Electricity lights the business thoroughfares and many of the stores, while gas illuminates other portions of the city. The gas works were built in 1884, and the electric light plant, now having twenty miles of wire, was put in by a responsible company in 1887. There is, also, an excellent telephone service, with an extended circuit reaching Puyallup valley. In its water works it is especially fortunate. The system was built in 1884, at a cost of $300,000.00, and consists of eleven miles of mains, supplied with pure water by an aqueduct ten miles in length. The lower portion of the city is supplied by direct pressure from the reservoir, two hundred and sixty-two feet above the harbor, while the upper levels are served by powerful Holly pumps. A splendidly equipped fire department gives the city ample protection from the destroying element. In the matter of the improvement of its streets the city has done more to show its progressive and metropolitan character than in any other way. The leading thoroughfares are macadamized, and throughout the entire city streets are graded and in good condition. There are thirty-five miles of graded streets and fifty miles of sidewalk within the city limits. A horse car line runs the entire length of Pacific avenue from the water front, and a motor line runs out to Division avenue and Tacoma avenue, and along the latter both north and south for a long distance. [Illustration: MASON BLOCK--TACOMA.] TACOMA AS A MANUFACTURING CITY. Whenever so young a city as Tacoma is mentioned it is generally spoken of as a prospective metropolis, whose present growth is based largely upon the future. Great as Tacoma’s future is sure to be, its present condition has not been reached by discounting it nor is its great prosperity due to large drafts on future industries. It has now many establishments which employ a large number of hands, pay many thousands of dollars to workmen monthly, and turn out a manufactured product valued at millions of dollars annually. One of these branches of industry is the saw mills and sash factories spoken of elsewhere, in which Tacoma is one of the leading cities of the world. Besides this there are a furniture factory, iron foundry, machine shops, flouring mills, car shops, and a number of smaller industries. The car shops of the Northern Pacific are located here, and give employment to a large number of hands. The huge reduction works being erected here, the flouring mills, and the gigantic iron smelting enterprise at Cle Elum, have been mentioned on other pages. The only coking ovens on the coast are located near the city and are owned by Tacoma parties. These enterprises are enough to account for the prosperous condition of the city, yet they are but an index of the manufacturing which will be done here in a few years. Situated in the midst of coal, iron, limestone, and hard and soft wood timber, all of unlimited quantity and superior