upersede the monotonous brownstone rows. Many
of these vie with each other in the extent and delicacy of decorative
carvings outside. Others are fashioned after the castellated structures
of Europe. The general impression left by a town of the newer fashion
quarter is that Jeffersonian simplicity, in architecture at least, is no
longer to be understood as synonymous with severe plainness. Probably no
other city can point to an equally rapid transition from conventional
taste, excellent for its period, to the present enthusiasm for the best
in artistic construction, whatever its cost.

The bicycle proved a revolutionizer of dress as well as a stimulus
to outdoor exercise. Each nation learns from the others and so we
progress, though there is possible weakness in the tendency toward
rigid uniformity. The picturesque and the primitive are disappearing
in every land. National individuality should not lightly be allowed
to lapse, even in minor matters of costume and recreation.

Experienced travellers know that a country is not to be judged by its
metropolis. There is a sturdier back-bone of conservatism in the
provinces than in the great cities, so largely made up of aliens and
sojourners. A goodly proportion of the business men whose genius has
made New York what it is, and who are admittedly qualifying it soon to
become the financial centre of the world, are country-born and raised.
Great as New York is, and mightier as it will become by reason of its
situation, the true and abiding greatness of the nation is spread over
the thousand cities and towns that equally represent American pluck and
stability. In the farming districts and the scattered rural communities,
in vast agricultural areas of which city people take too little note,
and in the steady, plodding, smaller towns, there abides a calm but
potent force that throbs with high patriotism, and will prove an
all-sufficient strength in time of peril.

* * * * *

Washington! Its very name an inspiration, its every feature a
fascination to the lover of his country who makes his first pilgrimage
to the national shrine. Other great cities bear the glorious marks of
the tribulations and triumphs they suffered and enjoyed as they passed
through their historic experiences. Here is a capital created as the
consummation of a people's release from thralldom. A new city, invented
as the proclamation of a new nation's advent, the symbol and promis