Vol. XXIX, No. 4 



WASHINGTON 



April, 1916 



THE 



JMATEOMAL 



AGAZD 



THE LAND OF THE BEST 



By Gilbert H. Grosvenor 



Author of "Young Russia, the Land of Unlimited Possibilities" 



RARELY has there been afforded a 

 more impressive illustration of the 

 . statement that it pays to adver- 

 tise than is to be found in the story of 

 the endless stream of tourists hastening 

 to Europe during the several decades be- 

 fore the great war. 



The appeal of the art treasures and 

 associations of the Old World, which is 

 the original home of all Americans, is 

 really not sufficient explanation of the 

 fact that until last year ioo American 

 tourists were crossing the Atlantic to one 

 American tourist who crossed the United 

 States. The delightful literature which 

 the European travel bureaus and steam- 

 ship companies placed at our disposal so 

 whetted our appetite for a view of the 

 lakes of Ireland and Scotland, of the cas- 

 tles on the Rhine and Danube, of the 

 scenes made famous by Shakespeare, 

 Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Goethe, that 

 we turned our back upon scenery more 

 beautiful, wild flower gardens and for- 

 ests incomparably finer, mountains more 

 superb, and lakes more radiant than any 

 to be seen in the lands across the Atlantic. 



It is true that one finds a more ancient 

 culture in Europe. It is also true that he 

 finds more splendid architecture. And 

 likewise it is true that he finds there bet- 

 ter art ; for before America was born into 

 the family of nations Europe had castles 

 and cathedrals and masterpieces of art 

 and sculpture. 



But in that architecture which is voiced 

 in the glorious temples of the sequoia 

 grove and in the castles of the Grand 

 Canyon, in that art which is mirrored in 

 American lakes, which is painted in gey- 

 ser basins and frescoed upon the side 

 walls of the mightiest canyons, there is a 

 majesty and an appeal that the mere 

 handiwork of man, splendid though it 

 may be, can never rival. 



Nor is our country lacking in hallowed 

 and historic spots. Is Waterloo, where 

 Napoleon's star of empire set forever, 

 any more sacred to the American heart 

 than Appomattox, where a new nation 

 was born out of the throes of internecine 

 strife? Are Austerlitz and Wagram, 

 with their high tides of the French Em- 

 pire, of soil more sacred, of atmosphere 

 more hallowed than Valley Forge and 

 Gettysburg, Plymouth Rock, Independ- 

 ence Hall, and Mt. Vernon ? Does Lon- 

 don or Paris or Berlin contain more of 

 inspiration to us as a people than Wash- 

 ington, the Nation's Capital? 



We have wandered far to find the pic- 

 turesque and the magnificent, and yet it 

 is not entirely a provincial philosophy 

 which says that New York is in many 

 ways the most wonderful, the most strik- 

 ing, and the most interesting of all the 

 cities of the earth ; neither is it only the 

 voice of the man who has never seen 

 other shores that pronounces Yellowstone 

 Park the most marvelous picture-book 



