See America First Part 29

Then, too, the Weldon is situated in the charming residential section of the town, of no small natural beauty. But of all pleasing memories of Greenfield, that of its beautiful tree- bordered streets will remain the longest.

In pa.s.sing through the old town of Windsor you will think of John Fitch whose birthplace was here. John Mason, leader of the Colonists during the Pequot War, also had his home in Windsor.

Here, too, is the fine old home of Oliver Ellsworth, now kept as a museum by the Daughters of The American Republic.

You will pa.s.s through Pomfert, the town whose special point of interest is Wolf Den, where Israel Putnam slew a sheep-killing wolf single handed. The story was geographically described in our school readers of two centuries ago.

At Willamantic is a monument to Nathan Hale, the martyr spy of the Revolution, who had his home here, as did also General Lyon, killed at Eastport in the Revolutionary War. Here, too, was the home of Jonathan Trumbull, one of the financiers of the Revolution, and Commodore Swift, U. S. N. This town is widely known as the home of Willamantic thread.

TWENTY-NINTH DAY--Providence to Newport.

THIRTIETH DAY--Newport to Plymouth via Fall River, Cape Cod and Provincetown, staying at the Plymouth Rock Hotel.

THIRTY-SECOND, THIRTY-THIRD AND THIRTY-FOURTH DAYS--Plymouth to Boston via the Sh.o.r.e Road.

THIRTY-FIFTH DAY--Boston to Portsmouth, N. H. Here was signed the treaty which closed the Russo-j.a.panese War.

THIRTY-SIXTH DAY--Portsmouth to Crawford's Notch, via Portland, Maine.

THIRTY-SEVENTH DAY--Crawford's Notch through Green mountains to Lake Champlain.

THIRTY-EIGHTH DAY--Lake Champlain through Adirondacks to Lake George Village.

THIRTY-NINTH AND FORTIETH DAYS--Among mountains and lakes.

FORTY-FIRST DAY--Lake George to Albany.

FORTY-SECOND DAY--Albany through Catskills to Mt. Tremper, where we spent a most delightful evening at the Howland House.

FORTY-THIRD DAY--Mt. Tremper to Utica.

FORTY-FOURTH DAY--Utica and Trenton Falls to Syracuse. Spent the night at the Mizpah hotel. This hotel is unique in that it is run in connection with a Baptist church. The building is a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture. The surplus money is used for the various church expenses. You may listen to the noted Belgian organist while resting in your own room. This undertaking has proven to be a success in numerous ways.

FORTY-FIFTH DAY--Syracuse to Lake Chautauqua via Jamestown.

FORTY-SIXTH DAY--Jamestown to Niagara Falls via Indian reservations.

FORTY-SEVENTH AND FORTY-EIGHTH DAYS--Niagara Falls, via Albion, Pa., to Ashtabula, Ohio.

FORTY-NINTH DAY--Ashtabula to Richmond, Ind.

It is to be sincerely hoped that all the youth of our land may some day visit the nation's shrines and there drink deep from the fountains of truth and patriotism which our worthy forefathers have established. To follow the old Pilgrim trail, to climb Bunker Hill Monument, to reverently tread the halls of Mt. Vernon, to muse by the monuments at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, and Arlington; to be thrilled with the grandeur and power of our great nation while in Washington: and to behold the unsurpa.s.sed beauty of the countless places of natural grandeur our country affords would help to solve many of the serious problems confronting our nation today.