Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-05-30
aIACKrsA6 ISLAND.
The Wave Washed Tourists
Paradise OF the Unsalted
Seas

ever faoile and graceful pen OF Colone.
|, Pat Donan, the gifted and indefatiga'
bic journalist 50 well known far and
wide. 1t is profusely illustrated and
Illuminated in beautiful tints, and is
sent out with the compliments Of the
Michigan Central railroad as we'll as
those of the author. This little work
is a real, gem of word painting, litho-
! graphic and topographic art, and is
worthy of a place on any center table
or in any tourists portfolio. 1t is
divided into six chapters. The first
is a glowing perOration to America
and her natural advantages and at
fractions over the rest of the world.
The enthussd author says, in fervid
style:
do other lands boast of their rivers?
We could take up all their Niles and
Thameses, their yellow TiberS, castled
Rhines, and beautiful blue Danubes,
by their little ends, and empty them
into our majestic Mississippis, and
Missouris, Amazons and De la Platas,
without making rise enough to lift an
Indiana Aatboat off a sandbar. Do
they brag of their seas and lakesr We
could spill all oftheir puny Caspians
and Azovs, their Dead Seas, Nyanzas
and Maggiores, into cur miRhtyS upc-
riors, Michigans, HuronS, Fries and
0ntarios, and scarce produce a ripple
on their pebbly brims. Do they pirate of
their romantic scenery? We have
a thousand jewel like lakes that would
make all their Wanted Comos, Gene
vas and Killarneys hide their faces in
a veil of friendly fog; the thunder of
our Niagara browns out the feeble
murmur of all their cataracts; while
the awful crags and canyons of our
Yosemite and Yellowstone, the pris-
matte glitter and dash of our st. An
thongs, TahquamenonS and Minneha-
has, and the lonely granduer of our
boundless prairie oceans OF billeWy
Verdure, dwarf to insipidity the most
famous scenes of Switzerland and
Italy, eclipse the wonders and glories of
oriental fable, and defy all the
skill of poets pen and artists pencil to
depict the veriest atom of their sub
Unity and their loneliness. Do they
prattle about. their Ktnas and Vesu-
viusss? We thunder fourth our
American Cotopaxis, Popocatapetls,
Chimborazos, and a score of other
lava belching giants whose very
names alone are too huge for common
tongues. Do other lands and nations
talk of their mines of jewels and gold?
We answer with the exhaustless bo-
nanzas of California, Colorado, Ari-
iona and Dakota, where mountains of
gold and silver ore, veritable treasure
houses Of the gods, real their proud
heads to heaven, and where the cease
less thunder Of the worlds greatest
gold and silver mills resounds in the
yet warm lair Of the Rocky Mountain
grizzly bear. Do they rave of the
harvest fields Of Germany and Britain,
and the vine clad hills of France? We
show them a new, fresh continent,
with soils and climates as varied as
the tastes of men, and with capacities
as boundless as the needs OF men.
Every habitable land was discovered
and worn out centuries On centuries
ago."
After ridiculing people who go abroad
without having seer their own country
and going into ecstacies over the Ian
guild attractions Of the old world, he
refers to Niagara the wild Yosemite
valleys, Yellowstone Park, the canyons
Of the Colorado, the White Mountains,
the Catskills, the Thousand Islands
Of the st. Lawrence, the cloud
wrapped nights Of the Lookout Noun
tain and the Alpine peaks and valleys
Of Dakota, Montana and Idaho which
all invite the cultivated tourist to a
widespread banquet of prospective
enchantment, but he claims that none
Of these famous regions of resort sur
pass, if any Of them even rival in at
fractions, the long known and yet com
paratively unknown Mackinac Island.
Yet ninety-nine people out of a
hundred could not find the place with
out consulting an atlas.
Inc second chapter is devoted to
Michigan, a State formed Of two
peninsulas, a state which lacks only
1900 square miles of being as large
as all New England, a State with a
coast line Of 1900 miles, and containing
a wonderful variety Of products,
resources, lakes, game fishing
grounds and pleasure resorts,
a State withal which has a glorious
climate as well as much that is roman
tic and interesting in legend and his.
tory.
The next three chapters are devoted
to MackiRac Island and adjacent
poiutsin the Straits of Mackinac whose
blue green waves divide the two PENN.
sulAs that compose the State. 1t il
349 miles north of Chicago and 3Ol