The tax rate for 1898 is $16.20 per thousand. The figure is $1.40 above last year's rate, and the highest for ten years. The advance is due to the increase of the appropriation to cover the interest on the general debt, amounting to about $37,000, sewer loan amounting to

about $3,000, contributions to the sinking fund amounting to about $41,500, and the increase of the county tax from $60,000 to $119,000. Three and one-half millions has been gained in property valuations: three in real, and one-half in personal. The rate is the result of the financial management of some city councils of recent years, and it will be higher if the borrowing continues. The assessors have increased the valuation, but the big loans are bearing heavy interest, and the taxpayers will have to bear the burden.

Over five million dollars of property owned by religious, educational, charitable and other institutions in the city is exempt from taxation in 1898, the revenue from which, if assessed, would amount to $80,000. Of religious societies the amount exempted is $2,843,100, and the largest estates are: Union, Congregational, $240,000; St. Paul's, Roman Catholic, $232,200; All Saints', Protestant Episcopal, $150,400; Old South, Congregational, $146,600; Central, Congregational, $120,200; Plymouth, Congregational, $118,900; Piedmont, Congregational, $116,200; St. Anne's, Roman Catholic, $103,300; Young Women's Christian. Association, $105,800; Young Men's Christian Association, $88,500.

Of educational institutions and libraries the total is $1,617,500, the principal being Worcester Academy, $421,100; Clark University, $414,600; Polytechnic Institute, $303,500; Holy Cross College, $299,400. Charitable and benevolent institutions, total, $205,600. Miscellaneous, $427,200. Grand total, $5,093,400.

FACTS OF INTEREST.

By the first census of the United States, taken in 1790, it appears that Worcester with 2,095 inhabitants ranked as the sixteenth in population among the cities and towns in the country. Those ranking before it were: 1, New York; 2, Philadelphia; 3, Boston; 4, Charleston; 5, Baltimore; 6, Salem; 7, Providence; 8, Taunton; 9, Richmond; 10, Albany; 11, New Bedford; 12, Haverhill; 13, Lynn; 14, Portland; 15, Cambridge.

In 1800 Worcester's rank was twenty-fourth. The others ranked as follows: 1, New York; 2, Philadelphia; 3, Baltimore; 4, Boston; 5, Charleston; 6, Salem; 7, Providence: 8, Norfolk; 9, Richmond; 10, Albany; 11, Hartford; 12, Savannah; 13, Troy; 14, New Bedford; 15, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; 16, New Haven; 17, Taunton; 18, Portland; 19, Waterbury; 20, Washington, District of Columbia; 21, Lynn; 22, Haverhill; 23, Cambridge.

In 1810 Worcester's place had declined to the twenty-seventh; in 1820, to the thirty-sixth; in 1830, to the thirty-ninth; in 1840, to the forty-first; in 1850, to the thirty-third; in 1860, to the thirty-fourth; in

1870, to the thirtieth; in 1880, to the twenty-eighth; and in 1890, to the thirty-second.

Worcester in 1898 is the second city in population and importance in the State, the third in New England, and the third inland city in the United States. It produces a greater variety of manufactured products than any other city in the United States.

Worcester is the third agricultural town in the State, Dartmouth ranking first with only 3,107 population, the annual value of its agricultural products being $697,407. Boston comes second, with a total of $615,562. Worcester's total is $582,439. The Worcester dairy is the richest in the State, its annual value being $214,997. Next come hay, straw and fodder, $149,298; then vegetables, $62,034; greenhouse products, $39,773; poultry, $29,892.

Worcester has the largest wire factory in the world; the largest loom works and envelope factories in the United States. Every kind of a machine used in a woolen or

cotton mill is manufactured here. There are 1,292 manufacturing establishments, with $15,092,707 capital invested; employing the last census year 20,185 people, who received $9,533,490 wages, producing $38,311,085 worth of finished products.

According to the water census of 1898, which includes only those using water, there are in the city 1,211 offices, 99 saloons, 118 barber-shops, 20 foundries, 2,227 stables, 14,338 baths, 29,227 water-closets, 2,201 boilers for heating, 7 mills, 76 laundries, 72 churches, 23 hotels, 69 boarding-houses, 590 shops, 21 greenhouses, 70 schools, 356 elevators, I photograph-galleries, 106 markets, 1,222 stores. It is estimated that 1,500 people do not take water.

Π

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

BY CHARLES A. CHASE, A. M.*

T is of course essential to the growth and development of a city that its people should be well supplied with banking institutions, to supply a safe custody for deposits of money, to furnish credit to men of business, and to advance the cash upon bills receivable which merchants and manufacturers wish to turn into money in advance of maturity. In this respect Worcester has been well equipped. The capital employed and the facilities afforded have been well up to the needs of the community-perhaps never behind and never in excess. The city would gain nothing by any increase in the existing number; and there are certain economies in the matter of administration which are saved to the people by a limitation of the number of banks to the actual need. An idea which prevails among ignorant people that banks benefit the wealthy class at the expense of any portion of the community, is refuted by the moderate dividends which are paid to the stockholders, and the risks which they incur, by a study of the practical operations of the banking system, and by common sense.

The first bank of circulation to be established here was organized just at the opening of the century. Banks had been formed in Boston soon after the Revolution, and were required by their charters to loan a portion of their assets upon real-estate mortgages. The records at the Registry of Deeds show a number of such mortgages on property in this county given to Boston banks, the State bank, the Union bank, etc., all of Boston, before we had a bank here.

The central position of Worcester, in the very heart of the State, the centre and shire town of a county abounding in fertile farms and teeming with manufactures, led the solid men of the place to consider and execute a plan to establish a bank here which should bear the name of the town and should be a benefit to this section of the State. In the year 1803 a number of gentlemen met and appointed a committee consisting of Benjamin Heywood, Francis Blake, Isaiah Thomas, William Paine and Daniel Waldo, Jr., who were to solicit subscriptions for the * See sketch in Biographical Department.