north side of
Huntington Avenue.

Boston was the undisputed literary centre of America until the later
decades of the 19th century, and still retains a considerable and
important colony of writers and artists. Its ascendancy was identical
with the long predominance of the New England literary school, who lived
in Boston or in the country round about. Two Boston periodicals (one no
longer so) that still hold an exceptional position in periodical
literature, the _North American Review_ (1815) and the _Atlantic
Monthly_ (1857), date from this period. The great majority of names in
the long list of worthies of the commonwealth--writers, statesmen,
orators, artists, philanthropists, reformers and scholars, are
intimately connected with Boston. Among the city's daily newspapers the
_Boston Herald_ (1846), the _Boston Globe_, the _Evening Transcript_
(1830), the _Advertiser_ (1813) and the _Post_ (1831) are the most
important.

_Industry and Commerce._--Boston is fringed with wharves. Commercial
interests are largely concentrated in East Boston. Railway connexion
with Worcester, Lowell and Providence was opened in 1835; with Albany,
N.Y., and thereby with various lines of interior communication, in 1841
(double track, 1868); with Fitchburg, in 1845; and in 1851 connexion was
completed with the Great Lakes and Canada. In 1840 Boston was selected
as the American terminus of the Cunard Line, the first regular line of
trans-Atlantic steamers. The following decade was the most active of the
city's history as regards the ocean carrying trade. Boston ships went to
all parts of the globe. The Cunard arrangement was the first of various
measures that worked for a commercial rapprochement between the New
England states and Canada, culminating in the reciprocity treaty of
1854, and Boston's interests are foremost to-day in demanding a return
to relations of reciprocity. Beginning about 1855 the commerce of the
port greatly declined. The Cunard service has not been continuous. In
1869 there was not one vessel steaming directly for Europe; in 1900
there were 973 for foreign ports. Great improvements of the harbour were
undertaken in 1902 by the United States government, looking to the
creation of two broad channels 35 ft. deep. Railway rates have also been
a matter of vital importance in recent years; Boston, like New York,
complaining of discriminations in favour of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New
Orleans and Galveston. Boston also feels