A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908Church, Samuel Harden
History
A short history of Pittsburgh : 1758-1908
Church, Samuel Harden
Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- History
The city has twenty or more hospitals for the care of its sick, injured,
or insane, ten of which have schools for the training of nurses. There
is the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf
and Dumb in Pittsburgh, which is in part maintained by the State, where
trades are taught as a part of the educational system. The State also
helps to maintain the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind,
the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Women, and the Home for Colored
Children. Among other charitable institutions maintained by the city are
the Home for Orphans, Home for the Aged, Home for Released Convicts, an
extensive system of public baths, the Curtis Home for Destitute Women
and Girls, the Pittsburgh Newsboys' Home, the Children's Aid Society of
Western Pennsylvania, the Protestant Home for Incurables, the Pittsburgh
Association for the Improvement of the Poor, and the Western
Pennsylvania Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,
Children, and Aged Persons. Under the management of Women's Clubs
several playgrounds are open to children during the summer, where
competent teachers give instruction to children over ten years of age in
music, manual training, sewing, cooking, nature study, and color work.
The water supply of Pittsburgh is taken from the Allegheny River and
pumped into reservoirs, the highest of which is Herron Hill, five
hundred and thirty feet above the river. A slow sand filtration plant
for the filtration of the entire supply is under construction and a part
of it is in operation. In this last year the Legislature has passed an
act prohibiting the deposit of sewage material in the rivers of the
State, and this tardy action in the interest of decency and health will
stop the ravages of death through epidemic fevers caught from poisoned
streams.
VI
Pittsburgh maintains by popular support one of the four symphony
orchestras in America. She has given many famous men to science,
literature, and art. Her astronomical observatory is known throughout
the world. Her rich men are often liberal beyond their own needs,
particularly so William Thaw, who spent great sums for education and
benevolence; Mrs. Mary Schenley, who has given the city a great park,
over four hundred acres in the very heart of its boundaries; and Henry
Phipps, who erected the largest conservatory for plants and flowers in
our country. There is one other, Andrew Carnegie, whose wise and
continuous use of vast wealth for the public good is nearly beyond human
precedent.
[Illustration: Zooelogical Garden in Highland Park]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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