In the year 1630, Roger Williams, a clergyman, persecuted and banished from Massachusetts on account of his peculiar religious views, came to Rhode Island and laid the foundation of a city, naming it Providence, in gratitude for his deliverance from persecution. This renowned pioneer not only laid the corner stone of a great and growing city, but ineffaceably stamped his character upon all her institutions, public and private.

Providence is the second city of New England in respect to wealth and population. It is pleasantly located at the head of Narragansett Bay, thirty-five miles from the ocean. Its commercial advantages are unsurpassed, and as a manufacturing town it ranks among the first in the Atlantic States. The city is divided into two unequal portions by a narrow arm of the Bay, which terminates near the geographical centre of the town, in a beautiful elliptical sheet of water, about one mile in circumference, called the cove, or basin. This basin is inclosed by a handsome granite wall, capped by a substantial and ornamental iron fence, and is surrounded by a green about eighty feet in width, filled with a variety of beautiful and thrifty shade trees.

The eastern portion of the city rises from the water, in some places gradually, in others quite abruptly, to the height of more than two hundred feet. This elevated land is occupied by elegant private mansions surrounded with numerous shade trees and ornamental gardens, making one of the most delightful and desirable places for residence to be found in any city.

The western portion of the city rises very gradually until it reaches an elevation of about seventy-five feet, when it spreads out into a level plain, extending a considerable distance to the southwest. The northern portion, recently annexed to the city, is more sparsely populated, and portions of it are quite rural in appearance and abounding in hills, numerous springs and small streams of water.

Providence is about forty-three miles from Boston, the same distance from Worcester, ninety miles from Hartford, fifty miles from Stonington, and twenty miles from Fall River, with each of which places it is connected by numerous daily trains. It also has railroad connections with New Bedford and southern Massachusetts, with Fitchburg, and thence with Vermont and New Hampshire. There is now in process of construction another route to Northern Connecticut, Springfield and the west. It is also closely connected with Newport, and other places on Narragansett Bay, by steamboats.

Brown University is one of the distinguishing features of Providence, and, as an institution of learning, stands in the front rank of American colleges. Founded more than one hundred years since, this college has come down from the past, hand in hand with Yale and Harvard. Among the renowned graduates of Brown University may be mentioned Charles Sumner, the great statesman, the devoted patriot, the champion of the negro, whose fame and good works will live while freedom is the heritage of the American people.

President Wayland, of this institution, was the originator of the public Library System of New England—a system whose wonderful power for good is markedly on the increase.

During the war no State of the whole sisterhood evinced more patriotism than little Rhode Island, and Providence was largely represented in the Union army. A Soldiers' Monument stands in the triangular space near the Boston and Providence Railroad Depot, inscribed with the names of Rhode Island soldiers who were killed in battle. The Monument is surmounted by a statue in bronze of the Goddess of Liberty, and in niches of the granite pillar below this figure each arm of the service is represented by soldiers in bronze. The work is finely executed, and it is one of the first objects which attracts the attention of the stranger. The Artilleryman stands behind his cannon in grim silence; representatives of the infantry, the cavalry and the marine arms o£ the service are his coadjutors, and the entire group is sternly suggestive of war's sad havoc.

About a mile and a half from the heart of the city, along a beautiful McAdamized road leading to Pawtuxet, is situated the Roger Williams Park, a tract of land containing about thirteen hundred acres, which was bequeathed to the city by a descendant of Roger Williams, in consideration of five hundred dollars, to be raised by the Providence people, for the erection of a monument to the city's illustrious founder. The sum to be appropriated for that purpose was equivalent to twenty-six hundred dollars at the present time.

The embryo park is yet a wilderness, unreclaimed, and primeval forest-trees fill the wide enclosure. The ground is undulating with hill and dale, and pleasant driveways under the dark pines and hemlocks are already laid out.

The memory of Roger Williams is held in great veneration by the citizens of Providence, and he is ranked with William Penn in the category of noble pioneers. Plenty of eulogistic essays and poems have been written concerning him, and his great love of liberty, exemplified in his life, is a matter of history. The following fragment of verse, by Francis Whipple, one of Rhode Island's poets, places the memory of the two heroes side by side:—

Many of the suburbs of Providence are of some note as places of summer resort. The coast scenery along Narragansett Bay is full of charming water-pictures, and numerous rocky islands may be seen, on which are erected little white cottages, for summer occupation. The islands are sometimes connected with the shore by foot-bridges, but often the only means of communication with land is by boat.

Nayatt Point, six miles distant from Providence by rail, is, as its name implies, a jutting point of land, reaching out into the bay, where beautiful drives along the beach and through the neighboring groves, added to the salt sea air, are the chief summer attractions. Rocky Point, directly opposite Nayatt, is famous for its clam bakes, and on moonlight nights in summer, excursion parties from Nayatt, Barrington or Warren, glide over the smooth waters of the bay to this lovely spot. The red glow of Rocky Point Light can be seen through the night, for miles and miles along the coast and down the bay.

Westminster street is the principal avenue of Providence, and is handsomely built up with substantial and elegant business blocks. A very large hostelry, to be called the Narragansett Hotel, is in process of erection at the corner of Dorrance and Broad streets. Just back of this building, the new Providence Opera House, a structure of recent date, furnished with all the modern appliances for the stage, opens its doors to lovers of the histrionic art. The What-Cheer building, the Arcade, and the Butler Exchange are all well known business centres. The last named place owes its existence to a clause in a Scotchman's will. A large inheritance was left to a gentleman in Providence, with a stipulation that a certain amount of its yearly income should be used in the erection of public buildings in the city. The Butler Exchange is one of the children of this proviso.

A recent improvement in Providence is that of lighting the city lamps by means of electricity. Only one person is required to light the streets of the entire city. A single turn of the screw which commands the network of wires leading to the lamp posts, sets every gas jet, far and near, aflame, in one instantaneous blaze. It is a marvelous advance on the old way of doing things, and will greatly lessen the expenditures of the city.

Providence is justly celebrated for its manufacture of jewelry. The largest establishments of the kind in New England are in operation here, and the work turned out is of the most skillful pattern. A visit to the lapidary establishments is full of interest. A shining array of precious stones, from the white brilliance of the diamond, to the mottled moss agate, greets the bewildered gaze, and skillful workmen are deftly transforming them into the beautiful gems which shine in the jeweler's window.

CHAPTER XXVIII.