Building, Raphael's Sistine Ma- | serves his country abroad and takes donna, and so on ad infinitum. 3 But what of "The Seven Wonders" of the United States? I have asked a number of globe-trotting Americans men who have seen America first to give me their selections. No two made the same first choice and no two lists contained more than four identical selections. Niagara Falls was included in more lists than any other American wonder, but received no first choice. Downtown New York, with its massive skyscrapers and jagged skyline, was second in the number of times mentioned and received one first choice. 4 I have selected six first choices and Niagara Falls most frequently named as the "Seven Wonders of the United States" and will now give the reasons presented in their favor. 5 An American Naval Officer who has traveled over all the world as well as in his own country pronounces the Grand Canyon of the Colorado not only first in America, but the greatest wonder in the world. "There is no such magnificent scar of time on the surface of the earth as the Grand Canyon," he says. "It is more sublime than Mount Everest, more colorful than a painter's palette, more awe-inspiring than a dozen Niagaras could be. It carries you so far down the centuries that the ancient wonders of the world sink into insignificance in the comparison. It is the most God-inspiring thing in all the earth. Superb, indestructible, matchless!" 7 An American diplomat who his vacations traveling in America selects downtown New York. 8"I have sailed into or out of New York Harbor on twenty-two occasions, arriving home for a vacation or departing for my post on the other side, and each occasion only emphasizes the fact that downtown New York is the most wonderful array of human ingenuity and incomparable construction that the world has ever seen. Those buildings are not 'skyscrapers.' They are majestic monuments that reach up a thousand feet to greet the sky. Men rave over the ruins of Pompeii and dig into the stones of Carthage looking for wonders, when the greatest wonder of all time towers above and around them. Downtown New York is a greater monument to a great people than all the masonry of the past." 9 A painter, following his bent, selects the Petrified Forest of Arizona and its near neighbor, the Painted Desert. 10"The Petrified Forest is the greatest wonder of America. It carries us back a million, two million years. Those stone trunks of prehistoric trees! What stories they could tell! What sermons are in those stones! 11"A mighty forest once grew there. What manner of forest it was we can only guess; what strange people and what now-extinct animals ranged through it we can never know. Inch by inch through the ticking of eternity it sank, until the sea covered it wholly. How many thousands of years the waves rolled over this forest until it became stone will never be answered. Then the reaction; and the bottom of the sea | dented speed with which we raised began to rise inch by inch, as it had sunk until the desert with the dead stone trees of unnumbered centuries past again greeted the sunlight. To-day this Petrified Forest is thousands of feet above sea level. To me it is the wonder of wonders." | 12 A banker, retired and globe trotting, thinks the American is the greatest wonder of all. | armies, built ships, and raised millions and millions of dollars. No. The Pyramids are very wonderful, so were the old Greeks and Romans, but aside from a few parlor tricks they had nothing that Americans have not outstripped in seven league boots. To my mind the American citizen is the country's first and greatest wonder.” 14 A lawyer runs true to form and selects the Monroe Doctrine as the first wonder. 15 A college professor prefaces his selection by remarking that he has not seen as many wonders as he would have wished, but among those that he has seen he unqualifiedly places the Big Trees of California first. His reason is that the Big Trees are the oldest living things in the world. Some of them were old when the Great Pyramid was being built. They have survived the storms and quakes of 13 "Think it over seriously. Is there anything in the world, wonder of nature, wonder of construction, or any other kind of wonder, quite as wonderful as our people? What a short space, as the stories of peoples are measured, has it taken us to climb into the position of the world's greatest nation? How we have amalgamated the blood of all the world and built the greatest State in a 'watch in the night!' We were not of the stuff that follows the lead of older peoples. We struck out alone and without precedent. We have shown the world a Govern- | fifty or more centuries. ment for and by the people. 16 Niagara Falls needs no arguhave shown them the way of the ment. It would have been more of railroad, the steamship, the tele- an undivided wonder of the United graph and telephone, the airplane. States did not the greater volume of We have leaped ahead of them all water pour over the Canadian side, and left them gasping at our re- but Niagara could scarcely be left out sourcefulness. Our war efforts of any list which purports to name the stunned them with the unprece- | Seven Wonders of the United States. Discussion. From what other walks in life might men have valuable opinions about scenery in our country? We Further reading. "America's Roaring Water Giant- Niagara," Compton's Pictured Encyclopædia, vol. 6, pp. 2501-04; "The Story of Niagara Falls," World Book, vol. 6, pp. 4224-26; "The World's Great Waterfalls," National Geographic Magazine, July, 1926, pp. 29–59. "Seeing America from the Shenandoah," National Geographic Magazine, January, 1925, pp. 1-47; "Glimpses East and West in America," Ibid. (the same), May, 1924, pp. 531-46; "The Scenery of North America," Ibid., April, 1922, pp. 339-89. Composition subject. My Choice of Seven Wonders for the United States. LIBRARY READINGS It is an excellent idea to collect titles of good reference books on various phases of nature. See pages 274, 275, 277, 283, 289, 299, 304, 315, 322, and 329 for other books of interest to nature-lovers. 1. Animals BOSTOCK. The Training of Wild Animals. Century. "The author is one of the greatest of wild animal trainers." BURROUGHS. Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers. Hough ton. HORNADAY. American Natural History. Scribner. "Describes the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes of North America." MILLS. Wild Life in the Rockies. Houghton. A fascinating account of outdoor life. SCOVILL. Wild Folk. Atlantic. 2. Birds BLANCHAN. Bird Neighbors. Describes 150 birds, 50 colored BLANCHAN. Birds that Every Child Should Know. Grosset. Describes about 100 species. BURROUGHS. Field and Study. Houghton. About birds, and small animals. CHAPMAN. Our Winter Birds. Appleton. Home Birds, Field Birds, and MATHEWS. Book of Birds. Putnam. "Contains lifelike and beautiful colored plates, and tells how to imitate bird songs." This poem has both big thoughts and musical swing. Procedures. Select from the following: (a) Read to enjoy the music and find lines with pictures or thoughts you like. (b) Tell what feelings are shown in the poem. (c) Talk about it, line by line, to see the force of the poet's thought. W ORK! Thank God for the might of it, 2 3 Work! Thank God for the pride of it, For the beautiful, conquering tide of it, Work! Thank God for the pace of it, For the terrible, keen, swift race of it; Nostrils a-quiver to greet the goal. Holding the runaway wishes back, Oh, what is so good as the pain of it, Work! Thank God for the swing of it, For the clamoring, hammering ring of it, On the mighty anvils of the world. |