SEEING AMERICA FIRST
WITH
THE BERRY
BROTHERS
WRITTEN BY
ELEANOR COLBY
ILLUSTRATED BY
F. W. PFEIFFER
NIAGARA-BUFFALO. COPYRIGHT 1917 BY BERRY BROS., INCORPORATED DETROIT.
Grown-ups talk a lot about "SEEING AMERICA FIRST." They say that this is themost wonderful land in the world and that everyone ought to see it before going to any othercountry. That is exactly what we Berry Wagon Boys are going to do, and as we travel we aregoing to write this little book for other boys and girls to read.
Our home city, Detroit, is as interesting as any place we shall visit. We love to hear of thedays when Cadillac and his hundred men landed here and built their fort and how within a yearsix thousand Indians had camped within sight of the stockade. Detroit does not look much as itdid then. It is now one of the leading Metropolitan Cities of the United States, and is growingas fast as Jack's famous beanstalk. It has grown from 400,000 to 800,000 within the past tenyears, and it is lucky that there is lots of room for it to stretch in, for when people once get thecraze for living in Detroit, no other place satisfies them.
We always take visiting friends to see the sights of Belle Isle, our island park. They areamazed at the wonderful fish in the big aquarium and interested in the zoo, the public bath housewith its 800 rooms, and the beautiful casino. After taking them to a fine lunch at the Boat Club,we auto around the five and one-half miles of shore drive, and they "oh" and "ah" till it sounds asthough they were taking a singing lesson.
There is no fleet of fresh water passenger steamers in the world equaling those which callDetroit their home port, and our Detroit River is too fine and dignified to cut up any of theantics in which some rivers indulge. It never rises and messes up the city for it is too busy carryingits countless boats of precious freight.
Detroit is a great manufacturing city, and it is quite likely that the flowers and vegetablesin your garden, the medicine that cures you when you are sick, and the auto that you ride in,came from our city, for Detroit leads the world in these manufactures.
One thing is certain, if the varnish on your floors and furniture is the best that can be bought,it came from BERRY BROTHERS.
Canada is larger than the whole United States including Alaska, and probably it would keepon forever if the Pacific ocean did not stop it on the west, the Arctic on the north, and the Atlanticon the east.
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and the Parliament buildings are among the finest buildingsin the world. Just to look at them makes one think of kings and queens and all sorts of grandeur.We found it hard to imagine that a little over a century ago, terrible Indian massacres were takingplace here. The Hurons and Algonquins used to come down the Ottawa river with their canoesloaded with furs, and the cruel Iroquois used to lie in wait to torture them in order to get thosepelts.
Montreal, on the St. Lawrence, is another beautiful city. Here we saw great ocean steamersunloading freight from all parts of the earth. The harbor of Montreal was the first port in theworld to be lighted with electricity, so that the loading of steamers can go on by night as well asby day. They put in as many hours as possible, for during four months of the