'he Countries 
 
 North America 
 
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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
The 
 
 Countries of North America 
 
 A Geographical Reader 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT J. McLaughlin, a. m 
 
 
 1907 
 
 R. J. WALTHER, PHILADELPHIA 
 
 I'ublisher 
 
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 MJIISRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two CoDles Roiseivo} 
 GCI 81 I30f 
 
 J' CopyneW Entiy 
 
 CLASS J^ XXc, Ne. 
 0OPY B. 
 
 ■ iii n- iiJi m i M 
 
 Copyright, 1907, by Robert J. McFjAUOhmn 
 
The Countries of North America 
 
 A Geographical Reader 
 
 I. An Eskimo Hut. 
 
 The interior of the hut was about ten feet in diameter, 
 and five and a half feet high. The walls were made of 
 stones, moss, and the bones of the whale and other animals. 
 The floor was covered with thin, flat stones. Half of this 
 floor, at the back part of the hut, was raised a foot. This 
 elevation they called the ''breck;" and it was used both as 
 bed and seat, as it was covered with dry grass, over which 
 were spread bearskins and dogskins. 
 
 The hole of the entrance in the floor was close to the 
 front wall, and was covered with a piece of sealskin. The 
 walls were lined with sealskins or f oxskins, stretched to 
 dry. 
 
 In this hut, at the edge of the ''breck," sat an old woman, 
 and on the other side, a young one, each busily at- 
 tending to a smoky, greasy lamp. A third woman in the 
 corner was also busy with a lamp. The lamps were made 
 of soapstone, and in shape looked much like clam-shells, 
 being about eight inches in diameter. The cavity was filled 
 with oil, and on the straight edge a flame was burning quite 
 brilliantly. The wick which supplied fuel to the flame 
 was of moss. The chief business of the women was to keep 
 the lamps supplied with blubber, from which the heat of 
 the flame drew the oil. 
 
 The three lamps furnished all the heat, and made it quite 
 hot. Each family had its own lamp around which it 
 
gathered, and these families numbered thirteen persons 
 in all. 
 
 Before leaving- the hut, an invitation to eat something 
 was given; and, of course, it had to be accepted. The ex- 
 pression of thanks (koyenak) was one of the few in their 
 language that 1 knew, and of this I made the most. They 
 laughed heartily when I said ''Koyenak" in reply to their 
 invitation to eat ; and immediately a not very beautiful 
 young damsel poured some of the contents of one of the 
 before-mentioned pots into a skin dish, and after sipping 
 it, to make sure, as I supposed, that it was not too hot, she 
 passed it to me over a group of heads. At first my courage 
 forsook me ; but all eyes were fixed upon me, and it would 
 have been imwise to refuse. I therefore shut my eyes, held 
 my nose, swallowed the dose, and left. I was afterward 
 told that it was their great delicacy which had been prof- 
 fered to me— a soup made by boiling together blood, oil, 
 and seal-intestines. It was well that I was ignorant of 
 this fact. 
 
 Adapted from Dr. Isaac J. Hayes. 
 
 2. Iceland. 
 
 Iceland is an island belonging to Denmark, lying 
 about one hundred and fifty miles southeast of Greenland. 
 Its area is slightly less than that of Pennsylvania. 
 
 For the most part it is a very dreary land, the interior 
 being chiefly a volcanic highland, whose summits are cov- 
 ered with eternal snow and ice. There are at least a hun- 
 dred volcanoes in Iceland, besides numerous mud volcanoes 
 and gej^sers. Mount Hecla is the chief volcano, and its 
 eruptions have been very numerous. 
 
 The climate is cold, of course, though the southern shores 
 are made warmer by the Gulf Stream. The severity of the 
 
climate makes the vegetation rather poor, grass and pota- 
 toes being the chief crops. 
 
 The inhabitants are very intelligent. Education is nni- 
 versal though there are few schools, the children being 
 generally taught at home. 
 
 Reikiavik with its six thousand people is the chief city 
 of Iceland, and its capital. It has but two chief streets. 
 Its people are orderly and quiet, requiring only one police- 
 man in winter, and two in summer. 
 
 The houses of Reikiavik are of wood, many of them being 
 but one story high. They have no chimneys, as the smoke 
 is supposed to pass out through a hole in the roof. The 
 windows are small pieces of glass or skin, four inches 
 square, placed in the roof, as no ventilation is ever dreamed 
 of. Snuff-taking is very common, and this habit deadens 
 the sense of smell, so that the people do not notice the bad 
 odors of drying fish. 
 
 In reality there are but two seasons in Iceland,— winter 
 and summer. The fishing begins for the men early in 
 February, and lasts until the middle of May. The fish 
 caught then is dried and kept for winter use. 
 
 After the fishing, the men prepare turf for fuel. Then 
 in July, the hay harvest begins. Without this, the cattle 
 could not live through the winter. 
 
 Another very peculiar occupation of Iceland is the gath- 
 ering of eider-down. The eider-duck makes her nest of 
 down plucked by her from her own breast; and if this is 
 removed, she plucks more dcwn to protect the eggs. The 
 down is a very valuable product, though the gathering is 
 slow and laborious. So precious are the birds that it is 
 strictly forbidden by Icelandic law to kill them unless the 
 person is absolutely starving. 
 
"Icelandic eider-farms are frequently situated on little 
 islands off the coast, covered Avith low hummocks. Small 
 shelters of rough stones are made to protect the brooding- 
 ducks from wind and driving rain, and bells are sometimes 
 suspended near them under the belief that their sound, as 
 they are rung by the wind, attracts the birds. On the 
 farms the birds become very tame, so that one familiar with 
 them can handle them on the nest without frightening 
 them." 
 
 The life of the Icelander, we see, is a hard road of toil, 
 yet he loves his home, and believes it the fairest on the 
 earth. 
 
 3. Greenland. 
 
 Next to Australia, Greenland is the largest island of 
 the globe. It is a very cold country, more than three- 
 fourths of it being covered with a thick bed of ice. From 
 this vast ''ice-cap,'' thousands of glaciers are formed whicli 
 descend into the sea and break off into icebergs. It has 
 1)een calcnlated that the average movement of these glaciers 
 is from five to eight inches a day. Many of these glaciers 
 are of great size. Thus the Great Humboldt Glacier is 
 sixty miles wide, with a long ocean front washed by the sea. 
 During the summer the southern strip of coast loses its 
 mantle of snow. The Arctic shrubs, herbs, and mosses 
 appear then, and lighten up the dreary wastes. 
 
 The inhabitants of Greenland are chiefly Eskimos. This 
 word means "eaters of raw flesh," and to them a piece of 
 raw walrus, frozen solid, is fine food. These people are 
 scattered all over the northern part of North America, be- 
 ing found in Alaska, Greenland, and the Dominion of 
 Canada. 
 
They have coarse, black hair, broad, flat noses, and yel- 
 lowish or brownish skin. The Eskimos build honses of 
 stones and sod, or of stone and ice. These latter are called 
 igloos. An igloo is about six feet high, and resembles a 
 basin turned upside down, A covered passage-way, ten 
 or twelve feet long, leads to the door. This tunnel is so 
 low that you must crawl on your hands and knees to get 
 through. 
 
 In some regions, the houses are formed merely of snow\ 
 
 The farther north one goes, the longer are the darkness of 
 winter and the daylight of summer. At the North Pole it- 
 self there is but one day in the year and but one night, 
 each of which is six months long, the night lasting from 
 the twenty-first of September to the twenty-first of March. 
 The Eskimos then nuist face this terrible darkness that 
 may last for months, as the average night of the Arctic 
 regions lasts from early in October to late in February. 
 Imagine not seeing the sun for all those weeks ! The long, 
 dazzling sunlight of tlie summer is almost as trying. 
 
 The cold they endure in winter is very severe. In Peary's 
 journal, an entry for the month of March speaks about the 
 cold. He says : 
 
 "Last night was a little more comfortable than the pre- 
 vious one, but not much. I got the bubble out of the 
 thermometer, and when I took it outside the igloo, it fell 
 so rapidly from minus 25 P. (the temperature of our bed 
 platform, where it had been resting close to my head) that 
 at first I feared it was broken. It finally stopped at minus 
 61i/'2 F. During the march it has ranged from minus 55 
 to minus 53 to minus 50 in the sun, and yet to-day has been 
 the most comfortable one for the past week." 
 
 In a magazine article, Peary said: ''In the far north, 
 when winter settles down in earnest, the very air seems 
 
frozen, and is filled with tiny little frost crystals. Tem- 
 pered steel and seasoned oak and hickory become brittle, 
 soft iron becomes hard as steel, molasses and lard are cut 
 with a hatchet, petroleum turns white and grows thick like 
 ice-cream, and one's breath turns instantly to ice. . . . 
 A w^ell, sound man, woman, or child, if properly fed and 
 properly clothed, can live and endure the severest cold of 
 the Arctic regions just as comfortably as we live and en- 
 dure the cold of our northern winters here at home. 
 
 "It is only when the cold joins forces with an Arctic 
 blizzard, the drifting snow and the wind, the winter 
 demons of the north, that all attempts to work or travel 
 must be given up, and men and animals are compelled to 
 burrow in their snow shelters until the storm is over." 
 
 The garments, then, must be suited to the climate, and 
 fur is therefore worn. The men and the women have much 
 the same dress. The inner garment is of bird skin, worn 
 with the feathers next to the body. Stockings and trousers 
 of sealskin with the fur on the outside are the outer 
 garments. The men have also fur boots, jackets, and hoods. 
 
 The Eskimo lives by hunting. He skillfully manages his 
 long, skin boat or kayak (ka' ak) which is all covered ex- 
 cept a small space in the centre. Seated in it, he harpoons 
 the seal, the walrus, and the whale, which give him food, 
 fuel, and clothing. In hunting the polar bear, he uses his 
 dog-sledge, drawn by teams of ten or more dogs. 
 
 The Eskimo dog is ill-fed, quarrelsome, and often un- 
 manageable, yet he is of great value, as each dog can draw 
 a load of fifty pounds for forty miles a day. 
 
 The western coast of Greenland is ruled by Denmark, the 
 land being divided into districts, each under its own gov- 
 ernor. Ilpernavik, one of the chief towns, is the most 
 northern civilized settlement on the earth. Strange to say. 
 
this word means ' ' the summer place. ' ' There is little truth 
 in the name, any more than in the word "Greenland" it- 
 self, the "good name" which Eric the Red, a thousand 
 years ago, gave to the country in order to cause emigrants 
 to go there. 
 
 4. The Nearest Approach to the North Pole. 
 
 On July 16, 1905, the "Roosevelt" left New York har- 
 bor for her Arctic journey, taking the route through Davis 
 Strait and Bai'fin Bay. 
 
 Leaving Etah, in northwestern Greenland, with two hun- 
 dred Eskimo dogs and fifty Eskimos, men, women, and 
 children, Peary's ship severed all communication with the 
 civilized world. Making her way through the ice-floes, on 
 the fifth of September they reached Cape Sheridan, a north- 
 eastern projection of Grant Land, and this they made their 
 winter quarters during 1905- '06. In addition to their 
 stores they secured a number of Arctic hares and tv/o hun- 
 dre(i and fifty musk-oxen before the severe winter weather 
 began. The sun set for the last time on the twelfth of Octo- 
 ber, and the Arctic night lasted until the sixth of March, 
 Avhen the first glimpse of the sun was seen. 
 
 By sledges drawn by dog-teams, Peary planned to con- 
 tinue his journey northward toward the Pole, going first 
 northeast along the coast of Greenland and then due north 
 across the frozen Arctic. "At Storm Cape, we abandoned 
 everything not absolutely necessary, and I bent every 
 energy to setting a record pace. . . . As we advanced, 
 the character of the ice improved, the floes becoming much 
 larger, and pressure ridges infrequent; but the cracks and 
 narrow leads (lanes of water) increased." 
 
 As the dogs gave out exhausted by their labors, they were 
 fed to the others. They pushed on till ''noon of the 21st 
 
10 
 
 (of April). My observation then gave 87° 6'. So far as 
 history records, this is the nearest approach to the North 
 Pole ever made by man. I thanked God with as good a 
 grace as possible for what T had been able to accomplish." 
 
 Peary left here a bottle containing a record of the expe- 
 dition and a piece of his old silk flag. He then began the 
 march back to Storm Cape, racing through a blinding bliz- 
 zard. Their igloos at this camp were ice grottos lined with 
 icicles and half filled with snowdrifts, but to these wearied 
 men they were a haven of delight. 
 
 Tlie hardships and perils of Arctic explorations are in- 
 deed awful, but yet they are not able to deter these brave 
 explorers, who seek to wrest from these regions their 
 guarded secrets. 
 
 5. The Dommion of Canada. 
 
 What a great country this is. with its shores washed by 
 three oceans. Its total area is over three million square 
 miles, and it comprises one-third of the whole British 
 Empire. Its vast extent oifers great varieties of climate, 
 from the Arctic tracts of the north, Avhere a temperature 
 of —70° has been recorded, to the mild climate of the south- 
 west, warmed by the Japanese Current. 
 
 It is not a land teeming with population, like our coun- 
 try. Only about five million people inhabit this vast stretch 
 of territory, the southeastern provinces of Quebec and On- 
 tario being by far the most thickly settled. 
 
 Much of the country is unexplored. The islands of the 
 Arctic Archipelago are but little known; we know the 
 tundra, or ''Barren Grounds" only as a desolate region of 
 partly frozen moss, grass, and lichen. South of this lies 
 the great subarctic forest, stretching almost without break 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Here one might see a few 
 
11 
 
 Eskimos, or a tribe of Indians, or an agent of the Hudson 
 Bay Company. The rest of the forest is given up to wild 
 animals, that alone break the awful stillness of this lonely 
 land. 
 
 The Hudson Bay Company was chartered in 1670 to 
 trade with the Indians of this region. It is an English com- 
 pany, and its agents exchange the furs that the Indians 
 catch for glass beads, powder, flour, blankets, etc. 
 
 Once a year, in July, ships from England bring supplies 
 to the agents, and only then do these men see the face of 
 a white man. 
 
 They buy millions of skins every year, the supply ships 
 taking them back to London on their return. 
 
 The Hudson Bay sable, or pine marten, is the most com- 
 mon of the valuable varieties. It lives in the pine forests, 
 and is caught in traps by the Indians. The fisher is simi- 
 lar to the pine marten in appearance, though larger. The 
 mink bears an inferior fur. It frequents streams, and is 
 caught in traps baited with nsh. Two of the most valuable 
 furs are those furnished by the black fox and the silver fox. 
 The beaver is another valued fur-bearing animal. It has 
 almost disappeared from the forests, such numbers having 
 been killed to supply the needs of commerce. The most 
 valued fur of all is that of the sea-otter. It is caught in 
 nets or speared in the sea by the Indians. A good skin of 
 this variety is worth about two hundred dollars. The fur 
 trade is one of Canada's great resources. Few understand, 
 however, the amount of hardship and suffering needed to 
 procure these precious furs. The life of an Indian trapper 
 is indeed a hard one. Sometimes these men hunt in small 
 parties, each carrying his provisions and his sleeping blan- 
 ket. On a sled they draw the camp-kettles, the traps, and 
 the furs they may have taken. A walk of a hundred miles 
 
in search of their prey is nothing uniLsual for these hunters, 
 and that, too, in the dead of winter, with deep snows on the 
 ground. And all this labor for the trifling pay the Com- 
 pany will give for their furs ! 
 
 These Indians are remarkably honest. An Indian will 
 come into a trading-post in September without furs and 
 without a penny. He gets all the flour, tea, sugar, bacon, 
 powder, traps, etc., that he requires, the company giving 
 him credit to the amount of five hundred dollars, if he so 
 desires. With these goods in his canoe, he vanishes to his 
 hunting-grounds, possibly three hundred miles distant. Yet 
 the next June, when the streams are once more free of ice, 
 he will return with furs to pay this debt. For one of these 
 Indians not to pay his debts is an almost unknown thing. 
 
 One other feature of a Hudson Bay Company's fort miLst 
 be noticed, and that is the great crowd of dogs in the court- 
 yard. 
 
 Robinson says: "During the summer season they do 
 nothing for man, but pass their time in war, robbery, and 
 music, if their mournful howls can be dignified by that 
 name. And yet, neglected as are these noisy, dirty animals 
 in their months of idleness, unfed, kept in bare life by 
 plunder, the mark for every passer's stick or stone, they 
 are highly prized by their owners, and a team of fine, good, 
 well-trained dogs will bring a handsome price when the 
 winter season approaches. Then two well-broken dogs be- 
 come as valuable as a horse; then it is the dogs that haul 
 the sledges and that perform, in fact, nearly all the work 
 of the country." 
 
 Most of these dogs are wolf-like in appearance and na- 
 ture. So savage are they that sometimes a driver, to har- 
 ness or imharness them, must partly stun them by a blow 
 on the nose. 
 
13 
 
 The dogs are harnessed in various ways, either two 
 abreast, or tandem, or into a pack by separate lines. Their 
 rate of speed with a sledge averages forty miles in a day 
 of ten hours. Without these dogs, all communication in 
 this wild land would be impossible. 
 
 6. The Dominion of Canada (continued). 
 
 Eric the Red visited Labrador about the year 1000 A. D., 
 and he called it the "Land of Naked Rocte." Its present 
 name was given to it in consequence of a visit there in 
 1500, by a Portuguese explorer. He took back to Portugal 
 some of the Indians as slaves; and the king, thinking he 
 had found a region that Avould supply him with slave 
 laborers, called the land "Labrador," or "Laborers' 
 Land." 
 
 The life on this desolate peninsula is just as hard 
 as that in the fur country. This peninsula has an 
 area of about live hundred thousand square miles. The in- 
 terior is still Imperfectly known, though the coast, stretch- 
 ing along over one thousand miles, has been visited for 
 centuries. Numerous marshes and lakes are found in the 
 interior, while the river valleys support forests, in which 
 deer, bears, and fur-bearing animals are found. 
 
 Though much of Labrador lies in the same latitude as 
 England, the climate is very severe. The snow lies on the 
 ground fror: September to June, and a temperature of 
 thirty degrees below zero is not uncommon. In winter 
 the whole coast is blockaded by drifting fields of ice; in 
 summer, glittering icebergs give added beauty to these 
 ' ' storm-beaten shores. ' ' 
 
 The permanent inhabitants are the Eskimos in the north 
 und the east, the Indians in the interior, and the whites at 
 scattered points along the coast. There are about four 
 
14 
 
 thousand whites living permanently in Labrador, their oc- 
 cupations being lishing in summer and trapping fur-bear- 
 ing animals in winter. 
 
 Suffering is extreme among these poor people in winter, 
 for flour and other necessities of life are very dear. Dr. 
 Wilfred Grenfell, an English missionary doctor, by his 
 work among these men, Ivcis helped them to some extent. 
 He has established several small hospitals and a number of 
 co-operative stores which have reduced the high prices of 
 food at least half. Aided by Andrew Carnegie, he has also 
 es'tablished forty portable libraries, and in many cases he 
 has had the people taught to read. Another good idea was 
 to teach sewing to the women. But the field is large, and 
 one man's work cannot cover it. It is a hard, barren land, 
 with little but endless toil and suffering for those forced 
 to spend their lives there. 
 
 In summer the white population is temporarily inci*eased 
 by the great numbers of Newfoundland fishermen who go 
 with their families to Labrador about the end of June, liv- 
 ing in rude huts along the shore during the fishing season. 
 
 Dr. Charles Townsend says: "The permanent inhabit- 
 ants of the Labrador coast, the 'liveyers', are about three 
 thousand in number, while between twenty and thirty 
 thousand fishermen spend the short summer there. These 
 latter figures include fisherwomen and fisher children, for 
 they all take part in the business of preparing and curing 
 the fish. As soon as the ice permits, and even before it, the 
 fleet of schooners sails from Newfoundland for the Labrador 
 coast, eager to be on hand when the fish 'strike in.' . . . 
 There are two things among these fisherfolk that are con- 
 spicuous by their absence. . . . T saw no drunkenness 
 and heard but little profanity all the time I was on the 
 coast. . . . The people are a sturdy and contented-look- 
 
15 
 
 illy' icicc. it is true that they lack many things that we call 
 necessities ... but to my mind they are infinitely bet- 
 ter off than the toiling slum dwellers of our great cities." 
 
 He says the icebergs are one of the most interesting pic- 
 tures in Labrador, varying in size from "tiny cakes of ice 
 to great masses as large as a cathedral," with only about 
 one-sixth of the mass above the water. 
 
 "The color of these bergs first calls for our admiration. 
 Of alabaster whiteness, and sparkling in the sun as if beset 
 with diamonds, they are objects of exceeding beauty. In 
 the shadows, in the deep crevasses, and in the caverns 
 carved by the hungry waves, the color is often of the most 
 intense and translucent blue. Where the water washes 
 them and they extend out as great subaqueous shelves, the 
 color changes to a lovely green. ... In the changing 
 lights and shadows of sunrise and sunset, the icebergs glow 
 with pink oi' darken with purples and blues in a wonderful 
 manner. Beautiful as these colors are, perhaps the most 
 beautiful and impressive of all is the pure, chaste whiteness 
 of these ice mountains of the sea." 
 
 7. The Klondike Gold Region. 
 
 The Indian name for Klondike was Throndiuk, meaning 
 "river full of fish." It is not for its fish, however, that 
 the Klondike region is valued to-day, but for its gold. The 
 Klondike River is a shallow Canadian stream, about one 
 hundred and twenty miles long, draining into the Yukon. 
 The Klondike gold-fields are in the northwestern part of the 
 Dominion of Canada. "The Dome," a mountain mass 
 over four thousand feet high, lies between the Indian River 
 and the Klondike River, and in it many of the gold-pro- 
 ducing creeks rise. Gold was first discovered here in 1896. 
 "When the 'I^]xcelsior' steamed into the Golden Gate on 
 
16 
 
 the mornine of July 14, 1S97, San Francisco was at first 
 inclined to regard as a 'fake' the reports she brought of 
 fabulous gold discoveries in the far northwest. . . . 
 Three days later, however, the arrival of the 'Portland' at 
 Seattle, with over a million dollars, changed doubt into cer- 
 tainty." People rushed madly for this new El Dorado, 
 enduring terrible hardship in getting there and after reach- 
 ing it. The water route to Klondike is very long. The 
 traveller goes from San Francisco to St. Michael, a small 
 commercial station of western Alaska, near the mouth of 
 the Yukon ; thence the route is down the Yukon by steamers 
 to Dawson City, the chief town of the Klondike region. 
 This route is four thousand, eight hundred and two miles 
 long, and is adapted only to summer travel, for the Yukon 
 is frozen all the year except from the middle of June to 
 early September. 
 
 In the early days of the gold excitement, the miners took 
 a shorter route of about five hundred miles from Dyea, a 
 port of southeastern Alaska, through the Chilkoot Pass in 
 the Coast Mountains to Dawscn City. Supplies were drawn 
 on sledges or carried on the backs of miners until the Yukon 
 was reached. This wild Chilkoot Pass was the scene of 
 great suffering in those early days, for its fierce storms 
 lasted all winter, and its temperature often fell to forty de- 
 grees below zero. A railroad has now been built over the 
 neighboring White Pass, the southern terminus being the 
 town of Skagway, which is a short distance east of Dyea. 
 By this railroad and by steamboat along the upper course 
 of the Yukon, Dawson can now be reached in safety. 
 
 Dawson City lies on the Yukon River just below the mouth 
 of the Klondike, and it is the centre of the gold region there. 
 Its climate is severe in winter, the thermometer, often reg- 
 istering fifty degrees below zero. Their winter days are 
 
17 
 
 short, there being but two hours between the sun's rising 
 and setting. In summer, on the other hand, the days are 
 twenty hours long. 
 
 The town has banks, stores, warehouses, etc., and its pop- 
 ulation is as orderly as that of any other mining town In 
 1896, everything was absurdly dear. A ten-cent cigar or 
 a shave cost a dollar ; sugar cost thirty-five cents a pound ; 
 lemons cost twenty-five cents apiece ; oranges cost fifty cents 
 apiece; and eggs cost two dollars a dozen. The railroad 
 has, of course, cheapened things greatly. 
 
 The Klondike gold-fields are a rich possession. In 1897, 
 from January to the beginning of April, they yielded about 
 five million dollars' worth of gold, though every foot of 
 ground had to be thawed out by small fires. It is estimated 
 that the present annual yield is about $20,000,000. 
 
 8. Canadian Cities. 
 
 You must not think that the whole of Canada is desolate 
 and cheerless. The southern part is a region of farm and 
 forest, with many flourishing towns. We have not time to 
 speak of Ottawa, the capital; of Toronto, the beautiful, 
 flourishing port; of Winnipeg, one of the great wheat cen- 
 ters of the world; of Halifax, the chief naval station of 
 England in North America. Let us visit its two most in- 
 teresting cities, Montreal and Quebec. 
 
 Montreal is the chief commercial city of Canada. It is 
 on the south side of the Island of Montreal in the St. Law- 
 rence River, which here is over two miles wide. Its streets 
 are broad, and its buildings have an imposing appearance, 
 being largely built of limestone. 
 
 Mount Royal is a hill back of the town. Riding up its 
 inclined railway we get a fine view of the city at our feet 
 and of the famous Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence. 
 
18 
 
 ' This bridge spans the two miles of water, and rests on 
 stone pillars strong enough to resist the rush of ice in the 
 spring. It is one of the largest bridges in the world, and 
 the people are justly proud of it. 
 
 Above the city are the Lachine Rapids. They are a 
 three-mile stretch of the St. Lawrence, where the river 
 rushes madly over rocks. Usually an Indian pilot guides 
 the steamer through this dangeroiLs point. His Avatchful 
 eye never leaves the line he knows he must follow, and 
 niany an anxious passenger breathes a sigh of relief when 
 the boat has passed the Rapids. 
 
 Two-thirds of the people are French Canadians, and 
 there is a great dilference between them and their English 
 neighbors. The French shrug is everywhere seen in the 
 ]narkets, as the peasants haggle over prices, regardless of 
 the flight of time. The houses of the French quarter are 
 only a story or two high, fronting narrow little streets, just 
 like streets of the Old World. The English are more busi- 
 ness-like. They are the commercial and the manufacturing 
 element of the city. 
 
 Two of the finest buildings in the city are the magnificent 
 "Windsor Hotel and the splendid cathedral of Notre Dame. 
 This church, next to the cathedral of IMexico, is the largest 
 in America. Its two towers, over two hundred feet high, 
 are recognized everywhere, and its great bell, in one of these 
 towers, is the largest on this continent. 
 
 In Montreal, as elsewhere in Canada, there is much life 
 and activity in w^inter, sleighing, skating, and tobogganing 
 being the chief sports. 
 
 A toboggan is made of two thin pieces of basswood, 
 about two feet wide and six feet long, fastened together by 
 bars of wood. The top is turned up at the front end, while 
 the bottom is made verj^ smooth. 
 
19 
 
 The toboggan can be used on any snowy hillside, but an 
 artificial slope is preferred. This is made of logs and 
 planks, covered with ice. Steps at the side enable one to 
 ascend to the top, where the toboggan is j)laced in position 
 for its mad plunge down the hill. What fun to whirl down 
 the smooth slope! One must have a good steersman, how-, 
 ever, or the toboggan and its load will turn upside down in 
 the snow. 
 
 Old and young revel in these outdoor sports. Winter 
 has its discomforts, but the Canadians really enjoy theirs, 
 and find health and strength in its bracing cold. 
 
 9. Canadian Cities (continued). . 
 
 Quebec is the oldest city in Canada, having been founded 
 in 1608 by the French explorer, Champlain. It is a very 
 picturesque place, and resembles a quaint old European 
 town, rather than a busy American city. 
 
 The city is built on a table-land on the left bank of the 
 St. Lawrence River, and is divided into an upper tow^n and 
 a lower town. The- upper town occupies the highest part 
 of the table-land. It still has its ancient walls in places, 
 and is further fortified by its strong fortress on the top of 
 Cape Diamond, the end of the table-land, three hundred 
 and fifty feet above the river. 
 
 This fortress, flying the English flag, and guarded by 
 Canadian soldiers, is perhaps the strongest fortification in 
 America. So well protected is Quebec that we sometimes 
 call it ''The Gibraltar of America." 
 
 Next in interest to the fortress is the superb Dufferin 
 Terrace, a great platform of wood, a quarter of a mile long, 
 and seventy feet wide, built along the edge of the cliff one 
 hundred and eighty-five feet above the lower town. This 
 
20 
 
 Terrace is a favorite promenade in summer, giving one a 
 tine view of the city and its surroundings. 
 
 The lower town is the seat of the commerce of the port, 
 and warehouses and wharves line the banks. It is built 
 around the base of Cape Diamond, and the streets are, as 
 a rule, narrow and irregular. To reach the upper town 
 from the lower we can take a winding road up Mountain 
 Street, or a steep flight of steps called Breakneck Stairs, or, 
 if it is summer, an elevator. 
 
 Many of the houses are small, and built of stone or plas- 
 tered brick. Wooden sidewalks are common, but the steep 
 streets are very clean. 
 
 One sees things here that seem strange to American eyes. 
 The caleche, or one-horse chaise, looks as if built to throw 
 the passenger out on the street. The body of the vehicle 
 rests on two leather straps instead of springs; there are 
 two seats, one for two passengers, and one for the driver, 
 right in front. It rattles down the steep street and you 
 alight, delighted at the experience of the strange ride, but 
 willing to wait awhile before repeating it. 
 
 The people, too, are different, giving a charming air of 
 variety to the streets. The scarlet coats of the soldiers 
 lend a dash of color, while the stout peasant women **in 
 plain skirts and wide straw hats," could not be seen at 
 home. 
 
 The French air of many of these people suggest to us the 
 day when Quebec was a possession of France. No city has 
 had a more stirring history. Its founder aimed to civilize 
 and Christianize the savage Indians, and much suffering 
 was endured in accomplishing this hard task. Quebec grew 
 in strength and power, and its commanding position made 
 it the object of repeated attacks in the various colonial 
 wars. You remember how it was taken in 1759 by Wolfe 
 
21 
 
 and the English. FJoating- silently down the river that 
 September night, Wolfe reached a little cove. Climbing 
 from here the steep slope of the Heights of Abraham, the 
 English dragged their few, small cannon after them. The 
 morning light showed Montcalm a sight that surprised 
 but did not terrify his brave soul,— the foe drawn up in 
 battle-order on the Plains of Abraham. The invaders car- 
 ried the day, though with the loss of their leader; the 
 French lost day and city and leader. 
 
 The last words of both commanders are immortal. When 
 Wolfe, dying on the field, was told the French were re- 
 treating, conquered, he said, "God be praised; I die 
 happy." Montcalm, carried to the Ursuline Convent, was 
 told he could live but a few hours. "So much the better," 
 said he; "1 shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 
 
 But this quarrel and strife ended many years ago. To- 
 day the two nations live at peace with each other, no longer 
 enemies opposed to each other, but friends, united in the 
 love of their city and in 'their desire for its progress and 
 welfare. 
 
 lo. Newfoundland. 
 
 Near Labrador lies the great island of Newfoundland, 
 almost as large as Pennsylvania. Its winter is much 
 milder, and its summer much cooler than places on the 
 neighboring mainland. This equable climate is due to the 
 surrounding water. On all sides, great bays penetrate from 
 the Atlantic, some being ninety miles in length. This ir- 
 regular outline of water makes the scenery beautiful, as at 
 nearly all points, "dark cliffs, miles on miles of rocky walls 
 from two hundred to three hundred feet in height," can 
 be seen. 
 
22 
 
 At least one-lialf of the people of Newfoundland live by 
 the fisheries, either catching the fish or salting them or 
 preparing them for market. 
 
 The deep-sea fishermen fish for cod on the Banks of 
 NcAvfonndland. These famous banks are shallow places in 
 the ocean, where the water is from ten to one hundred and 
 sixty fathoms deep. They are six hundred miles long and 
 about two hundred miles wide, Grand Bank and Georges 
 Bank being the most important. 
 
 What a life of peril and. toil these men lead! Fogs ap- 
 pear without a moment's warning, making the movements 
 of the vessels very dangerous. Frequently ocean steamers 
 strike against these little boats in the fog, dashing the help- 
 less fishermen into the angry sea to perish. If a sudden 
 gale arises, there is great danger indeed to these daring 
 fishers, for the storms of winters do not keep them on shore. 
 
 '' Perhaps the icy wind blows several of the smacfe over 
 on their sides, and the men, clinging in the tattered rigging, 
 ride out the gale. Each wave that breaks over the icy deck 
 carries away a man. With frozen hands, some of the crew 
 feebly cling to the ropes ; the next swell of the sea plunges 
 them into the depths of the ocean. A brother, a father, or 
 a son drowns before the faces of his kindred, separated 
 from them by only a few yards. But alas, those yards are 
 made up of white, mountainous billoAvs, and green, yawn- 
 ing gulfs ! And there is no hand to save. ' ' 
 
 Yet these brave men do not fear the sea. In spite of its 
 terrors, they love it; very rarely indeed do they leave it 
 for easier, safer work on shore. 
 
 One other interesting fact about Newfoundland is that 
 it is nearer Europe than any other part of North America. 
 From its eastern shore to Valentia, Ireland, is only sixteen 
 hundred and forty miles. Hence it is on the bed of this 
 
23 
 
 part of the Atiantic that cables are hiid to permit the send- 
 ing' of messages from America to Europe. The cables are 
 landed at Heart's Content, on Trinity' Bay, in southeast- 
 ern Newfoundland. Does it not seem wonderful that 
 man has been able to think out a means of sending news 
 so far, under the great waves of the ocean '? The credit of 
 this invention is due to Cyrus W. Fields, who persevered 
 for years before he succeeded in his great plan. 
 
 Newfoundland was discovered by John Cabot in 1497, 
 as the records of the expenditures of King Henry VII. 
 show: "1497, Aug. 10. To hym that found the New Isle, 
 £10." The history of the island for many 3^ears was only 
 a record of disputes between English and French fishermen. 
 The island became an English possession by the Treaty of 
 Utrecht, in 1713, and it still remains under English rule. 
 It is not a part of Canada, but has its own governor, ap- 
 pointed by the king of England. The people share in the 
 government, electing a general assembly to aid in making 
 the laws. 
 
 II. In and around Boston. 
 
 Boston is the chief city of New England. Its people are 
 very proud of it, and with right. Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, the great author, ridiculed this pride when he 
 said, "Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system." 
 
 "We all have a right to admire Boston, as one of our great 
 cities. It is second to New York as regards commerce, and 
 from its harbor, ships sail to all parts of the world. 
 
 A visitor finds it a most interesting city, if he has any 
 knowledge of American history. Here occurred that so- 
 called "Boston Massacre," which aroused the entire coun- 
 try in 1770. The quarrel between the mob and the soldiers 
 was a little thing, but the shedding of American blood by 
 
24 
 
 Poreiscn soldiers was a great and dreadful thing to the peo- 
 ple. That command of ''Fire!" was fatal. As Hawthorne 
 says : ''The flash of their mnskets lighted up the street, and 
 the report rang loudly between the edifices. . . . Eleven 
 of the sons of New England lay stretched upon the street. 
 Some, sorely wounded, were struggling to rise again. 
 Others stirred not nor groaned, for they were past all pain. 
 Blood was streaming upon the snow ; and that purple stain 
 in the midst of King Street, though it melted away in the 
 next day's sun, was never forgetten nor forgiven by the 
 people." 
 
 The famous "Boston Tea-Party" occurred in 1773, when 
 about fifty men and boys, dressed as Indians, emptied the 
 tea-chests on the three British ships into the sea. 
 
 You remember Longfellow 's fine poem of ' ' Paul Revere 's 
 Ride"°^ Paul Revere was a Bostonian, and the two lan- 
 terns, hung from the steeple of old North Church that April 
 night in 1775, told him the British were beginning their 
 march against Lexington and Concord, a few miles distant. 
 He bravely rode in advance to spread the alarm. 
 
 "So through the night rode Paul Revere; 
 
 And so through the night went his cry of alarm 
 
 To every Middlesex village and farm,— 
 
 A cry of defiance and not of fear, 
 
 A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 
 
 And a word that shall echo for evermore! 
 
 For, borne on the night wind of the past, 
 
 Through all our history, to the last, 
 
 In the hour of darkness and peril and need. 
 
 The people will waken and listen to hear 
 
 The hurrying hoof -beats of that steed. 
 
 And the midnight message of Paul Revere." 
 
25 
 
 The quaint North Church brings those stirring days to 
 our mind; so does old Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Lib- 
 erty." In the hall over the market here, the American 
 patriots used to meet to talk about securing- their liberties 
 from England. 
 
 The battle of Bunker Hill was fought in what is now 
 Boston, in 1775. It roused the whole country, for it showed 
 the people that the American soldier dared to fight his 
 British foe. When Washington heard how bravely the 
 Americans had fought at Bunker Hill, he said, "The liber- 
 ties of the country are safe!" When we see Bunker Hill 
 Monument, that tall granite shaft, two hundred and twenty- 
 one feet high, we think of what these patriots did, and of 
 what their work means for us to-day. 
 
 Boston Common is a beautiful park in the centre of the 
 city, covering forty-eight acres ; its beautiful elms make it 
 most attractive. In the centre of the Common is the Frog 
 Pond, around which the children plaj^ At first the Com- 
 mon was intended as a common pasture for cattle ; to-day it 
 is simply a pleasure park. 
 
 On one side of the Common is the State-House, with its 
 gilded dome, visible far and wide. The Boston Public 
 Library and the magnificent Commonwealth Avenue are 
 two other points of interest in the town that no tourist can 
 neglect. The Library is a splendid marble pile with fine 
 paintings and a rich collection of books. Commonwealth 
 x\venue is "one of the finest residence streets of America.'' 
 It is two hundred and forty feet wide; on both sides are 
 handsome houses, while a stretch of trees is found through 
 its centre. 
 
 Cambridge is a beautiful suburb of Boston. Here we 
 find Harvard ITniversity, founded in 1636, and now one 
 of the leading American colleges, with its roll of over four 
 
26 
 
 thousand students. Near the University is the famous elm 
 nnder which Washington took command of the American 
 forces in 1775.- In Cambridge, too, is the house in which 
 Longfellow^ lived, famous as having been Washington's 
 headcjuarters in 1775. A\^est of the city is the lovely cem- 
 etery. Mount Auburn, where Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, 
 and many other great Americans are buried. 
 
 12. In and around Boston (continued). 
 
 About sixteen miles from Boston is an extensive reef of 
 rocks on which a famous lighthouse is built. It took over 
 live years to build Minot Ledge Light. The rock on which 
 it stands is covered by the ocean except at low tide, and 
 then it is visible for a few hours. After two years' labor, 
 the workmen managed to get an iron platform built ; they 
 labored under great difficulties, for they had to hold on to 
 I'opes while working, to prevent themselves from being 
 washed away by the sea. In one night, the sea destroyed 
 this lnb(n^ of two years; the men persevered, however, and 
 at last the lighthouse ^vas built. It is a round stone tower, 
 eighty-eight feet high. As Longfellow says, ''It rises out 
 of the sea like a huge cannon, mouth upward." But its 
 message is not war and destruction; it is mercy and help- 
 fulness, for many a sailor has been saved by its w^arning 
 rays. 
 
 No traveller to Boston could leave without seeing old 
 Plymouth. It is about thirty-seven miles from Boston, and 
 a day's trip there on the boat is a delightful experience. 
 Plymoiuh is the oldest town in New England, for here the 
 Pilgrim fathers first settled, when they landed from the 
 "Mayflower" in December, 1620. The long, severe jour- 
 ney was over for them, and the small mass of granite that 
 we call Plymouth Pock shows where they landed. The date. 
 
27 
 
 1620, is carved on it to-day, for that was the year in which 
 that little company began their dreary winter's fight for 
 life, contending successful^ with hunger, cold, and the 
 desolate, lifeless land. 
 
 This stone has been called the ''corner-stone of the Re- 
 public," for without these fearless, liberty-loving Pilgrims, 
 our nation would never have become the great, free land 
 it is. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans praises the Puritan character in her beau- 
 tiful poem, describing the Pilgrims' landing: 
 
 "Ay, call it holy groimd, 
 
 ' The soil where first they trod ; 
 They have left unstained what there they found, — 
 Freedom to worship God." 
 
 Many relics of that early time are kept in Pilgrim Hall 
 in Plymouth. Many colonial garments, pieces of furniture, 
 dishes, etc., can be seen there. Peregrine AAHiite's little 
 wicker cradle will interest you, since that child was the first 
 white baby born in New England. Of even more interest 
 is the sword of the famous Captain Miles Standish, the 
 brave leader of the Pilgrims in their Indian wars, feared 
 by them as a strong fighter and respected as an honest, 
 good man. Longfellow shows us the l^ind of man he was 
 in the answer he sent back to the Indians when one of them 
 brought the threat of war, in the rattlesnake skin filled Avith 
 arrows : 
 
 ''War is a terrible trade; but in the cause that is righteous, 
 Sweet is the smell of powder; and thus I answer the chal- 
 lenge ! 
 Then from the rattlesnake's skin, with a sudden contemptu- 
 ous gasture, 
 
28 
 
 Jerkins: the Indian arrows, he filled it with powder and 
 
 bullets 
 Full to the very jaws, and handed it back to the savage, 
 Saying, in thundering tones : ' ' Plere, take it ! this is your 
 
 answer ! ' * 
 
 13. Winter in New England. 
 
 I believe no one attempts to praise the climate of New 
 England. . . . There is far less fog and damp than in 
 England, and the perfectly calm, sunny days of midwinter 
 are endurable; but the least breath of wind seems to chill 
 one's very life. I had no idea what the suffering from 
 extreme cold amounted to till one day, in Boston, I walked 
 the length of the city and back again in a wind, with the 
 thermometer seven degrees and a half below zero. . . . 
 
 Every season, however, has its peculiar pleasures, and in 
 the retrospect these shine out brightly, while the evils dis- 
 appear. 
 
 On a December morning you are awakened by the do- 
 mestic, scraping at your hearth. Your anthracite fire has 
 been in all night; and now the ashes are carried away, 
 more coal is put on, and the blower hides the kindly red 
 
 from you for a time Breakfast is always hot, 
 
 be the weather what it may. The coffee is scalding, and 
 the buclnvheat cakes steam when the cover is taken off. 
 Your host's little boy asks whether he may go coasting to- 
 day. . . . 
 
 To coast is to ride on a board down a frozen slope, and 
 many children do this in the steep streets which lead down 
 to the Common. . . . Some sit on their heels on tlie 
 board, some on their crossed legs. Some strike their legs 
 out, put their arms akimbo, and so assume an air of defiance 
 amid their velocity. Others prefer lying on their stomachs. 
 
29 
 
 and so going headforemost, an attitude whose comfort 
 could hardly enter into. Coasting is a wholesome exercise 
 for hardy boys. Of course, they have to walk up the ascent, 
 carrying their boards between every feat of coasting. . . . 
 
 As for the sleighing, I heard much more than I experi- 
 enced of its charms. . . . I do not know the author of 
 a description of sleighing which was quoted to me, but I 
 admire it for its fidelity. "Do you want to know what 
 sleighing is like? You can soon try. Set your chair on 
 a spring-board out on the porch on Christmas-day; put your 
 feet in a pailful of powdered ice; have somebody to jingle a 
 bell in one ear, and somebody else to blow into the other 
 with the bellows, and you will have an exact idea of sleigh- 
 ing." . . . 
 
 If the streets be coated with ice, you put on your india- 
 rubber shoes. ... If not, you are pretty sure to meas- 
 ure your length on the pavement before your own 
 door. . . . 
 
 Nothing is seen in England like the streets of Boston and 
 New York at the end of the season, while the thaw is pro- 
 ceeding. . . . Carts tumble, slip, and slide, and get 
 on as best they can; while the mass (of snow), now dirty, 
 not only with thaw, but with quantities of refuse vegetables 
 . . . and other rubbish . . . daily sinks and dis- 
 solves into a composite mud. . . . 
 
 If the morning drives are extended beyond the city, there 
 is much to delight the eye. The trees are cased in ice ; and 
 when the sun shines out suddenly, the whole scene looks 
 like one diffused rainbow, dressed in a brilliancy which can 
 hardly be conceived of in England. On days less bright, 
 the blue ha.rbor spreads out in strong contrast with the 
 sheeted snow, which extends to its very brink. 
 
 Abridged from Harriet Martineau. 
 
30 
 
 14. The White Mountains. 
 
 The White ivlountains lie in the northeastern part of New 
 Hampshire, eoveriug an area of about thirteen hundred 
 square miles, These mountains are divided into two groups, 
 the western group being the Franconia Mountains, and the 
 eastern the Presidential Range, or the White Mountains 
 proper. Between these two groups lies the Crawford 
 Notch, or the White Mountain Notch. This Notch, bound- 
 ing the Presidential Range on the southv/est, is a narrow 
 valley about four miles long bordered by magnificent moun- 
 tain-walls and traversed by the Saco River on its way to 
 the Atlantic. . Other streams draining these beautiful 
 mountains are the Pemigewasset River and the Ammonoo- 
 suc, which jiow west to the Connecticut River. 
 
 The Merrimac, too, rises in the White Mountains. Wliit- 
 tier in his poem uses for these mountains the Indian name, 
 "Agiochook," meaning "the Home of the Great Spirit." 
 ITe says of the river : 
 
 "Breaking the dull continuous wood, 
 The Merrimac rolled down his -flood; 
 Mingling that clear, pellucid brook. 
 Which channels vast Agiochook 
 When spring-time's sun and shower unlock 
 The frozen fountains of the rock. 
 And more abundant waters, given 
 From that pure lake, "The Smile of Heaven," 
 Tributes from vale and mountain-side. 
 With ocean's dark, eternal tide!" 
 
 The Franconia Mountains are not so high as the Presi- 
 dential Range, Mount Lafayette with its fifty-two hundred 
 feet being the highest. The Franconia Notch is a beauti- 
 fully wooded ravine, about five miles long, through which 
 
31 
 
 the Pemigewasset flows. The famous Flume is made by a 
 little brook tributary to the Pemigewasset River, ''dashing 
 along the bottom of a fissure for several hundred feet, bor- 
 dered by high walls rising sixty to seventy feet above the 
 torrent and only a few feet apart. The water rushes to- 
 wards the Pemigewasset between these smooth, granite walls, 
 and the awe-struck visitor walks through in startled ad- 
 miration," says Joel Cook. 
 
 Mount Cannon in this Franconia group, rising from Pro- 
 file Lake, bears on its southeastern face the wonderful 
 ' ' Great Stone Face ' ' described, by Hawthorne. This ' ' Old 
 Man of the Mountain" is a very striking rock effect, 
 strongly resembling a man's face when viewed at a certain 
 point. 
 
 The Presidential Range has a number of peaks over five 
 thousand feet higli, among them being Mount AdauLS, 
 Mount Jefferson, i\Iount ^ladison, and Mount JMonroe. 
 Towering over all is IMount AVashington, six thousand two 
 hundred and eighty-six feet high. East of the Mississippi 
 River there is no higher point except Mount Mitchell 
 and a few other peaks in North Carolina. A carriage- 
 road and an inclined-plane railway ascend the mountain, 
 enabling visitors to get the wonderful view from its sum- 
 mit. Thomas Starr King says: ''The first effect of stand- 
 ing on the summit of Mount Washington is a bewdldering 
 of the senses at the extent and lawlessness of the 
 spectacle. It is as though we were looking upon 
 a chaos. The land is tossed into a tempest." That endless 
 succession of "billowy peaks," forest-covered, is amazing 
 at all times, but especially so when the fires of the sun 
 glow in burning colors at sunrise and sunset. 
 
 Starr King, who loved these hills, describes thus the 
 glories of Mount Washington : ' ' The storms of untold thou- 
 
32 
 
 sands of years have chiselled lines of expression in the 
 mountain, whose grace and charm no landscape gardening 
 on a lowland can rival; and the bloom of the richest con- 
 servatory would look feeble in contrast with the hues that 
 often, in morning and evening, or in the pomp of autumn 
 and the winter desolation, have glowed upon it, as though 
 the art of God was concentrated in making it outblush 
 the rose, or dim the sapphire with its flame." 
 
 15. New York State. 
 
 ''The Empire State" is famous not only for its wealth, 
 its manufactures, and its great cities, but also for the many 
 and varied beauties of its woods and Avaters. 
 
 In the northeast lie the Adirondack Mountains, splendid 
 in beauty. Great forests cover these mountains, and here 
 and there are seen lovely lakes, such as Saranac Lake, or 
 Lake Placid. The highest peak of the group is Mount 
 Marcy. Although only about a mile high, the Indians call 
 it the ''Cloud Splitter." Scattered farms and villages are 
 found, but it is chiefly in summer that the mountains wake 
 to the sounds of life. Thousands come then to enjoy the 
 pure, sparkling waters and the balmy air. 
 
 Flowing from the jnountains into Lake Champlain is the 
 Ausable River. Near its mouth, the river enters Ausable 
 Chasm, a deep, narrow gorge, two miles long, remarkable 
 for its wild, picturesque beauty. 
 
 Lake Champlain forms the northeastern boundary of the 
 State. This splendid sheet of water is one hundred and 
 twenty miles long, and all along this distance we find beau- 
 tiful scenery. 
 
 Emptying into it by a narrow creek is the loveliest of all 
 lakes. Lake George. It is not a large lake, being only about 
 thirtv-six miles long: but the surrounding mountains and 
 
33 
 
 the exquisitely beautiful islets that meet the eye at every 
 turn sfive to it a peaceful beauty all its own. 
 
 The Niagara Eiver in western New York forms one of the 
 world's show places. This river issues from Lake Erie at 
 Buffalo, and running north for about thirty-five miles, it 
 enters Lake Ontario. At Goat Island, about half-way in 
 its course, the river is divided into the two great falls that 
 we call Niagara Falls. Horseshoe Fall, on the Canadian 
 side, takes most of the water, though the American Fall is 
 somewhat higher, being one hundred and sixty-seven feet 
 high. Below the cataract for seven miles the river flow^s 
 through a wild gorge, whose vertical walls are two hundred 
 and fifty feet high. Here the waters toss and foam in a 
 mad frenzy. To see them fills one with an awe almost as 
 great as that caused by the plunge of the water at the Falls 
 themselves. 
 
 A ride in the brave little "Maid of the Mist" gives one 
 some idea of this mass of water and its terrible power. In 
 vain the sunbeams play over the water; they cannot take 
 away one's sense of being in the presence of an awful force 
 of nature. 
 
 Charles Dickens, the English writer, said that when he 
 looked at Niagara, he felt how near he was to the Creator. 
 "Still do those waters roar and rush, and leap and tumble 
 all day long! Still are the rainbows spanning them one 
 hundred feet below! Still, when the sun is on them, do 
 they shine like molten gold ! Still, when the day is gloomy, 
 do they seem to crumble like a great chalk cliff, or like a 
 mass of dense, white smoke." 
 
 i6. The Adirondacks. 
 
 The Adirondack wilderness is essentially unbroken. A 
 few bad roads that penetrate it, a few jolting wagons that 
 
34 
 
 traverse them, a few barn-like boarding-hoiises on the edge 
 of the forest ... do little to destroy the savage fascina- 
 tion of the region. In half an hour, at any point, one can 
 put himself into solitude and every desirable discomfort. 
 The party that covets the experience of the camp comes 
 down to primitive conditions of dress and equipment. 
 There are guides and porters to carry the blankets for 
 beds, the raw provisions, and the camp equipage; and the 
 motley party . . . files into the woods. . . . Moun- 
 tains are painfully climbed, streams forded, lonesome 
 lakes paddled over, long and muddy "carries" traversed. 
 . . . The hammering of the infrequent woodpecker, the 
 call of the lonely bird, the drumming of the solitary 
 partridge,— ail these sounds clo but emphasize the lonesome- 
 ness of nature. The roar of the mountain brook, dashing 
 over its bed of pebbles, rising out of the ravine, and spread- 
 ing, as it were, a mist of sound through all the forest . . ., 
 and the fitful movement of the air-tides through the bal- 
 sams and firs and the giant pines,— how these grand sym- 
 phonies shut out the little exasj^erations of our vexed 
 life! . . . 
 
 When our trampers come, late in the afternoon, to the 
 ban^ of a lovely lake where they purpose to enter the 
 primitive life, everything is waiting for them in virgn ex- 
 pectation. There is a little promontory jutting into the 
 lake, and sloping down to a sandy beach ; . . . the forest 
 is untouched by the axe; the tender green sweeps the 
 water's edge; ranks of slender firs are marshalled by the 
 shore; clumps of white-birch stems shine in satin purity 
 among the evergreens; the loles of giant spruces, maples, 
 and oaks, lifting high their crowns of foliage, stretch away 
 in endlass galleries and arcades ; through the shifting leaves 
 the sunshine falls upon the brown earth; overhead are 
 
35 
 
 fragments of blue sky; under the boughs and in chance 
 openings appear the bluer lake and the outline of the gra- 
 cious niountains. The discoverers of this paradise . . . 
 note the babbling of the brook that flows close at hand; 
 they hear the splash of the leaping fish; they listen to the 
 sweet, metallic song of the evening thrush, and the chatter 
 of the red squirrel, who angrily challenges their right 
 to be there. . . . 
 
 The spot for the shanty is cleared of underbrush. . . . 
 In an incredible space of time there is the skeleton of a 
 house. . . . Meantime, busy hands have gathered boughs 
 of the spruce and the feathery balsam, and shingled the 
 ground underneath the shanty for a bed. . . . Upon it 
 are spread the blankets. , . 
 
 Darkness falls suddenly. Outside the ring of light from 
 our conflagration the woods are black. . . . We are the 
 prisoners of the night. The woods never seemed so vast 
 and mysterious. The trees are gigantic. ... We hear 
 catamounts, and the stealthy tread of things in the leaves, 
 and the hooting of the owls, and, when the moon rises, 
 the laughter of the loon. Everything is strange, spectral, 
 fascinating. 
 Ahridged from ''Camping Ont" by Charles Dudley Warner. 
 
 17. The Hudson and Its City. 
 
 The Hudson's real source is a small lake in the Adiron- 
 dajck Mountains, called "Tear of the Clouds." For beauty 
 of «cenery no American river can equal the Hudson, and. a 
 ride down the river gives a day of beautiful sights to the 
 traveler. We catch a glimpse of many towns along the route, 
 but nothing interests us more than the view we get of West 
 Point. Here on a beautiful plateau, about fifty miles north 
 of the City of New York, is the site of the United States 
 
36 
 
 Military Academy. This famous school for soldiers was the 
 scene of Benedict Arnold's treason; yon remember that 
 when he Avas in command here in 1780, he tried to betray it 
 to the British, winning- for himself the most despised name 
 in American history. 
 
 The Academy was established in 1802. The cadets are 
 appointed on the recommendation of a Congressman or the 
 President, after which a severe entrance examination in 
 certain studies must be passed. The course lasts four years, 
 and gives an excellent military training. So high is the 
 standard that less than half of those who enter are able to 
 graduate. 
 
 Farther down the river we come to the Palisades, a bold 
 bluff, or precipice, stretching along the western shore of 
 the Hudson for about eighteen miles. The Palisades 
 are nearly straight, and in some places they rise to the height 
 of five hundred feet. At their end we reach the greatest 
 city of America, New York. 
 
 Three and a half millions of people live in this city, gath- 
 ered from almost every land on the globe. Some of the 
 richest men in the world live here, while the ''East Side" 
 packs into its tenement-houses some of the poorest and most 
 wretched of human beings. 
 
 Broadway is its chief business street, a bustle of life and 
 motion the year through. Every one is hurrying and rush- 
 ing along, the people tilling the sidewalks as the numerous 
 vehicles ciowd the street itself. The "sky-scrapers" are 
 immense office buildings, sometimes twenty-five stories high. 
 
 Wall Street is another great street. It is the street for 
 the brokers, who buy and sell shares in railroads, mines, 
 telegraphs, etc. Such shares are called stoclvs ; and from the 
 gallery of the Stock Exchange on Wall Street, we can see 
 these excited men rushing about madly, buying or selling, 
 
37 
 
 winning or losing a fortnne, as it may be. "Billions of dol- 
 lars change hands on that floor every year." 
 
 Fifth Avenue is another well-known street, once the 
 ''foremost street of wealth and fashion in the United 
 States." 
 
 At the corner of Wall Street and Broadway is old Trin- 
 ity Church, the wealthiest church in our country. Beside 
 its quiet, brownstone walls is a churchyard where lie many 
 of America's famous dead. Here is the tomb of Robert 
 Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat; here, too, lies 
 Alexander Hamilton, the great statesman who did so much 
 to establish our government in 1789. 
 
 Central Park is a very fine pleasure ground in the city. 
 It occupies about eight hundred acres, beautifully arranged 
 with many miles of drives and foot-paths. 
 
 East River shows four magnificent bridges spanning it, 
 two of which are complete and in use. The most famous, 
 though not the largest, is Brooklyn Bridge, joining Brook- 
 lyn with JManhattan Island, on which New York city 
 proper is situated. This bridge is made of stone and steel, 
 and is over a mile long. It is eighty-five feet wide, and 
 contains two tracks for cars, two for wagons and carriages, 
 and one for pedestrians. The floor of the bridge is one 
 hundred and thirty-five feet above the water at high tide, 
 so that the largest vessels readily pass under it. Four 
 enormous cables support the bridge, each cable consisting 
 of five thousand wires. These cables go to the tops of the 
 stone towere at each end of the bridge. They are then 
 taken about nine hundred feet "inshore from the towers, 
 where they are secured under a weight of about sixty "thou- 
 sand tons of masonry." 
 
 The bridge was completed in 1883, after thirteen years' 
 labor, the cost being about sixteen million dollars. It was 
 
designed by John A. Koebling and built by his son. After 
 three years' work his health broke down, and he was com- 
 pelled to remain indoors as an invalid. He did not give 
 np, however, but by means of a telescope, he watched the 
 work and sent his orders to the builders day by day for ten 
 years, until the bridge was completed. 
 
 One other point of interest in New York is Ellis Island. 
 Here the vast numbers of immigrants that come every week 
 are landed and examined. Paupers and other bad classes 
 of people are sent back to the country from which they 
 came, while those able to take care of theiiLselves are per- 
 mitted to enter the great land of Freedom. 
 
 Perhaps we can give a slight idea of New York's im- 
 portance by saying that it is the second city in the world 
 in commerce and business. Two-thirds of the imports into 
 the United States enter New York, and one- third of our 
 exports leave by that port. There is no city in America 
 that can compare with it as a business centre. 
 
 i8. "The Keystone State." 
 
 Peiuisylvania is called "The Keystone State" because 
 it had a central place among the thirteen colonies, like the 
 keystone of an arch. 
 
 Its area is about forty-five thousand square miles, the 
 length from east to west being three hundred and five 
 milas. Its southern boundary is ''Mason and Dixon's 
 Line." This "line" was surveyed by Charles Mason and 
 Jeremiah Dixon, two English surveyors employed by Wil- 
 liam Penn and Lord Baltimore to fix the boundary line 
 between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Their work took 
 about four years, being completed in 1767. 
 
 The surface of the State is much varied. In the south- 
 east, it lies in the level Atlantic Plain, and this region is 
 
39 
 
 a fine agriciiltural section. Next come the parallel ranges 
 of the Appalachians, stretching across the State from 
 northeast to southwest. In the west, north, and northeast 
 we have a flat plateau, the Alleghany Plateau. 
 
 'J'hese numerous inountain ranges give the State fine 
 scenery. The Blue or Kittatinny Mountain is remarkable 
 for the breaks made in the chain by great rivers. The 
 place where the Delaware River passes through is called 
 the Delaware AVater Gap. It is a narrow gorge whose 
 steep walls tower over a thousand feet above the dashing 
 water. Mount Minsi on the Pennsylvania side and Mount 
 Tammany on the Jersey shore, each about fifteen hundred 
 feet high, "guard the passage." 
 
 The chief rivers of the State are the Delaware, with its 
 branches, the Lehigh and the Schuylkill j the Susquehanna, 
 with the beautiful, blue Juniata as its main branch; and 
 the Ohio Avith its forming streams, the Alleghany and the 
 !\rono]igahe]a. 
 
 Tlie Sus([uehanna is chieiiy used for floating timber, for 
 hujibering is an important occupation in the mountain 
 forests of the West Branch of this river. Pennsyl- 
 vania's forests have suffered from careless use, but efforts 
 are being made to correct this. Arbor Day is for the pur- 
 pose of encouraging tree planting, and it is observed twice 
 a year in the schools of the State. Trees apart from their 
 beauty and their value as timber are of great use to man, 
 AVhere there are no forests, the melting snows and heavy 
 rains of spring flow directly from the ground into the 
 rivers and make them overflow, thus causing innnense 
 destruction of property every year. The roots of the 'trees 
 in forests take up this moisture from rain and snow and 
 thus prevent these floods. Every tree is therefore worthy 
 of our care and attention, as man's good friend. 
 
40 
 
 The Ohio is remarkabJe for the enormous quantities of 
 coal and petroleum it floats down to southern markets. 
 Half the coal of the United States comes from Pennsj^l- 
 vania. It is of two kinds,— hard, or anthracite, coal, and 
 soft, or bituminous, coal. Anthracite coal is found east 
 of the Suscjuehanna Kiver. Its immense value can be seen 
 from the fact that in 1903 over seventy million tons of 
 it were mined. Bituminous coal lies to the west of the 
 Alleghany Mountains. In 1903, there were mined over 
 one hundred million tons of this soft coal. 
 > Let us visit a coal mine. We enter a car like an eleva- 
 tor and go down a deep shaft into the earth below. Now 
 we see why we fastened the little tin lamp in our hat-band. 
 In walking through tunnel after tunnel cut out of the rock, 
 we see the blackened faces of the miners, as they dig the 
 coal out of the veins in the earth. These tunnels are sup- 
 ported by wooden beams, and the thought that the mass 
 of earth rests on these supports makes us wish we were out 
 of the gloomy place. , See how the miners load the coal in 
 little cars ! AVhen full, mules draw it along a rough track 
 to the foot of the shaft or take it out of the mine along the 
 plane. 
 
 What a dangerous life the miner leads ! Often the walls 
 fall in, crushing some of the men to death. Sometimes th-^ 
 water that is found in all mines becomes bej^ond control, 
 and drowns these brave toilers. Fire-damp is the most 
 dreaded danger. This is an explosive gas which sometimes 
 forms in mines. If it is set on fire by a miner's flaring 
 lamp or by a chance match, a great explosion results, which 
 caves in the walls. This buries the men under tons of 
 earth, or else, by blocking up the tunnel, shuts th(Mii up to 
 die of hunger and thirst. 
 
41 
 
 We feel very glad indeed to come up once more into the 
 sunlight, away from all these dangers. 
 
 The coal coming up from the mines has much stone and 
 slate in it. It is taken to the top of a large wooden build- 
 ing called a breaker, and by means of machinery the large 
 lumps are separated into different sizes. After boys, 
 called "breaker boys," have picked out the slate and stone 
 from the passing coal, it is ready for market. 
 
 19. *'The Keystone State" (continued). 
 
 Pittsburgh, lying at the junction of the Alleghany and 
 the Monongahela, is a great city. Its river commerce is 
 enormous and so is the amount of its iron and steel manu- 
 factures. It produces more than half of all the steel made 
 in the United States, and at least one-fourth of the pig- 
 iron. It may v/ell be called ''The Iron City." 
 
 The manufacture of coke is the first step to the making 
 of iron. Coal is placed in immense ovens and is roasted 
 slowly for about seventy-two hours in intense heat to 
 change it into coke. This coke is what the great, tall blast- 
 furnaces in Pittburgh must have. Repeated layers of 
 iron ore as dug from the earth, coke, and limestone are 
 piled in the furnace. Then by the aid of intense heat they 
 are melted into one glowing mass. When ready, the bright 
 fluid mass is allowed to flow out of the furnace into sand. 
 The slag, or iron impurities, being on top, is easily removed, 
 and the pure iron is run into rough molds to form it into 
 the oblong pieces we call pig-iron. From this pig-iron, 
 steel and various kinds of iron manufactures can be made. 
 
 Many of the iron-worl^, glass-works, and other manu- 
 factories of Pittsburgh use natural gas as fuel. This gas 
 is found in many places throughout this region, wells be- 
 ing bored into the ground to obtain it. Sometimes it is 
 
42 
 
 reached only at a depth of U\o thoiLsaiid feet, an iron pipe 
 being used to carry it to the surface. 
 
 Pittsburgh receives its natural gas from a considerable 
 distance, twenty miles of iron pipe bringing it into the 
 city. To simply turn a stop-cock and have nature supply 
 a fuel without smoke or cinders seems wonderful. 
 
 This great city is also the outlet of the oil-fields of west- 
 ern Pennsylvania. The first oil-well was sunk at Titusville, 
 oil being obtained in 1859. Soon hundreds of wells were 
 drilled, the best being the deep ones, a thousand to tAvo thou- 
 sand feet deep. When the oil is reached, it gushes up or is 
 pumped up to the surface. Each well has a tank connected 
 with it, holding two hundred and fifty barrels. From this 
 a pipe leads to a larger tank, containing possibly ten thou- 
 sand barrels. Iron pipes about six inches wide are laid be- 
 neath the surface, and hy this jupe-line the oil is drawn to 
 Chicago, Buffalo, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 and other cities. 
 
 Immense tanks are placed at convenient distances to 
 store the oil, a pumping-station being placed every thirty 
 miles or so. 
 
 No visit to Pennsylvania would l)e ('om])lete without a 
 view of Gettysburg. At this little town in 1868 occurred 
 one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. For three 
 days the heroes of the North and the South fought for the 
 mastery with daring bravery. Finally General Lee had 
 to give up the fight and return southward. On November 
 19, 1868, President Lincoln dedicated the battle-field as a 
 national cemetery with that wonderful speech ending with 
 the call to resolve "that this nation, under God, shall have 
 a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the 
 people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from 
 the earth." This National Cemetery with its many fine 
 
43 
 
 monuments is one of the most beautiful in the country, a 
 mark of the love of the American people for bravery and 
 heroism. 
 
 20. Philadelphia. 
 
 Philadelphia, the metropolis of "The Keystone State," 
 is situated in the southeastern part of the State, on the 
 west bank of the Delaware River, about one hundred miles 
 from the sea. It is a vast city in size, covering nearly -one 
 hundred and thirty square miles. To the great middle 
 class, it probably gives more comfort than any other large 
 city. Its population of over a million is not crowded into 
 fiats or tenements; every family can have its own four 
 walls, and it deserves its claim to be a "city of homes." 
 
 The streets are remarkably regular and pleasing in ap- 
 pearance, lined as a rule with substantial brick dwellings. 
 Broad Street and the western part of Walnut Street show 
 many imposing residences, while in the suburbs of Chest- 
 nut Hill and Germantown, really beautiful homes are seen, 
 surrounded by charming lawns and gardens. 
 
 The two great business streets are 'Market Street and 
 Chestnut Street, the latter being famous for its handsome 
 shops. 
 
 One of the most attractive features of the city is Fair- 
 mount Park. This wonderful pleasure ground covers 
 about three thousand acres, open alike to rich and poor. 
 The magnificent drive-way along the Schuylkill River and 
 the winding paths of the glen of the Wissahickon are con- 
 trasts in beauty unsurpassed. Grass and flowers and trees 
 spread their charms everywhere ; merry groups of children 
 at play add a touch of life to the scene, while the sweet 
 notes of the birds fill the air with melody. 
 
44 
 
 The Park takes its name from the ''Fair Mount" that 
 William Penn named when he rode out once to the high 
 hill at what is now the end of Callowhill Street. ]\Iany 
 other great names in our history are suggested by the 
 monuments and the buildings in the Park. We can men- 
 tion but a few of these. 
 
 Robert Morris, the man whose wealth helped Washing- 
 ton ^vin the Revolution, lived in the fine mansion at Lemon 
 Hill. This house he called ''The Hills," and Washington 
 often visited his friend there, after the war was over. 
 
 Mount Pleasant was in its day a fine residence. Benedict 
 Arnold purchased it when he married beautiful "Peggy" 
 Shippen, but it passed to other hands when he turned trai- 
 tor to his country. 
 
 Belmont Mansion was the home of another friend of 
 Washington's, the popular Judge Peters. Its glorious 
 view is as beautiful to-day as it was in those early days. 
 
 The cottage, incorrectly given by legend as the residence 
 of the Irish poet, Thomas Moore, when he visited Philadel- 
 phia in 1804, is still standing in the Park. There, too, is 
 General Grant's Cabin, his headquarters when in Virginia, 
 during the great Civil War. The dainty little brick home 
 of Letitia Penn, built for her in 1682-83 by her father, 
 William Penn, on i\Iarket Street near Second, now graces 
 this great Park. This is the oldest building in Pennsyl- 
 vania. It was torn do^\ai and rebuilt in its original shape 
 in the Park. Horticultural Hall with its beautiful flowers 
 and Memorial Hall with its pictures recall the busy days 
 when the Centennial Exposition of 1876 was held here. 
 Philadelphia is justly proud of Fairmount Park, so rich 
 in the beauties of nature and art. 
 
 To the visitor Philadelphia offers a mine of interest in 
 its historic buildngs. 
 
45 
 
 Carpenters' Hall, in the rear of the south side of Chest- 
 nut Street, near Third, was the scene of the meeting of the 
 First Continental Congress. Its name came from the fact 
 that the Carpenters' Company built the hall in 1771. 
 "Within these walls, Henry, Hancock, and Adams inspired 
 the delegates of the colonies with nerve and sinew for the 
 toils of war resulting in national independence." At the 
 opening of this Congress, the Rev. Mr. Duche read the Thir- 
 ty-fifth Psalm, beginning "Plead thou my cause, Lord, 
 with them that strive with me, and fight Thou against them 
 that fight against me. Lay hand upon the shield and 
 buckler, and .stand up to help me." These words seemed 
 a good omen for the struggling colonists.. It seemed as 
 though Heaven were on their side. 
 
 The Second Continental Congress continued the work of 
 the first, but in a more famous building. They met in the 
 Statehouse, now called Independence Hall, which stands 
 on Chestnut Street, between Fifth and Sixth. Here on 
 July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted 
 by Congress; this document, written by Thomas Jefferson, 
 proclaimed to all mankind the birth of a new nation, where 
 all men had the same political rights. 
 
 In Independence Hall stands to-day the beloved Liberty 
 Bell. Brought from London in 1752, the bell bears the 
 motto "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all 
 the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 This noble bell, true to its motto, announced every great 
 event in the history of the Revolution. It rang its loudest 
 note when the Congress adopted the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, defying the might of England; and its tones re- 
 echoed in the beats of exulting hearts when the treaty of 
 peace was signed in 1783, acknowledging our independence. 
 It is no wonder that the people of America venerate this 
 
46 
 
 old Liberty Bell, silent, but most eloquent of the past and 
 its fight for freedom. 
 
 Henry James says : ' ' There is positively nothing of In- 
 dependence Hall, of its fine old Georgian amplitude and 
 decency, its large serenity and symmetry of pink and drab, 
 and its actual emphasis of detachment from the vulgar 
 brush of things, that is not charming; and there is noth- 
 ing, the city through, that doesn't receive a mild side-light, 
 that of a reflected interest, from is neighborhood. 
 
 Christ Church and old Swedes' Church are two of the 
 city's historic churches. 
 
 Christ Church is located on Second Street, near Market, 
 and was founded soon after the city itself. The present 
 structure dates from 1727. Its steeple once held a crown, 
 but after the country became a republic, a bishop's miter 
 took the place of the royal crown. 
 
 Many great men have belonged to this church. When 
 Philadelphia was the national capital, Washington was one 
 of its regular attendants. Robert Morris, Lafayette, John 
 Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were among those who 
 worshipped here in days gone by. In the church's ceme- 
 tery at Fifth and Arch Streets, under a plain stone, rest 
 the remains of possibly the greatest of these— Benjamin 
 Franklin. 
 
 For almost two hundred years, service has been held in 
 old Swedes' Church, "Gloria Dei," near Front and Chris- 
 tian Streets. The Swedish colonists built this fine church 
 in 1700, many coming great distances to worship there. 
 Its bell bore the inscription : 
 
 *M to the church the living call. 
 And to the grave I summon all.'' 
 
47 
 
 We have not time to speak of the Chew house, in Ger- 
 niantown; of the Betsy Ross House, at 239 Arch Street; 
 of the house and garden of John Bartram, the great Quaker 
 botanist; of Girard College, that magnificent monument to 
 Stephen rxirard, the orphans' benefactor; of the City Hall, 
 that great marble building erected at a cost of over twenty- 
 five million dollars, A score of places could be named, 
 worthy our attention. Indeed, no city has more material 
 to repay historical study than Philadelphia, the quiet, old 
 city of ' ' Brotherly Love. ' ' 
 
 21. Maryland. 
 
 Pennsylvania's neighbor to the south is the fair State of 
 Maryland. This State is divided into two parts by Chesa- 
 peake Bay, a great arm of the Atlantic, two hundred miles 
 in length. 
 
 When Jolm Smith in 1607, first entered Chesapeake Bay, 
 he was charmed with it. "There is but one entrance to 
 this country," he wrote. "The cape on the south is called 
 Cape Henry ; the narth cape is called Cape Charles. With- 
 in is a country that may have the prerogatives over the most 
 pleasant places known, for earth and heaven never agreed 
 better to frame a place for man's habitation." 
 
 Four historic rivers flow into this great bay, and on its 
 waters move many ships, bearing away the products of its 
 fertile shores. 
 
 One peculiar industry of Chesapeake Bay is oyster-rais- 
 ing. In most cases the oysters grow of themseli^es in the 
 shallow waters along the coast; in other cases oyster-farms 
 are made, where the oyster eggs are put, and allowed to 
 fasten themselves to shells thrown into the water. The 
 oyster egg is very tiny, looking like a small, white dot. 
 It must fasten itself to a stone, a shell, or other hard sub- 
 
48 
 
 stance during its growth, and it will not reach its full 
 growth for at least four yeare. The oyster has no head, 
 no nose, and no eyes ; but it has a mouth, a stomach, a heart, 
 and lungs. Oysters are taken from their beds either by 
 tonging with a pair of tongs, or by dredging, with great 
 dredges, or shovels, moved by machinery. Dredging is very 
 wasteful, but it is the method the pirates use. It seems 
 strange to have oyster pirates ! The oyster-beds are under 
 the protection of the State, and armed vessels patrol the 
 waters to prevent the pirates from ruining the supply of 
 oysters by dredging in the shallow waters. These oyster 
 pirates are very daring, and have vessels fitted up with 
 rifles and sometimes even with cannon*. They treat their 
 crews very harshly, often making them work from four in 
 the morning until ten at night, exposed to rain and snow 
 all the winter. Their food is bread and coffee; they are 
 frequently beaten, and they are often cheated out of their 
 hard earnings. 
 
 The capital of Maryland is Annapolis, a quaint, quiet 
 old city on the Severn River. It was founded in 1649 as 
 Providence. The present name of Annapolis dates from 
 1708, having been given in honor of Queen Anne, w^ho ^Yas 
 then the ruler of England. 
 
 At Annapolis we And the United States Naval Academy. 
 This is under the control of the United States, and is in- 
 tended to train officers for the United States navy. The 
 course la^tssix years, the last two years being spent at sea. 
 To be ad^iitted to the xVcademy a young man must be rec- 
 ommended by the Congressman of his district or by the 
 President, and must pass an examination in certain studies. 
 
 The metropolis of the State is Baltimore, the sixth city 
 of the Union as regards x^opulation. It lies on the Patapsco 
 Kiver, fourteen miles from Chesapeake Bay. Its numerous 
 
49 
 
 monuments have given it the name of ''The Monument 
 City," the chief one being a monument to Washington. 
 
 The public buildings are noted for their beauty, and its 
 university, the Johns Hopkins University, is famous 
 throughout the country for its scholarship. 
 
 The fire of 1304 was very destructive, causing a loss of 
 fifty million dollars, but the city rose again, as great as 
 ever. Its manufactures, its enormous canning interests 
 turning out over fifty million cans a year, and its great 
 grain commerce with Europe make it an important city. 
 
 The greatest historical interest attaches to the city from 
 its connection with "The Star-Spangled Banner," for it 
 was here our national ode was composed. 
 
 Francis Scott Key, a resident of Georgetown, D. C, had 
 gone with a friend in the ' ' Minden, ' ' under a flag of truce, 
 to secure the release of Dr. Beanes, who had been captured 
 by the British. Admiral Cochrane agreed to release him, but 
 refused to permit the party to return then, as the British 
 fleet was preparing to attack Fort McHenry, at the en- 
 trance of Baltimore Harbor. When the fleet was off the 
 fort. Key and his friends were placed on the "Minden," 
 which was anchored within sight of the fort. The three 
 men anxiously watched the bombardment all the night, 
 not knowing whether the fort would yield or not. At dawn 
 of September 14, 1814, they saw by their glasses that the 
 American flag was still flying on the fort. The British 
 soon withdrew, baffled and defeated, while the Star- 
 Spangled Banner floated proudly in triumph. Key wrote 
 the substance of the song on the back of a letter he hap- 
 pened to have in his pocket. Its glorious words are dear 
 to every American heart : 
 
50 
 
 ''Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light, 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleam- 
 ing. 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds 
 
 of the fight, 
 O'er the ramparts w^e Avatched were so gallantly stream- 
 ing? 
 And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
 Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still 
 
 there. 
 Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
 'er the land of the free and the home of the brave 1 ' ' 
 
 That banner, as Key said, does wave and will ever wave 
 "o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." 
 
 22. Washington, 
 
 Washington is the capital of the United States. It is 
 in the District of Columbia, on the north bank of the Poto- 
 mac River. 
 
 The city was planned with Capitol Hill as a centre. It 
 has fine, regular streets, the chief one being the beautiful 
 Pennsylvania Avenue, one hundred and sixty feet wide. 
 Charming little paries with fountains and trees are found 
 throughout the city, where several streets meet. 
 
 Of all the public buildings in Washington, the chief one is 
 the vast Capitol, whose corner-stone was laid by Washing- 
 ton himself, in 1793. Part of the building is freestone, 
 and part marble. The principal front has three fine 
 Grecian porticoes. Above the central rotunda is a great 
 iron dome, visible in almost all parts of the city. The 
 Rotunda's paintings are famous, but to us the most inter- 
 esting parts of the building are the Senate chamber, the 
 
51 
 
 hall of the House of Representatives, and the Supreme 
 Court room. 
 
 The Senate and the House of Representatives are to- 
 gether called Congress, and it is their duty to make the 
 laws of our nation. 
 
 The hall of the House is the largest legislative hall in 
 the world. Each representative has his own desk, and 
 these desks are arranged in a curve around a platform at 
 one side. This platform bears the marble desk of the 
 Speaker, who keeps order in the House and guides its 
 action. 
 
 The Senate is a smaller body than the House, there being 
 only two senators from each State. The presiding officer 
 here is the vice-president of the United States. 
 
 The Supreme Court consists of nine men, who while in 
 session, wear long gowns of black silk. They sit behind 
 a long mahogany table at the back of the room, each justice 
 having an armchair. The chief justice sits in the center. 
 This dignified, wise body of men is the highest court in 
 the land. If they declare that a law violates, or breaks, 
 the Constitution, it is no longer a law; and their decision 
 is final. 
 
 Henry James says : ' ' I may as well say at once that I 
 found myself from the first adoring the Capitol, though 
 I may not pretend here to dot all the i's of my reasons." 
 He thinks our national relation to the Capitol is that of 
 a huge family to the family's place of business. They meet 
 there sociably, "not as in a temple or a citadel, but by the 
 warm, domestic hearth of Columbia herself, a motherly, 
 chatty, clear-spectacled Columbia, who reads all the news- 
 papers, knows, to the last man, every one of her sons by 
 name, and, to the last boy, even her grandsons. ' ' 
 
52 
 
 East of the Capitol ls the magnificent Congressional 
 Jjibrary. It covers nearly four acres of ground, and con- 
 tains over a million books and pamphlets. With its granite 
 walls, its polished marble stairways and corridors, and its 
 superb wall paintings, it is indeed one the most beautiful 
 buildings in the world. 
 
 A mile and a half from the Capitol is the President's 
 house, connnonly called the White HoiLse. It is built of 
 freestone, painted to resemble marble, and stands sur- 
 rounded by beautiful grounds. The President's duty is to 
 execute the laws of the Union; and to compel obedience he 
 can, if necessary, command the service of the army and the 
 navy. 
 
 His term lasts four years, and his salary is fifty thousand 
 dollars a year. 
 
 The beautiful East Room, with its silver chandeliers, its 
 great mirrors, and its walls painted in silver and gold is 
 used for parties and receptions. In the dainty Blue Room 
 the President stands to shake hands with his visitors at 
 these receptions. His office is his workroom, for he is a 
 very busy man. The massive oak table here was made 
 from the timbers of the British ship ' ' Resolute. ' ' In 1845, 
 Sir John Franklin had taken an expedition from England 
 to find the Northwest Passage. He never returned. Thir- 
 ty-nine relief expeditions went in search of the missing ex- 
 plorer, and one of these found that Franklin had died in 
 the Arctic regions in 1847. Of those that failed, the 
 "Resolute" was one, and the British had abandoned it in 
 the ice, until an American whaling-vessel rescued it. In 
 1881, Queen Victoria presented to the President a table 
 made of the wood of the "Resolute," and this is the table. 
 
 The Treasury Department is a most interesting place to 
 visit, for in its vaults are stored millions of dollars' worth 
 
53 
 
 of silver and gold. Interesting, also, is the Bureau of En- 
 graving and Printing, for here the paper money of the 
 country is printed. Every sheet of paper and every print- 
 ing plate is carefully guarded to prevent fraud. When 
 printed, the new notes are hauled to the Treasury Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 The destruction of the old notes is quite as interesting. 
 'J'liese old notes are ground up by machinery into pulp,^ 
 sometimes a million dollars' worth of money being ground 
 up at one time. 
 
 Of the many monuments in the city the most famous is 
 the tall shaft of marble called the Washington Monument. 
 It is five hundred and fifty-five feet high and was built at 
 a cost of $1,300,000. It is hollow, and contains an elevator 
 that will take you to the top, if you want to get the view 
 from the highest stone building in the world. 
 
 About fifteen miles from Washington is Mount Vernon, 
 once the home of George Washington. It is a wooden 
 building, having two stories and an attic, and stands on a 
 bluff, two hundred feet above the river. Its wide piazza 
 with high, square pillars faces a beautiful lawn. 
 
 Washington's tomb near the mansion is a plain, brick 
 structure with an arched gateway in front. In 1859, the 
 mansion and grounds were purchased by the Ladies ' Mount 
 Vernon Association, so that it is now a national possession, 
 sacred to the memory of the noble Washington. Yet 
 neither this nor the tall obelisk that bears his name is 
 needed to make Washington immortal. His deeds have 
 given him an eternal abiding'-place in the hearts of his 
 countrymen. 
 23. The Natural Bridge. 
 
 This wonderful curiosity is in southern Virginia, about 
 one hundred and twenty-five miles from the capital, Rich- 
 
54 
 
 inond. It is not simply a rock spanning a chasm ; it is a 
 clear-cut arch of a whitish gray color, carved out of lime- 
 stone by nature itself. Were it for the earth above the 
 rock bearing great trees, one might believe it man's work. 
 Tw^o hundred feet below lies a deep ravine crossed by 
 Cedar Creek. Man has used the bridge to bear a wide 
 roadway, for wagons and carriages. 
 
 Clifton Johnson says: ''The road is fenced, and is bor- 
 dered by trees and biishes, and without investigation you 
 would never suspect but that you were on solid earth. In- 
 deed, it is related that an army passed along this road dur- 
 ing the Civil War, and not a man of the thousands in the 
 eo^imand realized at the time that he wa^ crossing the 
 famous Natural Bridge." 
 
 General Strother describes the Bridge thus : 
 
 ''In front and below them was the yawning gorge, 
 rugged and wild, clothed as it were in somber shadows, 
 through which the light glanced from the cascades of Cedar 
 Creek. . . . Above, witli its outline of tree and rock 
 cutting sharp against the blue sky, rose the eternal arch, 
 so massive yet so light. . . . There are few objects in 
 nature which so entirely fill the soul as this bridge in its 
 unique and simple grandeur. ' ' 
 
 Edward Pollard in his description of it says: "More 
 than two hundred feet below is the creek, apparently mo- 
 tionless, except where it flashes with light as it breaks on 
 an obstruction in the channel; there are trees, attaining to 
 grander heights as they ascend the face of the pier; and 
 far below this bed of verdure, the majestic rock rises with 
 the decision of a wall. . . . But the most effective 
 view is from the base of the bridge. . . . Standing by 
 the rippling, gushing waters of the creek, and raising your 
 eyes to the arch, massive and yet light and beautiful from 
 
55 
 
 its height, . . . you gaze on the great work of nature 
 m wonder and astonishment." 
 
 It is "interesting to know that Washington when a boy 
 climbed this steep rock, and carved his name high on the 
 rocky wall of the chasm, twenty-five feet from the base. 
 A [any others have cut their names above Washington's. 
 Early in the hist century one of these adventurous spirits 
 climbed up too far to get down again. His companions 
 could give him no aid, and expected each moment to see 
 him fall down to certain death on tKe rocks below. "Not 
 so with himself. He determined to ascend. Accordingly 
 he plied his knife, cutting places for his hands and feet 
 in the soft limestone, and gradually ascended with great 
 labor. ... He cut his way not far from two hundred and 
 fifty feet from the water, in a course almost perpendicular ; 
 and in less than two hours his anxious companions reached 
 him a pole* from the top and drew him up." 
 
 24. 'J^Virginia before the Civil War. 
 
 The gardens f there were two: the vegetable garden and 
 the flower garden) were separate. The former was the test 
 of the mistress's power; for at the most critical times she 
 took the best hands on the place to work it. The latter was 
 the proof of her taste. . . . " Honeysuckles -ran riot over 
 its palings, perfuming the air; yellow cowslips in well-regu- 
 lated tufts edged some border-s, while sweet peas, pinks, and 
 violets spread out recklessly ever others; jonquils, yelloAV as 
 gold, and, once planted, blooming every spring as certainly 
 as the trees budded or the birds nested, grew in thick 
 bunches, and everywhere were tall lilies, white as angels' 
 wings and stately as the maidens that walked among them; 
 
 *This entire selection is from Thomas Nelson Page's "The Old South", copy- 
 righted, 1892, by Charles Scribner's Sons. It is used by their kind permission. 
 
56 
 
 bis: snow-ball bushes blooming; with snow, lilacs purple and 
 white and sweet in the spring, and always with birds' nests 
 in them with the bluest of eggs. , . , 
 
 But the flower of all others was the rose. There were 
 roses everywhere; clambering roses over the porches and 
 windows, sending their fragrance into the rooms; roses 
 beside the walks; roses around the yard and in the gar- 
 den ; roses of every hue and delicate refinement of per- 
 fume ; rich yellow roses thick on their briery bushes, com- 
 ing almost with the dandelions and buttercups, before 
 any others dared face the April showers to learn if March 
 had truly gone . . . followed by the Giant of Battles on 
 their stout stems, glorious enough to have been the worthy 
 badge of victorioiLs Lancastrian kings; white Yorks hardly 
 less royal; cloth-of-golds ; dainty teas; rich damasl^; old 
 sweet hundred-leafs, sifting down their petals on the grass 
 and always filling with two the place where one had fallen. 
 These and many more made the air fragrant, while the 
 catbirds and mocking-birds fluttered and sang among 
 them, and the robins foraged in the grass for their yellow- 
 throated little ones, waiting in the half -hidden nests. 
 
 Looking out over the fields was a scene not to be for- 
 gotten. Let me give it in the words of one who knew and 
 loved Virginia well, and was her best interpreter— Dr. 
 George W. Bagby. . . . ''Wide, very wide fields of wav- 
 ing grain, billoA\^' seas of green or gold as the season chanced 
 to be, over Avhich the scudding shadows chased and played, 
 gladdened the heart with wealth far spread. Upon lowlands 
 level as the floor the plumed and tasseled corn stood tall and 
 dense. ... . The rich dark soil of the gently swelling knolls 
 could scarcely be seen under the broad, lapping leaves of 
 the mottled tobacco. The hills were carpeted with clover. 
 Beneath the tree-clumps, fat cattle chewed the cud, or 
 
57 
 
 peaceful sheep reposed, grateful for the shade. In the 
 midst of this plenty, half hidden in foliage, over which 
 the gracef u] shafts of the Lombardy poplar towered, with its 
 bounteous garden and its orchard heavy with fruit . . ., 
 peered the old mansion, white, or dusky red, or mellow 
 gray by the storm and shine of years". 
 
 Harvest was spoken of as a season. It v/as a festival. . . . 
 Every "hand" was eager for it. It was the test of the 
 men's prowess and the women's skill; for it took a man to 
 swing his cradle through the long June days and keep up 
 with the bare-necked, knotted-armed leader, as he strode 
 and swiuig his cradle through the heavy wheat. . . . How 
 gay they appeared, . . . sweeping down the yellow grain, 
 and, as they neared the starting-point, chanting wth mel- 
 low voices the harvest song "Cool Water". . . . There 
 never w^as any loneliness : it was movement and life without 
 bustle; while somehow, in the midst of it all, the house 
 seemed to sit enthroned in perpetual tranquillity, with out- 
 stretched arms under its spreading oaks, sheltering its 
 children like a great gray dove. 
 
 Even at night there was stirring about; the ring of an 
 axe, the infectious music of the banjos, the laughter of 
 dancers, the festive noise and merriment of the cabin, the 
 distant, mellowed shouts of 'coon or 'possum hunters, or 
 the dirge-like chant of some serious and timid wayfarer 
 pa.ssiug along the path over the hills or through the w^oods, 
 and solacing his lonely walk with religious song. 
 
 25. The Land of Cotton and Rice. 
 
 The southeastern part of the United States produces two 
 characteristic products,— rice and cotton. This is the re- 
 
58 
 
 «iion worked by slave labor before the Civil War, and ;r 
 was then in the height of its beauty and its prosperity. 
 
 The grand colonial mansions, the extensive plantations 
 around, and the negroes' ca'oiiis showed a life different fi'om 
 the rest of the country. Wiiliani Ploward Russell de- 
 scribes a visit to one of the planters' houses, "buried in 
 trees" and surrounded b}^ lawns and flower-beds. The 
 veranda gave a charming view; the house showed wealth in 
 its paintings <nnd its fine collections of boolvs. The food 
 was excellent, and the hospitality of the people unbounded. 
 Speakiiig of the slaves, he says: ''At night when we re- 
 tire, oil' they go to their outer darkness in the small settle- 
 ment . . ., which is separated froin our house by a 
 wooden palisade. Their fidelity is undoubted. The house 
 breathes an air of security. The doors and windows are 
 unlocked There is but one gun, a fowling-piece, on the 
 premises. No planter hereabouts has any dread of his 
 slaves. . . . i\ly host is a kind man aiul a good master. 
 If slaves are happy anywhere, they should be so with him. 
 , "These people are fed by their master. They have up- 
 ward of half a poinid per diem of fat pork, and corii in 
 abundance. They rear poultry and sell their chickens and 
 eggs to the house. They are clothed b}^ their master. He 
 keeps them ii] sickness as in health." 
 
 All slaves, however, wore not so -fortunate as to have 
 kind masters. In many cases, their lives were made most 
 uidiappy by crnel treatment and by separation from their 
 families. The Civil War gave all these freedom. But 
 those fou.r dreadful years of war spread ruin and desolation 
 over this section of our country, that required long years 
 to hea,l. Nature, however, gave great gifts to this land, 
 and the patient ctrorts of the people liave restored ])rosper- 
 ity to it. 
 
59 
 
 Cotton is one ot these gifts, and a visit to a cotton field 
 will repay us. 
 
 When the plants are about the size of currant bushes, 
 we see on them green bolls, about the size of walnuts. 
 These contain the unripened cotton. A little later, and 
 these bolls will open, showing a great snowy mass of cot- 
 ton. The plants ripen irregularly and the negro laborers 
 go over the iield, gathering the white balls into baskets. 
 Then it is carried by wagons to the gin-house, where the 
 cotton-gin wdll pick out the seeds. Pressing machines next 
 squeeze the cotton into bales, each weighing four or five hun- 
 dred pounds. This is cotton as it leaves the plantation, 
 ready to be made inio cloth in the factories. 
 
 Rice grows w^ell in the extreme South, because it requires 
 nmch heat and moisture. The best rice grows on ground 
 that can be flooded wdth fresh w^ater. After the young 
 plants have got a start in the mud, the beds are flooded 
 with water, and allowed to remain under water until the lit- 
 the green sprouts appear above it. Then the w^ater is drawn 
 off until the plant has reached a proper size, when the 
 ground is again flooded, remaining wet until the harvest, 
 'i'he planter harvests it by cutting the straw and thrashing 
 it to get the rice out. When the tight hull on the grain is 
 removed, and the rice "polished smooth, it is ready for 
 commerce. 
 
 One of tlie most interesting cities in this section is 
 Charleston. It is built on the peninsula between the Ash- 
 ley and Cooper llivers. It has w4de, regular streets, bor- 
 dered wdth live-oate and other fine shade-trees. Many of 
 the houses are very handsome, with fine gardens in which 
 magnolias, jessamines, camellias, and azaleas bloom. 
 
 Its great harbor is one of the finest on the Atlantic coast, 
 making the city the chief port of South Carolina. 
 
60 
 
 Two fanioiLs forts guard this harbor, — Fort Moultrie and 
 Fort Sumter. 
 
 Fort i\Ioultrie and brave Sergeant Jasper are names 
 linked together in our history. Early in the Revolution 
 the British sent a force against Charleston, then defended 
 by a fort of palmetto logs. The British ships pounded at 
 its walls in vain, while the Americans' fire was so vigorous 
 as. at one time, to sweep every man off the decks, except 
 Admiral Parker. The British land attack also failed be- 
 cause of the skill of the American riflemen. During this 
 land flght, a ball cut down the flag-staff, making the flag 
 fall outside the walls of the fort. Ileedlesss of danger 
 Sergeant Jasper leaped down from the fort, "seized the 
 flag, tied it to a new staff, and hoisted it again in place." 
 
 Fort Sumter holds a greater place in history. In 1861, 
 the Confederate forces compelled Major Anderson to sur- 
 render after an attack of thirty-four hours; he and his 
 men left the fort, carrying their flag with them. This be- 
 gan a bloody war that lasted four years, and cost billions of 
 money and thousands of brave lives. 
 
 This flag was raised again at Sumter, April 14, 1865. 
 ''Precisely at noon, Major-General Robert Anderson took 
 the same flag which four years before he had been compelled 
 to lower, and, assisted by many others, raised it to the 
 top of the staff from w^hich it was again unfuHed 
 to the breeze." 
 
 The war is over, and the ''stars and stripes" is still 
 the flag of the whole nation. The clouds of war have 
 vanished, and the sun of peace and prosperity shines again 
 on a rich, happy, and powerful people. 
 
 26. The Georgia Cracker. 
 
 The Georgia crackers are "poor whites" living on their 
 small farms in various parts of southern United States. 
 
61 
 
 They are so called because their principal food is cracked 
 corn. It is an odd sight in Georgia towns to see a few 
 crackers gathered together in rough-looking carts, each 
 drawn by a bull, selling the rude produce of their woods and 
 fields. The carts look as if they would hardly hold to- 
 gether, and the drivers match them— a lazy shiftless set, 
 utterly indifferent as to their untidy appearance, and ap- 
 parently happy in their jjoverty. Then^ homes are prob- 
 ably ten or twenty miles from town, and wretched abodes 
 they are. To reach them, one rides along the red clay 
 road, through great forests of pine and oak, with here and 
 there a holly-tree, lighting up the gloom of the forest 
 with its bright red. berries. Sometimes the cracker lives 
 in a little village with a few small houses, and a couple 
 of stores, around whose doors at every hour of the day 
 some of the village idlers can be seen. Frequently his home 
 is a log house in a clearing. It is without windows, and 
 the roof looks as if it would let in plenty of water on a 
 rainy day; the chimney is outside the house, the lower 
 part being made of stones and red clay, while the upper 
 part is formed of sticks, cemented on both sides with this 
 clay. 
 
 The house contains but one room, and the fireplace with 
 its pine fire gives the only light at night, for these people 
 use neither lamps nor candles. 
 
 With the spinning-wheel and the loom in the corner the 
 mother of the family makes the rough cotton cloth from 
 which their clothes are made. The beds, some chairs, and a 
 table complete the furniture of the room. Their small fields 
 of cotton clothe them, and their corn-fields feed them. A 
 visitor to a meal here would be given a spoon and told 
 "to dip into the pot of steaming corn-meal." Coffee, with- 
 out milk or sugar, and occasionally a piece of pork are about 
 
62 
 
 the only additions to the meal. The men indulge in home- 
 made corn-whiskey, and the women in snuff or a pipe. 
 This snuff-taking is common among women of the "poor 
 whites" in the South, the practice beginning in girlhood. 
 The snuff is kept in a tin box and dipped with a twig of 
 black-gum, about six inches long, one end of which has been 
 chewed into a ''bushy swab." AVlien this end is dipped 
 into the snuff', it is thrust into the mouth, remaining there 
 until the snuff is absorbed. 
 
 These people care nothing for education and seem per- 
 fectly content with their lot. They are lazy and shiftless, 
 doing 110 more work than they can help. Yet they are not 
 bad or vicious. Octave Thanet says: "The cracker has 
 his virtues. ... He is as hospitable as an Arab, brave, 
 faithful and honest, and full of generosity and kindness." 
 
 27. F'lorida. 
 
 Florida, the southeastern corner of the United States, 
 is a land of sun.shine and flowers. It is a region of per- 
 petual summer, for here stern Winter has no sway. 
 
 Oft' the southern coast we find the Florida Keys. 
 
 The Florida Reefs (or Keys) are a chain of little islands 
 and reefs of coral, extending in a curve for about two 
 hundred miles. Key West on Thompson's Island, or Bone 
 Key, is the chief city of the Keys. It has a safe harbor 
 with expensive fortifications. Its cigar manufactures em- 
 ploy a third of the population. 
 
 This terrible Florida reef is a great danger to mariners. 
 "Inside of its coral banks is a broad channel of smooth 
 water, beyond which lies a parallel chain of palm-covered 
 keys, or islands, of great fertility and beauty." Pirates 
 and wreckers added to the dangers ; the government, how- 
 
63 
 
 ever, has made the region fairly safe by hunting down the 
 pirates and by establishing a nnmber of lighthouses. 
 
 The peninsula is low, and shows many marshes and 
 swamps, chief of wiiich is the Everglades, covering two 
 million acres. The Everglades lie in southern Florida. 
 They consist of thousands of little islands, covered with a 
 dense growth of cypress-trees, palmetto-trees, vines, and 
 shrubs. The surrounding water is from one to ten feet 
 deep, in part overgrown with saw^grass. The small rivers 
 issuing from the Everglades all end in swamps, and ex- 
 plorers are baffled by the limitless expanse of marsh-grass, 
 which shelters snakes, alligators, and stinging clouds of 
 mosquitoes. 
 
 A few hundred Seminole Indians live on the islands 
 in the Everglades, cultivating little pieces of land there. 
 Most of these live in huts shaped like a tent, the pole 
 framework being thatched with palmetto leaves. Their dress 
 is very odd. "Their broAvn legs and shanks were en- 
 tirely bare, except for the flaps of their shirts. . . . They 
 had neckerchiefs and watch-chains, and one woi'e a soldier's 
 coat with brass buttons, while a comrade had the vest t^ 
 match. Two had derby hats, one a straw hat, one a cap." 
 These Indians are reliable and honest, and live at peace with 
 each other and with the whites in the neighboring towns. 
 
 Cotton, timber, sugar-cane, pineapples, and oranges are 
 the chief productions of Florida. 
 
 Pineapples grow on the keys and in southern Florida. 
 The plant, called a tree by the growers, is about three feet 
 high and resembles the green top of the fruit on a large 
 scale. It produces well, yielding about seven thousand, to 
 the acre. The fierce heat of the sun, the bites of the 
 swarms of mosquitoes, and the sharp, cutting edges of the 
 leaves make the gathering of the pineapple a terrible task, 
 
64 
 
 most of it beint]^ done by negroes from the Bahamas, used 
 to it from boyhood. 
 
 The orange orchards of Florida produce excellent fruit. 
 The orange-tree is always pleasing with its ''rich, glossy 
 dark-green leaves," but when laden with its golden fruit, 
 it is beautiful. From five to ten years after planting, the 
 tree begins to bear; it keeps on producing for a long 
 period, sometimes until it is eighty or a hundred years old. 
 Growers say that some trees will bear five thousand oranges 
 in a year. 
 
 The most interesting city in the State is St. Augustine. 
 Settled by the Spanish in 1565, it is the oldest town in the 
 United States. It lies in northeastern Florida, on a sound 
 two miles from the Atlantic. 
 
 Butterworlh, describing this city, says : 
 
 "Out of a long region of shadowy palm crowns, sunny 
 orange groves, and swamp fields of glimmering palmetto, 
 the train swept into the open country by the sea, and 
 crossed the St. Sebastian. 
 
 "What a wonderful change! There is no other like it 
 anywhere. America seemed to vanish at the river. An 
 Oriental city of airy towers, red-tiled roofs, and acres of 
 palaces half-buried in ancient trees rose before the eye." 
 
 Its mild temperature has made it a great winter resort 
 for the rich, and its palatial hotels offer every luxury to 
 those fleeing from the icy blasts of the northern cities. 
 
 The gardens, filled with palmetto-trees, lemon-trees, and 
 orange-trees, give the city a rare beauty. Most of the 
 buildings are built of coquina cement, a material formed 
 by combining Portland cement with tiny sea-shells from 
 an island across the bay. This gives a warm, soft gray 
 color to the buildings, wliich blends perfectly with the red- 
 
65 
 
 tiled roofs, the deep green of the trees, and the vivid blue 
 of the southern sky. 
 
 28. New Orleans. 
 
 New Orleans, the chief city of the Gulf States, is in the 
 southeastern part of Louisiana, on the Mississippi, about 
 one hundred miles above its mouth. It is called the ' ' Cres- 
 cent City" because the older part followed the bend of the 
 river. 
 
 To protect the city from the overflow of the water, 
 a broad embankment, or levee, is maintained along the river. 
 The river levee is fourteen feet high and fifteen feet wide, 
 the broad top making a fine promenade. 
 
 Another device of man serves to prevent the great river 
 from blocking the harbor by the immense masses of mud 
 it brings down from the uplands. By building jetties, or 
 river-wails, the current was enclosed in a narrow space, 
 several hundred feet wide, thus making it strong enough 
 to carry away the mud to the Gulf beyond. These walls 
 were formed by sinking between piles, rafts of willow 
 twigs and branches, loaded with stones. The mud filled 
 in the spaces between the stones and the twigs, making 
 solid w^alls. 
 
 New Orleans at one time belonged to France, and the 
 older parts of the city show this fact. The quaint, old 
 French and Spanish houses of this section, the narrow 
 streets, and the numerous gardens with their trees and 
 song-birds make it most picturesque. 
 
 In a description of New Orleans, Harriet Prescott Spof- 
 f ord says : "In the more modern part of the city are broad, 
 well-shaded streets and spacious houses in the midst of 
 gardens where the sward is greener than emerald ; and one 
 looks through the open palings upon clusters of the deep 
 
66 
 
 pink crape-myrtle, upon palm-ferns, and upon open gal- 
 leries peopled by lovely ladies in lawns and laces. 
 
 "Beautiful magnolias lift their dark towers of shining 
 greenery, and here and there an old palm-tree invites the 
 eye up its thirty or forty feet of scaly bark, to its tufted 
 foliage where high in the blue air it drops its oJd brown 
 boughs and puts forth its bright new plumes. 
 
 "It makes a child of New England feel far away from 
 home, when looking at the lovety marvel of a palm-tree; 
 yet, nevertheless, if once inside those pleasant places, one 
 is made to feel very much at home. One seems to be in a 
 land of enchantment, when looking out at one of these 
 gardens in full bloom." 
 
 The French market is very interesting, for many of the 
 market people speak French and Spanish, rather than 
 English. Their vegetables are not sold by the peck or 
 the quart; instead they are arranged in piles on tables, the 
 prices varying according to the size. 
 
 A New Orleans cemetery is quite different from the ordi- 
 nary one. Since it is impossible to dig any distance with- 
 out striking water, the graves are above ground, the coffins 
 often resting in a long series of narrow vaults, one above 
 the other. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the city is the great number of 
 cisterns for rain-water, nearly every house having one. 
 They are built above ground, and "sometimes reach to the 
 top of the third story." 
 
 New Orleans is one of the largest cotton markets in the 
 world, handling about two million bales every year. Be- 
 sides cotton it exports much sugar and molasses, for Louisi- 
 ana has vast plantations that raise the sweet sugar-cane. 
 
 The lovely country pictured in "Evangeline" is a little 
 above New Orleans. Lakes and bayous open from the 
 
67 
 
 river all throngli Louisiana. Longfellow, in describing 
 one of the bayous, after telling of the ' ' columns of cypress 
 and cedar" with trailing mosses that ''waved like ban- 
 ners, ' ' says : 
 
 "Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undulations 
 Made by the passing oars, and resplendent in beauty, the 
 
 lotus 
 Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boatmen. 
 Faint was the air with the odorous breath of magnolia 
 
 blossoms. 
 And with the heat of noon ; and numberless sylvan islands, 
 Fragrant and thickly embroidered with blossoming 
 
 hedges of roses. 
 Near to whose shores they glided along, invited to slum- 
 ber." 
 
 29. The Southern Negro after the War. 
 
 When the Emancipation Proclamation was read to the 
 slaves on the plantation where Booker T. Washington was 
 born, there was great rejoicing at first. His mother, weep- 
 ing for joy, kissed her three children and explained the 
 meaning of the great gift. The rejoicing lasted only a 
 little while, however ; it was succeeded by a feeling of great 
 responsibility, for they saw they must now take care of 
 themselves in the great world. "It was very much like 
 suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into 
 the world to provide for himself." To secure a home and 
 support a family was a new and difficult problem in view 
 of the great poverty of this race, and their lack of prepara- 
 tion. As illustration of that poverty, Booker Washington 
 says he cannot remember ever having slept in a bed until 
 after the Emancipation Proclamation made him free. 
 "Filthy rags laid upon the dirt floor" formed his bed; 
 
68 
 
 the cabin had no glass windows, only openings that ad- 
 mitted the winter's cold as well as the light. His first shoes 
 had wooden soles, about an inch thick; until quite a youth, 
 his single garment was a flax shirt, made largely of refuse 
 flax, that tortured the skin by its roughness. Today he 
 is the head of the great Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a 
 school that aims to give the same uplift to other negroes, 
 and that has done wonders for the advance of the negro 
 race. 
 
 Booker Washington 's education came chiefly from Hamp- 
 ton Institute in Virginia. He had a distance of five hun- 
 dred miles to go to reach it, and little money to pay for 
 his journey. After a number of days he managed to reach 
 Richmond, Virginia, which was eighty -two miles from 
 Hampton. He had no money when he arived there, and 
 he knew no one in the city. He slept that night on the 
 ground under a board sidewalk that was elevated some dis- 
 tance. He worked his way on to Hampton, and finally 
 reached there with just fifty cents in his pocket. When he 
 applied for admission, his appearance was against him, but 
 after some time the head-teacher told him to take a broom 
 and sweep an adjoining school-room. 
 
 "I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a 
 dusting-cloth, and I dusted it four times. All the wood- 
 work around the walls, every bench, table, and desk, I 
 went over four times with my dusting-cloth." 
 
 When he linished, he reported to the teacher; she ex- 
 amined the room carefully and then said, "1 guess you 
 will do to enter this institution." 
 
 **I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweep- 
 ing of that room was my college examination, and never 
 did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Har- 
 vard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. " 
 
69 
 
 His good sweeping secured him a position as janitor at 
 the Institute, and enabled him thus to support himself while 
 securing his greatly desired education. 
 
 At Hampton he learned not only books, but he learned 
 the customs of civilized, cultured life. He learned how 
 to become a leader of his people in teaching them the value, 
 not only of mental training but also of industrial training. 
 
 He foaght the false ideas that the negroes had held dur- 
 ing the dreadful Reconstruction Period, from 1867 to 1878. 
 Then the greatest desires of the Southern negroes were that 
 they might hold government offices and that they or their 
 children should learn Latin or Greek in order to be free 
 from manual toil. He taught them the value of a trade 
 and the need of acquiring properly by honest labor. 
 
 He established Tuskegee Institute in 1881. It began with 
 thirty students and one teacher. To-day it has forty build- 
 ings of various sizes, and all except four were built by the 
 students. A farm, a carpenter-shop, a brick-yard turning 
 out thousands of bricks a year and hundreds of trained 
 brickmakers, a wagon-shop where youths are taught to 
 repair and build all sorts of vehicles,— these and other shops 
 show the princple of the school. Every student while 
 getting his mental training must also learn some industry. 
 
 It is a hard, uphill process to rise from the helplessness 
 and the poverty of ignorance. Education is the only lever 
 that can so raise a race to a position of self-supporting in- 
 dependence: but with this education the negro race will 
 surely rise. 
 
 30. iMammoth Cave. 
 
 Mammoth Cave is the largest cavern of its kind in the 
 world, extending inward for about ten miles. It lies in 
 central Kentucky and contains a great number of cham- 
 
70 
 
 bers, avenues, and galleries. Most of these chambers are 
 excavations made in the rock by nature. 
 
 The temperature of the cave remains about 53° the year 
 round, giving the summer tourist on entrance a chilled 
 feeling; yet the air is so full of oxygen that it soon gives 
 him vigor and energy. 
 
 Near the entrance is the Rotunda, an immense, gloomy 
 hall, "arched with a dome a hundred feet high without a 
 single pillar to support it. It rests on irregular ribs of 
 dark gray rock, in massive oval wings." 
 
 The Church is another vast hall, with a gallery resem- 
 bling the choir of a cathedral, and a pulpit. "The guide 
 leads up from the adjoining galleries, and places a lamp 
 each side of the pulpit, on fiat rocks, which seem made for 
 the purpose. Five thousand people could stand in this 
 subterranean temple with ease." 
 
 Gothic Chapel is a beautiful formation. The stalactite 
 columns hanging from the roof form perfect arches in 
 places. 
 
 Satan's Council Chamber and Satan's Throne are two 
 other odd forms, very strange looking when lighted by the 
 guides' lamps. 
 
 Mammoth Dome, over five hundred feet long, is the high- 
 est and largest of all these rooms, the roof towering one 
 hundred and twenty feet above the tourist's head. 
 
 Besides these innumerable halls and avenues, there are 
 many remarkable bodies of Avater in the cavern. 
 
 A steep precipice is at one side of River Hall, and look- 
 ing down, by the light of the torches, one sees the Dead Sea, 
 a black mass of water, fully eighty feet below. 
 
 Of all the waters in the cavern the most famous is Echo 
 River. 
 
71 
 
 A writer says the music of this river is beautiful. ' ' The 
 guide rows us to exactly the right spot in this long and 
 deep underground river. Here the rocky arches meet the 
 water vertically, and without a shore ; but the waves lap 
 musically into a thousand little cavities as we row along. 
 
 "This is only the gentle prelude. For now, while utter- 
 ing certain peculiarly mellow sounds, . . . the guide 
 rocks the boat to and fro, so that we must hold to the gun- 
 wales to keep from being thro^vn overboard. And then 
 begins a concert that, if not interrupted, may last fully 
 half an hour. 
 
 "First comes a sound like the tinkling of silver bells. 
 Larger, heavier bells take up the melody, as the billows 
 caused by the rocking of the boat strike the cavities in the 
 wall. Then it seems as if the chimes of many cathedrals 
 had conspired to raise in this strange place a tempest of 
 sweet sounds." 
 
 In this dark cavern there is little life beyond the bats 
 and the blind fish of the rivers. 
 
 To lose sight of the guide and his light is a dangerous 
 thing, for no one could find his way alone in that dread- 
 ful darkness through these winding paths and avenues, 
 stretching upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. 
 
 31. The Great Lakes. 
 
 The five Great Lakes lie on the boundary line between 
 Canada and the United States, forming a chain that 
 stretches from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario. 
 
 The western half of this region is a wonderful country. 
 Lake Superior itself with its length of three hundred and 
 sixty miles is the largest body of fresh water in the coun- 
 try, its area being about two-thirds that of Pennsylvania. 
 On a stretch of its soathem shore for about twentv-five 
 
72 
 
 miles are the famous "Pictured Rocks." These bluffs and 
 cliffs from fifty to three hundred feet high were worn 
 into their strange forms by the wind and the water, and 
 stand as a great curiosity. 
 
 The region around this lake has limitless supplies of 
 iron and copper. In 1903, ten million tons of iron were 
 produced in Michigan, dug out of the deep mines near 
 Lake Superior. "Of the copper mines of Lake Superior, 
 the richest is the famous Calumet and Hecla copper mine. 
 The miners work a half-mile down in the earth to get the 
 copper-bearing rock. Smelting-furnaces by great heat 
 change the ore into the pure copper of commerce. 
 
 The dense forests of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan 
 give millions of dollars' worth of lumber every year. The 
 lumbermen remain in the woods through the fall and win- 
 ter, living in companies of perhaps fifty, in rough log 
 cabins. Each gang has its cook, who prepares the rude 
 meaLs. Pork and beans, coffee, and hot bread are the chief 
 articles of diet, served up at a great table set with tin 
 plates. 
 
 By the men's long sa^\•s and axes the trees are felled and 
 eat into big logs. A road of ice is often made by pouring 
 water over the snow, and the horses haul the sledges, piled 
 high with logs, along this road of snow or ice down to the 
 frozen streams. Here the logs lie until spring melts the 
 ice. A gang of loggers now goes down the stream with the 
 lumber, jumping from log to log, keeping them all together 
 in the current by their long poles with hooks and spikes. 
 When the logs pile on top of one another, they form a jam, 
 which the logger must break up by pulling and pushing 
 the logs apart with his pike. The loggers sometimes build 
 a raft to go with the logs, bearing ri cabin in which they 
 sleep and eat. Their hard task is not done until they have 
 
73 
 
 reached the sawmill, where the logs will be sawed into lum- 
 ])or. 
 
 Lake Superior lies twenty feet above Lake Huron, into 
 which it drains by the St. j\Iary's Kiver, a stream about 
 fifty miles long. At Sault Sainte Marie there are danger- 
 ous rapids in this river, or strait, as it falls about twenty 
 feet -in a mile. To avoid thejn, ship-canals have been built 
 on each side of the river. The first of these was the old 
 Soo Ship Canal. The present Michigan Canal is over a 
 mile long with a huge lock, eight hundred feet in length. 
 
 By this lock vessels from Lake Superior are lowered the 
 twenty feet to the level of Lake Huron. A lock is really 
 a "box of water," enclosed by powerful gates and by high 
 stone Avails. When a ship leaving Lake Superior enters 
 this lock, the upper gates are closed by machinery, thus 
 preventing the entrance of any more water from that 
 lake. A lever then opens holes in the bottom of the 
 "box," allowing the water to flow out, thus lowering the 
 ship to the level below. 
 
 Wei land Canal, connecting Lake Erie with Lake On- 
 tario, enables commerce to avoid Niagara Falls. In its 
 twenty-seven miles of length, this canal has twenty-six 
 locks to meet the great difference in level between the two 
 lakes. 
 
 A trip through these Great Lakes is most interesting. 
 It makes us realize the vastness of their commerce, while 
 it shows us the beauties of the great cities on their shores. 
 Among these are Duluth, at the western end of Lake Su- 
 perior, with its vast grain elevators holding from thirty 
 to forty million bushels of wheat; Milwaukee, the largest 
 city of Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan, with its fine harbor 
 and its beautiful residences ; Detroit, the beautiful metrop- 
 olis of Michigan, with its fine river-front of many miles; 
 
74 
 
 Cleveland, the largest city of Ohio, on Lake Erie, famed not 
 only as one of the greatest iron markets of the world, but 
 noted for its beauty as the ''Forest City," and for its pos- 
 session of Euclid Avenue, with its superb residences, gar- 
 dens, and tree-bordered lawns; and last, but by no means 
 least, Buffalo, in western New York, one of the cleanest and 
 healthiest cities in the entire country. 
 
 32. Chicago. 
 
 Among the cities of the Great Lakes, Chicago is first in 
 commercial importance. In population and in the amount 
 of its trade, Chicago ranks second of the cities of the entire 
 Union. 
 
 Its business structures are fine ; the largest is the Masonic 
 Temple, twenty stories high, with eight hundred offices. 
 The streets are regular, and many are beautiful. Most 
 attractive are the wide l)oulevards, with grass and flowers 
 in the middle, and palatial houses on the sides. 
 
 The city has a number of small parks, the chief of which 
 is Lincoln Park. In this park is a fine statue of Lincoln, 
 erected at a cost of $50,000. This statue shows the love 
 which all Illinois has for the memory of ''the martyred 
 President," the greatest man the West has produced. 
 
 "Not for thy sheaves nor savannas 
 Crown we thee, proud Illinois ! 
 Here in his grave is thy grandeur; 
 Born of his sorrow thy joy." 
 
 Chicago is a busy city with many different kinds of 
 manufactories. It is the greatest grain market in the 
 world, as well as the largest lumber market. In 1900, the 
 amount of grain handled was 314,000,000 bushels! 
 
 Perhaps its most interesting industry is the meat busi- 
 ness. Qnion Stock-Yard covers about four hundred acres, 
 
75 
 
 and this great space is taken up with factories, pens, and 
 railroad tracks. The pens for the animals are arranged 
 along streets, each section having one kind of animal. In 
 the year 1900, 8,100,000 hogs, 3,500,000 sheep, and 2,700,000 
 cattle were slaughtered in these yards. 
 
 Every part of the animals is of value. The flesh is 
 packed and sent to all parts of the Union ; the blood is sold 
 to fertilize soil ; the bones are of value in making buttons, 
 combs, etc. ; the skins of the sheep make gloves, while the 
 hides of the cattle go to the tanners; even the bristles of 
 the hog have a use, for they are made into brushes. 
 
 Chicago by its industry and intelligence has risen from 
 very humble beginnings to its present proad position. 
 Seventy years ago its population was only four thousand; 
 by the census of 1900, it was shown to be 1,698,575. 
 
 The most striking event in its history was the great fire 
 of 1871. A cow in Mrs. O'Leary's stable, kicking over a 
 lamp, started the blaze. It ended when $200,000,000 of 
 property had been destroyed. The people did not yield 
 to despair. Instead they built up a new city, larger and 
 grander than before, making it a rival of New York in its 
 greatness. 
 
 33' The Prairies and the Plains. 
 
 The upper part of the Mississippi Valley, "between the 
 Missouri, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio River" is a great 
 fertile plain, the region being called the prairies. Natur- 
 ally, this is ii grass country, destitute of trees ; but the de- 
 velopment of the prairie States has made it a great wheat 
 and corn region. 
 
 Bryant's noble poem describes the grass-covered prairies 
 of by-gone days : 
 
76 
 
 "These are the gardens of the desert, these 
 The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, 
 For which the speech of England has no name— 
 The Prairies. I behold them for the first, 
 And my heart swells, v/hile the dilated sight 
 Takes in the encircling vastness. . . . 
 Man hath no part in all this glorious work. 
 The hand that built the firmament hath heaved 
 And smoothed these verdant swells, and sown their slopes 
 With herbage, planted them with island groves. 
 And hedged them round with forests." 
 The poet guides his horse over "the high rank grass that 
 sweeps his sides," observes the numerous insects, gay "as 
 the flowers they flutter over," the bird, the reptiles, and 
 the deer. In imagination he hears : 
 "The sound of that advancing multitude 
 Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground 
 Come up the laugh of children, the soft voice 
 Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn 
 Of Sabbath worshippers." 
 
 That dream has come to pass, for to-day busy cities and 
 prosperous farms fill all this region. 
 
 Corn, oats, wheat, buckwheat, and timothy are produced 
 in great amounts, cattle are found in the pastures, and 
 beautiful orchards of fruit are seen. More than half of 
 the corn raised in the United States comes from the prairie 
 States. Above the corn belt lies the great wheat region. 
 North Dakota and Minnesota producing the finest wheat in 
 the world. Some of the farms in North Dakota are of im- 
 mense size, one of twenty thousand acres being not unusual. 
 Harvesting is a wonderful sight on such a farm. Long 
 lines of harvesters, or reaping-machines, pulled by horses, 
 cut the wheat, make a bundle of the cut grain, bind a band 
 
77 
 
 around it, and throw it off as a sheaf. To dry the grain, 
 the sheaves are stood up on end by men following the 
 machine. 
 
 Next, thrashing-machines, moved by steam, are used to 
 separate the grain from the chaff and the straw, one such 
 machine pouring out over a thousand bushels a day. On 
 some farms, teams of thirty horses draw a machine that is 
 a combined harvester and thrasher. 
 
 All this wheat is carried by railroads to the great grain 
 ports, where it is stored in immense elevators. In these 
 elevators it is kept in great bins, until taken out by pipes 
 into steamers or cars, to be sent to distant parts of the 
 world. 
 
 The greatest flour-making city in the world is in this 
 section of the country. It ''s Minneapolis, in the State of 
 Minnesota. Its many flour-mills can produce eighty thou- 
 sand barrels a day. 
 
 The region on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains 
 is the Great Plains. These stretch from Canada to Texas 
 and from the Rockies to the centre of Nebraska, Kansas, 
 and Oklahoma. 
 
 There is not much rain here, but the tough grass is well 
 adapted for the raising of cattle. 
 
 It seems strange that cattle would thrive when allowed 
 to remain unsheltered all winter, exposed to cold and snow, 
 but they do. It is on these plains that the cowboy leads 
 his hard, toilsome life. The stock-farm of a cattle or sheep 
 herder is called a ranch. Describing a cattle-ranch in east- 
 ern Colorado, Helen Hunt Jackson says the word ''ranch" 
 suggests beautiful surroundings with ''freedom and plenty, 
 and I shall not soon forget the disappointment with which 
 I first looked on a Colorado ranch. 
 
78 
 
 '*I saw a small, impainted house, a story and a half 
 high ; a few outbuildings built of logs in the roughest man- 
 ner; no fences, not a tree in sight, not a bush; chips and 
 other litter all around ; tin cans lying about in abundance ; 
 a most desolate-looking spot, with discomfort and depriva- 
 tion staring one in the face at every point." 
 
 The food is bad because the men must do their own cook- 
 ing, and they have not the time nor the patience to do this 
 right. The comforts of a home they know nothing of. 
 
 The cowboy's work in winter is to guard the great herds, 
 though in the main the cattle look after themselves. If 
 possible, he should see that they find good grass regions, 
 and that they do not perish from storms. In spring, all 
 the herders of a region unite to gather in the cattle, for 
 the herds of various owners are all mingled together after 
 their winter wanderings, some having strayed thirty miles 
 from home. After they are all collected, skilled cowboys 
 ride into the herd of fierce, frightened beasts and bring 
 out the cattle belonging to the various owners. They know 
 them by their brands, for every owner brands his cattle 
 with his private mark by a hot iron, before the winter 
 roaming. 
 
 A good cowboy is skilled -with his lasso, or rope. This 
 rope, with a noose at the end, is kept gathered in a coil un- 
 til he wishes to throw it. Then he swings it around his 
 head several times, and the rope flies out twenty or thirty 
 feet, capturing the strong beasts, and holding them fast in 
 the n'oose. 
 
 Sometimes the cowboy is a rough, reckless being, but 
 not always. It is a hard lonely life, and none but strong, 
 brave men can endure this life on the Great Plains. 
 
79 
 
 34. A "Round=up" in Colorado. 
 
 But the light of the sun has hardly crept down the hill 
 to touch the tree-tops, still ringing with the morning song, 
 before the hurried standing breakfast at the camp is over, 
 and each man has been appointed to his work by the captain 
 of the ' ' round-up. "... Then follows a general saddling 
 of horses, and, while the shadows still lie long across the 
 plain, knots of horsemen, three or four abreast, strike out 
 across the prairie on lines radiating in all directions from 
 the camp. They will ride out on their courses for about five 
 miles,- . . . and then, turning back, will drive in towards 
 the centre, or, as they say, will "circle in" or "round- 
 up" all the cattle found in that district. It is this opera- 
 tion carried on day after day over many thousand square 
 miles of country which gives the name "round-up" to the 
 "annual gathering of the cattle on the Plains. . . . 
 
 In the "general round-up" of the early summer, the 
 branding of young stock is the chief business ; but in this 
 gathering the object is to separate certain cattle to be 
 driven away to new grazing-grounds in the northern Terri- 
 tories, o . . 
 
 The background of mountains which in the morning had 
 been so shadeless was now almost wholly in shadow. . . . 
 Here and there the snowy head of a mountain looks out 
 cold and wan through a transparent veil of showers. Every 
 mom.ent at some point along the rank of mountains a thun- 
 derbolt leaps across from cloud to peak with a quick shiver, 
 A portentous darkness settles over the Great Divide. The 
 pine-clad slopes are as black as night; the snowy summits, 
 leaden. 
 
 In contrast with the dark majesty of the background is 
 the intense animation of the scene close at hand. Back and 
 
80 
 
 forth and round and round patrol the horsemen appointed 
 to hold the cattle within certain boundaries. Men repre- 
 sentins: the owners of brands ride into the crowd of cattle, 
 and, moving- slowly about, observe the brand of every ani- 
 mal as they pass. . . . Catching sight of the brands 
 for which they are seeking, each man follows close at the 
 heels of the cow he has selected, and, when she is near the 
 edge of the herd, with a quick jump of his horse he tries to 
 drive her beyond the boundaries. . . . The whole herd 
 is in commotion, with a general wheeling movement like a 
 slow maelstrom. . . . The din of a thousand bellowing 
 voices grows more thunderous as the herd grows more un- 
 easy. To watch this moving sea of animal life is exciting 
 in the highest degree. The horses, trained by long experi- 
 ence in the work, dash into it with the fire of a war-horse 
 going to battle. . . . The showy, barbaric costumes of 
 the cowboys, the exquisite feats of horsemanship, the excite- 
 ment of the horses warming to their work, the occasional 
 dexterous use of the lasso in subduing some animal at bay,— 
 all the rush and tumult, the roar and shouting, the ^ace of 
 muscular men and animals in ^wift motion, make up a spec- 
 tacle so stirring and picturesque that all other exhibtions 
 of equestrian skill seem tame in comparison. 
 
 As the cattle one by one are ' ' cut out, ' ' they are taken in 
 charge by outside riders and driven away to swell the herd 
 of those already gathered, which is grazing less than a mile 
 away. After two hours of work, while the commotion seems 
 still as violent as ever, the captain suddenly shouts the 
 order, *'Turn 'em loose!" The cry passes along, the guards 
 draw to one side, the liberated cattle move quickly away, 
 first in a body, then in a long scattering line, and the 
 stillness of the desert succeeds the uproar. In the mean- 
 time, the camp has been broken up and the train of wagons 
 
81 
 
 has moved up the river eight or ten miles to fix a centre for 
 the next day's work. There is little difference between 
 one day and another. The same operation of "circling" 
 in and '•cutting out" will be repeated until every acre 
 of ground in the allotted district has been traversed. 
 
 Abridged from Alfred Terry Bacon. 
 
 35. Colorado. 
 
 ''The Centennial State" can boast the grandest scenery 
 in the country. ''In Colorado roads, any minute's bend 
 to right or left may give you a delicious surprise, a new 
 peak, a far vista, a changed world." Its numerous peaks 
 capped with snow, its brilliantly colored rocks with here 
 and there forests of oaks and pines forming a "solid waF 
 of green" give it a charm unmatched. 
 
 We may divide the State into two divisions,— the plains 
 in the east and the Rocky Mountains in the west, crossing in 
 several ranges from north to south. These plains are well 
 adapted to cattle-grazing, which is a most important indus- 
 try in Colorado. 
 
 Farming is carried on to a considerable extent, aided by 
 irrigation. Thousands of miles of irrigating canals and 
 ditches bring the water that alone makes crops possible in 
 many regions. 
 
 Veins of gold and silver are found all through the Rocky 
 Mountains. Colorado possesses rich treasures of both 
 these metals, mining being the State's chief industry. A 
 visit to a gold mine will give an idea of how the earth is 
 made to give up this wealth. The buildings around this 
 mountain mine resemble a great factory. The hole going 
 down into the earth is called the shaft, and it is about eight 
 feet square. Elevators go up and down it, moved by the 
 great steam-engine at the top of the shaft. Tunnels into 
 
82 
 
 tlio earth lead off from the shaft at different levels, one 
 below the other. This mine has five such tunnels about 
 sixty feet apart, the lowest being about three hundred feet 
 from the top of the mine. Leaving the rough elevator, 
 at the lowest tunnel, we walk along it in the intense dark- 
 ness, lighted only by the miners' small candles or tiny 
 lamps. Here we see the miners digging the ore. They 
 bore a hole in the rock, place a stick of dynamite in it, and 
 connect it with a fuse. When this is lighted, the dynamite 
 explodes and tears out great masses of rock. These the 
 miners load into cars, which the elevator hauls to the sur- 
 face. This rock contains the gold, and various methods 
 are used to separate it. A common mode is the cyanide 
 process. The rock is ground repeatedly by machinery un- 
 til it becomes powder. This dust is placed in great steel 
 tanks and mixed with water containing cyanide of potas- 
 sium. This water takes up the gold from the mud and is 
 run off into boxes containing zinc shavings. These in turn 
 take the gold out of the water. Then the zinc and the gold 
 are separated by being melted in a furnace, from which 
 the pure gold flows out and is hardened in molds. 
 
 Silver is dug in mines and the ore crushed to powder as 
 in the mining of gold. Quicksilver, or mercury, is mixed 
 with this silver-bearing powder, and it takes up all the sil- 
 ver. The mixture of silver and quicksilver is then put 
 into a furnace. The great heat drives off the quicksilver 
 as a vapor, leaving the silver. 
 
 Leadville, founded in 1859 as "California Gulch,*' be- 
 came in 1877 on the discovery of vast deposits of silver, 
 one of the greatest mining towns in the world. 
 
 The best gold region in the State is that of Cripple Creek, 
 near Pike's Peak. In 1900, the Cripple Creek region pro- 
 duced gold to the value of $20,000,000. 
 
83 
 
 » 
 
 Two of the most famous mountain peaks in the State 
 
 are the Mountain of the Holy Cross and Pike's Peak, each 
 about fourteen thousand feet high. 
 
 The rugged, barren Mountain of the Holy Cross is in 
 northwestern Colorado. Near the top, it bears a great 
 cross which gives its name to the peak. This cross is 
 formed by snow lying in two deep ravines, which cross each 
 other at right angles. In summer, when the snow else- 
 where has melted, one sees this beautiful white cross, boldly 
 outlined against the rocks around. 
 
 In the winter of 1803, Major Pike with a party of ex- 
 plorers, tried to reach the top of the mountain that now 
 bears his name, but he was obliged to give up the attempt, 
 remarking sadly that nothing but a bird could reach that 
 snowy height. Time, however, has solved the problem of 
 its ascent, for a cog-railroad from Manitou and a fine car- 
 riage road now reach the top. 
 
 The view from the signal station on Pike's Peak is grand. 
 '^In the west the great main range of the Rockies, two hun- 
 dred miles away, loomed up with snowy heads ; in the north 
 lay Denver, seventy-five miles distant, while away beyond 
 was a white speck which we knew to be Cheyenne, in Wyo- 
 ming. ■ . . . Away beyond stretched the great Colorado 
 plains, with the Platte Eiver winding through them like a 
 silver thread." 
 
 Manitou and Colorado Springs are two charming towns 
 at the base of Pike's Peak; near them is the famous Garden 
 of the Gods. Helen Hunt Jackson says a better name for 
 this mass of rocks would be the "Portress of the Gods." 
 Describing its gateway she says : ' ' Fancy two red sand- 
 stone rocl^ three hundred feet high, of irregular outline 
 and surface, rising abruptly and perpendicularly like a 
 wall, with a narrow passage-way between them. The rock 
 
84 
 
 on your right, as yon enter from the east, is of the deepest 
 brick-red; the one on the left is paler, more of a flesh 
 color. At their base is a thick growth of low oak bushes." 
 . . . Thousands of swallows nest in the holes and crev- 
 ices of these columns, "and at sunset it is a beautiful 
 sight to see them circling high in the air, perching for a 
 moment on the glittering red spires and pinnacles at the 
 top of the wall, and then swooping downward and disap- 
 pearing suddenly where no aperture is to be seen, as if 
 with their little bills they had cloven way for themselves 
 into the solid rock." 
 
 Entering the gateway you find among the low cedars and 
 pines "a wild confusion of red rocks." Every shape and 
 size of rock is here, all of a bright red hue, amazing and 
 awing the visitor by the strangeness of their form or by 
 the vastness of their size. 
 
 The fertile valleys, or parl^, enclosed by mountain- 
 chains, add to the wondroiLs beauty of the State. Every 
 visitor to Colorado returns charmed with its magnificent 
 scenery, whose beauty is heightened by the pure air and 
 the clear skies. 
 
 36. The Wild West. 
 
 Life in the West today is vastly different from what it 
 was fifty years ago. That formative period in the develop- 
 ment of the West was one of struggle and danger. We can 
 realize these conditions best by studying them in connection 
 with the career of one who lived through them. 
 
 In 1857, William F. Cody, better known as "Buffalo 
 Bill," was a boy about twelve years of age, living in newly 
 settled Kansas. His father had just died, and to help his 
 mother the boy engaged as "extra" with a firm of over- 
 land freighters, whose headquarters were at Leavenworth. 
 
85 
 
 The freiglit was carried in great wagons, resembling the 
 prairie-schooners. Usually about thirty-five of these can- 
 vas-covered wagons started off on the long journey, each 
 wagon being drawn by several yoke of oxen in charge of 
 a driver, called a bullwhacker. Cody's duty was to ride 
 from one wagon to another, giving the orders of the chief 
 wagon-master, or "wagon-boss." "When the first day's 
 work was done, and he had staked out aiid cared for his 
 horse, he watched with fascinated eye^ the strange and 
 striking picture lined against the black hills and the 
 sweeping stretch of darkening prairie. Everything was ani- 
 mation : the buUwhackers unhitching and disposing of their 
 teams; the herders staking out the cattle; and,— not the 
 least interesting— the mess cooks preparing the evening meal 
 at the crackling camp-fires, w4th the huge, canvas-covered 
 wagons encircling them like ghostly sentinels; the ponies 
 and oxen blinking stupidly as the flames stampeded the 
 shadows in which they were enveloped; and more weird 
 than all the buckskin-clad buUwhackers, squatted around 
 the fire, their beards glowing red in its light, their faces 
 drawn in strange black and yellow lines, while the spiked 
 grasses shot tall and sword-like over them. . . . 
 
 "But Will discovered that life on the plains is not all a 
 supper under the stars when the sparks fly upward; it 
 has its hardships and privations. There were days, as the 
 wagons dragged their slow lengths along, when the clouds 
 obscured the sky and the wind whistled dismally; days 
 when torrents fell and swelled the streams that must be 
 crossed, and when the mud lay ankle-deep ; days when 
 the cattle stampeded and the round-up meant long, extra 
 hours of heavy work; and, hardest but most needed work 
 of all, the eternal vigil 'gainst an Indian attack." 
 
m 
 
 Another daring occupation of the boy was that of Pony 
 Express rider. This Pony Express was started to convey 
 mail and valuable packages across the country from the 
 IMissouri River to Sacramento, in California. The Pony 
 Express was very useful before the telegraph and the rail- 
 road came to that region. The stretch of two thousand 
 miles was covered by the Pojiy Express riders in nine days 
 usually, though on the occasion of delivering President Lin- 
 coln's inaugural, in March, 1861, this time was reduced to 
 seven days and seventeen hours. 
 
 The letters carried were written on fine, light paper 
 to reduce the weight, for the charge was five dollars for 
 half an ounce. They were carried in locked leather bags, 
 strapped to the rider's side. The Pony Express began 
 its first trip on April 3, 1860, one rider starting west from 
 St. Joseph, while another started east from Sacramento. 
 All along the road, other riders were ready, waiting to 
 carry the mail-bag for their distance, when they arrived. 
 
 Cody's run was only forty-five miles, taken in three 
 relays, and covered in three hours, a fresh horse being 
 taken at each of the three relay stations. It was a life 
 of danger. One day, at a bend in a narrow pass, he sud- 
 denly met a highwayman armed with a revolver, who or- 
 dered the boy to deliver up the money packages in the 
 saddle-bags. The boy obeyed the command to throw up 
 his hands; but as the robber reached over to get the 
 plunder, Cody touched the pony with his foot, causing 
 him to upset the robber and to knock him, unconscious, 
 to the ground. It was easy work then to disarm the rob- 
 ber, pinion him, and take him away a prisoner. It was 
 thus that these riders, by coolness, bravery, and daring, 
 performed their hard task. 
 
87 
 
 The Pony Express was discontinued in 1861, when a 
 telegraph line was put up connecting the West with the 
 East. 
 
 it was a stirring age, but it is past. There are no 
 longer any lurking savage Indians for the settlers to guard 
 against; the white-covered jn-airie-sehooners with their 
 teams of perhaps eight oxen no longer bear emigrant fami- 
 lies across the prairies to their new homes; the peaceful 
 railroad of today covers the trails of those early days, 
 which were not roads nor even paths, sometimes. The 
 deeds of these pioneers of civilization are almost forgotten 
 in the busy rush of modern life. Yet without their daring 
 skill and untiring perseverance, that region would still be 
 a wilderness, given over to the wild buffalo and the roam- 
 ing Indian. 
 
 37. The Yellowstone National Park. 
 
 The Yellowstone National Park lies chiefly in the north- 
 western part of Wyoming, the area of the park proper be- 
 ing over three thousand square miles. 
 
 Magnificent forests cover the greater part of the park, 
 though all around it are treeless deserts. Lying in the 
 heart of the Roclry Mountains, it is surrounded on three 
 sides by lofty mountains, as though Nature would guard 
 this treasure spot of beauty. 
 
 A roaring river runs beside the entrance road, and great 
 gray cliffs border it. One's first stop in the Park is at the 
 fine Mammoth Springs Hotel, and from its veranda one 
 can see Fort Yellowstone, the station for two companies of 
 United States Cavalry. These soldiers keep order in the 
 Park, protect its deer, elk, and other wild animals, and 
 preserve the forests from destruction by fire. These for- 
 
88 
 
 ests are of great value to the surrounding region, as they 
 prevent any dangerous spring Hoods. 
 
 A short distance from this hotel stands the Liberty Cap, 
 a mass of stone fifty-two feet high, resembling somewhat a 
 liberty cap of the French Revolution. Near the Liberty 
 Cap are the famous Mammoth Hot Springs. These springs 
 of hot water through the centuries have deposited layers of 
 mineral matter built up into great terraces covering two 
 hundred acres. ' ' Where water ripples over these gigantic 
 steps, towering one above another toward the sky, they 
 look like beautiful cascades of color." Here one sees 
 orange, purple, yellow, and red, but where the water does 
 not flow, the mass is white and ash-like in color. 
 
 To travel through the Park, tourists use coaches drawn 
 by four or six hoi-ses. A company maintains these coaches, 
 and the traveller can take his own time for the journey, 
 the wonders well repaying his stay. 
 
 The Obsidian Cliffs from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred and fifty feet high are really made of jet-black 
 glass from a volcano. By heating and breaking the glass, 
 a road was formed through it. Near this is Norris Basin, 
 one of the three great geyser regions. Its geysers are less 
 famous than those of the other basins, though the Black 
 Growler with its steady mass of steam rushing up the year 
 through is quite remarkable. It takes its name from the 
 black rock around it. 
 
 In the Upper Geyser Basin we find among others the 
 Beehive Geyser, the Castle Geyser, the Grand Geyser, and 
 Old Faithful. 
 
 "Old Faithful never fails. Year in, year out, winter 
 and summer, day and night, in cold and heat, in sunshine 
 and in storm. Old Faithful every seventy minutes sends 
 up its silvery cascade." How fascinating is that great 
 
column of boiling water, coming from the unknown depths 
 of the earth below ! What mysterious volcanic force hurls 
 it high into the air at such regular intervals? This is one 
 of Nature's many secrets. 
 
 Near the Tapper Geyser Basin is part of the elevation 
 known as the Continental Divide, which gives a wonderful 
 view of country, bordered by the giant Rockies. On this 
 elevation is a tiny lake, and when it overflows, part of its 
 water flows down to the Atlantic and part to the Pacific. 
 
 Descending the road we reach Yellowstone Lake, a mag- 
 nificent sheet of water eighteen miles long. Fish are found 
 in abundance in its waters. 
 
 On the west side of the lake is a hot spring which has 
 built its mineral cone containing a boiling pool, separated 
 from the waters of the lake. It is called the "Fish 
 Spring," because "one can catch trout from the lake, and, 
 swinging them into the boiling caldron, he can cook them 
 upon the hook." 
 
 From the northern end of the lake flows the Yellowstone 
 River, and after a distance of several miles it shoots over 
 a precipice one hundred and ten feet high. This is the 
 Upper Fall of the Yellowstone. The river flows along 
 quietly for a half-mile; then it falls as the Lower Fall 
 over a precipice three hundred and ten feet in height, 
 "plunging into the abyss known as the Grand Canon of 
 the Yellowstone." This is a gorge about a half-mile wide 
 and some twenty miles long, enclosed between steep rocks 
 from six hundred to fifteen hundred feet in height. 
 
 Dr. A. C. Peale says: "When we approach the brink 
 and look over into the abyss, we begin to realize the little- 
 ness of man in the presence of Nature's grand masterpieces. 
 Down, dow^n goes the whirling mass, battling and writhing 
 as the water dashes against the rocks with a noise like the 
 
90 
 
 discharge of artillery. . . . The immense mass of wa- 
 ter seems to dissolve icself into spray, and then recovering, 
 it flows down the gorge an emerald-green stream, dashed 
 with patches of white, beating with furious waves the rocky 
 walls that imprison it. Taken in connection with the 
 varied tints of the canon itself— red, yellow, orange, white 
 —the dark green pines fringing the top, and the bright 
 green of the spray-nourished moss on the sides of the fall, 
 we have a picture of almost unequalled magnificence and 
 grandeur. ' ' 
 
 The Parle and the Canon form indeed America's wonder- 
 land. 
 
 3H. The Land of the Puebios. 
 
 Arizona and New i\Iexico are a region of our country 
 offering many strange sights to the traveller. 
 
 These southwestern lands are vast table-lands, crossed 
 !)y mountain-ridges, and here from very ancient days were 
 settled semicivilized Indians, called Pueblo Indians, from 
 the Spanish word "pueblo," meaning a village. Their 
 dwellings like those of some of the present tribes in this 
 region were tenement-houses, from two to Rve stories hign, 
 frequently built around three sides of a court. They were 
 made of stone or of sun-dried brick (adobe), and could 
 accommodate a whole tribe, consisting of hundreds or even 
 thousands of Indians. 
 
 "The ground floor has no doors or windows, and rude 
 ladders lead to the roof which is pierced with trap-doors, 
 giving access to the interior by means of another set of 
 ladders." These outside ladders could be swung up at 
 night, thus preventing any one from entering. 
 
 With their robes or mantles made of fur, feathers, or 
 embroidered cotton, their gai]}^ embroidered coats, and their 
 
91 
 
 buckskin leggings, the men looked very picturesque. The 
 warriors wore helmets of hide, and an armor of padded cot- 
 ton or skin, carrying a shield of basketwork or of padded 
 cotton. Their weapons were chiefly lances, war-clubs, and 
 the bow and arrow. 
 
 The households had several rooms in the great dwelling, 
 and these the women took care of. They also prepared the 
 food and made the baskets and pottery. The men hunted 
 for game, tilled the fields, and did the weaving. We note 
 the remains of many ancient trenches for bringing water 
 to the dry fields, showing that irrigation is not a new idea. 
 
 The Zuni Indians in New i\Iexico and the Moqui Indians 
 in Arizona are the chief Pueblo tribes of to-day. 
 
 The Zufiis are extremely polite and very intelligent. 
 They are a peaceful race, but a very brave one. The Zunis ' 
 seven ancient villages were known to the Spanish ex- 
 plorers as the Seven Cities of Cibola. On the site of one 
 of these stands today the communal pueblo of the Zufiis. 
 Their numbei-s have greatly diminished, for in 1900 the 
 population of the Zufii Indian Reservation was only fif- 
 teen hundred and twenty-five. They live after the manner 
 of their forefathers, in a great stone or adobe dwelling of 
 several stories, going up and down their ladders from roof 
 to roof with great ease. They are still successful farmers 
 and skilled makers of baskets, pottery, and blankets. 
 
 Every August, the JVIoqui Indians of Arizona have a 
 horrible Snake Dance on the Painted Desert. Day after 
 day the weird ceremonies go on, probably not understood 
 even by the Indians. Thej^ end on the ninth day with the 
 dance itself. 
 
 After some marching around the plaza, the Snake priests 
 with gaily painted bodies dance, raising their right knee 
 almost to the chest, and then stamping vigorously. At a 
 
92 
 
 signal they form in threes, one of each group taking out a 
 snake from the enclosure and carrying it between his teeth, 
 while one of his companions protects him from the snake's 
 fangs by his whip of eagle feathers. AVhile others sing a 
 loud chant, they march around the plaza to the base of the 
 rock, and the snake is tlien dropped to be gathered up by 
 the third man, the others returning for another snake. 
 ^Yhen all the snakes have been taken out, the high priest 
 draws a circle on the ground with sacred meal, and into 
 this the men fling their snakes. Finally the priests rush 
 into this mass of serpents, and after each has seized a hand- 
 ful of the snakes, they rush at full speed down the steep 
 path to the plains below, at last setting the snakes free, in 
 order that they may "carry to the gods their prayers for 
 rain." Most of the snakes are rattlesnakes, but none of 
 these Indians ever die of the deadly bite, because they know 
 a remedy for this poison. A grand feast of Indian dainties 
 is the concluding part of this odd ceremony. 
 
 Let us turn from these Indians and examine the wonders 
 of nature in this strange land. 
 
 The mesas of New Mexico and Arizona are broad, high 
 table-lands, bounded on at least one bide by a steep cliff. 
 At a distance they often resemble a great fort. The most 
 famous of these is the Enchanted Mesa in the west central 
 part of New Mexico. This plateau is over four hiuidred 
 feet high, and it was once inhabited by Indians. The 
 summit is almost level, consisting of hard rock, much 
 Aveathered, and bearing a few low cedar-trees. 
 
 The Petrified Forest in eastern Arizona is in several di- 
 visions, separated by a mile or two. It covers over twD 
 thousand acres. It is a quarry of stone trees, for what 
 once was a tree bv the action of water and minerals has 
 
93 
 
 become agate, chalcedony, and onyx, of beautiful colors. 
 Some of the fallen trunks are a hundred feet long. 
 
 In northern Arizona we find one of the greatest wonders 
 of the globe— the Grand Canon of the Arizona. Stoddard 
 calls it an "awful gulf" into which "cities could be tossed 
 like pebbles." It is about two hundred and fifty miles 
 long, and from five to twelve miles wide. In places the 
 depth is over a mile. 
 
 The rock walls are carved into strange shapes, colored 
 yellow, red, or dull purple. The long line of yellow at th(i 
 bottom is the Colorado River. Travellers go down the in- 
 cline on muleback to see the Caiion, but it is a hard and 
 dangerous ride. The river is very difficult to navigate. 
 Major J. W. Powell, in 1869, was the first to succeed in 
 making the passage. With four boats and nine men he 
 began his daring ride through the Cafion, starting his river 
 journey in Utah. He completed the task with the loss of 
 two boats and three men. These men, fearing the Canon, 
 tried to escape across the desert but were massacred by 
 Indians. 
 
 Powell's description of the Grand Caiion is very fine: 
 "The walls now are more than a mile in height. . . . 
 A thousand feet of this is up through granite crags; then 
 steep slopes and perpendicular cliffs rise, one above an- 
 other, to the summit. The gorge is black and narrow be- 
 low, red and gray and flaring above. . . . Down in 
 these grand, gloomy depths we glide, ever listening, for the 
 mad waters keep up their roar; ever watching, ever peer- 
 ing ahead, for the narrow cafion is winding, and the river 
 is closed in, so that we can see but a few hundred yards, 
 and what there may be below w^e know not. . . . 
 
 "Clouds are playing in the canon to-day. Sometimes 
 they roll down in great masses, filling the gorge with 
 
94 
 
 gloom ; sometimes they hang above, from wall to wall, and 
 cover the caiion with a root' of impending storm.- . . . 
 Then a gust of wind sweeps down a side gulch, and, making 
 a rift in the clouds, reveals the blue heavens, and a stream 
 of sunlight pours in." . . , 
 
 Hamlin Garland, writing of the Grand Canon, beauti- 
 fully says: "The clouds and the sunset, the moonrise and 
 the storm, will transform it into a splendor no mountain 
 range can surpass. Peaks will shift and glow, walls darken, 
 crags take fire, and gray-green mesas, dimly seen, take on 
 the gleam of opalescent lakes of mountain water. The 
 traveler who goes out to the edge and peers into the great 
 abj^ss sees but one phase out of hundreds. If he is for- 
 tunate, it may be one of its most beautiful combinations 
 of color and shadow. But to know it, to feel its majesty, 
 one should camp in the bottom and watch the sunset and 
 the moonrise, while the river marches from its lair like an 
 angry lion." 
 
 39. The Cliff=Dweners. 
 
 Long before the Spanish conquest of this region certain 
 Pueblo tribes had tied to the caiion walls for protection 
 from more powerful tribes of invaders. These were the 
 cliff-dwellers, and the ruined remains of their ancient dwel- 
 lings are found through the whole Southwest. 
 
 In Utah, Arizona, New ]\Iexico, and Colorado we find 
 the work of this strange people. "On the sides of the 
 savage cliffs that wall in or overarch the canons are scat- 
 tered in every crevice and wrinkle these strange and 
 picturesque ruins which give us the name 'cliff-dwellers' 
 to distinguish this long-forgotten people." 
 
 The canon of the Little Rio Mancos in southwestern 
 Colorado shows us a great number of these remains. 
 
95 
 
 Along' the stream they planted their crops, while on the 
 high cliffs they built their houses, safe from any invader. 
 The whole length of this canon ' ' is but one series of houses 
 and temples that were forsaken centuries ago. ' ' 
 
 Some of these houses were one-roomed ; others were large, 
 two-storied buildings, each floor being divided into sev- 
 eral roouLS, with a tall, outside cistern built against the 
 side. The walls were built of squared stones, laid in mor- 
 tar. The Indians generally reached their lofty homes by 
 ladders. Some were built on shelves of rock seven and eight 
 hundred feet above the stream; others were perched in 
 crevices of the canon that the explorer of today cannot 
 possibly climb to. How great must have been the skill 
 and the patience of these savage builders, working only 
 with tools of stone ! ' ' Imagine the infinite toilsome 
 patience of a people who in such a way could rear the 
 ancient Pueblo Bonito of New Mexico, five hundred and 
 forty feet long, three hundred and fourteen feet wide, and 
 four stories high!" 
 
 Bacon says: "Most striking and picturesque of all the 
 ruins are the round watch-towers. On commanding points 
 in the valley, and on the highest pinnacles of the cliffs 
 overlooking the surface of the mesa, they occur with a 
 frequency which is almost pathetic as an indication of the 
 life of eternal vigilance which was led by that old race 
 through the years, perhaps centuries, of exterminating 
 warfare which the savage red men from the North waged 
 up)on them." 
 
 We do not know the number of these Indians, but we 
 do loiow they were once a powerful nation. We know they 
 were a peaceful people, cultivating the lands along the 
 river, raising crops of corn and beans and even irrigating 
 regions where water was lacking. They did not know how 
 
to work metals, for the implements found in the ruins 
 are of stone; but fragments of decorated pottery show 
 considerable skill in this art. Their religion was probably 
 a worship of the sun. 
 
 Just when they perished we do not know, but their silent 
 ruins are all that remains of this great people. Their arts 
 of peace could not withstand the repeated invasions of 
 savage foes, and even their rock-shelters failed to save 
 them. 
 
 40. The Great Basin. 
 
 The Great Basin, lying between the Wasatch Mountains 
 on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west, includes 
 western Utah, almost all of Nevada, and a part of south- 
 eastern California. 
 
 This immense area receives little rain and has little fresh 
 water. Its rivers sink into the sands of the desert or flow 
 into a lake of salt water. 
 
 One of the chief rivers of the region is the Humboldt 
 River, which empties into Humboldt Lake in west central 
 Nevada. This lake is only a marsh ordinarily, and the 
 river is just as strange. 
 
 Horace Greeley says: ''I wish to record my opinion that 
 the Humboldt, all things considered, is the meanest river 
 of its length on earth. Rising in the Humboldt Mountains, 
 hardly one hundred and fifty miles west of Salt Lake, it is 
 at first a pure stream . . ., but it is soon corrupted by 
 its alkaline surroundings, and its water, for at least the 
 lower half of its course, is about the most detestable I ever 
 tasted. I mainly chose to suffer thirst rather than drink 
 it. Though three hundred and fifty miles in length, it is 
 never more than a decent mill-stream; I presume it is the 
 only river of equal length that never had even a canoe 
 
97 
 
 launched upon its bosom. ... I believe no tree of any 
 size grows on this forlorn river from its forks to its mouth ; 
 I am sure I saw none while traversing the lower half of its 
 course. . . . 
 
 ' ' Here Famine sits enthroned, and waves his scepter over 
 a dominion expressly made for him. . . . The sage-brush 
 and grease-wood, which cover the high, parched plain on 
 either side of the river 's bottom, seem thinly set, with broad 
 spaces of naked, shining, glaring, blinding day between 
 them.'* 
 
 Mr. M. V. Moore says that the waters of this river simply 
 lose themselves in the Sink of the Humboldt, "one of the 
 dreariest and most forlorn stretches of waste land human 
 eye ever beheld, in the heart of a great, broad plain shim- 
 mering with sickening, whitish alkali, while the far-off 
 mountains to the southward appear like a vein of silver, 
 with their snow-capped faces looking down on the desola- 
 tion below." 
 
 Nevada is sometimes called the "Sage-Brush State," yet 
 it is not all a desert. Much fertile land is found, and irriga- 
 tion has changed a great deal of the desert into fertile re- 
 gions, capable of raising crops and supporting cattle and 
 sheep. 
 
 Irrigation is often done by a company that sells the water 
 to the farmers. The company builds dams to store the 
 water in reservoirs on the mountains ; then they dig a net- 
 work of canals to carry it to the thirsty land. 
 
 Even the alkali fiats in some cases have been made pro- 
 ductive by irrigation, though others remain true deserts, 
 white, flat, and lifeless. Some of these flats are forty miles 
 long, and travel over them is torture by reason of the blind- 
 ing, stinging dust the wind raises there. From these alkali 
 flats, salt and borax are obtained. 
 
98 
 
 The richest treasure of Nevada, however, is her mines, 
 gold and silver being produced in great quantities. Corn- 
 stock Lode is a vein, bearing gold and silver, located in 
 western Nevada, twelve miles from Carson City. At one 
 time it was counted the richest mine in the world. 
 
 The Great Basin has few large cities. Its largest is the 
 famous Salt Lake City, lying in northeastern Utah, about 
 twelve miles from Great Salt Lake. This vast salty lake, 
 eighty miles long, is one of the curiosities that visitors to 
 the city are interested in. No fish can live in its salt wa- 
 ters. Another odd thing about the lake is that even where 
 it is fifty feet deep, the swimmer cannot sink, but floats with 
 head and shoulders above the water. 
 
 The city shows a wonderful triumph over nature. Brig- 
 ham Young with his Mormons crossed the country in their 
 wagons from Illinois, and built this city in the desert in 
 1847. By turning streains of water over the land they 
 irrigated it and made it into a rich farming land. The city 
 has fine, straight streets, bordered by streams of water 
 brought from the mountains. The many gardens around 
 the houses make it very attractive. 
 
 Temple Block is the centre of interest to visitors. It 
 covers ten acres, and contains as its two chief buildings the 
 Temple and the Tabernacle. 
 
 The Temple is built of gray granite. It took forty yeare 
 to complete, the cost being over four million dollars. It 
 is used for special religious ceremonies, and outsiders can- 
 not enter it. 
 
 The Tabernacle is used for ordinary Sunday services, and 
 is open to all. This immense building, seating eight thou- 
 sand people, is very odd in appearance, looking like "the 
 half of an eggshell set upon pillars. ' ' 
 
99 
 
 The founder of this city intended it as a refuge for Mor- 
 mons, a sect that believed it was right for a man to have 
 several wives. Their leader and ruler for many years, 
 Brigham Young, at his death had seventeen wives. 
 
 To-day the Mormons do not practice this belief, as the 
 laws of the United States forbid it. The energy and per- 
 severance of this people made the region what it is; with- 
 out their skill and care it would probably still be a desert. 
 
 41. Caiifornia. 
 
 The Pacific Ocean is the western boundary of our coun- 
 try, and here, along its waters, lies one of its richest and 
 fairest regions. 
 
 It is a land rich in mountain and valley. The lofty 
 Sierra Nevada Mountains, seventy miles in breadth, trace 
 their graceful line along the east, giving scenery of a rare 
 beauty. In the west, nearly parallel to the Pacific, lies the 
 Coast Range. 
 
 The Great Valley of central California, drained by the 
 Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is noted for its vast 
 stretch of beautiful, fertile land, as it is five hundred miles 
 long. 
 
 In contrast to this is the southeastern portion of the State. 
 Here we find the Colorado Desert, the Mohave Desert, and 
 the famous Death Valley. This last valley takes its name 
 from the fact that many persons perished of thirst in 
 crossing it during the early gold-mining days of '49. It is 
 part of the Great Basin, and lies below sea-level. It has a 
 few springs, and with a guide it can be crossed. To cross 
 it without one would mean certain death for the traveler. 
 
 It was formerly believed that there was a volcano in the 
 valley and that the poisonous gases from it would kill even 
 birds flying by. This idea is incorrect. The reported vol- 
 
100 
 
 cano is only a hot spring, and there are no poisonous gases, 
 the atmosphere being remarkably pure. 
 
 The heat of the place is intense. For weeks at a time 
 in sununer the thermometer registers between 110° and 
 115°. Sand-storms add to the terrors of the valley. When 
 they rage, dense clouds of dust with their dreadful dark- 
 ness cut and lash everything in their path, piling up drifts 
 sometimes twenty feet high. The only vegetable life of 
 these deserts is dwarfed sage-brush and hideous cacti. 
 
 In southwestern California, man's labor has made a 
 desert into a fertile land. The climate was perfect in its 
 mildness, but without rain nothing would grow. Irriga- 
 tion gave the water to the desert and made it live. 
 
 Los Angeles is the greatest city of this region, having a 
 population of over one himdred thousand. Oranges, 
 lemons, grapes, and figs grow in abundance, and these with 
 wine and wool are the chief exports. The climate is very 
 mild, and the city is noted for the beauty of its gardens 
 and walks, adorned with such tropical plants as the pal- 
 metto, the india-rubber, the eucalyptus, the pepper- 
 tree, the lemon-tree and the orange-tree. The charming 
 Griffith Park here covers three thousand acres. 
 
 A few miles from it is lovely Pasadena, lying in the warm 
 sunshine at the base of snow-capped mountains. Even in 
 midwinter, oranges and roses can be gathered in the gardens 
 here. One of its streets is lined for a mile with palms, fif- 
 teen feet high. 
 
 Scattered throughout southern California are the lovely 
 ruins of "missions". In 1769 the Franciscan monks began 
 their first mission in California, at San Diego. This beauti- 
 ful town is situated on the Pacific, fifteen miles from the 
 Mexican frontier, in a delightful region, where the orange, 
 the fig, and the olive flourish. Other missions followed, un- 
 
101 
 
 til in 1823, there were twonty-one missions between San 
 Diego and San Francisco. Each mission in the centre of its 
 lands had a church, with cloisters for the monks. The In- 
 dian converts lived in little huts near the clmrch, and were 
 tanght to keep the mission's cattle and sheep, and to cul- 
 tivate the fields. ' ' The Indians were probably better dressed 
 and housed and fed than ever before." The missions 
 exist no longer, though their charming old churches still 
 stand. The adobe churches and cloisters of San Gabriel, 
 Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and the others "fill us with a 
 genuine reverence for the sandaled monies," whose hard 
 toil changed "this barren region into a garden." 
 
 42. California (continued). 
 
 Yosemite Valley is a gorge of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 
 tains in eastern California. The little valley, eight miles 
 long, is enclosed by great mountain-walls, and through it 
 runs the foaming Merced River. 
 
 Richardson speaks of "the measureless inclosing walls, 
 with their leading towers and turrets, gray, brown, and 
 white rock, darkly veined from summit to base with streaks 
 and ribbons of falling water." 
 
 Frowning El Capitan, an almost vertical cliff, seven 
 thousand feet high, marks the entrance to the valley. It is 
 the grandest of the rock masses, though Cathedral Rocks 
 are over a thousand feet higher. 
 
 These granite walls of towering height are Yosemite 's 
 beauty as much as the lovely falls. The Yosemite Falls in 
 three leaps drops almost half a mile. The Bridal Veil re- 
 sembles a veil of lace thrown over the rock. In its own 
 way, the Yosemite is one of the most "wonderful features of 
 our continent." 
 
102 
 
 About thirty miles from Yosemite Valley are the Mari- 
 posa Big Trees, some six hundred in number. These trees 
 are evergreens, and they are supposed to be at least two 
 thousand years old. The Grizzly Giant is the most famous 
 tree .in Mariposa Grove. Its lowest branch is one hundred 
 feet from the roots. It stands apart from the others, as 
 if it felt its greatness. Wawona stands directly over the 
 road, and an archway, ten feet wide, has been cut for the 
 drive through the base of the tree. 
 
 Calaveras County in central California also contains a 
 grove of these giant sequoias. Its largest specimen is a 
 fallen tree, supposed to have been four hundred and fifty 
 feet in height. 
 
 Possibly the great seaport of San Francisco will intercvst 
 you as much as these strange rocks and trees. 
 
 The entrance to the bay on which the city lies is through 
 the beautiful Golden Gate, a strait about five miles long, 
 leading to the Pacific. 
 
 The first white settlement on the bay was a mission for 
 the Indians, established by the Spanish in 1776. Later, a 
 little village grew up on the shore, but the real city of San 
 Francisco dates from 1849. In the beginning of that year, 
 the town had two thousand people; by the end of 1849, the 
 place had twenty thousand. 
 
 Wliat caused this rapid increase ? 
 
 In 1841, Captain John A. Sutter, a Swede, settled at what 
 is now Sacramento, and soon had a prosperous ranch with a 
 sawmiill, a tannery, great herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep. 
 James Marshall while working at the mill-race of this saw- 
 mill discovered gold here in 1848. That ended the Sutter 
 farm! Sutter made his men promise to go with their work 
 and say nothing about the gold for six weeks, but the men 
 soon deserted the farm to dig for gold. The news of the 
 
103 
 
 discovery was published through the whole civilized Avorld, 
 and gold-seekers poured into the country. They ruined 
 Sutter, destroying his crops, and stealing his flocks and 
 herds. Marshall, too, though he gathered some gold, died 
 M poor man. 
 
 If these men lost, the State gained. After the ''gold 
 fever" was over, many of the new settlers turned their at-' 
 tention to agriculture and commerce. For many years past 
 the wheat, the wine, and the wool of California have been of 
 far greater value than the gold, and the commerce of her 
 cities exceeds in wealth the greatest of her mines. 
 
 San Francisco, the ' ' Child of the Mines, ' ' before the de- 
 structive earth(}uake of 1906, was one of the great cities of 
 America. Its handsome rasidences on Nob Hill were 
 famous. As well-known was the dreadful Chinatown. 
 Here lived the Chinese, with their own shops and temples 
 and theatres. 
 
 These Chinese have yellow complexions, and little black 
 eyes. The head is shaved except at the crown, where the 
 hair is allowed to grow. This is braided into the queue 
 which hangs down the back. Their cpieer dress, as well as 
 their strange appearance, marks them from other foreigners 
 there. Helen Hunt Jackson in "Bits of Travel at Home" 
 describes thus a shop in the old Chinese quarter : 
 
 ' ' Sing, Wo & Co. keep one of the most picturesque shops 
 on Jackson Street. It is neither grocer's, nor butcher's, 
 nor fishmonger's, nor druggist's, but a little of all four. 
 
 "It is like most of the shops on Jackson Street, part cel- 
 lar, part cellar-stairs, part sidewalk, and part bedroom. 
 On the sidewalk are platters of innumerable sorts of little 
 fishes, — little silvery flshes; little yellow fishes with whisk- 
 ers; little snaky fishes; round flat fishes: little slices of big 
 fishes. . . . Eound tubs of sprouted beans ; platters of 
 
104 
 
 square cakes of something whose consistency was like Dutch 
 cheese, whose color was vivid yellow, like baker's ginger- 
 bread, and whose tops were stamped with mysterious let- 
 ters ; long roots, as long as the longest parsnips, but glisten- 
 ing white, like polished turnips; cherries, tied up in stingy 
 little bunches of ten or twelve, and swung in all the nooks; 
 . . . dried herbs, in dim recesses; pressed cliickens, on 
 shelves . . .,— all these were on the trays, on the side- 
 walk, and on the cellar-stairs. 
 
 "In the back bedroom were Mrs. Sing and Mrs. Wo, with 
 several little Sings and Wos. It was too dark to see what 
 they were doing; for the only light came in from the open 
 front of the shop, which seemed to run back like a cave in 
 a hill." 
 
 Probably the new San Francisco will end the dirt and 
 the wickedness of Chinatown and its tenement-houses. Its 
 picturesque air attracted the eye of the visitor, but its filth 
 appalled him. This foreign city did not belong to America, 
 and therefore it was bound to give way to better things. 
 
 43. The Indians. 
 
 The Indians are an extremely interesting race. These 
 earlier inhabitants of North America no longer roam its 
 forests and hunt its wild animals. That form of savage 
 life has largely vanished before the advance of civiliza- 
 tion, yet a brief examination of it will prove of interest. 
 
 Columbus named these people Indians, thinking he had 
 come to India, in Asia, when he landed here. In appear- 
 ance the race bears certain characteristic m^rks. Their 
 hair is long, coarse, straight, and black; the skin is usually 
 reddish-brown in color; the face is wide, with high cheek- 
 bones, small black eyes, and a prominent nose. Indians 
 vary as regards height, some tribes being tall, others short. 
 
105 
 
 So they vary as to color, some being almost white, while 
 others are brownish. 
 
 All were divided into tribes, each having its own language. 
 Several hundred different languages were spoken, though 
 many were quite similar. One of the greatest of these 
 tribes was the ''Five Nations" of New York, or the Iro- 
 quois Confederacy, made up of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, 
 the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas; another 
 was the Algonkins, or Algonquins, who lived in New Eng- 
 land, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Ohio Valley, and Can- 
 ada; the Shoshones (sho sho' nez) lived in western United 
 States; the Apaches (a pach' e) inhabited New Mexico and 
 Arizona; the Sioux (soo), or Dakotas, had their home in the 
 upper Mississippi Valley; in southeastern United States 
 lived the Chowtaws, the Creels, and tlie Seminoles. It 
 would be tiresome to enumerate all the various tribes, but 
 those named are probably the most famous. 
 
 The houses of Indians varied as much as the languages. 
 The Pueblos of the southwest built great houses of stone 
 and adobe, several stories high. Another large house was 
 the "long house" of the Iroquois. "It was of a long 
 rectangular form," often a hundred feet long, and about 
 fifteen feet wide. It was made of poles tied together and 
 covered with long strips of bark. The only openings were 
 the doorways at each end, the doors being blankets or skins 
 hung over the openings. A passage-way ran through the 
 centre of the house and the space on each side was di- 
 vided by skin partitions into stalls, each holding a family. 
 In the passage-way were five or six hearths, or fireplaces, 
 which served for the twenty or more families living in the 
 house. The Sacs and Foxes of Iowa built a large, bark- 
 covered house for summer with a sleeping platform six 
 feet wide the length of the house ; for winter, the house was 
 
106 ^ ' ~ 
 
 of poles covered with sheets of inattiiig made of rushes. 
 These houses were often dome-shaped, the height being 
 only six feet. The Indians of the Plains built conical 
 lodges, or tents, called tepees. The framework of a tepee 
 (tep ee') w^as poles, tied at the top and spread out at the 
 bot'oui "to cover a circle on the ground about ten feet 
 across." This they covered with buffalo skins formerly; 
 now they use cloth. The entrance had a flap of skin to 
 cover it. The wigwam of the eastern tribes was similar 
 to the tepee, consisting of a "rough, conical framework 
 of poles stuck into the ground below and converging above, 
 covered with bark, matting, or tanned hides, with an aper- 
 ture at the top for the exit of smoke.'' Thus we see Avhat 
 varying degrees of skill in building were shown by the 
 tribes. 
 
 The Indian dress was very picturesque, though hardly 
 comfortable, if we are to judge by our standard. The 
 winter clothing was chietly made of buffalo-skin or deer- 
 skin. The breech-clout, held in place by a band or belt 
 around the waist, was worn by almost all male Indians. 
 They also wore leggings of buckskin, fitting tightly over the 
 whole leg and fringed with pieces of buckskin along the 
 outer side of the leg. A long jacket or shirt of buckskin, 
 ornamented with painted designs or with bead-work, was 
 another important article. The blanket was worn as a 
 robe over this; in former days these were made of hides, 
 but to-day they wear woolen blankets brightly colored. The 
 feet were protected by the close-fitting moccasins, made 
 of buckskin, and reaching only to the ankle. A necklace 
 of beads and a head-dress of feathers completed the costume. 
 These feathers were really war-bonnets; they consisted of 
 a rawhide cap fitting the head, with upright eagle feathers 
 fastened to it. A long streamer of cloth to which other 
 
107 
 
 feathers were fastened hung down the back. To-day many 
 Indians use the civilized costume, while others cling to their 
 ancient dress. 
 
 The Indians' homes were very bare indeed. ''Mats and 
 skins served for bedding, and the ground usually for seats 
 and tables. For cooking purposes some tribes used wooden 
 vessels hollowed out by burning and scraping. They filled 
 these vessels with water and threw in stones heated in 
 their fires till the water boiled. Then the food was dropped 
 in to cook in the boiling water. Baskets made of willow, 
 very closely woven, were used in the same way. Some tribes 
 had vessels of earthenware, others of hollowed-out soap- 
 stone. ' ' 
 
 Their tools and weapons were of stone, bone, or wood. 
 War was a main business among the Indians ; and their 
 chief weapons were the bow and arrow, the war-club of 
 heavy wood, and the tomahawk, or hatchet, with its wooden 
 handle and sharp-edged stone head. In their wars they 
 always tried to draw the enemy into an ambush. A small 
 part would attack openly and then fall back as if de- 
 fea,ted. The pursuing enemy would follow these until in 
 some woods or ravine the main body, which was concealed 
 there, rose and massacred them. The great prize for the 
 victor was the scalp of his foe. This was a part of the 
 skin of the head with the hair. Prisoners were usually 
 tortured to death. Sometimas, however, they escaped death 
 by being adopted in place of a dead son or brother; some- 
 times one was given a chance for his life by being 
 made to run the gauntlet. He ran between two lines of 
 armed Indians, who struck at him as he passed. Wounds 
 generally killed the man before he ran far; but if his 
 strength was great enough to stand the test, he won his 
 life. 
 
108 
 
 Higgiiison describes the ceremonies connected with the 
 beginning of a war: ''Some leading chief would paint his 
 body black from head to foot, and would hide himsellf in 
 the woods or in a cavern. There he would fast and pray, 
 and call upon the Great Spirit, and would observe his 
 dreams. . . . If he dreamed of a great war-eagle hov- 
 ering before him, it was a sign of triumph. After a time 
 he would com.e forth from the woods and return among 
 his people. Then he would address them, summon them to 
 war, and tell them the Great Spirit was on their side. Then 
 he would bid the warriors to a feast at his wigwam. There 
 they would find him no longer painted in black, but in 
 bright and gaudy colors, called 'war-paint.' The guests 
 would be also dressed in paint and feathers, and would 
 seat themselves in a circle. Then wooden trenchers con- 
 taining the flesh of dogs would be placed before them, while 
 the chief would sit smoking his pipe, and would not eat 
 anything. 
 
 "After the feast, the war-dance would follow, perhaps at 
 night, amid the blaze of fire and lighted pine-loiots. A 
 painted post would be driven into the ground, and the 
 crowd would form a wide circle around it. The war-chief 
 Avould leap into the open space, brandishing his hatchet, 
 and would chant his own deeds and those of his fathers, 
 acting out all that he described, and striking at the post 
 as if it were an enemy. Warrior after w^arrior would 
 follow, till at last the whole band woud be dancing, shout- 
 ing, and brandishing their weapons, . . . and filling 
 the forest with their yells." 
 
 Their chief men besides the war-chiefs were the sachems 
 and the medicine-men, or Shamans. The councils of the 
 sachems ruled the tribes in times of i)eace. The medicine- 
 
109 
 
 man was a "witch-doctor who used charms and spells to cure 
 disease. Indians believed in the Great Spirit, or Supreme 
 Being, and in inferior spirits found in everything around ; 
 hence, as the medicine-man was supposed to have power 
 over these spirits, he was greatly feared and respected by 
 the people. 
 
 Hunting and fighting were the men's work; everything 
 else had to be done by the women. They raised the corn, 
 tended the fire, made the clothing, prepared the food and 
 cared for the children. The Indian babies, or papooses, 
 were generally kept strapped on a papoose-board, care- 
 fully wrapped in cloths and fastened in his place by 
 bandages. Thus he could be carried on his mother's back 
 or set up against the wall or hung up in a tree. Often 
 the woman worked in the fields with her baby on her 
 back, on his board or simply with his blanket bound around 
 him. 
 
 While the woman's life was hard it was scarcely worse 
 than the man's. Both endured much hardship and suf- 
 fering. Conditions have greatly improved. The Indian 
 wars are over, and to-day many Indians live on govern- 
 ment reservations. In Indian Territory, a number of tribes 
 are settled, each tribe having its own land. They have 
 good farms and fine herds of cattle. While most of these 
 Indians continue to use their old languages, they have be- 
 come considerably civilized. The schools are quite good, 
 and many of the youths receive additional training at 
 Hampton Institute, Virginia, and at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
 vania. The savage has gone ; in his place, there are many 
 good citizens of this old race. 
 
 Note. — Elson says: ''The whole -number of Indians in the United 
 States according to the census uf 1900, was 266,760. Of this number 
 137,242 are said to be 'civilized'; that is, they are 'taxed' Indians, 
 who do not live in tribal relations on reservations. ' ' 
 
110 
 44* Alaska. 
 
 Until 1867, Alaska belonged to the Russian nation. Rus- 
 sia sold it to the United States for about seven million dol- 
 lars, and it has proved a very valuable purchase. Though 
 much of its area of about six hundred thousand square 
 miles is a region of ice and snow, yet the extent of its mines 
 and its fisheries will make it a rich country. 
 
 The beauties of Alaskan scenery have been praised by all 
 travellers. Harrison says : ' ' The whole fourteen hundred 
 —one might say two thousand— miles of coast extending 
 from Puget Sound to Bering Strait is a succession of 
 beautiful and picturesque archipelagoes, consisting of hun- 
 dreds, if not thousands, of islands, through which there are 
 countless water-caves, lakes, bays, inlets, as smooth as Lake 
 George and the Hudson, and far more lovely. ' ' 
 
 The numerous glaciers of Alaska, dazzling in their beauty, 
 give a rare charm to the scenery. Muir Glacier, in south- 
 eastern Alaska, is the most famous of these. Nine streams 
 of ice unite to form it, giving it an area of over three hun- 
 dred square miles. Its "most rapid summer movement is 
 about seven feet" a day, and the slow, steady downward 
 movement of this and other glaciers gives the icebergs 
 which are such a common sight in these waters. 
 
 Mrs. Scidmore says: "Avalanches of crumbling snow 
 and great pieces of the front were continually falling with 
 the roar and crash of artillery, revealing new caverns and 
 rifts of deeper blue light, while the spray dashed high and 
 the great waves rolled along the icy wall, and, widening in 
 their sweep, washed the blocks of floating ice up on the 
 beaches on either side. . . . The nearer one approached, 
 the higher the ice-walls seemed ; and all along the front there 
 
Ill 
 
 were pinnacles and spires weighing several tons, that 
 seemed on the point of toppling every moment.'' 
 
 Miss Kate Field says : "In Alaska a glacier is a wonder- 
 ful torrent that seems to have been suddenly frozen when 
 about to plimge into the sea. . . . Think of Niagara 
 Falls, frozen stiff, add thirty-six feet to its height, and you 
 have a slight idea of the terminus of Muir Glacier, in front 
 of which your steamer anchors; picture a background of 
 mountains fifteen thousand feet high, all snow-clad, and 
 then imagine a gorgeous sun lighting up the ice crystals 
 with rainbow coloring. The face of the glacier takes on the 
 hue of aquamarine, the hue of every bit of floating ice, big 
 and little, that surrounds the steamer." 
 
 The rivers of Alaska are large and numerous, the chief 
 stream being the Yukon. 
 
 This mighty river, over two thousand miles long, is one 
 of the greatest of the western world. Steamers ply on it 
 from June to October ; then it freezes, becoming a highway 
 for sledging, Salmon swarm in this river, one giant vari- 
 ety being six feet long and weighing one hundred pounds. 
 Alaska is the true home of the salmon, and the salmon can- 
 neries seem to have an exhaustless supply to deal with. 
 Mr. Ballou says: "The salmon are so plentiful in the 
 regular season, that an Indian will sometimes deliver at 
 the cannery three or four canoe-loads in a single day. They 
 are mostly caught by net or seine, but often during the 
 height of the season the natives absolutely shovel the salmon 
 out of the water to the shore, with their paddle blades.'* 
 
 Another valued product of Alaska is its furs. In Bering 
 Sea there are four small, volcanic islands, known as the 
 Pribilof Islands, the two largest being St. Paul and St. 
 George. Neither of these has a harbor, yet from them 
 come four-fifths of the sealskins of the world. 
 
112 
 
 The seals move in herds, coming to these islands late in 
 May, generally. The males are large, bold, and quarrel- 
 some, while the females are small, mild, and gentle. Old 
 males when full grown are from six to seven feet in length, 
 the females being only about live feet in length. The seal 
 hunters usually select young males, about four years old, 
 for their fur. Each hunter has a powerful club, and one 
 blow from this on the seal 's skull kills the animal instantly. 
 The skins are then cut off, packed in salt, and shipped to 
 London to cure and dye. 
 
 For more than a hundred years the seals have come each 
 year to these islands. Where they go when they swim 
 away from them, no one quite knows. 
 
 Besides its fur and fish, Alaska has great wealth in its 
 gold deposits. The value of the gold mined there in 1903 
 was over eight million dollars, and this in spite of the 
 terrible hardships the miners must endure in those Arctic 
 regions. The Treadwell Mine on Douglas Island, off the 
 coast of southeastern Alaska, is a very rich mine. Placer 
 gold is mined in many districts of the interior near the 
 Yukon and its tributaries. In Seward, or Prince of Wales, 
 Peninsula, rich deposits have been found in the seashore 
 sands and along the streams around Nome, the chief city 
 of this peninsula. Along Anvil Creek here some of the 
 claims are as rich as those in the Klondike itself. 
 
 Chamberlain describes these Arctic mines as follows: 
 *' Gold-mining of the sort that is carried on here was 
 probably never before seen. Many of the claims are 
 worked by burning; that is to say, a fire is built on the 
 ground which is forever frozen, and when a thin layer of 
 the earth is thawed, the mud is dug out, and the fire built 
 again on the same spot. Little by little, in this painful 
 
113 
 
 manner, a shaft is sunk through the everlasting frost of the 
 Arctic. 
 
 "On Mastodon Creek, as a recent visitor has said, a 
 glacier covers the pay streak for over half a mile. The 
 glacier is from fifty to a hundred feet high and several 
 hundred feet wide; yet all the ground underneath it has 
 been located, and the glacier is being broken up by means 
 v^f giant powder, so that men can get at the chance of find- 
 ing gold beneath it on the claims they have bought there.'' 
 
 The population of these Arctic mining camps and towns 
 changes with the varying yields of gold. When the gold 
 fails, the town ends practically. Thus, Circle City, almost 
 on the Arctic Circle, enjoyed a brief pi^osperity in 1897- 
 1898, when it was an important mining camp., Its build- 
 ings were hastily constructed of logs that cost from four 
 to six dollars apiece, so high was the freight to this re- 
 mote spot. To-day it is almost deserted, the population 
 in 1900 being only two hundred and twenty-five. 
 
 Yet all of Alaska has not a frigid climate. The Kuro- 
 siwo, the "Blue Stream" of Japan, makes the winters 
 along the southern coast much milder than those of the 
 north. Sitka in this belt is quite comfortable in winter. 
 This town is very picturesque, with its houses straggling 
 along the water front. It is the capital of Alaska, the 
 governor residing here. It is beautifully situated on the 
 western shore of Baranof Island. It is a United States 
 naval station, and has a custom-house. The old Russian 
 church of St. Michael is very pleasing, the interior being 
 finished in white and gold. There are no seats in the 
 church, the worshippers standing. The town's population 
 of about fourteen hundred are chiefly occupied in mining, 
 lumbering, and salmon-canning. 
 
114 
 
 The natives of Alaska are Eskimos and Indians. Many 
 Indian villages are found along the coast, placed there be- 
 cause the tribes get their living from the sea by fishing. 
 These villages usually consist of ''one row of wooden huts, 
 in front of each of which stands a great carved pole, or 
 post, called a totem." These totems are from thirty to 
 fifty feet hi^h, and they are carved to represent bears, 
 eagles, whales, or odd figures of men. Such a pole shows 
 the history of the family owning it, being a kind of coat-of- 
 arms, as Carpenter says. 
 
 Alaska has many times repaid the original price paid for 
 it ; it is destined to increase in wealth and population, how- 
 ever, for railroads will soon bring its remote settlements 
 into closer touch and relation with the civilized world. The 
 early miners braved terrible hardships to even reach it, and 
 many lives were thus sacrificed. They have found the 
 way, and bravely conquered its terrors. Each year will 
 diminish these difficulties, and Alaska will yield its treas- 
 ures to the tireless energy and skill of civilized man. 
 
 45, Our Pacific Possessions. 
 
 Hawaii was annexed to the United States in 1898. The 
 group is sometimes called the Hawaiian Islands, though its 
 official name is the Territory of Hawaii. 
 
 Wben Captain Cook visited them, he called them the 
 Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich ; hence they some- 
 times bear this name, also. 
 
 These islands lie in the Pacific Ocean, just below the 
 Tropic of Cancer, twenty-four hundred miles west of San 
 Francisco. They consist of eight inhabited islands, and 
 seven small, rocky masses. Hawaii, about the size of Con- 
 necticut, is much the largest of these islands, the next in 
 size being only about one-fifth as large. 
 
115 
 
 The islands are all volcanic. Between the high moun- 
 tains lie plains, which are very fertile. These mountains, 
 steep and forbidding, are barren except on the lower slopes. 
 The mild, delightful climate and the rains give a very lux- 
 uriant vegetation. 
 
 Taro, the chief food plant, is somewhat like the sweet po- 
 tato. Its root is ground to a paste and allowed to ferment 
 slightly. This poi is served at nearly every^ meal, being 
 kept in a bowl from which each guest dips some with his 
 first and second fingers as it is passed. It does not look 
 very elegant to see the natives drop the poi from their fin- 
 gers into their mouths, and then lick their fingers, but such 
 is the custom in these islands. 
 
 Vast forests of ferns and palms with running vines meet 
 us everywhere. The great sugar-plantations owned by 
 large companies produce enormous crops, making sugar 
 the leading export. 
 
 Here, too, we see the shining green of the coflfee plant, 
 groves of bananas, and great fields of pineapples. 
 
 As we might suppose from their volcanic formation, 
 active volcanoes are still to be found here. On the island 
 of Hawaii is the famous Mauna Loa, over thirteen thou- 
 sand feet high. 
 
 The crater Kilauea (ke lou a/ a) lies on the eastern slope 
 of this mountain, and from it, as well as from the top, 
 streams of lava flow at times. 
 
 This lava, or molten rock, comes out glowing red during 
 an eruption ; but as it cools it hardens, and remains a horrid 
 black mass on the mountain side. Wliere the lava reachas 
 a village, of course it utterly destroys it; and the people 
 living there are very fortunate if they are able to escape 
 with their lives. 
 
116 
 
 To-day a fine road leads up to the crater. It is an im- 
 mense cavity about nine miles in circumference and from 
 seven hundred to eleven hundred feet deep. 
 
 After spending the night at Volcano House, near the 
 crater, you rise early the next morning to see this natural 
 wonder. Descending the crater and following the guide's 
 steps you reach the burning lake of fire, which varies in size 
 according to the volccino's activity. The intense heat burns 
 your face, and the heat frojn the partly cooled lava on 
 which you stand seems to shrivel up the soles of your shoes. 
 But the beauty and the strangeness of it hold you fast. 
 
 ]\Trs. Brassey, describing this lake, says : ' ' We were stand- 
 ing on the extreme edge of a precipice, overhanging a lake 
 of molten fire, a hundred feet below us, and nearly a mile 
 across. Dashing against the cliffs on the opposite side, with 
 a noise like the roar of a storjny ocean, waves of blood-red, 
 fiery liquid lava hurled their billows upon an ironbound 
 headland, and then rushed up the face of the cliffs to toss 
 their gory spray high in the air. The restless, heaving 
 lake boiled and bubbled. . . . Sometimes tliere were at 
 least seven spots on the borders of the lake where the 
 molten lava dashed up furiously against the rock — seven 
 fire-fountains playing." 
 
 The island of Molokai is a small, mountainous island, 
 whose native population lives mainly on the fertile land on 
 the southern side. The leper settlement is on the northern 
 coast. Here those afflicted with this terrible disease are 
 brought to remain separated from the rest of mankind, un- 
 til they die of this loatlisome, lingering disease. Death is 
 welcomed by them. ''When death sets open the prison-door 
 of life there, the band salutes the freed soul with a burst 
 of glad music, ' ' says Mark Twain. 
 
 
117 
 
 From this terrible place, it is a relief to turn to the life 
 and beauty of Honolulu, the capital, on the island of Oahu. 
 It is called the ' ' Paradise of the Pacific. ' ' Its streets, wide 
 and regular, are bordered by houses set in gardens filled 
 with tropical plants. Electric cars run through them, and 
 at night they are lighted by electricity. On these streets 
 w^e meet people of many nations. Here are Americans, 
 English, Chinese, Japanese, and the native Hawaiians. 
 These people are dark in color, but many are as intelligent 
 as the whites. They love flowers, and it is no uncommon 
 sight to see a native man with a wreath of flowers around 
 his neck or his hat. These flower necklaces, called ''leis," 
 are sold on the streets by the flower sellers, whose beautiful 
 wares make the air rich with fragrance. 
 
 Surf-riding is a great sport- with this sea-loving people, 
 the ride being on a board about eight feet long turned up 
 at the end. The rider swims out to the reef beyond the 
 shore; then throwing himself and the board on top of a 
 big wave, he rides the billow into the shore and is landed 
 on the sand of the beach. 
 
 Visitors to Honolulu enjoy this sport in a milder form. 
 I*utting on a bathing-suit in one of the bath-houses at Wai- 
 kiki Beach, one is rowed out some distance in a surf -boat, 
 to meet the waves. When a good breaker is reached, the 
 skilled oarsman turns the boat, which is then carried swiftly 
 to the shore by the rushing mass of water. 
 
 It is a lovely land. Mr. Clemens says he can never for- 
 get its beauty: ''For me, its balmy airs are always blow- 
 ing ; its summer seas, flashing in the sun ; the pulsing of its 
 surf -beat is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its 
 leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, 
 its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud 
 rack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitude; I can 
 
118 
 
 hear the plash of its broote; in my nostrils still lives the 
 breath of flowers that perished twenty years a^^o. " 
 
 46. Our Pacific Possessions (continued). 
 
 The Philippine Islands were acquired by the United 
 States from Spain in 1898. This group lies off the south- 
 eastern shores of Asia. It stretches over eleven hundred 
 miles from north to south, and includes about seventeen 
 hundred named islands and fifteen hundred without names. 
 The two largest are Luzon in the north and Mindanao in 
 the south, Luzon being about the size of Pennsylvania and 
 Mindanao being somewhat smaller. 
 
 The islands have a tropical climate. From November to 
 February the w^eather is cool, dry, and delightful. In sum- 
 mer heavy rains occur, which make the roads impassable. 
 The dreadful typhoons, or violent wind-storms of the China 
 Sea, occur in summer in the Philippines, wrecking ships, 
 destroying villages, and killing hundreds of the inhabitants. 
 
 This tropical climate and abundance of moisture give the 
 islands a very luxuriant vegetation. Besides the vast for- 
 ests there are cultivated areas, rice, hemp, tobacco, sugar, 
 and copra, or dried cocoanut, being the leading productions. 
 The tamed water-buffalo, or carabao, is of great value to 
 the farmer in his fields, that being the chief beast of burden 
 in the islands. They can plough the muddy rice-fields 
 where a horse would be useless, and their great strength 
 makes them invaluable in drawing heavy loads. 
 
 The population of over seven millions includes whites, 
 Malays, and negritos. It has been calculated that fifty-one 
 different languages are spoken in these islands by the 
 various tribes. To examine a few of them will be of value. 
 
 The Filipino of the cities is very intelligent, and sur- 
 rounds himself with all the comforts and appliances of 
 
119 
 
 civilization. They nre well educated, speakiiiii: Spanish 
 ])erfectly. They love music and perform well on the piano 
 and the oro;an. The contrast between him and his savage 
 neighboi's is very great. 
 
 The negritos of Luzon and Mindanao are dwarfish in size, 
 with black skins and crinkly hair. They wear very little 
 clothing, though they love ornaments. They build no real 
 houses, but sleep in caves or rude shelters of bamboo, when 
 the weather requires ii. They live in the mountains, hating 
 the civilized life of the villages. Their food is chiefly fish 
 and mountain rice, though they also capture game with 
 their bows and arrows. 
 
 In Luzon, also, there are many Igorrotes (e gor ro' ta^s). 
 They are tall, strong, brown-skinned savages, having their 
 own little farms and villages. Their houses are raised on 
 piles. They have enough civilization to raise their crops 
 of rice and tobacco, and to make lances and knives. They 
 wear little clothing, but tattoo the body and gild the teeth. 
 They are warriors and head-hunters, attacking neighboring 
 tribes and carrying off the heads of their victims. 
 
 One other interesting tribe is the Moros, found in Minda- 
 nao and the Sulu Islands, the archipelago at the southern 
 end of the Phillipine group. Mindanao has many Chris- 
 tianized Malays, and various savage tribes besides the 
 Moros, but we have not time to describe their ways. These 
 Mohammedan Moros have their own towns and villages. 
 They are divided into tribes, each under its datto, or chief. 
 In the Sulu Islands, these dattos are under the rule of a 
 sultan, called the Sultan of Sulu. Until the United States 
 obtained possession of these islands, every datto could put 
 his subjects to death for any offense that annoyed him. 
 This power, of course, he no longer has, because our govern- 
 
120 
 
 ment has soldiers at the capital, Suiii (or Jolo), to keej) 
 these fierce tribes in order. 
 
 Siilu is a fine town of about twelve hundred inhabitants, 
 its wide, coral-paved streets are shaded by great trees. The 
 town has a market, a hospital, barracks, and a theatre. 
 
 The Moros live in small villages, the houses being built 
 on poles. Those on the coast are built over the water on 
 poles, and a rude bridge connects them with the shore. 
 
 The dress of these brown-skinned savages is peculiar. 
 The men wear tight trousers of various colors, a kind of 
 Eton jacket, and bright colored turbans. They are fighters, 
 evidently, for every man and boy is armed with a kris, or 
 dagger, at his side, and some have guns. 
 
 The black color of their teeth makes them look very 
 fierce to us. This color, however, they consider a mark of 
 beauty, producing it by chewing the betel-nut. 
 
 Before we leave these islands, we must visit Manila, the 
 capital. The sidewalks are narrow and the streets are 
 thronged. It looks odd to see the great, ugly carabao 
 slowly pulling a dray through the streets. If these animals 
 are slow, however, the pony is not, for his driver lashes him 
 to his utmost speed, almost regardless of the passers-by. 
 The streets are paved, and are lighted by electricity. The 
 houses seldom have more than two stories, the upper story 
 being built of wood on account of the danger from earth- 
 quakes. 
 
 In many houses the rooms of the second floor open into 
 a balcony, and this balcony is enclosed by windows of lat- 
 tice work, made of the thin shells of pearl-oysters. Such 
 windows admit light, but shut out the heat ; and when they 
 are opened at night, the house becomes cool and pleasant. 
 Very few of the houses have chimneys, charcoal being gen- 
 erally used for cooking. 
 
121 
 
 The market in Manila is divided into sections, each selling 
 one thing. The sellers are mostly bareheaded, barefooted 
 women, who sit on the floor as they show their wares.' Here 
 I'ice is being sold, for that is eaten daily by these people: 
 in another place, shoes are on sale; in another, clothes; 
 farther along, we see lush for sale, many being kept alive in 
 the market, placed in bamboo baskets holding water. Pos- 
 sibly the fruits are the most attractive thing. Bananas, 
 lemons, and oranges are there, and strange fruits as well. 
 The sweet but rather tasteless papaw may not please you, 
 but the large, delicious mango will. There, too, the betel- 
 nut is being sold. This nut is cut up, mixed with lime and 
 tobacco, and chewed jiLst as some chew tobacco in our coun- 
 try. The market is a noisy place, for buyers and sellers 
 haggle and bargain long before the sale. 
 
 One often sees a man carrying a rooster in his arms. 
 They are more than pets, for they are used to fight with 
 other roosters. This cruel sport is forbidden by law, but 
 one can frec^uently see two owners squatting on the street, 
 holding their pets by the feathei^, while the birds match 
 their -strength. A real fight results in the death of one of 
 the birds generally, and the loss of the money his owner had 
 bet on him. 
 
 A pleasanter memory to carry from Manila is the sight 
 of the children hurrying to their schools in the morning 
 about eight o'clock, when the session begins. They are all 
 eager to learn the English language, and nothing America 
 has done there pleases the people better than the schools 
 for their children. 
 ^7. Porto Rico. 
 
 "Our real garden . . . is in the blue waters of the 
 Atlantic, and beneath the tropical sky to the north of the 
 Caribbean Sea.^' This is Porto Rico, the "rich port." 
 
1^2 
 
 It is the smallest of the Greater Antilles, yet it is by no 
 means a small island. Its length is one hundred miles, and 
 its area is about three times that of Rhode Island. 
 
 Nine-tenths of the island is hilly or mountainous. A great 
 mountain-ran tie crosses the island from east to west, with 
 the stately "El Yunque, " "The Anvil/' as its crownint>' 
 point. This beautiful mountain can be seen from afar, 
 holding' oul to navigators the dear promise of land. 
 
 The climate of the island is generally healthful. The 
 coast is warm, but the mountains of the interior are cool 
 and delightful. The winter is perfect, for it has neither 
 snow nor frost. The sunnner season with its rains is not 
 the season for visitors. These rains are especially heavy in 
 August, for then they fall as torrents of water, threatening 
 to flood everything. The dreaded hurricanes sometimes come 
 at that season of the year. Such storms overturn dwellings, 
 destroy the crops, and kill hundreds of people before their 
 fury is ovei*. It is well they do not come often. 
 
 Northern travellers visiting the island would land at San 
 Juan (hoo an'}, the capital. It is located on a small island 
 oif the northern coast, its noble harbor being guarded by 
 Morro Castle. 
 
 This city is even older than St. Augustine, for the Span- 
 ish founded it in 1521. The old Spanish walls around the 
 town, the narrow streets, and the massive buildings, many 
 of them colored, give the city a quaint look that pleases the 
 traveller. The ancient Casa Blanca, "White House," in 
 its walled garden of palms, takes one back to those old 
 Spanish days. It was built by Ponce de Leon, who lived 
 in Porto Rico before he started on that strange search for 
 ihe fountain of youth. 
 
 The houses of San Juan are not large, and most of them 
 have balconies extending out over the pavement. The bet- 
 
123 
 
 ter class ''dwell on the second floor of the houses, the 
 liTound floor being given up to the servants and the 
 stables." Often the shop is on the ground floor. 
 
 These stores bear Spanish signs that tell nothing of the 
 owner or his business. Carpenter says: "Here, for in- 
 stance, is a dry-goods store with the words 'La Perla/ or 
 'The Pearl,' above it. Next door is one selling hardware, 
 Ic! belled the 'Golden Rooster,' while down that side street 
 is a shop called 'La Nina,' or 'The Girl,' that selLs gentle- 
 men's furnishing goods." 
 
 The streets offer many interesting sights. There is a 
 fruit-peddler, beariiig on his head a tray of mangoes, bana- 
 nas, pineapples, oranges, and other tropical fruit; here is a 
 luilkman riding a donkey that carries the two big cajis of 
 milk; here comes a ma,n cariying a dozen live chickens, for 
 no one in Porto Rico would buy any other kind; the hat- 
 seller with his donkey loaded with hats of fine, woven straw 
 is a comjiion sight; and there is a boy carrying a large bas- 
 ket of bread on his head. 
 
 If it is Saturday, we may expect to see beggars of all 
 kinds on the streets, for that is the only day on which beg- 
 ging is permitted. Nearly every store prepares its pile of 
 pennies for these visitors, and few of the houses of those 
 with means will refuse to help them. The Porto Ricans 
 are a kindly, courteous people, always ready to help the 
 poor and the stranger. 
 
 The street musician with his guitar or mandolin, playing 
 the native songs of the island or the melodies of old Spain, 
 delights us Avith his music. Porto Ricans love music, and 
 every town has its orchestra, giving open-air concerts twice 
 a week while the people promenade the plaza, or public 
 square. 
 
124 
 
 The people have never cared for the cruel bull-fights com- 
 mon in most Spanish countries, but cock-fights are .often 
 seen. These, however, are less common than before, and 
 the authorities are trying to prohibit them altogether. 
 These cock-fights were held on Sunday, and were well at- 
 tended by the men and boys. Much money was lost in bet- 
 ting on this sport. It is only a little less brutal than our 
 own prize-fights, where men batter each other to pieces for 
 the amusement of betting mobs. 
 
 But we must leave the capital; interesting as it is, we 
 wish to see the life in the country. 
 
 A magnificent road cuts across the country from San 
 Juan to Ponce (pon'sa), in the south. It was built by the 
 Spanish years ago, and it is one of the finest roads in the 
 world, winding over the mountains as though these barriers 
 were not there. 
 
 The scenery is beautiful. The sugar-plantations on the 
 coast give place to cocoanut groves, orange orchards, or 
 banana fields. Higher up we come to the famous planta- 
 tions of coffee, for this is the chief crop of the island. The 
 green, cloud-capped mountains are as lovely as those of 
 Switzerland itself. When the road winds through the 
 woods, it is wonderfully beautiful. Ferns of all sizes are 
 seen, and great trees, some with vines or moss hanging from 
 the branches, and others with masses of yellow, red, and 
 purple blossoms. 
 
 Mr. James Sample, describing the scenery of this road, 
 says: "I have crossed the American continent twice, I 
 have seen the wonders of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierras, 
 and the Yellowstone Park; but nothing I have ever seen was 
 so enchanting as the view in the heart of Porto Rico." 
 
125 
 
 Yet all is not lovely here, for the poverty of the peons, or 
 field laborers, of Porto Rico strikes one very strongly in 
 journeying across the country. 
 
 They live in small, rude huts, roofed possibly with a 
 thatch of sugar-cane leaves. A hammock or some branches 
 make the bed, and that is all the furniture we find usually, 
 unless we include the rough boxes that serve as chairs. The 
 cooking is done in a rude kettle over charcoal or wood, out- 
 of-doors when the weather permits. Rice, salt-fish, corn- 
 meal and coffee are his chief food, varied by the abundant 
 fruits of the island. His labors in the field are long and 
 hard, and the pay is only about forty cents a day. 
 
 Often we meet great carts loaded with sugar, tobacco, 
 and coffee, and hauled by oxen. These strong animals 
 move slowly but steadily, pulling their heavy loads by the 
 horns and the head, urged on by their drivers, who thrust 
 their steel-tipped goads into the poor beasts' sides. 
 
 The Spanish-American war of 1898 will change the his- 
 tory of the island, for as a result of this war America ac- 
 quired this island. With the ''stars and stripes" go 
 liberty and education, and these Porto Rico will obtain. 
 
 Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh, the first Commissioner of 
 Education for the island, said that Spain did not build a 
 single schoolhouse during the four hundred years of its 
 rule over the islpmd. In 1903, there were fifty schools that 
 the United States had established. 
 
 The parents in many cases make great sacrifices to give 
 their children a chance at this new education, showing in 
 their efforts ''a zeal that is almost a frenzy." 
 
 Dr. Brumbaugh says: "They are trying by education, 
 by industry, and by obedience to law, to prove their right 
 to a place in the sisterhood of States. They are fondly 
 looking for the day when the star of the beautiful island 
 
126 
 
 of the sea shall nestle in the folds of the flag they love as 
 we do. They are learning what we must all learn with 
 deeper meaning, that the door to statehood is the door of 
 the free public school." 
 
 Education will, indeed, work w^onders with a people as 
 generous and as liberty-loving as the Porto Ricans. 
 
 48. Jamaica. 
 
 The beauty of Jamaica pleased Columbus so much that 
 he called it Santa Gloria, and its beauty remains to-day. 
 
 This beauty comes in part from its many mountains, for 
 lofty ranges cross the island in all directions, with the 
 main chain, the Blue Mountains, extending from east to 
 west. When the king of Spain asked Columbus for a 
 description of Jamaica, he crumpled a piece of paper, and 
 presented that to the king as illustration of its mountain- 
 ous surface. 
 
 The island is about one-tenth the size of Pennsylvania, 
 and lies about ninety miles south of Cuba. It is located 
 in the Torrid Zone, yet its climate is so moderated by cool 
 sea breezes that it is almost perfect. This breeze, as reg- 
 ular as the sun, is called "the doctor" by the Jamaicans, 
 and it, together with the mountainous elevation, makes 
 life there possible to the whites. There are two wet seasons, 
 — one from May to August, and the other in October and 
 November. Naturally these are the least healthful seasons 
 of the year for visitors. 
 
 The soil is less productive than that of the other West 
 India Islands. JMost of the productions of the tropical 
 lands are raised, but the chief crops are sugar, coffee, 
 bananas, pineapples, oranges, and pimento, or allspice. The 
 forests of ebony, logwood, mahogany, and other woods 
 also furnish valuable exports. 
 
Kiugston is the capital. Its streets are poor, and the 
 houses in most cases are small. Electric cars are used in 
 the city; but the buggy remains the chief conveyance, and 
 the drivers of these buggies with their noisy demands for 
 high prices are a great annoyance to travellers. 
 
 The market-place is very interesting. It consists of two 
 groups of walled-in sheds, half a mile apart, the road 
 connecting them being also used for selling on market- 
 days. Here one sees meats, fish, and fifty varieties of 
 fruit on sale. One odd article on sale is "jackass rope"; 
 this is simply tobacco, arranged in rope form, and sold 
 at a few cents a yard. The market-women are very noisy, 
 and very insulting if offended by the visitor's failure to 
 purchase. These negro market-women are very strong and 
 very graceful, bearing on their heads loads heavier than 
 a white man would care to carry. 
 
 Of the population of three-fourths of a million, only 
 about twenty thousand are puie white, the bulk of the poj)- 
 ulation being negroes. The male negro here is intensely 
 lazy, leaving all the work to his hard-woi'king wife. He 
 seems happy in his idleness, and lives on very limited 
 means. His diet is fruit, vegetables, and a little dried 
 salt fish, almost putrid, 'llie negroes of the country differ 
 somewiiat from those of the city. Here each man builds 
 his hut according to his own fancy. Some are made of 
 heavy grass, with a roof of banana leaves ; others are of 
 mud, thatched. The country children are strong and 
 healthy, and wear very little clothing. Their few schools 
 are taught by negro teachers. 
 
 The island was a Spanish possession from the time of 
 its discovery by Columbus until the English seized it in 
 1655. Admiral Penn annexed it to England then, and it 
 
128 
 
 still remains an English possession. In 1834, slavery was 
 abolished there by Englancl, the government paying $30,- 
 000,000 to the owners of the liberated slaves. While this 
 measure was the only right thing to do, yet it greatly 
 injui-ed the island's commerce. With slave labor, sugar 
 was a very valuable crop. The freed slaves would not 
 work, even for wages, and the great sugar-plantations and 
 rum factories in many eases had to be abandoned. 
 
 James Anthony Froude, describing a trip through Ja- 
 maica, gives a conversation he had with his negro driver on 
 the subject of labor: ''I engaged a 'buggy' at the station 
 with a decent-looking conductor. . . . His horse looked 
 starved and miserable. He insisted that there was not an- 
 other in Kingston that was more than a match for it. We set 
 out, and for the first two or three miles we went on well 
 enough, con\^ersing amicably on things in general. But it 
 so happened that it was market-day. The road was 
 thronged with women plodding along with their baskets 
 on their heads, a single male on a donkey to each detach- 
 ment of them, carrying nothing, like an officer with a de- 
 tachment of soldiers. 
 
 "Foolish indignation rose in me, and I asked my friend 
 if he was not ashamed of seeing the poor creatures toiling 
 so cruelly, while their lords and masters amused them- 
 selves. 1 appealed to his feelings as a man, as if it were 
 likely that he had any. The wretch only laughed. 'Ah, 
 massa, ' he said, with his tongue in his cheek, 'women dc 
 women's work, men do men's work,— all right.' 'And 
 what is men's work?' I asked. Instead of answering, he 
 went on: 'Look at they women, massa. How they laugh! 
 HoAV happy they be! Nobody more happy than black 
 woman, massa.' " 
 
129 
 
 This labor problem has not yet been solved by Eng- 
 land ; and until an adequate labor supply is secured, the 
 island must remain only partly cultivated, and with im- 
 perfectly developed resources. 
 
 49. Haiti. 
 
 The island of Haiti, or Hayti, is one of the Greater An- 
 tilles, and is next to Cuba in size. It is separated from 
 Cuba on the west by the Windward Passage, and from 
 Porto Rico on the east by the Mona Passage, Cuba being 
 seventy miles from it and Porto Rico sixty. Its northern^ 
 shores are washed by the Atlantic Ocean and its southern 
 by the Caribbean Sea. 
 
 The area of the island is about two-thirds the size of 
 Pennsylvania, the greatest extent being from east to west, 
 a distance of about four hundred miles. This island is 
 divided into two republics, Haiti occupying the western 
 third and Santo Domingo, or the Dominican Republic, 
 the remaining two-thirds in the east. 
 
 The whole island is mountainous, with three separate 
 ranges crossing from east to west. These mountains reach 
 their highest point in Loma Tina, ten thousand feet high, 
 located near the city of Santo Domingo. All the moun- 
 tains are covered with dense, almost impenetrable forests. 
 Long valleys and plains lie between these ranges. The 
 mountains have no volcanoes, but earthquakes are fre- 
 quent. 
 
 The island has a tropical climate, unhealthy in the low- 
 lands for Europeans. There are only two seasons,— the wet 
 and the dry. The rainy season is in summer, and it is 
 then that the dreaded hurricanes occur. 
 
130 
 
 The soil of the island is remarkably fertile, surpa^ing 
 that of any other island in the group. 
 
 "Sugar-cane grows the year round. . . . Once 
 planted, no further care is required until the time for 
 cutting, and as it sprouts again as soon as cut, no replant- 
 ing is necessary oftener than once in ten years." Other 
 crops grow with equal ease. Cotton, corn, cocoa, tobacco, 
 coffee, and various tropical fruits are produced, while in 
 the rich forests, mahogany, logwood, cedar, and other val- 
 uable trees are found. 
 
 The country's history shows a succession of revolutions 
 and tyrannical governments. Columbus discovered the 
 island in 1492, and the first permanent European settle- 
 ment in the New World was planted there at Santo Do- 
 mingo in 1496. The Spanish soon exterminated the native 
 Indians, the gentle Caribs of whom ColumbiLS had said 
 "They love their neighbors as themselves, and their dis- 
 course is ever sweet and gentle, each sentence accompanied, 
 with a smile." Columbus thought there were a million 
 natives in Haiti when he landed, yet "within less than 
 fifty years they had all disappeared," victims of the cruelty 
 of their Spanish masters. The island continued a Spanish 
 possession for many years. In the seventeenth century 
 French pirates settled in the western part, and by the treaty 
 of 1697 the western part of the island was given to France. 
 Negro slaves had been imported by the French and the 
 Spanish, and these constituted the bulk of the population. 
 In 1791, a fierce negro revolt occurred, and after several 
 years of bloody war the island was freed from its foreign 
 rulers by the negro leader, Toussaint 1' Ouverture. 
 
 Toussaint was a negro slave, whose parents were also 
 sfaves. He learned to read and write, and rose to the 
 position of steward on his master's sugar-plantation. When 
 
131 
 
 the slaves massacred their white masters, in 1791, Toussaint 
 saved his master's family and helped them to escape from 
 the island. Then he joined the rebels and soon became their 
 leader. For a few years he ruled the whole island, gov- 
 erning wisely and restoring prosperity. Napoleon finally 
 decided to conquer him and sent an army to Haiti. Tous- 
 saint was captured by treachery and carried to France; 
 he died in his dungeon there, starved to death, according 
 to some historians. 
 
 The French did not get the island back, however, but 
 were finally expelled. The island remained in the power 
 of the negroes, now an empire, now a republic, now under 
 one rule, now divided into two, always unsettled, always 
 subject to change and revolution. 
 
 Perhaps the most cruel of the rulers of Haiti was King 
 Christophe the Cruel. He was a full-blooded negro who 
 had begun life as a valet to a Frenchman in Port-au-Prince. 
 At the time of the negroes' revolt in 1791, Christophe 
 was stiii a slave, working as cook at a tavern. Christophe 
 joined the rebels and his great size, six feet four, secured 
 him a command. He rose to high rank in the negro re- 
 public, finally becoming president in 1807. This rank did 
 not satisfy him, and in 1812 he had himself crowned as 
 Henry I, King of the North. He surrounded himself by 
 negro courtiers whom he made nobles, one of the greatest be- 
 ing the Duke of Marmalade. Christophe built a fine palace 
 and a fortress. La Ferriere, named after the French en- 
 gineer who constructed it. La Ferriere was built on top 
 of a mountain by negro labor, the king forcing the negroes 
 to work on pain of death. It had a moat and a draw- 
 bridge, and was protected by great guns. The king's 
 secret treasure-room was carved out of solid rock, and 
 here-to-day, in the ruined fortress, we see the pieces of the 
 
132 
 
 iron-bound chests that held his gold. The day La Ferriere 
 completed the fortress, the king summoned him to join 
 him on the parapet overlooking the valley below them. 
 
 '' 'What would happen to a man if he were to jump 
 from this parapet?' said the king. 
 
 " 'He would be dashed to pieces on the rocks," replied 
 La Ferriere. 
 
 " 'Then try it! Jump!' said the king." 
 
 On La Ferriere 's refusal, Christophe had his soldiei^ 
 pitch him over the walls, thus getting rid of the only per- 
 son who knew the secrets of the fortress. Christophe 's 
 cruel reign ended in 1820. Some say he was thrown over 
 the parapet like La Ferriere, by the rebels ; others say that 
 he shot himself after his army revolted, first taking a 
 bath of red pepper to get courage for the deed. 
 
 To-day the rulers of the two republics are all negroes, 
 for no whites are allowed .to vote or to hold political po- 
 sitions ; they cannot even own real estate. 
 
 The two capitals are rather interesting to visit. Santo 
 Domingo's capital is the town of Santo Domingo, or San 
 Domingo. It is surrounded by an ancient wall and bears 
 the marks of its great age. It is "poorly built with un- 
 paved streets and mainly thatched houses." Everything 
 looks very dirty. The houses are Spanish in style, and 
 the people here speak the Spanish language. Some of the 
 houses "are built around courts, so that they appear to 
 have a garden inside the house. The walls are of the 
 brightest colors. ... In the suburbs are mud huts 
 thatched with straw or palm leaves, with poorly dressed 
 men and women, and half -naked babies. There is little 
 work going on, and all seem shiftless and lazy." In the 
 
133 
 
 cathedral here, the remains of Columbus were kept until 
 1795. 
 
 Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti, on the west coast, 
 it is an important commercial town, and has about three 
 times as much population as San Domingo has. Here 
 the language is French. Many of the people in the city 
 are intelligent and educated, dressing well and showing 
 considerable refinement of manner. The palace, the senate- 
 house, the cathedral, the arsenal, the law-courts and a 
 college are points of interest in the town that prove their 
 civilization. The lower classes of negroes in the interior of 
 the country, however, are very degraded. They are 
 ''steeped in the superstitions and practices of voodoo.'' 
 This is an African form of worship dealing with charms, 
 serpent-worship, witch-craft, and conjury. The conjurer, 
 called the voodoo doctor or priest, or sometimes the voodoo 
 king or queen, exercises great power among these ignorant 
 people. Cannibalism and human sacrifice are said to be 
 part of this worship in some places. 
 
 Thus it is that ignorance and bad government have re- 
 tarded the growth and progress of the island, and made 
 of little worth the rich gifts that nature gave it. 
 
 50. Cuba. 
 
 Cuba, the largest of the West Indies, lies at the entrance 
 of the Gulf of Mexico. It is about one hundred miles 
 from Key West, from which Florida Strait separates it. 
 The length of the island from east to west is seven hun- 
 dred and thirty miles; the total area is about equal to 
 that of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Part of the island is crossed by mountain-ranges, for the 
 Antilles are generally considered to be part of a mountain- 
 range which at one time connected North and South Amer- 
 
134 
 
 ica. Much of the country. hoAvever, consists of well- 
 watered plains. 
 
 The climate of Cuba is tropical; the thennometer rarely 
 goes as low as 50° on the coldest days, while the average 
 winter temperature is about 70°. Snow never falls except 
 in the mountains. There are really only two seasons, a 
 wet and a dry, the wet season lasting from May to Oc- 
 tober. The days are generally clear up to about ten 
 o'clock; from then till night during the rainy season, the 
 rain may be expected. "The nights are commonly clear." 
 
 Columbus called Cuba "The Pearl of the Antilles" be- 
 cause of its rich and beautiful vegetation. "Over the whole 
 island is a mantle of tender vegetation, rich in every hue 
 that a flora of more than three thousand species can give, 
 and kept green by mists and gentle rains." 
 
 Humboldt says: "We might believe the entire island 
 was originally a forest of palms, wild limes, and orange- 
 trees." Notwithstanding the extent of the great sugar- 
 plantations, there still remain nearly thirteen million acres 
 of forest, where mahogany, ebony, cedar, and other valu- 
 able woods are found. Sugar, tobacco, coffee, Indian corn, 
 and many varieties of fruit are raised in abundance. In 
 1902, 850,000 tons of sugar were produced, for almost half 
 of the cultivated part of the island is used to raise sugar- 
 cane. Tobacco ranks second in importance, the exports for 
 1902 being 34,300,000 pounds of leaf-tobacco. The num- 
 ber of cigars exported in that year was 208,000,000. 
 
 All the domestic quadrupeds are found in Cuba, most 
 of them having been brought there by the Spanish. The 
 island is rich in birds, of which over two hundred species 
 are found. Inhere are no venomous serpents here, the 
 maja, from ten to fourteen feet long, being terrifying only 
 
135 
 
 in appearance. It is common about the huts and the 
 farm-houses, delighting in the thatched roofs of the older 
 buildings, and feeding on poultry. The crocodiles and 
 alligators do not seem to be greatly feared by the natives. 
 
 The population of the island is about a million and a 
 half, one-third of which is colored. Most of the people speak 
 Spanish. The poorer classes are badly educated, and in 
 1899, sixty-four per cent, were unable even to read. The 
 better class are well educated, many attending European 
 and American universities. 
 
 Hill says : ' ' The Cubans, however, as a class, high and 
 low, are a simple-hearted people, hospitable to all strangers, 
 especially Americans. The men of the better classes are 
 well bred and educated, and even the peasantry have a 
 kindliness and courtesy of manner that might put to blush 
 the boorish manners of some of our own people." 
 
 Cuba has as its capital Havana, or to use its Spanish 
 name, San Cristobal de la Habana. Its beautiful harbor 
 is defended by l*unta Castle and by Morro Castle, the 
 latter resembling a palace in its beauty, its brown walls 
 rising from a ridge of rock in the water. The old, inner 
 city has narrow streets, and sidewalks only two feet wide ; 
 in the newer quarter we iind wide streets. Most of the 
 houses are low, with barred windows. As these windows 
 reach almost to the Hoor, everything within is open to in- 
 spection from the street. The walls of the houses are porous 
 stone, ''painted in yellows and pinks and greens and blues 
 and whites, with a prevailing red in the tiled roofs. Of the 
 seventeen or eighteen thousand houses of the city, three- 
 fourths are one-story. ' ' The Cerro is the handsomest street 
 in Havana, bordered on both sides by beautiful marble 
 mansions in the midst of line gardens. These houses are 
 around a court, or patio, in which are plants and flowers 
 
136 
 
 and often a fountain. The Prado is another fine street 
 with its wide central promenade bordered by trees. There 
 are many sipiares, or plazas, the finest being the Plaza de 
 Armas with fine walks and lovely trees. ''Toward even- 
 ing, the central plaza and the adjacent drives are alive 
 with splendid equipages and horses . . . and the benches 
 and colonnades teem with well-dressed citizens ... or 
 gaily uniformed soldiers, the whole making a picturesque 
 and enlivening scene. . . . Bands of music at night 
 add to the general air of gayety." The points of interest 
 in the city are the Cathedral, the Palace, the University 
 of Havana, the great theatre, Teatro Tagon, besides the 
 markets and the immense cigar factories. 
 
 The city formerly had much yellow fever, and was "a 
 plague spot for centuries." Recently, efforts have been 
 made to keep the city and its harbor clean, with the result 
 that yeDow fever has almost disappeared. Cuba's other 
 chief cities, Matanzas, Puerto Principe, and Santiago de 
 Cuba, each with a population of about forty thousand, have 
 likewise improved in cleanliness and appearance in recent 
 years. 
 
 "Central Cuba is little more than a vast sugar estate, 
 divided up into large and small farms." These estates 
 employ thousands of negro men and women to plant and 
 cut the sugar-cane. Each large plantation is really a vil- 
 lage with its own church, hospital, dwellings, and shops. 
 The sugarhouse itself is a vast building conducting all 
 the processes of sugar-making. Here the cut cane coming 
 from the field is crushed between heavy rollers; the juice 
 is then boiled and skimmed in three successive boilers 
 and put through different operations until sugar and mo- 
 lasses are produced. Some mills grind a thousand tons 
 of cane a day. 
 
137 
 
 The roads of Cuba are wretched, and commerce must 
 still use the slow-going- ox-cart and mule-cart. During the 
 rainy season, wheeled vehicles cannot be used on the roads, 
 and travel is by mule-back except where the railroad has 
 been introduced. A peculiar vehicle of Cuba is the 
 volante (''flyer"). It has shafts sixteen feet in length 
 and a pair of wheels about six feet in diameter. "For- 
 ward of the wheels and between the shafts is suspended, by 
 means of leathern straps, a phaeton-shaped body." One 
 horse is harnessed between the shafts, while a second horse 
 is often attached to the left, and on this left horse the 
 driver rides. If but one horse is used to draw the volante, 
 the driver sits on it. His decorated hat and scarlet jacket 
 trimmed with gold braid give him and the equipage a 
 very dashing air. 
 
 Ballou says: "Most of the so-called roads resemble the 
 bed of a mountain torrent, and would hardly pass for 
 a cow-path in America." 
 
 For four hundred years after its discovery by Columbus, 
 Spain oppressed the island. She exterminated the orig- 
 inal Indian inhabitants by her cruelty, and made the life 
 of the island's later inhabitants intolerable by the harsh 
 rule of the captains-general who governed the island for 
 her. 
 
 A war for independence began in 1895, and aided by 
 the forces of the United States the people won their- free- 
 dom in 1898. To-day, Cuba is an independent republic. 
 If the people can learn to govern themselves wisely, they 
 can win an honored place among the nations, for "Cuba 
 is indeed a land of enchantment, where nature is beautiful 
 and bountiful, and where mere existence is a luxury." 
 
138 
 51. "America." 
 
 My country, 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty, 
 
 Of thee I sing ; 
 Land where my fathers died, 
 Land of the Pilgrims' pride, 
 From every mountain side 
 
 Let freedom ring! 
 
 My native country, thee, 
 Land of the noble free. 
 
 Thy name ] love ; 
 I love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills ; 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 
 Like that above. 
 
 Let music swell the breeze, 
 And ring from all the trees 
 
 Sweet freedom's song; 
 Let mortal tongues awake, 
 Let all that breathe partake, 
 Let rocks their silence break, 
 
 The sound prolong. 
 
 Our fathers' Grod, to Thee, 
 Author of liberty, 
 
 To Thee wc sing; 
 Long may our land be bright 
 With freedom's holy light; 
 Protect us by Thy might, 
 
 Great God, our King! 
 
 Samuel Francis Smith, D. D. 
 
OCT 31 1905 
 
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