Stop for a moment on busy Newspaper Row. Here a bystander may read the news of the world as it is posted hourly upon the great bulletin boards of the various newspaper offices. Parallel to Washington Street, and connected with it by many short streets, is Tremont Street, another old historic road. Originally Tremont Street was a path outlined by William Blackstone's cows on their way to pasture; now it is second only to Washington Street in importance. Washington Street is really the main dividing line between the retail and wholesale parts of the city. The water front is the great wholesale section. Here there is a constant odor of leather in the air, and great heavy wagons laden with hides are continually passing to and from the wharves and stations. When we stop and consider that Boston and the neighboring cities of Brockton and Lynn are among the largest shoe-manufacturing cities in the world, then we do not wonder at the leather we see. It is no vain boast to say that in every quarter of the world may be seen shoes that once, in the form of leather, were carted through the streets of Boston. [Illustration: BOSTON'S LAND AND WATER CONNECTIONS] What is true of leather is also true of cotton and wool. Lowell, Fall River, and New Bedford are calling for cotton to be made into cloth in their busy mills, while Lawrence is the greatest wool-manufacturing city in the country. Boston, with its harbor and great railroad terminals, is constantly receiving these materials and distributing them to these cities. The finished cloths often return to Boston to be cut and made into clothes, and an army of men and women cut and sew from day to day on garments for people far distant from Boston as well as for those near home. One glance at the wharves along Atlantic Avenue and Commercial Street and our glimpse of busy Boston will be ended. Here are wharves and piers jutting out into the harbor, where are boats of every kind from every land. New York alone among American cities outranks Boston in the value of her foreign commerce. From one large steamer thousands of green bananas are being carried. They will be sold to the many fruit dealers, from those whose show windows are visions of beauty, to the Greek or Italian peddler who pushes his hand cart out into the suburbs. Some of the steamers are already puffing with importance as if to hasten the steps of travelers who are on their way to board ship for different ports in the South, for Nova Scotia and other points north, or perhaps to cross the Atlantic.