ist. Only
when you reach the top and emerge into the blue upper air you will meet
those friendly winged visitors who frequent all spires--Saint Mark's in
Venice or the Soldier's Monument in South Boston--the pigeons! Yes, the
pigeons have discovered the charm of this lofty loveliness, and
whenever the caretaker turns away his vigilant eye, they haste to build
their nests on balcony or stair. They alone of Boston's residents enjoy
to the full that of which too many Bostonians ignore the existence. Will
you read the inscriptions first and recall the events which have raised
this special hill to an historic eminence equal to its topographical
one? Or will you look out first, on all sides and see the harbor, the
city and country as it is to-day? Both surveys will be brief; perhaps we
will begin with the latter.

Before us, to the wide east, lies Boston Harbor, decked with islands so
various, so fascinating in contour and legend, that more than one volume
has been written about them and not yet an adequate one. From the point
of view of history these islands are pulsating with life. From Castle
Island (on the left) which was selected as far back as 1634 to be a
bulwark of the port, and which, with its Fort Independence, was where
many of our Civil War soldiers received their training, to the outline
of Squantum (on the right), where in October, 1917, there lay a marsh,
and where, ten months later, the destroyer Delphy was launched from a
shipyard that was a miracle of modern engineering--every mile of visible
land is instinct with war-time associations.

But history is more than battles and forts and the paraphernalia of war;
history is economic development as well. And from this same balcony we
can pick out Thompson's, Rainsford, and Deer Island, set aside for huge
corrective institutions--a graphic example of a nation's progress in its
treatment of the wayward and the weak.

But if history is more than wars, it is also more than institutions. If
it is the record of man's daily life, the pleasures he works for, then
again we are standing in an unparalleled spot to look down upon its
present-day manifestations. From City Point with its Aquarium, from the
Marine Park with its long pleasure pier, to Nantasket with its flawless
beach, this is the summer playground of unnumbered hosts. Boaters,
bathers, picnickers--all find their way here, where not only the cool
breezes sweep their city-heated cheeks, but the forever bewitchi