THE UNITED STATES WITH AN EXCURSION INTO MEXICO HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS EDITED BY KARL BAEDEKER WITH 17 MAPS AND 22 PLANS LEIPSIC: KARL BAEDEKER, PUBLISHER LONDON: DULAU AND CO., 37 SOHO SQUARE, W. 1893 SP/ PREFACE. The Handbook to the United States, undertaken in response to repeated requests from British and American tourists, is intended to help the traveller in planning his tour and disposing of his time to the best advantage and thus to enable him the more thoroughly to enjoy and appreciate the objects of interest he meets with. The writer is Mr. J. F. Muirhead, M. A., who has for several years taken part in the English editions of Baedeker's Handbooks, and has personally visited the greater part of the districts described. No one is better aware than the Editor himself of the imperfections almost inseparable from the first edition of a guide-book; and the vast extent and rapidly changing conditions of the United States have made the preparation of the present volume a peculiarly difficult task. For its improvement, however, he confidently and gratefully looks forward to a continuance of those valuable corrections and suggestions with which travellers have long been in the habit of favouring him. Hotel-bills, with annotations showing the traveller's opinion as to his treatment and accommodation, are particularly useful. In the preparation of the Handbook the Editor has received most material aid from friends in all parts of the United States, so many in number as to preclude an enumeration of their names. In particular he wishes to express his obligations to the superior officials of the leading Railway Companies, who have been, almost without exception, uniformly courteous and helpful; to many officials of the Federal and State Governments; to the keepers of the most important libraries, museums, and galleries of art; to the officials of the Appalachian Mountain Club; and to the professors of numerous universities and colleges. It is hoped that the various monographs of the Introduction, though sometimes going beyond the recognized functions of a guide-book, will be found of material value to the tourist. Each has been written by an undoubted authority on the subject of which it treats; and their general aim is to enable the traveller who studies them to give an intelligent appreciation to the political, social, industrial, and physical |