Download or read book An Engineer's Holiday, Or Notes of a Round Trip From Long; 0° to 0° written by Daniel Pidgeon and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Engineer's Holiday, or Notes of a Round Trip From Long; 0 to 0: In Two Parts; Part I., West; Part II., East A tour of the World makes many radical changes in those ideas about foreign countries which are insensibly gathered in the course of time from the reading of books and newspapers. I landed in America, a prospective admirer of its people and institutions, and left it, after five months' stay, charmed with the courteous kindness of its private citizens, astonished at the breadth and boldness of the national mind, and convinced that, so far as power and prosperity are concerned, the great republic is on its way to become the foremost nation of the modern world. But I looked for political enthusiasm, intellectual aspiration, and re publican simplicity of life among the people of the United States. I found politics a close profession, material well-being the goal of ambition, and luxury rampant among the rich. I believed that the Japanese were, next to the white races, the most advanced people in the world, whose' intelligent appreciation of a civilization higher than their own had led to the overthrow of a remotely ancient social and political system, too rigid for Western ideas of progress. I found them cultured, courteous, and charming; but insincere and reactionary in policy, un - busi ness-like and untrustworthy in affairs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."