Shakespeare wrote enthusiastically about "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England." He also wrote, as well he might, in those old days, before the flying machine and submarine:

"This precious stone, set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a meat defensive to a house.

Against the envy of less happier lands."

If Shakespeare could have made this trip across the AMERICAN CONTINENT, INSPECTING THIS EARTH, THIS REALM, THIS UNITED STATES, he might have written a better, bigger poem.

"This England could be put down in one corner of Texas and you would have to hunt for it.

San Bernardino County, California, would cover up most of it and improve its fertility. You could take all the rivers and lakes of "this England" out of the Mississippi river, and the water would not be missed.

You could add all the English mountains and hills to the landscape around Denver, and they would not be noticed. What would Shakespeare have said or written if he could have seen THIS "blessed plot," that stretches 3000 miles from one ocean to the other, including within its borders Arctic and tropical regions, its 48 States, with absolute free trade, not a custom house separating them? Arthur Brisbane in The Boston American.