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Show s ! I The Wonders j of America i By T. T. MAXEY i f THE "SEA-GO 1 N G" RAILROAD. KEY WEST is nearer '.lie eastern . terminus if the Panama canal, by almost .'UNI miles, than any other of our gulf ports. It Is separated from the main land by the Florida kes a more or less disconnected string of islands, composed largely of" coral anil limestone. lime-stone. To reap the benefit of its strategic position, however, direct and quick transportation with the main land was necessary. A railroad "'tis the answer. an-swer. Its eonsi rucl ion was considered impracticable and impossible. Hut there are men who will undertake anything. any-thing. The late Henry M. Flagler furnished fur-nished the funds and the work was begun be-gun in 1005. Men from many climes, malerial of many kinds and new methods meth-ods of construction were called into service. The winds, waves, a torrid sun, many known and unknown factors fac-tors bad to be grappled with and solved. Even nature had to be overcome. over-come. The construction must he stormproof. storm-proof. From Homestead, where (lie extension exten-sion begins, to Key West, it is 128 miles. .lumping from island to island are 11 miles of concrete arch viaducts and six miles of steel bridges one of which contains 24.'! spans. The construction con-struction of the line on the Islands proper was comparatively simple. body know s -since it lias bein nniinl-, nniinl-, ( ; to ;i depth of 1 111,11 feet a nd no bottom bot-tom found. I here bubbles f,,i i i, aboil i x i mi i i ii H i idons of lrtri-ib-grce hot ' water, pseshitf untold medicinal value, every 21 hi m I's. This health fount w:i discovered i a wandering I ciud'of I ml iti lis. When the white man came he named it "Ilig Horn Hot Sprint.'." because the water was Hi.nll.v tumbled over a HMoo cliff in a beautiful waterfall ! the river below. A city was built by the river. . They called it Thorninpolis (Hot City), because of its nearness to the spring. The eo ernmeiii purchased I lie t t act 1 on which the sprint is located in 1SS7. Washakie, chief of the Shoshone, agreed only on condition that a portion por-tion of iho water be reserved forever free for public use. Later, when llm Lovernnicni ceded the land to the sta'te, the same clause was inserted in Ihn ; parent. Thus tins great nat ure-mado ' antitoxin for many ills which beset humanity has been preserved for llm j use of everybody for all time. A natural nat-ural admixture of sulphur, lime, mau'-nesia, mau'-nesia, iron ami silica, this water pos- i si sses exceptional restorative proper- j ties in the treatment of blood ami skin ! diseases and rheumatism. ! GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. G FACIEI; is one of the newer of our great "outdoor museums'" or na- tional parks. Scattered throughout in j 1.-KK) square miles is a jumble of iiimin-j iiimin-j tains, glaciers, rivers, bikes and water- falls which looks "like "the Croat I'.uilder had loft the odds and ends of i his world making here in one disor-j disor-j dered heap." A newspaper man toiled bard to j reach the top of one of the skylaol j trails, Resting on a boulder and looking look-ing far out over the forests, across a j flower-carpel ed valley to a superbly neuumui mountain tat;e. ne declared he had discovered "Where God sat when lie made America." The dominating feature ol Clavier Is its magnificently carved mountains. It contains some of the most tremendous tremen-dous panoramas in the world. Some of its peaks remind one of cathedrals, others of forts and castles. The sum and winds of hundreds of years have tinted their summits with varyii.g lines. Often their sides are covered with great, slow-moving glaciers ice fields, some of which travel fully live inches in a year. Between or below Ihein are splendid forests ol pine. The meadows between these wooded patches are a riot of wild flowers. But Ihe supreme beauty of (his park is its mountain-hemmed, mirrorlike lakes, fed by glacial streams which tumble down the mountain sides, often in tall, ribhoniike falls of groat beauty. Add to this an occasional glimpse of a Swiss chalet (for the accommodation accommoda-tion of visitors) and you have an unbeatable un-beatable combination for the true lover of the wild. and the beautiful. , OUR NATIONAL CAPITOL. IT IS but tilling Hint America Ihe greatest nation in all the world should have the finest capitol buildinc on earth. The architectural beatify of our national capitol building at Washington Wash-ington is mast impressive and, for capitol capi-tol purposes, it is said to surpass every oilier building in the world. Tiie base of this immense, symmetrically sym-metrically shaped and imposing edifice tests on a level plateau, al an elevation eleva-tion of 07 feet above Ihe bislorlc Potomac Po-tomac river. The building faces Ihe east and is about one mile distant from the While House. The eorne.t stone of the original slruclure, which comprises the (eiilral portion of Ihe present building and is of Virginia sandstone, was laid by President Washington Wash-ington on September 18, 170:i 12.1 years "go. Later, when it became necessary to enlarge (lie building, vo additions or wings, of Massaehiisells marble, were added. President Kill-more Kill-more laid the corner stone; Daniel Webster was the oralor. Thes wings were burned by the British in 1814, but were restored. The original building as completed ill 1827. The present slruclure Is 7-ri1 feet long and Mod wide. II covers three anil one-half acres. The central portion por-tion is surmounted by one of (be most .loimng tne isianu ny ran was me: ticklish job. Thanks to the genius, grit and untiring un-tiring efforts of the engineers, one may now enjoy the heretofore unl hinkable and unique experience of riding from Key West to Miami in about live hours on a train running, for the most part, over water instead of on lend. MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK rPiIE mountain that was God," wrote : 1 .lohn V. Williams. "Mount Big j Snow." said the Indian. At any rale, the most wonderful mountain in the ' United States its hoary-headed peak ' piercing the blue sky to a height of j almost three miles, while its base cov- ei's a hundred square miles of territory. ; Its isolation, standing alone as it does instead of in a range, makes its mightl- ness all the more impressive. Uncle Sam created a national park around it and thus preserved it as one of our greatest sights, so we can all. go and see it and wonder for ourselves. Like all volcanoes, Rainier built up its cone from the material thrown out from its interior. But a terrific explosion explo-sion destroyed its conelike top and greatly reduced its height. It has not ; been in eruption for nearly 50 years, ; though steam jets sometimes melt the j snow at its summit and hot springs flow from lis base. Twenty-eight glaciers, horn from Ihe snow which covers Ihe mountain, radiate ra-diate from its peak and form one of the largest known glacial systems. From these great ice lields (here naturally natur-ally lead off numerous streams and I rivers which rind their way. through j ieautiful canyons, to the lower altitudes. alti-tudes. Below the glaciers, In an open space which circles Iho mountain, grow ! millions of gorgeous wild flowers, presenting pre-senting a beautiful spectacle as well as a marvelous contrast to the snow above. Below the (lowers are dense and immense forests of lir, spruce and cedar. THE AMERICAN DEAD SEA. IF YOU can Imagine a lake 100 miles long. 25 miles wide, with an average I depth of 20 feet feet is the greatest great-est depth recorded almost 1,000 miles inland and 4,250 feet above sea level, you can form some conception of this world marvel Great Salt lake. lis waters are six times as sally as the ocean. Put live bucketfuls in a graceful, pleasingly shaped and nias-I nias-I sive domes in the world. This dome Is j 287 feel high. II was completed in I ls05. It weighs more than 8,000,(HI I pounds and is lopped by a slalue of Freedom almost 20 feel high. The total value of Ihe building and grounds is estimated at $25,100,000. (Cupvi iulil. lain. WfHt-i-n N'-wspajwr 1'iilon) lank, let it evaporate and one bucketful bucket-ful of pure salt will be loft. A bath in Its buoyant waters Is both delightful delight-ful and exhilarating. Saltalr an Immense, Im-mense, crescent-shaped, domed and towered bathing pavilion has been built out Into the lake 2.000 feet from shore. The lake contains eight islands. Four rivers empty fresh water into It, but its surface neither rises nor falls. Having Hav-ing no outlet. It gets rid of Hie excess water by evaporation. Scientists figure that the lake contains con-tains more than S.000.(Ki(l,(Ki0 Ions of salt and almost 800.0(K,0(K) tons of sulphate sul-phate of soda. Allowing 0! tons to a carload, that would be lX!..'t.'l3.,'i.'i:i cars of salt and l.')..'!.''..'(..'t.'t.'i cars of soda. Assuming -10 feci as ihe average length of a freight car and you have a train of salt 1.(110,101 miles long and a train of soda 101,010 miles long. The average aver-age speed of a freight train Is about 20 miles an hour. Knnning at Ibis speed, day and night, it would take ihe two trains over six years to pass a given point. The value of these cargoes would be probably ?10.'KIO.MIO,0K). OUR MIGHTIEST HOT SPRING. ALMOST In the center of Wyoming, near a bend in the Big Horn river and -i,.15fl feet above sen level, nature brought to the surface, for Ihe benefit bene-fit of all humanity, her most notable nork in the hot-spring line. Here, from n rough-edged opening approximately 25 foot In diameter, and which may "jjjie through fj'oiu China for all aev- , I |