The beauties of Washington, unique in a hundred ways and surpassing in dozens of others all cities and parks in the United
States, are now enhanced many-fold by a sight found in America
only in the capital city. The cherry trees of Potomac Park and the
Tidal Basin are now abloom with their billowy clouds of pale and
pink blossoms, rivaled only by those in the land of the Mikado.
What is the most likely reason why Cobb begins the article with
these sentences?