The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-07-19
IS TREASURE HOUSE
OF NATURES Jewels
AMERICAS WONDERFUL RESOuR-
CES AND UNPARALLELED BEAU
TIES STRiKiNGLY PORTRAYED.

not only in that they have been spar
ed the horrors of the great war now
devastating most Of Europe, but in the
wonderful resources and unparalleled
beauties of the country itself, is strik-
ingly set forth in a communication to
the National Geographic Society from
its director and editor Mr.. Gilbert H.
Grovelor. A part of the communica-
ton, issued as a bulletin today from
the SDciety's Washington's headquar-
ters, says:
Rarely has there been afforded
more Impressive illustration Of the
statement that it pays to advertise
than is TO be found in the story of the
endless stream of tourists fastening
to Europe during the several decades
before theh 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 ex-
PLANTATION of the fact that until last
year 100 American tourists were
crossing the Atlantic to one Ameri-
can tourist who crossed the United
States. The delightful literature
which the European travel bureaus
and steamship companies placed at
our disposal so whetted our appetite
for a review of the lakes of Ireland
and Scotland of the castles on the
Rhine and Danube, Of the scenes
made famous by Shakespeare, Dick
ems, Victor Hugo, and Goethe that
we turned our backs upon scenery
more beautiful, wild flower gardens
and forests incomparabiy finer, noun
tains more supberb, and lakes more
radiant than any to be seen in the
lands across the Atlantic.
ut is true that one finds more
ancient culture in Europe. 1t is also
true that he finds more splendid ar
chitecture. And likewise it is true
that he nnds there better art; for be-
fore America was born into the fam
lily 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 Gra nd Canyon in that art which
is mirrored in American lakes, which
is painted in geyser basins and fres-
coed upon the side wall Of the
mightjCst canyons there is majesty
and an appeal that the mere handi- |
work of man, splendid thought it may
be, can never rival.
Nor IS our country lacking in hal
lowed and historic spots. 1t Water
loo, where Napoleon's star of empire
set forever, any more sacred to the
American heart than Appomattox,
where d new nation was born out of
the throes of internecine strife? Are
Austerlitz and Wagram, with their
high tides of the French empire, of
soil more sacred or atmosphere more
halloxcd than Valley Forge and Get
tysburg, Plymouth Rock, Independ
ence ;Iall, and Mr.. Vernon? Does
London or Paris or Berlin contain
more Of inspiration to us as a peo-
pie than Washington, the Nations
capital?
I'VE nave wandered far to Ind the
picturesque and the magnificent and
yet it S not entirely provincial phi
losophy which says that New York is
in many ways the most wonderful
and most striking, the most interest
ing of all cities of thch earth; neither
It it only the voice o. the man who
has never seen other shoes that pro-
nOunces Yellowstone Park the most
marvellous picture-book OF natures IL
brary; nor yet is it the narrow pride
Of the spread-eagle orator alone that
awards 10 the Grand Canyon and the
Yosemite and the Big Trees first place
among the wonder sceaes of the globe
"Luray Cave, in Virginia, and
Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, surpass
in originality and grandeur any caves
IN Europe, while Niagara Falls has
no rival N Europe or III Asia, and our
American forests are THE glary of the
wCrld
Man goes to Asia and TO Africa to
study forgotten civilization, when
he Redskins upon our own Western
claims and in our own cliff dwellings
reveal stories of the past as strange
rs any we know, and constitute a
race more magnificent in physique
han any that can be found i'll other
1arts eli the worll.
Our country is the treasure houes
If natures scenic jewels, containing
Sc many and such an infinite variety
Of maryc:s that thousands of our
match. ess treasurers cannot even be
mentioned in this briel article; hot
springs as salubrious rs any across
The ocean; broad hard white beaches