interests are in manufactures,
among which the more important are foundry and machine products, boots
and shoes, patent medicines, carriages and wagons, malt liquors,
oleomargarine, iron and steel, and steam railway cars. There are several
large quarries adjacent to the city.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS RESIDENTS

The citizens of Columbus possess the characteristic push and enterprise
of western people, and much of the culture and artistic taste of those
in the east. The population is drawn chiefly from the counties in the
state, and especially from those which are centrally located. The
largest foreign elements are German, Irish, Welsh, English and Italian,
and include scattered groups and individuals from almost every civilized
and semi-civilized country in the world.

CHAPTER IX

CINCINNATI: A NEW CENTER OF PERIL

A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY--THE TUESDAY CLOUDBURST--ANXIOUS
WAITING--HOMES SUBMERGED--FACTORIES FORCED TO CLOSE--THE SITUATION
EVER GRAVER--EXPLOSIONS IN THE CITY--THE CRISIS--FLOOD DAMAGE.

Scarcely had Dayton, Columbus and Zanesville begun their real battle for
restoration when Cincinnati became a new peril center. Situated on the
Ohio River at the point where the Muskingum, Scioto, the two Miamis, and
the Licking were pouring their millions of gallons of flood water into
the river, the city was bound to suffer. It seemed as if the Buckeye
State would never be able to escape from the clutches of the great demon
of flood.

A GREAT MANUFACTURING CITY

Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County, in the extreme
southwest of the state, one of the great commercial and manufacturing
centers of the Union, tenth in nominal rank, and seventh or eighth in
fact. It is situated on the north bank of the Ohio River, almost exactly
half way from its origin at Pittsburgh to its mouth at Cairo, Illinois.

On the western side of the city from west to south runs Mill Creek, the
remains of a once glacial stream, whose gently sloping valley, half a
mile or more wide, forms an easy path into the heart of the city, and
was an indispensable factor in determining its position. Highways,
canals and railroads come through it, and the city's growth has pushed
much farther up this valley than in other directions. The railroad
stockyards are on its eastern slope. Cincinnati extends for about
fourteen miles along the river front, to a width of about five in an
irregular block north from it, but attains a w