_Dear Boys and Girls:_
_I expect you will agree with the Overall Boys that nowhere else can
there be quite so many wonderful things to see and to do, as there are
in Switzerland._
_Massachusetts and New Hampshire are very small states, you know, but
together they are larger than the whole of Switzerland, and more people
live in these two small states than live in Switzerland to-day._
_One fourth of this famous little country is covered with lakes and
rivers and glaciers, and nearly another fourth with great forests,
while a large part of the remaining land is used as pasturage for a
million and a half cows._
_Raising cows and making cheese is the principal industry, but the
clever Swiss people have many other prosperous industries as well.
They make fine silks and ribbons and marvelous little watches and music
boxes and jewelry and delicious sweet chocolate. Some of the men do
fine wood carving, and the women do beautiful embroidery._
_One of the most important lines of work is hotel keeping. Many
thousands of strangers visit Switzerland every year. In winter they go
there for the skating and sleighing and snowshoeing and skiing and to
enjoy the bracing mountain air. In summer they do what the Overall Boys
did, besides many other interesting things._
_Travelers spend so much money in Switzerland, and the people who live
there work so hard, they have become the richest people in the world._
_Swiss schools are especially fine. Children are obliged to attend
school from the time they are six years old until they are fifteen or
sixteen years old._
_In summer the schools begin at seven o'clock in the morning and in
winter at eight o'clock, holding four hours. During the winter months
there is also a session of three hours each afternoon in the week,
excepting two. On these two afternoons the boys are given other work to
do, and the girls attend sewing classes. They have no regular holiday,
but must go to school six days every week. The boys do a great deal of
gymnasium work in the winter, which keeps them strong and trains them
to be mountain guides and hunters and herdsmen._
_There are three national languages in Switzerland--German and French
and Italian. German is used much more than French or Italian, but
nearly all Swiss boys and girls learn to speak at least two languages.
Sometimes they learn three or four. In fact it is said that Swiss
people learn to speak languages more perfectly than any other people
in the world. They are certainly among the best educated and most
courageous people in the world._
_The Overall Boys learned a great deal while traveling in that
beautiful little country, and they are glad to share it all with you._
_Sincerely your friend_,
EULALIE OSGOOD GROVER
[Transcriber's Notes: There diacritical marks that cannot be represented
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the brackets, it is below the letters.
Markup Signifies
[)x] = breve
[:x] = umlaut
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[nj] = diagraph nj]