"Multi discurrent, et augebitur _stultitia_." Thus did one of the
profoundest of modern thinkers parody the prediction of the Hebrew
prophet who foretold the time when, with increased facilities for travel
and intercommunication, there should come a great enlargement of the
bounds of knowledge, and a corresponding amelioration of the condition
of humanity.
It would, however, be strange indeed, if the complex process of social
evolution, even in its present stage, were not marked by some of the
indications of a retrograde movement. The age in which we live has
undoubtedly its peculiar follies and foibles, which are but thrown into
relief by the qualities that more generally distinguish it.
But many are running to and fro, and knowledge is being increased.
Nature is revealing herself to the traveler in new forms and aspects,
and disclosing to his wondering gaze mysterious pages of her great book
hitherto hidden from him.
And while extensive tracts of country, presenting physical features to
which the entire known world furnishes no parallel, have been brought by
railroad enterprise within reach alike of the curious sight-seer and the
inquiring student, a vast region, of almost unexampled wealth-producing
capabilities, has, by the same agency, been thrown open to that
advancing tide of civilization which is rapidly overspreading the world.
Hence the traveler journeying to Wonderland--to that enchanted realm
where the most extravagant creations of the fancy appear trivial and
commonplace beside the more extraordinary works of Nature--sees also, in
process of solution, some of the hitherto most perplexing problems of
economics; observes, as he can not do with like facility anywhere else
in the world, the well-ordered plan upon which the bounty of Nature is
distributed; and witnesses the unlocking of vast storehouses of good, to
supply the increasing needs of the human race.
It may be doubted whether the world affords another tour at once so
delightful and so instructive as that which, beginning at the head of
the Mississippi valley, and crossing the great wheat fields of Dakota
and Eastern Washington, the stock ranges of Montana, and the gold and
silver ribbed mountains of Montana and Idaho, embraces also the wonders
of the Yellowstone National Park, and the incomparable scenery of the
Columbia river, to crown all with the stupendous sights of that Great
Land whose unique natural features have earned for it the well-deserved
title of "Wonderland." No longer one of peril and hardship, but, on the
contrary, one of absolute luxury, this tour has, within the last two
years, attracted thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the civilized
world. To them, as well as to all other lovers of the sublime and
beautiful, and to the students of the mysteries of Nature in all lands,
who may have the good fortune to visit the far Northwest in 1886, the
following pages are respectfully inscribed.