Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/134

128 BOSTON refused to profit from Boston's sufferings ; and her people received from all parts of the country warm sympathy and solid assistance. In 1775 there were about 4,000 British troops in Bos- ton, and several armed vessels in the harbor. The battle of Lexington (April 19) roused the country, and in a short time Boston was be- leaguered by a large American force, full of spirit, but destitute of all the other essentials of war. Their attempt to fortify and hold Bunker Hill, which commanded the town, re- sulted in a battle, June 17, in which the Amer- icans were defeated from lack of ammunition, but which had on them and their cause the usual influence of a victory. Gen. Washington arrived in the besieging camp July 2, and as- sumed command the next day. The siege was prosecuted with all the vigor that could be dis- played, but it lasted nearly a year. On the night of March 4, 1776, the besiegers seized and occupied Dorchester heights, which commanded both town and harbor. The English made prep- arations to recover the heights, but were pre- vented from assailing them by the severity of the weather, which was extreme until the 7th, by which time the American fortifications had been rendered impregnable to any force the enemy could bring against them. The British commander was compelled to abandon the place March 17. During the war Boston supported the policy that ended in the adoption of the federal constitution. In the material prosper- ity that followed the inauguration of the new government Boston largely shared. Her busi- ness increased, and her commerce was extended to almost every part of the world. She became distinguished also as a seat of learning, and for the number of persons eminent in literature or in oratory who were among her citizens or those of her suburbs. From 1830 to 1860 she was popularly regarded as the headquarters of anti-slavery and other reform movements. In 1822 Boston was made a city, 170 years after the change had been first talked of, and 113 years after the failure to have the place incorporated in 1709. In 1869 a monster musical festival, styled the peace jubilee, was held in Boston, in a wooden coliseum built for the purpose, 500 ft. long and 300 ft. wide, with a capacity for 50,000 persons. The chorus comprised 108 societies, with about 10,000 singers, and there was a band of nearly 1,000 instruments, with a bat- tery of artillery, and 50 anvils beaten by 100 men. The festival opened June 15. and lasted five days. The receipts exceeded the expendi- tures by about $50,000. A second festival projected by the originator of the first, Mr. P. S. Gilmore, was held from June 17 to July 6, 1872, under the name of the international peace jubilee. The coliseum built for this af- fair was 550 ft. long by 350 ft. wide, with an ex- treme height of 115 ft. The chorus comprised 165 societies with 20,000 voices, while the or- chestra numbered 2,000. Representative mil- itary bands were present from France, Ger- many, England, and the United States marine corps. The expenditures, which amounted to nearly $600,000, exceeded the receipts by about $150,000. In November, 1872, occurred a great conflagration, which, excepting tlie fire in Chicago the year before, was the most ex- tensive and destructive ever known in the United States. It originated from an unknown cause in a large granite building, devoted chiefly to dry goods, on the corner of Kingston and Summer streets, and was discovered about 7 o'clock in the evening of the 9th. A mode- rate wind prevailed, and the flames, with won- derful rapidity, spread simultaneously in all di- rections, but chiefly toward the north and east. The fire continued till noon of the following day (Sunday), when it was brought under con- trol, but again broke forth, in consequence of an extensive explosion of gas, about midnight, and lasted till 7 o'clock on the morning of the llth. The district burned overextended from Summer and Bedford streets on the south to near State street on the north, and from Wash- ington street east to the harbor. Within these limits, excepting a portion bounded by Milk, Devonshire, State, and Washington streets, the devastation was complete. The burnt district covered about 65 acres, and was the centre of the great wholesale dry goods, boot and shoe, wool, and clothing trades. About 800 build- ings, many of which were of granite, five and six stories high, including some of the grandest business blocks in the United States, and oc- cupied by about 1,800 firms, were entirely destroyed. The total loss, according to the most accurate estimate, was about $80,000,000. The total loss by insurance companies was $52,676,000, of which $35,351,600 was sus- tained by Massachusetts companies. Very few public buildings or residences were destroyed. The number of lives lost did not exceed 15, while the suffering was mainTy occasioned by the temporary loss of employment to about 25,- 000 working men and women. BOSTON, a seaport town and parliamentary borough of Lincolnshire, England, on both sides of the river Witham, 6 m. from the sea, and on the Great Northern railway, 28 m. S. E. of Lincoln, and 107 m. N. N. E. of Lon- don ; pop. of the town in 1871, 15,576. The two divisions of the town are connected by an iron bridge, of a single arch, 86 ft. in span. Boston is noted for the neatness of its streets, | is lighted by gas, supplied with excellent water from a distance of 14 m., and built almost en- tirely of brick. The most remarkable of its edifices is the parish church of St. liotolph, the largest without transepts in the kingdom, built in 1309, and having a tower 282 ft. in height, on the plan of that of the cathedral of Antwerp. This tower is surmounted by an octagonal lantern, visible at sea for nearly 40 m. A window of stained glass has been placed in this church in honor of the Rev. John Cotton, who was vicar of St. Botolph's and one of the first ministers of Boston in America. There are numerous charitable institutions, a