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 foundation for a drive. "A THOUSAND FACTORIES" Dayton is sometimes known as "the City of a Thousand Factories," and some of its varied industries are known throughout the world. Leading these is, of course, the National Cash Register Company, which employs something more than 7,000 men. In addition to cash registers there are manufactured agricultural machinery, clay-working machinery, cottonseed and linseed oil machinery, railway cars, carriages and wagons, automobiles, flying machines, sewing machines, paper, furniture, soap and tobacco. Almost every industrial product finds a maker in this town. Barnum & Smith are the well known manufacturers of street cars. There is the Davis Sewing Machine Company, the Speedwell Automobile Company and many others. Water-power in abundance is supplied from the Mad River. Dayton is the fifth largest city in Ohio. The final abstract of the Federal census for 1910 placed the population at 116,577, as compared with 85,333 in 1900 and 61,220 in 1890. With its industries so diversified, its banks and building associations so strong and uniformly successful, and with its people so well educated, it is one of the richest and most prosperous communities in the Union. CHAPTER VII THE DEVASTATION OF COLUMBUS THE RISING FLOOD--MOST OF THE CITY DARK--GREAT AREAS UNDER WATER--THE MILITIA IN CONTROL--THE RELIEF OF THE VICTIMS--THE EXTENT OF THE DISASTER--STORIES OF THE HORROR--ORDERS TO SHOOT LOOTERS--RECOVERING THE DEAD--GOVERNOR COX INDEFATIGABLE--HUNGRY REFUGEES SEIZE FOOD--INCIDENTS OF HEROISM--SCENES OF PATHOS--LOSS BY DEATH AND OF PROPERTY--THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION.