In the ordinary map of the United States, where the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania occupies a space equal in area to a school-girl's palm, there may be traced, set in the western end of this area, a great irregularly formed letter Y. Its stem wriggles off through the western boundary of the State, and its divergent arms can be traced until they pierce New York State on the north, and Maryland and Virginia on the south. And right in the crotch of this big Y, lodged like a tantalizing apple in the main forks of a huge tree, most maps will show a small round black spot labelled "Pittsburgh." The more uncompromisingly black this speck is shown, the more fittingly does it represent this remarkable city of the Keystone State. And as the brilliant disk cast by the burning-glass represents the gathered potency of countless rays, so does this little inky disk indicate the concentrated energy of a commonwealth.

Into the city of Smoke pours the oil of the producing counties of McKean, Butler, Venango, Clarion, and Warren in the north and northeast; the lumber of Forest, Jefferson, Armstrong, Potter, and McKean counties on the east; the coke of Westmoreland, Fayette and Allegheny counties on the southeast; while from all quarters of the compass comes by rail and river to Pittsburgh her matchless bituminous coal; or, departing over these highways, she sends it to the uttermost corners of the South and Northwest. At the foot of the two great valleys of the Allegheny and Monongahela, and at the head

of the greater vale of the Ohio, Pittsburgh gathers the crude wealth of the first two to her murky bosom, while through the greater gateway she sends the finished work of her coal-fed factories. And to feel the regenerative tough of her magnificent fuel, there come the silver-bearing ores of Michigan, Lake Superior, and nearer points, and the sand and alkalies of distant States, to go forth as silver, copper, iron, and glass.