ty men, fourteen engine-houses, fifty
horses maintained at a cost of $86,728.48, and with property worth
$375,000. A complete system of surface and underground sewerage, both
storm and sanitary, is provided. In 1904 there were sixty-seven and
nine-tenths miles of storm sewerage.

There are seven National Banks and two Savings and Trust Companies.
Dayton takes rank as foremost in building associations of any city of
its size in the country. A large number of the 20,000 or more homes in
the city have been built with the aid of these associations.

A potent force in the development of the city has been the electric
traction lines, of which Dayton has more than any other city in Ohio.
There are nine lines, with a total mileage of three hundred and
eighty-five miles, which radiate in all directions through the populous
and rich country of which Dayton forms the center. The city railway
lines, three in number, have a total mileage of nearly one hundred miles
and render excellent service.

The Dayton public school system has for many years enjoyed the
reputation of being one of the best school systems in the West.

Dayton had the first library incorporated in the state, one having been
established in 1805. The Public Library was opened in 1855 and is
supported by public taxation, having an income of $18,000 per annum.
There are five daily newspapers, each with weekly editions, besides
seventeen church and other publications. There are also three large
church publication houses.

The city hospitals include the St. Elizabeth Hospital, the Miami Valley
Hospital, and the Protestant Hospital, which has a large central
building known as the Frank Patterson Memorial of Operative Surgery, one
of the most complete buildings for its purpose in the United States. The
Dayton State Hospital for the Insane is maintained by the state. The
Hospital of the National Military Home which adjoins the city is the
largest military hospital in the world and has an average of 600
patients, all of whom are veteran volunteer soldiers of the Civil and
Cuban Wars.

A CITY OF CIVIC PRIDE

Dayton was early imbued with the spirit of civic pride and the results
are seen in a system of drives and parks. The streets are well built and
numerous good hard gravel roads radiate into the surrounding country, a
fertile farming region which abounds in limestone. The levee along the
Miami is made of hard gravel and is wide enough at the top to form a
foundat