236 MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

the course of its tumbling rivers, gazed upward
on snow-capped mountains, listened to the voice
of cataracts calling to one another from precipice
to precipice, and stood by the grave where Buffalo
Bill, the hero of my youth, is sleeping his long
sleep amid the silence of the everlasting hills,

.....Stille

Ruhn oben die Sterne
Und unten die Grdber.

The difficulties of climate are very great;
but the car gives choice of time and place and
if rightly used may largely overcome them. The
plague of flies may be overcome by other means:
I have heard it said that their sudden annihilation
by almighty fiat would be equivalent to a free
gift to Uncle Sam of billions of dollars, how
many I forget.

Whatever may be thought of the distribution
of wealth in America, the distribution of her
feople is unquestionably bad. If the first is
evil, the second is more so. And she has no
excuse except that she has been the victim of
fate. Considering the vast unoccupied spaces
at her disposal the concentration of so many
of her people into congested cities is as un-
necessary as it is unnatural. Reaction against
it, sooner or later, is certain. There are signs
that it has already begun: the Recreation Move-
ment is one of them. As a reaction against the