Sunshine soon came back to Mrs. Harris’s face, and she began to notice the people about her, and to realize that she was actually on shipboard.  Foreign travel had been the dream of her life; and she felt comforted to have Alfonso and Lucille beside her.

“Mrs. Harris,” said Leo, “see the stately blocks that outline Broadway, the Western Union Telegraph Building, the Equitable Building, the granite offices of the Standard Oil Company, the Post Office, and the imposing Produce Exchange with its projecting galley-prows.  Above its long series of beautiful arches of terra cotta rise a tall campanile and liberty pole from which floats the stars and stripes.”

Leo’s eyes kindled in brilliancy, and his voice quickened with patriotism, as he made reference to his adopted flag.  “Lucille, behold our glorious flag that floats over America’s greatest financial and commercial city.  I love the stars and stripes quite as much as Italy’s flag.

“Annually over thirty thousand vessels arrive and depart from this harbor.  New York is America’s great gateway for immigrants.  In a single year nearly a half million land at Castle Garden.  Sections of New York are known as Germany, Italy, China, Africa, and Judea.  The Hebrews alone in the city number upwards of one hundred thousand, and have nearly fifty synagogues and as many millionaires.  The trees, lawns, and promenades along the sea-wall, form the Battery Park.  The settees are crowded with people enjoying the magnificent marine views before them.”

Alfonso pointed to the Suspension or Brooklyn Bridge beneath which vessels were sailing on the East River.  Its enormous cables looked like small ropes sustaining a vast traffic of cars, vehicles, and pedestrians.

To the right of the steamer’s track on Bedloe’s Island stands Bartholdi’s “Liberty, Enlightening the World,” the largest bronze statue on the globe.  From a small guide book of New York, Lucille read aloud that the Bartholdi statue and its pedestal cost one million dollars; that the statue was presented by the French people to the people of the United States.  The head of Liberty is higher than the tall steeple of Trinity Church, which is 300 feet high, or twice that of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven ancient wonders.

“Look,” said Lucille, “at the uplifted right hand holding an electric torch.  How magnificently the statue stands facing the Narrows, the entrance from Europe, and how cordial the welcome to America which Liberty extends.”

“Yes,” said Leo, “if you wish to see Bartholdi’s noble mother, observe the face of the statue.  Bartholdi owed much to his mother’s constant encouragement.”

“How true it is,” said Mrs. Harris, “that most great men have had splendid mothers.”

Many on the deck thought of loved ones at home, of their country, and wondered if they would return again to America.  This was true of many aboard who were now starting on their first ocean voyage, and their thoughts no doubt were akin to those that filled the minds of Columbus and his crew when they left Palos.