emeral, but some of
it on the other hand is undoubtedly a permanent addition to the world's
literature.

X

One word more before leaving this subject. Literature has not until
recently enjoyed that degree of attention from the public press of
Pittsburgh which it deserves. It ought to be the concern of every human
unit in the nation to receive honest guidance in the development of
literature; for literature, once again, is the written record of thought
and action. Mobs will melt away when the units in the mob begin to
think, and they will think when they read. Then will the law be
paramount, and then will our institutions be safe. Thousands of our
serious people annually subscribe for literary reviews of one kind or
another in order that they may follow the rapid expansion of the written
record of the thought and action of the world, when the whole department
might be covered so admirably by our daily newspapers. Should not the
newspaper give each household practically all it needs in criticism and
information outside of the printed books themselves? How easily we could
spare some of the glaring and exaggerated headlines over the daily
record of crime, misconduct, and false leadership, which inflame the
mind and the passions with evil fire, and how joyfully we would welcome
instead an intelligent, conscientious, comprehensive, discriminating,
piquant--in short, a masterful discussion from day to day of the written
record of the thought and action of the world as unfolded in its
statesmanship, its oratory, its education, its heroism, and its
literature.

[Illustration: Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh]

XI

And so my little story of Pittsburgh comes to an end. It is the story of
a great achievement in the building of a city, and the development of a
community within its boundaries. I have sometimes heard a sneer at
Pittsburgh as a place where undigested wealth is paramount. I have never
beheld the city in that character. On the contrary, I have, on frequent
occasions, seen the assemblage of men native here where a goodly section
of the brain and power of the nation was represented. There is much
wealth here, but the dominant spirit of those who have it is not a
spirit of pride and luxury and arrogance. There is much poverty here,
but it is the poverty of hope which effort and opportunity will
transform into affluence. And especially is there here a spirit of good
fellowship, of help one to anothe