America Across the Seas

This is a book that I purchased recently on eBay. I don't frequent that site too much anymore as I am trying to watch my money, but once in a while I can find excellent deals. I am always trying to find more Atlases (and now other books) published by Hammond. In older books the publisher is listed as C. S. Hammond, later Hammond Incorporated.

As I'm sure I've mentioned here before (probably several times) I love old atlases. Until recently I didn't have any from much before World War II--one of my prized possesssions was a 1939 Hammond World Atlas. Over the course of the past year and a half I've bought a few Hammond atlases on eBay, America Across the Seas being the latest one. I've concentrated on the earliest part of the twentieth century (the company was started sometime betewen 1900 and 1910 I believe) as I have several atlases from the sixties through eighties. There is just something different about holding actual antique maps versus looking at modern representations of old maps.

This particular volume contains not only maps of American overseas possessions, but articles on each region. Published in 1909 it deals primarily with territories gained from Spain in the war of 1898. The Philippines, Guam, Porto [sic] Rico, and Cuba are all featured prominantely. Other than that you'll read about other Pacific Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska--the last two of course weren't states yet. In fact at the time Oklahoma was the most recent state of 46. I've just started to read this book and I'm definately enjoying the time spent.

It is definately recognizable as an old book, with constructions and formality no longer commonly seen. I can't describe exactly how it is written, but I especially appreciate the rich descriptive language. However, the attitudes of the day are obvious, that of the natural superiority of the civilized white settler and what he can do for the primitive natives. This is to be expected and it doesn't especially bother me. Perhaps I'm just a racist white man, but I like to think that I enjoy historical books for what they are--relics from another time, not products of a modern politically correct environment.

The mountains have a charm all their own and are much less known than the lower altitudes. Sometimes, above one thousand five hundred feet, their vast flanks are dotted with innumerable groves of great pines. Again on their mist-clad summits the trails will lead through dense forests where enormous vines coil like huge pythons about the giant trees, and creepers and parasites and flowering orchids innumerable make a fantastic paradise of the woods. And if on the trail one meets a native, or a party of fifty, they pass the time of day with such gifts as may be handy, perhaps an offer of tobacco, and a long-worded and usually difficult attempt to explain routes and distances. While, if one comes at night to a solitary dwelling, the woman of the house cheerfully sacrifices her last chiclen to set up a feast for the stranger. One could, if necessary, travel from north to south in the islands subsisting entirely upon the bounty of the native people, whether the civilized natives or the pagan wild tribes. I have never heard of any instance in which the natives have refused to extend hospitality where on any pretext it could be offered.

~Matt