April 1895 Virginia became a city. It was at that time that the city streets got sidewalks, made of planks, beyond which big new buildings were being erected. Building was made even easier by the opening of a new, larger sawmill in 1895, which employed 35 men in the beginning, and which was soon joined by a competitive enterprise as new mines were opened and other small industry began to develop. The sawmills, however, were to be the cause of the total destruction of the newer Virginia, for on 7 July 1900 fire started in one of them, spread through its lumber yard, and then resulted in flying sparks setting Virginia on fire for the second time.

As a result of this holocaust, the population dropped to 2,692 in 1901. Five years later, however, it had once more climbed to a new peak of 6,056, and at that time the Finns formed the largest single group in the community. The most reliable statistics for the period are probably those prepared by the temperance society in 1903, according to which there was a total of 1,705 Finns, made up of 835 men, 342 women and 528 children. 4 These Finns took part unreservedly in the reconstruction of Virginia, now also called the Queen City, built up once more with more fireproof buildings, better-paved main streets, and covering a much larger area, with big new sawmills flourishing enough to give work year round to some 2,000 men.

Through these years of expansion, life in Virginia was sill free and easy. The history of St. Louis County relates '-ha'. i' was not unusual to see a man on horseback ride straight into a saloon, not stopping his horse until he was right at the bar, and having his drink without dismounting, turning his horse around and riding out again. The consumption of alcohol had reached big proportions, and according to Palm, there were 53 saloons in the community. To try to prevent their fellow Finns from succumbing to drunkenness, the Finns started a temperance society.

The Temperance Society Valon Tuote : John Latvala (Matson) had made his own abstinence vow in Soudan in 1889, and it was at his urging that a group of interested Finns gathered at the home of Conrad Mattson in March 1893 and founded the Valon Tuote (Product of Light) Temperance Society. Its first slate of officers included Vilho Tikander as chairman, John Erkkilä as vice-chairman, Jacob Saari as secretary and Antti Leiviskä. and Conrad Mattson as treasurers, with Frank Leskinen and Heikki

4. Työmies. 13 April 1904.

417