aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

2 AROCND THE WOBLD.
tralia, China, India, Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Central Europe,
and England, to
" The land of the free, and the home of the brave."
ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
What a marvelous country, stretching from these commercial
cities, that, like star-dust, dot the Atlantic coast, to the
wave-washed shores of the Pacific ! Considering extent of
territory, variety of climate, grandeur of scenery, mineral
resources, and free institutions, it is worth something to be
an American citizen. The distance from our residence in
Hammonton, N.J., to San Francisco, is some thirty-five hundred
miles. A week's travel spans prairie and mountain.
Telegraphic wires and iron-belted highways have quite annihilated
time and space. Tunneling the English channel,
sailing in air-ships through cloud-lands, and exploring the
islands that stud the open polar sea, are achievements just
ahead of us. Surely life is a rush forward, a struggle 'mid
contending forces ;
the key-word of the country.
and, scientifically considered, progress is
ALONG THE WESTERN ROUTE.
As Nile bottom-lands to Syria in the period of the patriarchs,
so are broad prairie-fields to the East.
It is these that
fill our national granaries. Passing them, it seemed that
peach-orchards fairly reeled under their fruitage, while vineyards
unveiled to us their purple clusters. Swiftly whirling
by cornfields, they rustled and swayed like waving forests.
Pleasant things for the palate, beauty for the
eye, lands for
the toiler, minerals for the miner, wealth for the industrious,
friends for the worthy, books for the student, and religious
enthusiasm for souls great and liberal— these are among
the charms of the sunset States.
The " Far West," and the Great American Desert, are alike
the myths of our geography days. Most of these wasted