Excerpt from America, Picturesque and Descriptive, Vol. 1 of 3 The American is naturally proud of his country, its substantial growth and wonderful development, and of the rapid strides it is making among the fore most nations of the world. No matter how far else where the American citizen may have travelled, he cannot know too much of the United States, its grand attractions and charming environment. Though this great and Vigorous nation is young, yet it has a his tory that is full of interest, and a literature giving a most absorbing story of rapid growth and patriotic progress, replete with romance, poetry and a unique folklore. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.