rev. Knox Boude, pastor.

Castellar St., 16th and Castellar, Rev. J. M. Wilson, pastor.

Clifton Hill, 4338 Grant, Rev. J. D. Kerr, pastor.

First, 17th and Dodge. Grace Mission, 507 William.

Knox, 19th and Ohio.

Lowe Ave., 40th and Nicholas, Rev. T. S. Hawiey, pastor.

Ontario St., 1820 Ontario. Second, 24th and Nicholas, Rev. S. M. Ware, pastor.

Southwest, 20th and Leavenworth. Westminster, 29th and Mason.

Bohemian, 1256 S. 15th st.

First, German, 813 N. 18th, Rev. Daniel Grieder, pastor.

ROMAN CATHOLIC.

St. Philomena's Cathedral, 412 S. 9th st., Very Rev. W. Kelly, Rev. H. J. McDevitt, D. D., rector.

St. Cecilia, 42d and Hamilton, Rev. J. J. O'Callaghan.

Church of tbe Imm. Cone. B. V. M., 24th and Bancroft, Rev. Theobald Kalamaja, O. S. F.

Holy Family Church, 1718 Izard, Rev. John Fitzpatrick.

Sacred Heart. 2212 Binney, Rev. P. J. Judge, Rev. J. McNamara.

St. John's, 25th and California, Rev. J. H. Meuffels, S. J., Rev. H. Peters, S. J., Rev. M. M. Bronsgeest, S. J.

St. Joseph, 16th and Center, Rev. M. Bankholt, O. S. F., Rev. A. Roeckel, S. F.

St. Mary Magdalene, 1618 Douglas, Rev. G. J. Glauber.

St. Patrick, 1404 Castellar, Rev. J. T. Smith.

St. Peter, 28th and Leavenworth, Rev. J. E. English, Rev. W. McNamara.

St. Wenceslaus, 1430 S. 13th St., Rev. J. Vranek.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN.

Central, 24th and Dodge, Rev. Alexander Gilchrist, pastor.

First United Presbyterian, 21st and Emmett streets.

Park Ave., 29th and Jackson, Rev. Edgar McDill, pastor.

MISCELLANEOUS.

American Volunteers, 114 S. 13th st.

Fral Swings Armen, 803 N. 20th st.

Free Methodist, 1739 S. 11th st., Rev, W. M. Adams, pastor

First Church of Christ, Scientist, 2653 St. Mary's ave., Al Freddie DeLong, reader.

First Universalist, 19th and Lathrop.

People's, 612 N. 18th st., Rev. C. W. Savidge, pastor.

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints, 1818 N.

21st, Rev. F. A. Smith, pastor. St. Mary's, Greek, 9th and Howard, Rev. Elias Abond, pastor.

Salvation Army, 1421 N. T4th st.

Seventh Day Adventists,979 N.25th street.

Unitarian Unity, 17th and Cass, Rev Newton M. Mann, minister.

 

New York Life Building.

 

CEMETERIES.

Ample ground, desirably located, has been devoted to the various cemeteries about Omaha. The following comprise the list:

Forest Lawn—North of Fort Omaha; office 222 South 17th street.

Prospect Hill—Parker street.

Holy Sepulchre—Leavenworth and 48th streets.

The Bohemian—54th and Center streets.

German Catholic—24th street, south of city.

Mount Hope—Military avenue.

Pleasant Hill - 42d and Redick.

Russian Israelite—5109 North 24th street.

Springwell Danish—Redman avenue, west of city.

BLOCKS AND BUILDINGS.

The necessity of being in the business center for the proper transaction of business and the extremely high prices of real estate in that favored quarter are responsible for the "office building. " Under the old common law principle that real estate proprietorship extended downward in a gradually diminishing area until it reached a point at the center of the earth and upward in a gradually increasing area into illimitable space, possession is being taken by some of the modern builders. The foundation is begun many feet below the surface and is built up literally house upon house until the owner thinks he has solved the problem of how to make land worth $150,000 pay interest, running expenses and also leave a profit.

To illustrate the immensity of one of these structures we take the Bee building as a model. While not the tallest the Bee building is probably the largest office building in Omaha, and at the time of its erection in 1889 was the largest newspaper building in the world It was built at a total cost of $500,000, including machinery and electric light plant. L,ike many modern office buildings, it is built in the form of a hollow square surrounding a central court. The court starts from the ground floor at the street level and rises to the height of 120 feet. It is  

  covered at the top with a clear ground glass skylight, supported by graceful wrought iron trusses. The roof weighs 375 tons, and paved as it is with vitrified brick embedded in Portland cement, would make a safe driveway for a score of loaded drays.

The building has a ground dimension of 17.424 square feet. There are 465 windows in the outside walls of the building. In the east and south front there are 140,000 pressed brick and about 1,000,000 of other kinds in the building and 18,000 feet of tiling. There are 850 tons of structural iron, 24 tons of sash weights, 148 tons of tiling and 1005 tons of granite used in the construction, while 65,000 vitrified brick were required to cover the roof and 150 barrels of Portland cement were required to lay them in. About 15 miles of pipe are laid in the structure, required b3^ the drainage system. There are 187 offices and rooms in the building, the largest of which is 89x44 feet and the smallest 8x15. About 500 people are regularly engaged in their various avocations in this one quarter of a block and are visited by thousands of people daily. Owing to hydraulic elevator service the top floors are as valuable for rental purposes as the lower. The following is a list of the principal blocks and buildings of the city:

Arlington block. 1511 Dodge st.

Barker block, 306 So, 15th St.

Bee building. 1706 Farnara st.

Benson block, 321 So. 15th st.

Board of Trade building, 1601 Farnam st.

Boston Store block, N. W. corner 16th and Douglas st.

Boyd's Theatre building, 1619 Harney st.

Bressler block, N. E. corner 17th and Douglas st.

Brown J. J. block, 203 S 16th st.

Bushman block, N. E. corner 16th and Douglas st.

Callahan block, 313 N. 15th st.

Chamber of Commerce, 1601 Farnam st.

City Hall, N. E. corner 18th and Farnam st.

Coliseum, 20th st., near Spencer.

Commercial National Bank building, 1602 Farnam st.

Continental block, 1424 Douglas st.

County Court House, S. W. corner 17th. and Farnam st.

Creighton block, 114 So. 15th st.

Crounse block, 119 N. 16th st.

Custom House, S. W. corner 15th and Dodge st.

Custom House (new), N. W. corner 16th and Dodge st.

Davidge building, 1802 Farnam st.

Douglas block, 105 S 16th st.

First National Bank building, 1221 Farnam st.

Freuzer block, S. E. corner 15th and Dodge st.

Granite block, 315 S. 15th St.

Hill block. 212 So. 15th st.

Karbaeh block. 209 S. 15th st.

McCague building, N. W. corner 15th and Dodge st.

Merchants National Bank building, 1222 Farnam st.

Nebraska National Bank building, 1202 Farnam st.

New York Life building, 1616 Farnam St.

Omaha National Bank building, 210 So. 13th st.

Patterson buildine - . 1623 Farnam st.

Paxton block, 210 So. 16th st.

Postoffice. S. W. corner 15th and Dodge st.

Ramge building, 405 So. 15th st.

Sheeley building, 419 So 15th st.

U. S. National Bank building, 1201 Farnam st.

Ware block, S. E. corner 15th and Farnam st.

Withnell block, 321 So. 15th st.

Y. M. C. A. building, S. W. corner 16th and Douglas st.

 

PUBLIC HALLS.

The city is well provided with the necessary halls to meet the requirements of the various Lodges and societies, political and social organizations and various other uses for which these places are required.

The Coliseum, built on the occasion of Patti's singing in Omaha, is the largest and will accommodate from 10,000 to 12,000 people. It was here that the People's party convention was held in 1892. It has been used since for state conventions, political speaking and for the notable balls of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. The following is a list of the principal public halls of the city:

A. O. U. W. ball. 1623 Farnam.

Ak-Sar-Ben Castle 2226, No. 20th

Armory, 171 1 Capitol ave.

Central hall, 107 So. 14th st.

Coliseum, 2226 No. 20th st.

Cosmopolitan ball, l925 So. 18th st

Creighton hall, 1511 Harney.

Ertling hall, 2614 Sherman ave.

Forest hall, 1221 So. 6th st.

Forester's hall, 1612 Douglas.

Fuller's hall, 1402 Douglas.

Germania hall, 1814 Harney.

Goodrich hall. 24th and Paul.

Grand Army ball, ll8 1/2 No. 15th.

Hartman's hall, 106 So. 14th st.

I. O. O. F. hall, 1402 Dodge.

Knights of Labor hall. 112 So. 14th.

Knights of Pythias hail, 1121 No. 24th st.

Knights of the Golden Eagle hall, 1405 Dodge.

Labor Temple, 17th and Douglas.

Masonic hall, 1608 Capitol ave.

Marathan hall, Cuming and 25th ave

Myrtle hall, Continental Blook.

Natatorium hall, 1313 1/2 Howard

Odd Fellows hall, 102 No. 14th st.

Odd Fellows Temple, 110 No. 14th,

Omaha Guards Armory; 1816 Harney st.

Order of the World hall, 1623 Farnam.

Orpheus hall, 1313 Howard.

Pythian hall, 1516 Farnain.

Red Men's hall, 1623 Farnam.

Royal Arcanum hall, 1314 Douglas.

Salvation Army Barracks, 1709 Davenport.

Sander's hall, 2402-4 Cuming.

Schroeder's hall, 8401 Cuming.

South side Turner hall. 1708 Vinton.

Thurston Rifles Armory, 17th and Douglas.

Turner hall. 1818 Harney.

Washington hall. 408 so. 18th.

STREET RAILWAYS.

The street railway system at Omaha thoroughly meets the requirements of the public. The more thickly settled portions have been well covered for years and extensions are made from time to time to keep pace with the growth of the city. The last horse and cable line gave place a couple of years ago to the electric car and the whole system is now operated entirely by electricity. All lines, with the exception of a few suburban branches, are controlled by the Omaha Street Railway Co., which is officered as follows:

Frank Murphy, president; Guy C. Barton, vice president; W. W. Marsh, treasurer; D. H. Goodrich, secretary; W. A. Smith, general manager; F. A Tucker, general superintendent;

This company has a capital stock of $5,000,000. The general offices are at the corner of 20th and Harney streets. The entire   system, including- suburban and the Council Bluffs lines, has a track mileage of 126 1/2 miles. The total number of cars is 445. and bet-ween 500 and 600 men are constantly employed. The fare in all cases is 5 cents, with the exception of the Council Bluffs line, to which 5 cents is added for bridge toll. The system of transfers is thorough, making it possible to go from most points in the city to any other for one fare. This is the case in all connections in going to and from the public parks and railway stations. The following is a list of the routes and transfers of the various lines in the city:

Dodge and North 20th Street Line.

Route: From Lake south on 20th to Dodge, east on I lodge to 10th, south on 10th to Pacific. Transfers at 10th and Pierce to Harney line going east. At 13th street going east to 13th line going souih. At 13th street going west to Walnut Hill line going north or south. At 14th street going west to Sherman Avenue and South Omaha line going north or south. At 16th street going west to Park and 24th street line going north or south. At 20th and Dodge going south to Harney line south or west. At 20th and Dodge going north to Harney line west. At 20th and Cuming to Walnut Hill line west. At 20th and Cuming going north to Park and 24th street line west. At 20th and Lake streets to Lake street line going west.

Hanscom Park and North 24th Street Line.

Route: From Sprague south on 24th to Cuming, east on Cuming to 16th, south on 16th to Leavenworth, west on Leavenworth to 29th Ave, south on 29th Ave. to Hickory, east on Hickory to 29th, south on 29th to Dupont, west branch from 29th Ave. west on Pacific to 32nd. south on 32nd to Center. Transfers at 24th and Cuming going south to Walnut Hill line going east or west, at 24th and Cuming going north to Walnut Hill line going west, at 20th and Cuming going east to Dodge street line going south. At 16th and Dodf*e to Dodge line going east. At 16th and Farnam to Farnam line going west. At Leavenworth and Park Avenue to Leavenworth line going west. At Pacific street going west or south. At 16th and Harney streets going north to Harney line going east or west. At 24th and Lake streets going west on Lake street. At 24th and Ames Avenue on Ames Avenue going west. At 16th and Leavenworth going north to South Omaha and Sherman Avenue line going north or south.

The Sherman Avenue and South Omaha Line.

Route: From 36th east on Ames to Commercial, southeast on Commercial to Sherman Avenue, south on Sherman Avenue to Clark, west on Clark to 17th. south on 17th to Cass, east on Cass to 14th. south on 14th to Howard, west on Howard to 16th, south on 16th to Vinton, west on Vinton to 24th, south on 24th to South Omaha. Transfers at 24th and Ames Avenue east to i'ark and 24th street line going south. At Locust street to East Omaha line. At Dodge and 14th street to Dodge street line going east. At 14th and Harney streets to Harney line going east. At 24th and N streets to L street line going south. At 24th and N streets to Albright line going south. At 16th and Leavenworth to Park Avenue and 24th street line going west.

The Farnam and 41st Street Line.

Route: From William north on 10th to Farnam, west on Farnam to 41st. Transfers at 16th street going east to Park Avenue and 24th street line going north or south. At 20th street going east to Harney line going north. At loth and Pierce to Harney line going north or east. Also to Dodge street line going north. At 13th street going east to Walnut Hill and south 13th streei line going south.

 

Hartley and West Dodge Street Line.

Route: From California south on 25th to Dodge, fast on Dodge to 20th, south on 2Uth to Harney, easl on Harney to 10th, Bout h on 10th to Pacific, east on Pacific to 6th. Transfers at 14th 6tree1 going west to Sherman Avenue on South Omaha line going north or south. At 20th and Dodge poing west to Dodge street line going north. At 10th and Pierce to Farnam street line going north or south. At 20th and Dodge going east to Dodgestreet line going east or north. At 20th and Farnam streets going south to Durnam street line going west. At 16th to Park Avenue and 24th street line going south. At 10th and Pierce going aorth to Dodge street line going north.

Walnut Hill and South l.Uh Street Line.

Route: From 45th southeast on Military Avenue to Hamilton, east on Hamilton to 40th, south on Win to Cuming, east on Cuming to 16th, south on 16th to Webster, east on Webster to 13th to B. Transfers al 84th and Cuming going east to Park and 24th st reet line going aorth and east. At 18th and Dodge going south to Dodge street line going east At 13th and Farnam going north to Farnam street line going west. At 80th and Cuming going east to Dodge street line aorth and south. At 13th and Dodge going aorth to Dodge street Line going west. At 45th street to Benson line. At 84th and Cuming going west to Park and 34th street line going north.

Lake street Line.

Route: From 80th west on Lake i>> 30th street, aorth on 30th to Bristol. Transfers al 84th and Lake Hanscom Park line north or south. At 80th and Lake to Dodge street line going south.

Leavenworth Street Line.

Route: From 29th Avenue west on Leavenworth to 18th, and extends from 48th west and Boutfa to the State Fair Grounds. This extension is in use only when there is some attraction at the Fair Grounds. Transfers at 89th Avenue to Hanscom Park line, east or smith.

Benson Line.

Route: From 45th northwest and west on Military Avenue to Benson. Transfers to Walnut Hill line at 15th and Military Avenue.

Omaha and Council Bluffs Line.

Route: From Bridge west on Douglas to 14th, south on 14th to Howard, east on Howard to 12th, north on 12th to Douglas, east on Douglas to Council Bluffs.

Dundee Line.

Route: From Farnam north on list Btreet to Dodge, east on Dodge to 40th, north on 19th to California, wesi on California to 51st Transfers to Farnam street line at list and Farnam.

East Omaha Line.

Route: From Sherman Avenue easl on Loousl to 29th street, Bast Omaha. Oourtland Beach branch extends north from Locust on 13th street, Ea>i Omaha, to Courtiand Beach. Transfers to Sheraan Avenue line at Locust and Sherman Avenue.

STREET AND AVENUE DIRECTORY.

The numbered streets and avenues run generally north and south and are numbered consecutively west from the river. The named streets run generally east and west. The lots are numbered on the cental system, each block beginning with another hundred  

  except when a numbered avenue runs between numbered streets, then the numbers continue consecutively from street to street.

DODGE STREET IS THE DIVIDING LINE for all numbered streets which cross it and on which the numbers run doth north and south.

A st.....27-I

Albert st.....28-M

Ames ave.....7-G

Arbor st.....25-N

Arthur st.....28-N

Atlas.....27-L

B st.....27-L

Bancroft st.....25-N

Bauman ave.....2-C

Binney st.....11-K

Blaine st.....28-N

Blake st..... 26-Q

Blondo st.....13-G

Boulevard ave.....10-G

Boulevaid st..... 26-N

Boyd st.....7-H

Briggs st.....22-N

Bristol st.....10-I

Browne st.....6-K

Burdette st.....13-G

Burt st.....16-L

Caldwell st.....15-J

California st.....16-L

Camden ave .....5-D

Cameron st.....10-I

Capitol ave.....17-L

Cass st.....17-L

Cassius st.....11-I

Castellar st.....24-L

Cedar st.....23-P

Center st.....23-L

Charles st.....14-G

Chicago st.....17-L

Clark st.....13-K

Clinton st.....28-D

Commercial st.....17-L

Corby st.....11-G

Crown Point ave.....3-E

Cuming st.....16-L

Curlew Lane.....57-K

Curtis ave.....3-F

D st.....28-P

Davenport st.....17-L

Decatur st.....13-G

Dodge st.....18-L

Dorcas st.....23-L

Douglas st.....18-L

Dupont st.....24-I

E st.....28-N

Elm st.....25-H

Emmett st.....10-G

Erskine st.....12-G

Farnam st.....18-L

Fifteenth ave.....12-M

First ave.....26-P

Florence ave.....10-J

Fort st.....5-I

Fort Omaha ave.....4-E

Fortieth ave.....17-E

Forty-first ave.....17-E

Forty-third ave.....l6-D

Forty-fourth ave.....16-C

Forty-fifth ave.....17-C

Forty-sixth ave.....22-C

Forty-seventh ave.....16-B

Fowler ave.....6-G

Frances st.....23-G

Franklin st.....14-G

Garfield st.....28-M

Gold St....25-G

Grace st.....13-K

Grand ave.....6-K

Grant st.....12-G

Grover st.....27-B

Gust st.....4-N

Half Cass st.....17-H

Half Howard st... .....19-G

Hamilton st 15-I

Harney st.....16-L

Hawthorne ave.....15-G

Hickory st.....22-I

Himebaugh ave.....4-E

Howard st.....19-M

Hugo st.....28-N

Ida st.....1-D

Indiana st......15-I

Izard st.....15-L

Jackson st.....19-M

Jaynaes st.....20-M

Jones st.....20-M

Kansas ave.....3-E

Lafayette ave.....15-F

Laird st.....8-K

Lake st.....12-G

Lalk st.....9-G

Landon Court.....19-K

Larimore ave.....6-G

Lathrop st.....10-K

Leavenworth st.....20-M

Lincoln boulevard.....16-F

Lincoln st.....28-M

Lindsey ave.....13-H

Locust st.....11-K

Madison ave.....12-M

Manderson st.....9-G

Maple ave.....10-J

Maple st.....ll-G

Marinda st.....24-A

Marcy st.....20-M

Martha st.....24-L

Mary st.....l-D

Mason st.....20-M

Mayberry st.....20-B

Meredith ave.....7-G

Miami st.....ll-G

Military ave.....14-D

Myrtle ave.....15-G

Nebraska ave.....3-E

 

Newport ave.....2-D

Newton st.....10-1

North Sixth st.....18-0

North Seventh st.....17-0

North Eighth st.....15-0

North Ninth st.....15-N

North Tenth st.....18-N

North Eleventh st.....18-N

North Twelfth st.....18-N

North Thirteenth st.....18-M

North Fourteenth st.....18-M

North Fifteenth st.....18-M

North Sixteenth st.....18-L

North Seventeenth st.....18-L

North Eighteenith st.....18 L

North Nineteenth ave.....12-L

North Nineteenth st.....18-L

North Twentieth st.....18-K

North Twenty-first st.....17-K

North Twenty-second st.....17-K

North Twenty-third st.....17-K

North Twenty-fourth st.....15-J

North Twenty-fifth st.....18-J

North Twenty-sixth st.....17- J

North Twenty-sixth ave.....16-1

North Twenty-seventh ave.....18-1

North Twenty-eighth st.....14-1

North Twenty-ninth st.....15-1

North Thirtieth st.....18-H

North Thirty-first st.....14-K

North Thirty-second st.....14-H

North Thirty-third st.....14-G

Nortj Thirty-fourth st.....14-G

North Thirty-fourth ave.....9-G

North Thirty-fifth st.....14-G

North Thirty-sixth st.....14-G

North Thirty-eishth st.....17-F

North Thirty-eighth ave.....12-F

North Thirty-ninth st.....15-R

North Thirty-ninth ave.....15-E

North Forty-second st.....10-D

North Forty Third st.....17-D

North Forty-fourth st.....17-D

North Forty-sixth st.....16-C

North Forty-seventh st.....17-B

North Forty-eighth st.....16-B

North Forty-ninth st.....18-E

North Fifty-first st.....17-A

North Fifty-second st.....2-A

North Fifty-third st.....18-A

North Fifty-third ave.....2-A

North Fifty-fourth st.....17-A

Oak st.....25-M

Ogden st.....20-M

Ohio st.....12-G

Old Thirteenth st.....27-N

Olin ave.....26-M

Ontario ave.....27-L

Pacific st.....21-M

Pagest.....16-E

Parker st.....13-G

Park Wilde ave.....22-0

Patrick ave.....13-G

Paul st.....15-L

Phelps st.....88-M

Pierce st.....21-M

Pinest.....22-0

Pinkney st.....10-G

Poppleton ave.....21-H

Pratt st.....9-G

Redick ave.....2-F

Kees st.....21-J

Kuggles st.....8-H

St Mary's ave.....20-J

Sahler st.....8-H

Saratoga st.....10-M

Saratoga ave.....6-K

Seward st.....14-G

Sherman ave.....13-L

Sherwood ave.....12-M

Shirley st.....23-1

Sixteenth ave.....12-L

So. First st.....26-P

So. Second st.....22-P

So. Third st.....22-P

So. Fourth st.....22-P

So. Fifth st.....22-0

So. Sixth st.....20-0

So. Seventh st.....20-0

So. Eighth st.....20-0

So.Ninth st.....21-N

So. Tenth st.....21-N

So. Eleventh st.....21-N

So. Twelfth st.....21-N

So. Thirteenth st.....21-M

So. Fourteenth st.....21-M

So. Fifteenth st.....21-M

So. Sixteenth st.....21-M

So. Seventeenth st.....20-L

So. Seventeenth ave.....20-L

So. Eighteenth st.....22-L

So. Nineteenth st.....21-L

So. Nineteenth ave.....23-L

So. Twentieth st.....22-K

So. Twenty-first st.....21-K

So. Twenty-second st.....21-K

So. Twenty-third st.....4-K

So. Twemy-fourth st.....19- J

So. Twenty-fifth st.....25-J

So. Twenty -sixth st.....19-J

So. Twenty-eighth st.....20-I

So. Twenty-ninth st.....20-I

So. Thirtieth st.....20-H

So. Thirty-first st.....19-H

So. Thirty-first ave.....18-H

So. Thirty-third st.....20-G

So. Thirty-fourth st.....21-G

So. Thirty-fifth st.....2-0G [sic.]

So. Thirty-sixth st.....19-F

So. Thirty -seventh st.....20-F

So. Thirty-eighth st.....20-F

So. Thirty-ninth st.....20-B

So. Fortieth st.....20-E

So. Forty-first st.....20-D

So. Forty-second st.....20-D

So. Forty-third st.....20-D

So. Forty-fourth st.....19-D

So. Forty-fifth st.....21-D

So. Forty-sixth st.....18-C

So. Forty-eighth st.....18-B

So. Forty-ninth st.....22-B

So. Fifty-first st.....21-B

So. Fifty-second st.....21-A

So. Fifty-third st.....21-A

 

So. Fifty-third ave.....21-A

So. Fifty-fourth st.....20-A

Spaulding st.....8-G

Spencer st.....10-K

Sprague st.....8-H

Spring st.....26-N

Spruce st.....12-K

Sycamore st.....11-D

Taylor st.....7-H

Twenty-first ave.....19-K

Twenty-fourth ave.....19-J

Twenty-fifth ave.....19-J

Twenty-sixth ave.....80-I

Twenty-seventh ave.....21-I

Twenty-eigth ave.....18-I

Twenty-ninth ave.....20-I

Thirtieth ave 21-H

Thirty-first ave.....21-H

Thirty-seeond ave.....21-H

Thirty-fifth ave.....20-G

Thirty-sixth ave.....17-F

Thirty-eighth ave.....80-E

Valley St.....27-M

Van Camp ave.....88-L

Vane st.....l-M

Vernon ave.....2-E

Vinton st.....25-M

Wakeley st.....17-D

Walnut st.....25-I

Webster st.....16-L

Webster ave.....4-M

Whitmore st.....1-M

William st.....22-M

Wirt st.....10-K

Woolworth ave.....22-H

Worthington st.....22-N

Wright st.....25-F

Yates st.....13-H

STREET DIRECTORY

NORTH FROM DODGE

l Dodge

2 Capitol Ave

3 Davenport

4 Chicago

5 Cass

6 California

7 Webster

8 Burt

9 Cuming

NORTH OF CUMING ON 24th.

10 Izard

11 Michigan Ave

12 Nicholas

13 Indiana Ave

14 Caldwell

15 Paul

16 Hamilton

17 Charles

18 Seward

19 Franklin

20 Clark

21 Decatur

22 Parker

23 Grace

24 Blondo

25 Patrick Ave

26 Burdette

27 Grant

28 Brskine

29 Lake

30 Ohio

31 Miami

32 Corby

33 Maple

34 Kendall

35 Locust

36 Binney

37 Wirt

38 Spencer

39 Kountze

40 Emmett

41 Lathrop

42 Bristol

43 Pinekney

44 Lalk

45 Pratt

46 Manderson

47 Spaulding

48 Laird

49 Sprague

50 Sahler

5l Boyd

52 Taylor

53 Ames Ave

54 Meredith

55 Fowler

56 Larimore

57 Grand

58 Saratoga

59 Brown

60 Camden

61 Fort

62 Brighton

63 Western

64 Himebaugh

65 Ft. Omaha

66 Crown Point

67 Kansas

68 Nebraska

69 Curtis

70 Vernon

71 Redick

72 Bauman

73 Newport

74 May

75 Ida

76 Whitmore

77 Vine

78 Reed

SOUTH FROM DODGE.

1 Dodge

2 Douglas

3 Farnam

4 Harney

5 Howard

6 Jackson

7 Jones

8 Leavenworth

9 Marcy

10 Mason

11 Pacific

12 Pierce

13 Poppleton Ave

14 William

15 Woolworth Ave

16 Hickory

17 Center

18 Doreas

19 Martha

20 Castellar

21 Vinton

SOUTH OF VINTON ON 24TH.

22 Bancroft

23 Blaine

24 Valley

25 A So. Omaha

26 B So. Omaha

27 C So. Omaha

28 D So. Omaha

29 E, etc., in alphabetical order.

 

DISTANCES FROM OMAHA TO

MILES

Ann Harbor, Mich.....742

Atchison, Kan.....158

Atlanta, Ga.....1024

Augusta, Ga.....1195

Austin, Texas.....931

Baltimore, Md.....1292

Beatrice, Neb.....95

Bismarck, N. D.....620

Boise City, Idaho.....1354

Boston, Mass.....1525

Buffalo, N.Y.....1026

Burlington, Ia.....296

Bute, Moit.....1128

Cedar Rapids, Ia.....273

Charleston, S. C.....1329

Cheyenne, Wyo.....519

Chicago, 111.....491

Cincinnati, O.....757

Cleveland, O.....848

Colorado Springs, Col.....578

Council Bluffs, Ia.....3

Creston, Ia.....106

Dallas, Texas.....675

Davenport, Ia.....319

Deadwood, S. D.....591

Denver, Col.....538

Des Moines, Ia.....145

Detroit, Mich.....775

Dubuque, Ia.....352

Emporia, Kas.....238

Fort Wayne, Ind.....639

Fort Worth, Texas.....675

Fremont, Neb.....38

Galveston, Texas.....1110

Grand Island, Neb.....153

Grand Rapids, Mich.....672

Hannibal, Mo.....339

Hastings, Neb.....154

Helena, Mont.....1131

Hot Springs, Ark.....791

Indianapolis, Ind.....602

Iowa City, la.....265

Jacksonville, Fla.....1371

Kansas City, Mo.....205

Kearney, Neb.....196

Laramie, Wyo.....573

Lawrence, Kas.....238

MILES

Leavenworth, Kan.....178

Lincoln, Neb.....55

Little Rock, Ark.....723

Los Angeles, Cal.....2012

Louisville, Ky.....689

Macon, Ga.....1215

Memphis, Tenn.....689

Milwaukee, Wis.....577

Minneapolis, Minn.....382

Mobile, Ala.....1055

Montreal, Canada.....1327

Muscatine, Ia.....308

Nashville, Tenn.....735

Nebraska City, Neb.....48

New Orleans, La.....1083

New York City, N. Y.....1403

Niagara Falls, N. Y.....1001

Ogden, Utah.....1031

Oskaloosa, Ia.....204

Ottumwa, Ia.....221

Peoria, Ill.....391

Philadelphia, Pa.....1313

Pittsburg, Pa.....959

Plattsmouth, Neb.....21

Portland, Me.....1569

Portland, Ore.....1884

Racine, Wis.....553

Rock Island, Ill.....321

Sacramento, Cal.....1774

St. Joseph, Mo.....132

St. Louis, Mo.....415

St. Paul, Minn.....372

Salt Lake City, Utah.....1068

San Francisco, Cal.....1864

Santa Fe, N. M.....945

Sayannah, Ga.....1318

Seattle, Wash.....1954

Sioux City, Ia.....98

South Omaha, Neb.....4

Spokane, Wash.....1513

Springfield, Ill.....742

Tacoma, Wash.....1913

Terre Haute, Ind.....577

Topeka, Kan.....222

Tuscon, Arizona.....1465

Waco, Texas.....828

Washington, D. C.....1311

 

Megeath Stationary Co. Trans-Mississippi & International Exposition Guide Map of Omaha Sep 1st 1897 Alva J. Grover Ciil Engineer