82 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



which is particularly vicious in that it affects nearly all of 

 us. It shakes our faith in the "printed word" and emas- 

 culates the years of labor which the village school teacher 

 put in endeavoring to teach us what the United States 

 looks like on the map. To illustrate. Suppose you were 

 a resident of New York and that you traveled occasionally 

 of course such a supposition is an apparent paradox for, 

 as everyone knows, the perigrinations of the New Yorker 

 are confined 

 within the boun- 

 daries of Man- 

 hattan Island 

 but just suppose 

 that you did live 

 in New York and 

 now and then you 

 went to Herki- 

 mer or Hobok- 

 en to get in 

 touch with na- 

 ture and wild 

 things again. In 

 the course of 

 time your stand- 

 ard of measure- 

 ment would be 

 the distance 

 from New York 

 to Hoboken or 

 Herkimer as the 

 case might be. 

 If some friend 

 told you he was 

 going to Boston 

 you would un- 

 consciously make 

 a mental note 

 that that was 

 about as far as 

 Herkimer. You 

 might, and prob- 

 ably would, add 

 that it was some 

 journey. 



Now. to test 

 your powers of 

 imagination by 

 approximating a 

 reductio ad ab- 

 surdum, picture 

 yourself as tired 

 of the usual pilgrimage and fired with a determination to 

 go far into the unknown west, to Chicago, to Denver, even 

 to Salt Lake City. No longer able to control your burn- 

 ing desire to see our great country you step into a rail- 

 road ticket office and emerge with enough maps and 

 literature to while away a month of long winter eve- 

 nings in happy perusal of the glowing descriptions 

 and brushing up on geography as displayed in the rail- 



A WELL-KNOWN WONDER OF THE APACHE TRAIL - 



If you seek other natural phenomena, the Natural Bridge near Roosevelt should satisfy your every want. 

 To add to the wonder of this work, man has planted three acres of alfalfa on the roof of the bridge. 



road folder. Right there you are in for the whole winter. 

 Soon after dinner you settle down with a good cigar 

 and pick up one of the folders. It happens to be one of 

 a railroad that has a general northerly and southerly di- 

 rection. You note with satisfaction that the heavy black line 

 passes but a few miles from Herkimer. Fine, now you know 

 where you are and you look to see what relation the dis- 

 tance from New York to Herkimer bears to the distance 



from New York 

 to Chicago. Why, 

 there is Chicago 

 about an inch 

 or so to the left 

 of Herkimer. It 

 can't be very 

 far, not over 

 half as far from 

 H e r k i mer as 

 Herkimer is 

 from New York. 

 Strange, you al- 

 ways thought 

 Chicago was 

 about a thous- 

 and miles off. 

 At least you've 

 always known 

 that it was off. 

 Well,, get the 

 folder of a road 

 that runs to Chi- 

 cago. This line 

 runs mostly in 

 an easterly and 

 westerly direc - 

 tion. Hellc, here 

 is Chicago way 

 over on the left 

 hand margin of 

 a double page 

 with New York 

 on the right and 

 Herkimer close 

 enough to New 

 York to be a 

 suburb. Hobok- 

 en is out of the 

 running. The 

 New England 

 States have been 

 flattened from a 

 long narrow stretch of territory to a short wide one. If 

 this map is correct you might take in New Orleans on 

 the way to Chicago. So you look up the folder that 

 gives you a line from Chicago south. All is changed 

 again. The United States is now a long country from 

 north to south whose spine is the railroad in question, 

 along and close to the sides of which are New York, 

 San Francisco, Boston and Seattle, all within easy strik- 



