University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

Page 20 text:

Cfires Out- night I lay by a fire of twigs at the wood's edge. Below, the river was lacquered with red, flawed light. At dawn I covered the fire with ashes. One night I Stood by a fire in a Slovak, kitchen; A mother sang to her child of the hills of Bohemia, And this night her husband slacked the fire with ashes. One night I Stood by the open hearth at Bessemer. Mournfully, through the dark, a freight tram whistled. Fury and splendor of flames awed me to silence. Time will put out these flames with his own ashes. (m3

Page 19 text:

The (crucible A CRUCIBLE, belching ruddy murk from its encrusting slag—that is the critic's usual connotation of Pittsburgh. On the surface Pittsburgh has that connotation, is that “Shrine of Materialism. But are these critics blind to the molten metal beneath the slag, to the idealism beneath the grime? Pittsburgh has no place for azure skies and babbling brooks; it is a place of industries. Furnaces line her rivers and mills creSt her hills. To them by barge and train come coal and ore and sand; from them go glass and iron and Steel. Pittsburgh is an unrelenting force, driving wheels, and turning rollers, a creative force harsh and overbearing. Always, since the Pyramids were lifted Stone on Stone to a brassy sky, men have been lost in immensities, individuals in their endeavors. Such is the Stigma of Materialism: such is the Stigma of Pittsburgh. When force raises the ribbed vaults of a Cathedral, and beauty Stains the mullioned windows, then artisan and capitalist are brothers and all the world applauds the thrill of creation. Such is the spirit of Pittsburgh, the spirit which redeems her from coarseness and gives her a genuine glory. As truly as soot and smoke are symbols of Materialism, so the red night skies are the torch of the spirit beneath.

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Natural Resources T TER rivers brought greatness to Pittsburgh; her coal secured it. Stand at the Point • - some sunset when the sky is orange above Mount Washington and the Ohio flows away in a broad, golden Stream. Look along the shores at the dark lengths of mills with jutting Stacks, and notice in the gloom of the banks between the pastel bridges the barges heaped with coal. Watch, too, the tugboats pushing other barges like extended shadows as their paddle-wheels catch the last sunlight in falling foam. So, for over a century, the rivers have been supplying Pittsburgh's mills. In the graft migration of the late seventeen hundreds a pioneer trading-post grew up on the site of the Golden Triangle — because the Ohio led west to wilderness farms and frontier settlements. Coopers, mercers, ironmongers established their shops and forges, and as early as 1797 General O'Hara put up his glass fadory near the Point. Before the end of two decades the city charter had been granted, and trade was thriving. Pittsburgh's shipbuilders began to conStrud ocean-going vessels. Then came the time when paddle-wheelers first Steamed under the bridges of the growing city. The old Pennsylvania Canal came, too, and went; railroads lined the rivers. Toward the end of the century the world was Startled one day to find Pittsburgh its industrial capital, and at present the city retains her supremacy. But Still the tugs push their barges to supply the mills with cad, and Still the paddle-wheeled Steamers have their regular sailings from the wharves. Her rivers helped Pittsburgh to grow, and they remain one of her greatest assets. In 1784 a Virginian in a description of Pittsburgh wrote: The Kinks of the Mononga-hela on the west, or opposite to Pittsburgh, are Steep, close to the water, and about two hundred yards high. About a third of the way from the top is a vein of cad above one of the rocks. Coal! There in the hillside was the prophecy of greater Pittsburgh. Nor was it long before interpreters appeared. In 1805 the first iron foundry was built; its success led to others. Coil was cheap, for all the hills of the diStrirt had rich veins. Cheap cad! Cheap transportation! The West was opening, had opened to Pittsburgh. The market was