Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1904 — VALUE OF GOOD MAPS. [ARTICLE]

VALUE OF GOOD MAPS.

Especially During a Great War Do Maps Become of Interest. Robert Louis Stevenson, one of the most notable English writers known to the present generation, was wont to say that nothing interested him more than the perusal of a good map; and without doubt, a map that is well made and accurate catches the eye and arrests the attention of many people as few other things can do, especially during a great war when the maps of the world are likely to be changed does the public become interested in maps in general. The men in charge of railway traffic possess a most positive appreciation of good maps and a large expenditure of time and skillful thought is made on this feature of railway publicity, so that such portions of the country as the mystic and interesting region of the Black Hills in South Dakota, the wonderful mountain ranges compactly rising tier upon tier throughout the central and western portion of Colorado, the rich valleys and hillsides of California, covered with vineyards, orchards and grain fields, Yellowstone Park, the Yosemite, Alaska, and those regions of interlacing lakes and water courses which mark that portion of the great northwest located in upper Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and that part of Michigan known as the Upper Peninsula, have been mapped in detail and given to the public gratis, far and wide. Said an official of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway recently, while talking on this subject: “There is no doubt that the American railway map engraver has carried bis art well nigh to the borders of perfection. I do not know of any road maps or other detailed data for the State of Wisconsin, for instance, that equal those published by our passenger department. They are on file in public libraries as part of their reference" records. Other portions of the western country have been similarly taken up by our people and maps of a most complete character made for them; in fact, the western lines are fully alive to the value of a good map in the hands of the traveler.”