Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/691

LOUISVILLE LOUVAIN 685 ten of street railways, 23 m. in length, mostly double tracks. The principal public work, ex- cept the canal and Ohio river bridge, is the great outfall sewer, draining the "W. part of the city. It is 4J m. long, varies in diameter from 3 ft, to llf ft., and in inclination from 1 in 7 to 1 in 2,000. It is built of brick, and cost $372,427. It debouches into the river about 8 m. below the foot of the falls, through a cast- iron conduit 8 ft. in diameter, with a fall of 1 in 7, and terminates in a retaining wall of stone masonry. The bonded debt of the city, Dec. 31, 1873, was $9,761,500. The assets of the sinking fund at that time amounted to $4,062- 098 31. The debt was principally contracted in aid of railroads. The assessed value of prop- erty in 1870 was $71,000,000; in 1873, $78,- 000,000 ; rate of taxation for all purposes, $2 on the $100. There are many benevolent in- stitutions, infirmaries, and homes, under charge of the churches, and numerous benevolent as- sociations, besides many of a literary, musical, and scientific character. There are 5 daily (2 German), 2 semi-weekly (German), and 14 weekly (4 German) newspapers, and 7 monthly magazines. Louisville has an excellent system of public schools, embracing 21 graded ward schools, a male high school, a female high school, and a training school for teachers. The average number of scholars in the school year ending June, 1874, was 10,679; number of teachers, 309, besides 27 German and 4 music teachers ; cost of schools for the year, $267,- 354 89 ; value of school property, $831,100. The education of colored children is provided for. The central colored school house cost $25,000, and in 1874 provision was made for two other large buildings for colored schools. There were four colored schools in that year, with 24 teachers, and an average attendance of 1,059, the enrolled number of scholars being 2,381. Louisville contains two medical schools, the Louisville medical college and the medi- cal department of the university of Louisville, which are attended annually, by more than 500 students. In 1874 the organization of a third was progressing. The law department of the university has four professors. There are three public libraries, viz. : the public library of Kentucky, with 30,000 volumes ; the Louis- ville library association, 5,690 ; and the Episco- pal diocesan library, 2,000. The public library of Kentucky has a museum and natural history department, with 100,000 specimens. The city being the centre of one of the finest fossil- iferous regions in the world, there are numer- ous private collections containing many excel- lent specimens elsewhere rare. The religious societies are as follows : Baptist, 14 (7 colored) ; Christian, 4 (1 colored); Episcopal, 12 (1 col- ored) ; German Evangelical, 6 ; Jewish, 2 ; Methodist, 23 (14 Southern, 3 Northern, and 6 colored) ; Presbyterian, 16 (1 colored) ; Roman Catholic, 17 (6 German) ; Unitarian, 1. The first settlement within the present limits of Louisville was made by 13 families who accom- panied Col. George Rogers Clarke on his expe- dition down the Ohio in 1778. The situation was so exposed to Indian attack that the first settlement was made on an island at the head of the falls, near the Kentucky shore, called Corn island, which has since disappeared. On the reception of news of the capture of Vin- cennes by Col. Clarke's forces these families removed to the mainland and built a station. The town was established by an act of the Virginia legislature in May, 1780, and called Louisville, in honor of Louis XVI. of France, whose troops were then aiding the struggle for American independence. It was incorporated as a city by the Kentucky legislature, Feb. 13, 1828. In its early years the settlement was greatly annoyed by the Indians. In 1862 it was threatened with an attack of the confed- erate forces under Gen. Bragg ; and Gen. Nel- son, commanding the Union forces, ordered earthworks and rifle pits to be constructed, and impressed many of the citizens to aid in the work. The arrival of Gen. Buell with the Union army saved the city from attack. LOUSE. See EPIZOA, vol. vi., p. 695. LOUTH, an E. county of Ireland, in the prov- ince of Leinster, bordering on Armagh, Down, the Irish sea, Meath, and Monaghan ; area, 314 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 84,198. The surface in the north is rugged and mountainous, else- where level and undulating, and the soil gen- rally fertile. The principal towns are Droghe- da and Dundalk. The village of Louth, 7 m. S. W. of Dundalk, contains the ruins of a cele- brated priory founded by St. Patrick. LOUTH, a market town of Lincolnshire, Eng- land, on the Lud, 25 m. N". E. of Lincoln ; pop. in 1871, 10,500. It has two established church- es, eight places of worship belonging to oth- er denominations, a free grammar school and several other endowed schools, a mechanics' institute, a savings bank, and several charitable institutions. The chief manufactures are car- pets, worsted, soap, and oil cake. It is con- nected by canal with the Humber. LOUV1IN (Flem. Leuven ; Ger. Loweri), a town of Belgium, in the province of Brabant, situated on the Dyle, 15 m. E. by NT. of Brus- sels; pop. in 1869, 33,171. The streets are regular, but the houses are not well built. It is celebrated for its town hall, a fine Gothic building, for its cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful religious edifices in Belgium, and for its university, founded about 1425, at one time celebrated among the literary institu- tions of Europe, and still the leading school of Roman Catholic theology in Belgium, attend- ed by about 800 students (6,000 in the 16th century), and containing 20 colleges (former- ly 43), zoological and mineralogical museums, a botanic garden, and an extensive library. It was abolished by the French government in 1797, restored by the Dutch government in 1817, and again abolished by the Belgian gov- ernment in 1834. In 1835 it was revived by the bishops of Belgium as a free Catholic uni-