for the manufacture of thread, machinery, steam pumps, blank books, silk goods, woolen's, alpacas, blankets, bits and braces, wire, screws, hydrants, boilers, trolley tracks, bicycles, rubber packing, washers and valves, wire cloth, belting and many other articles, - the payrolls for all of which concerns aggregate $449,607 per month, or $5,395,280 distributed to the people each year. The city has been fortunate not only in the nature of its industries, but still more in the quality of the men who have built them up. The growth has not been wholly in the multiplication of corporations, but largely in the able management which has made small plants grow like trees, upward and outward, branch to branch, story upon story, vastly increasing the product while greatly improving it, winning world-wide fame, while competition is sharpened by all the invention and astuteness of the nineteenth century. Failures have been few and inconsiderable; through the vicissitudes of tariffs and hard times no mills have been closed except for a few days, indicating not only strength, but humanity, proving that the soullessness of corporations exists only where the managers are soulless. These grand achievements were made chiefly by young men. Very few of the city's builders have yet retired from their life work; most of them are still successfully conducting the corporations which they have founded, and there is no retired class of wealthy, idle men. The carrying trade of the city is done by two railroads, connecting the door of every mill with the markets of the world. The local banking facilities are supplied by five national banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,250,000, three ordinary savings banks, with deposits aggregating $4,122,809, and two co-operative savings banks, each with an authorized capital of $1,000,000. The city is supplied with water from three ponds located among the foot hills of the Mt. Tom range, but an additional supply will soon be added, doubling former resources and sufficient for any probable growth of the city. The city charter was granted April 7, 1873. The first mayor was W. B. C. Pearsons, for many years and now judge of the police court. He was succeeded by Hon. William Whiting, founder of the Whiting Paper Company and member of Congress from the Eleventh Massachusetts District. The present mayor is Dr. George H. Smith, who for fifteen years was a member of the school committee. The city is divided into seven wards. The board of aldermen has twenty-one members, fourteen of whom are elected at large and seven by and from the several wards, the members at large holding office two years, one-half being elected each year, e while those from the wards hold office one year. Minority representation is provided for by restricting to five the number of candidates for whom one may vote. The school committee consists of nine members, one from each ward and two elected at large, holding office three years. There is a board of public works and a liquor license commission, consisting of three members each, appointed by the mayor for three years; also a fire commission and a water commission, with terms and membership like the foregoing, but elected by the board of aldermen. While contemplating the vigorous and rapid growth of the young city, it is easy for the reader to conclude that so great and sudden prosperity may be chiefly material; but many happy conditions lie in the opposite scale. The social nucleus of early Puritan settlers was soon augmented by associates and successors from the same sturdy stock, endowed with the same minds, the same aspirations and moral bias, ingrained by inheritance. These have planned and procured this prosperity; and therefore this substantial display is not all bricks and stone and water power, all goods and market. The visitors will find churches
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