Section 1 of Going Abroad, Some Advice This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Michael Fosio Going Abroad, Some Advice by Robert Lucy Why, Who and When to Go It may be assumed that most people who will read this want to go to Europe and know why they want to go. It is hardly worthwhile to waste any time over the man who has no desire to see the land of his ancestors, to view the scenes made familiar by the pen of the historian, the storyteller, or the poet, to enjoy the art treasures of the old world. If a thousand books of travel, if lectures and letters are memorable, if the entusiasms of homecoming tourists have not aroused a longing to cross the Atlantic, it would be futile for me to try where the most potent of human influences have failed. My province, then, should be to aid those who want to go and can go, but do not know just how, when, and where to go. To encourage those who really have the means to go, but fear they cannot afford it. To save time, vexation, and money for those who have decided to go, but lack experience of their own and have no experienced friends from whom to get the desirable information. It is possible, also, that aid can be given even to those who have talked the matter over with the most expert of tourists. For rare is the man who, having done a thing himself, can remember all the doubts and uncertainties that perplexed him before he did it. Any feat accomplished seems easy enough afterward. Then, too, Mole Hills for one man may be mountains for his successor. So though I set myself deliberately to conveying all the information on this topic that may occur to me as likely to be useful, I may omit answers to many questions that might be asked. But it is tolerably certain that I shall answer more than any questioner would be likely to think of in one conversation. To advance reasons why anybody should go to Europe may be dispensed with, but it may not be useless to advise you to know yourself why you are going. To have your object clearly defined in your own mind. Surely, your trip cannot be intelligently planned if you are misty as to its purpose, and surely it would be foolish to devote some months of your life, possibly some years, to an expedition without definite aim. To be sure, travel for its own sake is beneficial, as all wise men have agreed from time and memorial. Homekeeping youths have ever homely wits, and though travel will not make a gem out of a pebble, nothing else will so quickly cut the facets of a diamond mind. It is then, far from useless, to journey through a foreign land with no other idea than to enjoy its scenery, its buildings, and its art. To observe the customs of its people, and to live for a while as they live. Yet there is greater satisfaction in returning with the belief that you have done something, however little it may be, toward mastering some one branch of knowledge. The purposeless travel, with any desire at all for self-improvement, may come home conscious that he is a wiser and a broader and a more cultured man than when he went away, but his conscience will not be wholly satisfied if he cannot say to himself, I can speak a foreign language now, or I can now tell what is a handsome church, and why it is a handsome church, or I have learned something of the rudiments of singing, or something else. Of course, a hasty trip gives little chance for study, and no one object can be pursued systematically in even a long trip, unless you stay in one place time enough to go at it earnestly. Yet if, for example, you have read up on some architecture before going abroad, six weeks' observation in continental cities will at least fix in your mind what you have read. If the object of the trip be simply rest and recreation, it is still worthwhile to remember that you have an object. What can be more absurd for a man worn out by the world of New York than to jump into the world of London or Paris, or for the woman exhausted by the social functions of her home city than to harass herself with preparations for presentation at court? More pertinent than moralizing on how not to rest will be the suggestion that an ocean trip with a few weeks of foreign travel may prove the most health-giving change a tired man or woman can find. Hundreds of people go abroad every year for that alone, and believe it, the most delightful vacation they can take. As a vacation, it is not so very much more costly than one of the same sort at home. We will go into details of expense later, but it may be said here that it costs no more to take a two-month trip abroad than to put two months into making the tour of America's watering places, or, if staying in one spot is preferred, the extra cost of a European vacation over that of one in the States is never more than the expense of going and coming, and is usually much less. It is probably cheaper to go to Europe than to go to Florida for anything more than a month, and certainly is less expensive than to go to Southern California. Age and Sex As for age, nobody not in the first or second childhood is too young or too old to profit by a European trip. Any boy or girl of talking age will pick up a foreign language with an ease and celerity astonishing to the adult, and will thus profit to a degree well worth the pains of taking a child a journey. When the young person is old enough to be left at boarding school, a year in one where foreign languages are spoken will accomplish as much as two years at home, if the languages are to be deemed an important part of education. Many youths have, with profits, substituted a year at some German university for one year of the course at Harvard or Yale. Of course for advanced students the benefit of foreign universities is incalculable. The notion that young men who have wild oats to sow can do it more readily abroad than at home is not sustained by the facts. Everywhere on the continent the rational use of beer and wine is a safeguard for youth more than a temptation to it. Of course there is drunkenness, but I am inclined to the belief that the young American by himself abroad, while learning little of abstinence, is more of temperance and self-control than when thrown on his own resources in an American city. There is no more chance to get gambling habits in Paris or London than in New York or Chicago. In the university towns gambling is as rare as in our own colleges. In the matter of chastity, European and American notions differ radically, and though not more than in other large cities perhaps, there are as many trilbees in Paris as ever, but intimate acquaintance with many young men who have gone to Europe to study leads me to assert with confidence that they seldom forget puritanical teachings and that any fellow with brains enough to profit by a foreign trip can be as safely trusted on one side of the water as on the other. Apart from the matter of study, in my mind the European trip brings most profit to the man or woman of maturiers, yet not beyond the learning period. Of course, there are many people who keep their minds in the receptive condition to the very last, people who will take up Greek at 50 and plunge into calculus at 70. Yet most people, by the time they get into what is called the prime of life, have their habits of thought so settled, their prejudices so rooted, their ambitions so satisfied, that travel, if undertaken for the first time, has comparatively slight educating influence. Elderly people, too, who have never traveled, may find it hard to accommodate themselves to the change in their daily routine, and the frictions of journeying sometimes try their patience and temper unduly, though it is the fact that women from 55 to 70 often accommodate themselves to circumstances more cheerfully than many of the younger people. The matter of sex need not affect in the slightest the question of foreign travel. If an American girl wants to study art, music, or languages, and has the means, there is not the least reason why she should not go alone to Paris, or Berlin, or Vienna to do it. Under light conditions, there is no greater fear of insult abroad than at home. The only difference I have ever heard of is that in Europe young unmarried women with regard for their reputations do not go out in the evening without escort. But the same thing is true of the larger cities here. English women think nothing of taking their vacations on the continent. In the mere matter of travel Europe offers in some ways more comfort and convenience than America to women journeying alone or in parties without men. They need never touch their luggage unless they choose. At hotels and railway stations they will always be more courteously treated than men, and that is saying a good deal. The railway cars have separate compartments for women. Cabs abound everywhere. To make foreign travel still easier, there exists an admirable organization called the Women's Rest Tour Association, which may be addressed at 264 Boylston Street, Boston. Quote, its object is to furnish women who wish to travel for purpose of rest and study with such practical advice and encouragement as shall enable them to do so independently, intelligently, and economically. It is not designed for the convenience of women who organize or conduct large parties. Quote. And it may be added that it is in no way a money-making institution. There being neither salaries nor dividends for anybody in it. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe is the president, and other well-known New England women are on the board of officers. It publishes a handbook of travel entitled A Summer in England, to which I would here give credit for some of the information hereafter given. Issues yearly, a revised list of accredited lodgings and pensions all over Europe, with details concerning prices and accommodation. Publishes an occasional paper called The Pilgrim Script, devoted to travel and life abroad. Exchanges introductions between members who desire company. Plans money from its traveling fund, under careful supervision, to provide vacation trips for women greatly in need of rest and change. Advises in regard to travel. Lends from its Library of Bedecker Guide books for the European trip. And in minor ways accomplishes its laudable purpose. The fee for the first year's membership is $2. Annual fee thereafter? $1. Life membership? $25. If but a small part of the wealthy American women who get enjoyment out of a trip abroad would, by becoming life members of this association, aid it in helping their less fortunate sisters to the same enjoyment. Its sphere of usefulness could be greatly widened. Seasons and Climates If it is for a vacation that the trip is to be made, undoubtedly the best time to go is in the early summer. Europe on the whole is cooler than the United States, and of course two or three weeks on the ocean save just so much of the discomforts of dog days. Switzerland in July and August is to Europe what the White Mountains are to New England, and at the same season, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia are delightful. But the difference in temperature between most of Central Europe and the United States in summer is not enough to make it worthwhile going there at that time for climate reasons alone. Many a wise American who can take his vacation when he will endures the heat of the city during mid-summer and then ranges the mountains, the seashore, or the woods in early autumn. Others find the most good in seeking the trout brooks when the grass and foliage are freshest. When the drain of a hard winter on the system has made the air of April or May most delightful to a physique exhausted by the fight with our northern winter. So too if one is to go abroad simply for physical good it may be wisest to go not when the climate left at home is at its worst, but when the climate reached on the other side is at its best. As many people, by reasons of the limitations of a business or a profession, must go in June if at all and return in August or September. The steamers are then most crowded. Therefore their owners not improperly charge a higher rate across in the late spring and early summer, a higher rate back in the late summer and early fall. In spite of this the demand for births is so great that they must be engaged weeks or even months in advance unless the tourist can run the risk of getting at the last moment some birth that has been given up when he may be lucky enough to secure the best of accommodations. From November to April there is usually plenty of room and travelers to whom crossing is an old story frequently take no more precautions than they would to secure a birth in a sleeping car for Chicago or St. Louis. In the winter payment for a single birth usually secures a whole state room to yourself and you have practically the pick of the boat. Sometimes on the smaller boats there will not be half a dozen first-class passengers. From the point of view of both economy and comfort then it is wiser if practicable to travel when the winter rates are in force. The fear of stormy weather doubtless deters many people from doing this. But the fact is that though the chances of severe storms are greater in winter than in summer they are not enough greater to cut any figure with those who cross repeatedly. This matter of storms is largely one of luck. Crossing in January I have left New York in a snowstorm and on no day afterward had the Mercury register below 55 only to here within a week after reaching the other side that for days after we left New York every steamer entered that port ice clad and several were seriously delayed. That was the trip when I vowed I never again would take an Ulster across and even in winter the thickest of Ulsters is sometimes none too warm in mid-ocean. The icebergs are plentiful in spring and no doubt it is dangerous to scrape acquaintance with an iceberg. Yet to delay a trip through fear of icebergs would be about as sensible as to refuse to travel on a railroad in a thaw roadbed gets loose more frequently than than at other times. It should be said that the steamers which run from New York to Mediterranean ports in winter are as crowded as those that run to Liverpool, Southampton, etc. in summer. The winter rates to Genoa correspond with the summer rates to Hamburg and Bremen so that in this regard nothing is to be saved by winter travel but undoubtedly the southern passage is the milder and with less storms. On the other side too winter travel has many advantages over that of summer. The trains are seldom half-full and it is a rarity when a couple cannot get a compartment to themselves if they want it. The hotels are less crowded and you average better accommodations for the same money. You see the sights more at your ease. If the society life of London and Paris has attractions the late spring is the time for you to study it. The London season, as it is called, theoretically begins after Easter and lasts till August 12. It is at its height in June when come the Ascot races with their royal processions. But to the stranger without letters of introduction or any way of getting inside the doors of society perhaps during the season may not be the best time for visiting London. All the hotels are then crowded and that is a nuisance to the traveller. Good places at the theatres are hard to get. The museums and galleries are thronged. The shopkeepers are rushed. To be sure the climate is then most propitious. You can see royalty and nobility and gentry at the races and in the parks. Ladies who want to study the styles get plenty of chance. People who like a bustle and a crowd get plenty of extra tastes. But to one who wants to see London itself to learn the ways of its people to study its collections, its buildings, its administration or any of its serious phases the season is not the most propitious season. In midwinter the climate is not attractive. Fogs are often a nuisance and when there is no fog it is usually bleak, wet and what the English call nasty. Perhaps then the fall and early spring are the best times in which to visit London. In France the conditions are somewhat different. To be sure Paris too has its season coming about the same time as the London season and ending earlier. But the wealthy Frenchman makes Paris his home taking his vacations in the country and many wealthy Englishmen perhaps the majority live in the country taking their vacations in London so that Parisian hotels are not so crowded as London hotels in May and June. In those months the climate of Paris is charming. The Balzdy Belon is at its best. All the parks are delightful. The two salons are open and the conditions are the most satisfactory for every kind of sightseeing. The spring and fall are undoubtedly the best times for Italy. The winters, to be sure, are nominally mild. Snow is a rarity in Naples and seldom stays long in Rome, Florence or Venice and the thermometer calls few days frigid. But the mercury lies in Italy. When it registers fifty you suffer more than with it at twenty in America. Not in the sun of course but on the shady side of the street and indoors. It is the damp penetrating chill of a kind to which few Americans are accustomed. The houses are all of stone designed to be cool in summer rather than warm in winter and they are wretchedly heated. Steam heat is unknown. The occasional stove is a wretched failure and most of the fireplace is smoke. Wood is expensive and always charged for it if burnt in one's own room. Even with the blazing fire in the fireplace the chamber has a clearly defined torrid, temperate and frigid zone. There is seldom any attempt to warm the museums and galleries. Do not however get the idea that Italy is unendurable in winter. It has charms at every season of the year and its January is certainly more comfortable than a Boston or New York January. But it is not paradise. The warmest parts of Italy visited by the ordinary tourists are two Riviera's, shores, one commonly called the Riviera running from Nice to Genoa by Mentone, Monte Carlo, San Remo, etc. The other a still more beautiful coast on the sunny side of the rocky promontory that bounds the Bay of Naples on the south of which Amalfi is the gem. The Riviera from Nice to Genoa is sheltered from cold north winds by the barrier of the Alps is full in the face of the sun and often does not see a snowstorm for years. Semi-tropical plants grow freely and the temperature is so mild that many victims of lung troubles are sent there to convalesce or die. It has hotels innumerable which are for the most part well-filled during the first four months of the year. Queen Victoria usually goes there for some weeks in the early spring and it abounds with royalty and nobility. Save in such sheltered spots as San Remo or Ventimiglia the scenery of Italy is naturally at its worst in winter for then the landscape is brown and bare. It is at its best in April and May before the sun has begun to burn up things. May is certainly the best month for the Italian lakes unless one prefers to go on October when the fruit is ripe and the weather usually delightful. June is a charming month at Venice though some of its days are uncomfortably warm. Later on the canals get stale and sour. The summer temperature in Vienna is the same as that of Louisville, Kentucky. Indeed the Italian summer is much like that of Kentucky or Virginia and durable enough but less comfortable than the spring. In July and August the thermometer at Rome averages almost exactly the same register as in Washington. Few of the army of American tourists then go south of Florence but European travelers and especially Germans think nothing of visiting Rome for people who declared they suffered no inconvenience at Naples in dog days. Their sense of smell must have been impaired for the odors of an Italian city in summer are not delightful. The notion that Rome must not be visited in summer on account of the malaria in the Campania is no longer supported by those in a position to speak with authority. Of course it is dangerous to promenade after dark in the Campania just as it is in a western river bottom or anywhere else that malaria abounds but tourists do not promenade on the Campania after dark nor do they drive across it after dark as they often did before the time of railroads. When I suspect it was that Rome got its bad name as a summer resort. It does not yet deserve a good name but it is no worse than our southern states in the summer months and if a tourist cannot well go south of Florence at any other time there is little except the dread of perspiration to keep him from going in July and August. Rome is healthy in the autumn common report to the contrary notwithstanding. Its October is about as warm as that of Georgia. The autumn is a good time for Italy generally and traveling is much more comfortable than in the spring as the trains and hotels are less crowded. In October the vineyards are in their glory. Sicily has an annual temperature averaging close to that of South Carolina but the climate is somewhat humid. Switzerland for the passing tourist is of course to be visited in summer and in August rather than in June or July if any mountain climbing is to be done for while the snows are melting in early summer the heights are the more dangerous. In September the air gets chilly and the shortening of the days is emphasized by the deep valleys yet when the weather is fine the country is never more delightful. The air is often clearer than in summer. June is the next best month for the lower levels but walking or climbing is harder in June than in November. Most of the mountain hotels open June 1 and close September 15 or August 1. Many foreigners pass the winter about Lake Geneva particularly at its eastern end and there are a few winter resorts at high altitudes almost wholly frequented by invalids but the weather climate is desirable but to the ordinary traveller Switzerland in winter is dreary. In the city of Geneva itself throughout the year the mean temperatures from month to month correspond to those of New York with remarkable closeness. Geneva, Lucerne and Zurich also are hot in mid-summer as hot as Paris. Germany's climate is much like that of New England and the middle states with plenty of snow and a favorite amusement. Yet though cold weather prevails people who have passed winters in Germany and also in Italy say they prefer Germany because the houses are warmly built and well provided with stoves. Munich has an uneven temperature and winters that are severe as winters go in Europe though not with such extremes of cold as occur in the States. Vienna is slightly warmer than Boston in the winter slightly cooler in the summer as it is in temperature. Holland and Belgium are very cold in winter and see few tourists at that season. In Holland the flowers are at their best in April and May. The Danish climate in summer is not unlike that of England and in Scandinavia the summers are delightful. The Orkney Islands are generally bright and sunshiney with most invigorating air in July and August. The Channel Islands Jersey, Guernsey, Aldersey and Sark have a phenomenally equable and healthful climate due to the influences of the Gulf Stream. In 1898 they had something more than 2,000 hours of sunshine against less than 1,300 for London and about 1,500 for Oxford. By resorting to them one can in a few hours and at slight expense flee the rigors of an English or French winter. In England itself much the same effect is produced by the ocean influences on Cornwall. The mean temperature of Falmouth for December is 44.2 of Penzance 43.0 while that of Nice is 45.4 and Pow only 42.8 Furthermore, Cornwall has the advantage of lacking the mistral the blighting wind that marrs the perfections of the Riviera. All of Spain is very warm in summer so that the best time for traveling through it is in the spring or fall. Southern Spain is much like southern Italy in winter. Water rarely freezes at Gibraltar. Oranges may be picked from the trees above Cadiz, Jerez and Seville in February. But Granada, surrounded by mountains is apt to be chilly and not long after leaving Cordova on the journey toward the north the mercury begins to drop. At Madrid snow drifts in winter are not uncommon in a city in our northern states. In Morocco, Algiers and Tunis the November weather is like that of an American June until April the days resemble our bright autumn without damness. April is one of the best months for a visit as the flowers are then in their glory. May is like our July and from then through October is rainless and too hot for American tourists. Ice and snow are almost unknown. The mountains declared to have the best climate in the world for the three winter months. Perhaps 8,000 foreigners half of them visit Egypt every winter but not many people go there or stay there after April. Anybody planning to go around the world would better leave Egypt in the early winter so as to reach India and Ceylon by January. China should be reached in the spring and the Japanese climate will be found agreeable in May. The Holy Land and the Far East are best visited in winter or early spring. Constantinople weather in July and August is exceedingly warm. May is one of the pleasantest months on the Bosporus. Athens has an equitable climate which in time is going to make it one of the most popular winter resorts on the Mediterranean. With the sea south of it and hills rising to mountains behind it has a situation midway that of an island and a continent. The spring and autumn there are charming. Snow falls and winter only once or twice in years. Fogs are rare. The summers are long but the winds coming over the Aegean temper its heats. If then the traveler had the time and money to change his climate like the birds he would attain the maximum of comfort if he passed January and February in Northern Africa March in Palestine and Turkey April in May in Italy France and Spain June in Paris and England July in August in Switzerland or Norway, Sweden and Russia September in Germany October in Austria November in Greece December in Sicily Not that these are positively the best months for each country named but that this might make the best circular route for a year from the climatic point of view. Of course there are other considerations it is, for instance, sometimes desirable to plan a tour so as to bring one to certain points at the time of certain festivals or ceremonials. It is no longer worthwhile going to Rome for the Carnival because the celebration now hardly warrants crossing the street to sea but it is still a merry affair at Nice which is about the only place left where it is celebrated with vigor. In all Catholic Europe the ceremonials of Holy Week are imposing but they are not always easily accessible. People who have been in Rome in Holy Week have assured me they would not advise it for anyone who stay there must be brief as they found many of the museums closed part of the week and were hardly compensated by the religious ceremonies having no means of getting tickets to such as were not open to everybody. Christmas everybody knows is observed with pomp in all Catholic churches. At Rome from Christmas to January 6 an interesting affair is the presentation of petitions to the Bino in the Church of Aricholi by children. In Rome in Naples on St. Anthony's Day January 17 occurs the ceremony of blessing the animals. On Witt Sunday in Naples the pilgrimages made by crowds to the sanctuary of the Madonna di Montevergine and on Witt Monday to the Madonna del Arco are picturesque spectacles. On Good Friday the procession after sunset at Rossina near Florence makes a weird scene and on Easter Monday a very pretty Festa in honor of the Blessed Virgin takes place at Signa a little town easily reached by steam train from Florence. At the pardon of St. Nicholas Dizoff's in Brittany on the first Saturday in August the cattle of the neighborhood, Gaely adorned are driven to two fountains near the chapel, supposed to possess miraculous virtue. Young cattle are presented to the saint and afterwards sold at auction with a peculiar belief being that one of them in a herd brings prosperity. At St. Jean du Duit near Morelakes the interesting local pardon takes place on St. John's Eve the 23rd of June. A quaint old custom still prevails in the beautiful country on both sides at the Danube, 100 miles above Vienna commonly called the Vachnau. At this summer solstice fires are lighted on all the more prominent mountains that give the Vachnau its peculiar charm. The picturesque towns and villages on both shores are beautifully illuminated and the bridges across the Great River are ablaze with myriad lights. This festival is now called Johannesvier, or St. John's Fet by a devout population but the old people call it by its real pagan name Sonnenvenvier solstice fires. The 14th of July is the great national holiday in France and the 29th of July in Switzerland both being celebrated much like the 4th of July with us. England has no day of this kind though Guy Fawkes Day, November 5 is celebrated after a fashion. The French observe New Year's Day with much pomp. It is a great holiday in Scotland but it is not observed at all in England. Orleans in France celebrates on the 7th and 8th of May the defeat of the English by Joan of Arc. On ascension day May 19 in 1900 Venice celebrates with a procession of gondolas and general merrymaking the triumph of an old Venetian admiral over pirates. In the United Kingdom the great recreation days are the bank holidays Easter Monday, April 11 in 1900 Witt Monday May 30th in 1900 The first Monday in August and December 26th Ancient holidays still observe to some extent in one way or another are January 6th, 12th day the night before being 12th night marked by various social rights February 2 Candlemas Festival of the Purification of the Virgin Consecration of the Lighted Candles to be used in the church during the year February 14 Old Candlemas St. Valentine's Day March 25th, Lady Day Annunciation of the Virgin June 24, Midsummer Day Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist July 15, St. Swithins Day The old superstition being that if rain fell on this day it would continue 40 days August 1, Lama's Day Originally in England the Festival of the Wheat Harvest In the church the Festival of St. Peter's Miraculous Deliverance from Prison September 29, Michaelmas The Fast of St. Michael The Archangel November 1 All Holomas or All Saints' Day The previous evening being All Halloween observed by home gatherings and old-time rites November 2 All Souls' Day The Day of Prayer for the Souls of the Dead November 11, Martinmas The Feast of St. Martin December 28, Childermas Holy Innocence Day The quarter days used for calculating rents and tradesmen's accounts are Lady Day Midsummer Day Michaelmas and Christmas in England Whitsunday, Martinmas Candlemas and Lama's Day in Scotland Mothering Sunday is Mid-Length Sunday on which the old royal custom obtains a visiting one's parents and making them presents In England August 12 is the great day for sportsmen when the grouse shooting begins the open time ending December 11 The Partridge season runs from September 1 to February 1 Pheasants October 1 to February 1 The period for deer hunting or stalking varies from about August 12 to October 12 for stags and from November 10 to the end of March for hines There is no statutory close time for fox hunting or rabbit shooting but there is an unwritten law that the sportsmen respects as much as he does the enactments of parliament November 1 is the recognized date for the opening of the fox hunting season which continues till the following April Hairs are in best condition in January, February and March The close time for salmon in Scotland is for rods from November 1 to February 10 Racing in England begins in the middle of March and lasts through November the calendar having about a dozen meetings a month The most important on the list is Derby Day, the Wednesday of the summer meeting which takes place at Epsom in Surrey usually at the end of May but sometimes early in June then London empties itself and goes to the Downs in countless thousands A week or two later comes the Ascot meeting, also near London a full dress picnic graced by the presence of many members of the royal family and noted for the fashionable attendants Third and important are the Goodwood races, usually late in July The chief steeple chase of the year the Liverpool ground national is run in March In Paris the Grand Prix is run on a Sunday early in June The Oxford Cambridge boat race is rode on the Thames near London usually in March The 8th week at Oxford comes in the middle of May, the Henley Regatta late in June or July The cricket match between Oxford and Cambridge is played near the end of June and between Eaton and Harrow, usually in July The football season is much longer than with us, opening September 1 in England and running to April 30 is longer still from August 15 to May 15 The great rugby matches come in midwinter The Oxford Cambridge match is played in December Interest in the sport resembles that in baseball with us an attendance of 40 or 50,000 being not infrequent Yachting regattas pigeon shooting contests and tennis tournaments attract much attention on the Riviera in the early spring The Spanish bullfighting season begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until summer Oxford is at its best during Trinity term from the middle of May to the middle of July and commemoration week, usually the 2nd or 3rd in June, is the gassed The 4th of June is Galaday at Eaton The horse fair at Bernay, Normandy held in the 5th week of Lent is the most important in France When there is a Wagnerian festival at Beiruth it comes in mid-summer but if you want to go you must write for tickets weeks and even months ahead even then you may not get them A letter addressed to the management at Beiruth will procure the necessary information By reason of the Paris exposition there will be no festival in 1900 The salons at Paris there are now two of them open in May and are kept open for some weeks The Royal Academy in London is open from the 1st Monday in May to the 1st Monday in August The fountains at Versailles generally play between 4 and 5 of the afternoon on the first Sunday of each month from May to October the first of the same hour on the second Sunday of the month The spectacle at Versailles costs about $2,000 and is well worth taking much pains to see The flower festival in the Bose de Boulogne at Paris comes about the time of the Grand Prix early in June The Paris exposition will open April 15th and close November 5th 1900 End of section 1 Section 2 of Going Abroad Some Advice This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Michael Fasio Going Abroad Some Advice by Robert Luce Chapter 2 Where to Go It is a mooted question whether it is or is not wise to plan all the details of a foreign trip before leaving home With one sight seer to the effect that every day should be assigned its work and no deviation from the program should ever be admitted His theory is that if you allow yourself to loiter in one place you must hurry in another and so return with things undone that you ought to have done To my mind that is making travel too much like hard work Suppose it rains on the day you have assigned to the Bose de Boulogne Suppose somebody tells you that some out of the way place you have never heard of with customs or curiosities or a festival more interesting than anything you will see in Paris or Vienna a place at which, without trouble you can stop off for a day or two Suppose the voyage takes two days longer than you expected or the cholera breaks out in some town on your program It is possible to take a Bradshaw the timetable book that you will learn beforehand every train you will use That may be better than haphazard traveling with no plan at all but to my mind, the happy mean is better a rough outline of what you want to do with details left to circumstances As a basis for this outline get the pamphlets issued by the tourist companies and study the excursions they describe The routes have been arranged by men who, for business purposes have watched the preference of thousands of tourists and have struck averages They have sought to learn the pleasantest thing for the largest number and their conclusions are more likely to suit the majority of cases than the prejudiced verdict of any one traveler Bad weather or an attack of dyspepsia may give any one man a prejudice against a place that to most men at most seasons will be delightful Note carefully however the proportion between the times allotted to each place of the whole tour A flying party can do Florence in two days but an assiduous explorer could not cover all the ground in a week possibly not in a month On the other hand, Geneva's sites can be exhausted in a day and nobody tarries there long unless it be for rest or study foresight seeing As many men so many minds and rash as the man who tries to lay down the law as to what places must not be seen as to how much time should be spent here and must be spent there Yet, it is perfectly safe to say that the great majority of foreign tourists find Paris the most interesting city in Europe and that no trip is complete without it In the Louvre it has the finest art collections in the boulevards of the finest streets in the Bosdé Boulogne the Handsomest Park in its cafes is the best cooking Its opera house leads the world at Versailles, St. Cloud at Fontainebleu easily accessible suburbs are the most magnificent of royal estates still really royal though nominally republican Everybody knows it sets the fashions for all the ladies of the globe and to most people its historical associations have more vitality than those of any other city But the general opinion of tourists seems to be that it should not be visited early in an extended tour After seeing it, many other cities seem dull, stale or trite by comparison that and visited first would have charmed Paris then may well cap the climax Everybody goes to Paris Almost everybody goes to London Yet my own verdict would be that it is not so materially different from an American city as to make it preferable to many of the quainter places on the continent if one has not the time for all But there are a few people who would not like to see Westminster Abbey and the Tower, London Bridge and the British Museum to say nothing of Madame Tussaud's wax figures Rural England is more delightful than urban England It would be a pity to miss a run through the English countryside with a visit to some of the cathedral towns Oxford and perhaps the Lake District Ireland is not a sinquanon by which I do not mean to say it is uninteresting far from that but it is less interesting to most people than Wales or Scotland A week or two among the locks and overmoor and mountain should be welcome to anybody who knows is Walter Scott is William Black or his Robert Burns From Scotland or Northern England you may, if you like, cross to Norway and Sweden The trip to the land of the midnight sun is now the proper thing The fjords have some of the grandest scenery on earth and there are waterfalls predicted enough to be marvels for anybody who has not seen Canada The people are charming and have not yet learned that the end of the 19th century is at hand Russia is beyond the bounds of an ordinary trip It may not be true that only the adventurers get as far as St. Petersburg and Moscow but it is true that the railroad rides such sightseeing requires are long and tiresome that the expense is not inconsiderable and that there is little to see except the people themselves their ways and their manners which, to be sure, is no small thing Indeed it is the most useful of all sightseeing Yet in the case of Russia certainly not worth the effort for anyone whose time is limited or whose purse is not weighty Copenhagen is a pleasant city but Denmark appears to attract few tourists Holland is far more popular and it is well worth while to plan for at least a week there surely taking in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague with stops at Leiden, Harlem and some of the small towns Amsterdam and the Hague alone will suffice to give an idea of the country if time presses Belgium is less attractive Antwerp has a noted gallery a famous cathedral and a picturesque castle Brussels has Waterloo nearby but the city itself is a miniature Paris and will hardly detain the Wayfair longer than will be necessary to enjoy its wonderful old square Everybody goes up or down the Rhine between Cologne or better, Bon and Mainz, Mainz or Wiesbaden nearby The lower Rhine is not worth seeing are Americans loyal enough to assert that the best scenery anywhere along its course is surpassed by that of the Hudson the St. Lawrence the Penobscot and other American rivers but of course we haven't any castles on our rivers and our scanty legends have not yet been immortalized in song and story Nobody misses Cologne's Cathedral at Bon not far away or at Heidelberg not far from Mainz we get a glimpse of German's student life and at Heidelberg too is perhaps the most interesting of European castles The scenery about Heidelberg is almost as charming as that about Baden still farther up the valley Strasbourg, just beyond has a clock that disappoints most Americans but that they all want to see The black forest between Baden and Switzerland is worth traversing by train if in no more adequate way Berlin, not very picturesque is rather too far eastward for the bulk of tourist travel and can safely be left out if need be though of course not to be omitted by the man who wants to see the Prussian at home to view the capital of the most powerful people on the continent and to visit Potsdam Leipzig is an old fashioned Saxon university town and a musical center an economical place for a rest and with many advantages for study Dresden has one of the most satisfying galleries in Europe and delights about 15,000 visitors a year Prague is thoroughly quaint and justifies whatever effort may be made to reach it Vienna is, in the opinion of many more delightful than Paris Its public buildings, its collections its merry careless life are attractions that charm all visitors If time permits, a trip down the Danube or at least as far as Budapest is likely to be entertaining South of Austria come Servia Bulgaria and other little known lands that the Wise Acres say are going to be favorite of touring grounds though as yet their hotel accommodations are not such as to free their inspection from all discomforts Returning toward the west the next stop would naturally be at Munich unless the traveler made straight for Venice Munich too has its galleries and its beer gardens Nuremberg much smaller pleases me more and for my part were I to name the place in all Europe that has given me the most pleasure Nuremberg would be that place Switzerland is incomparable There may be higher peaks elsewhere more stupendous glaciers but nowhere else is so much mountain scenery so accessible so conveniently, safely and economically accessible The guide books will suggest a score of ways to traverse it yet I will suggest that if a tourist has but a week or ten days at his command for Switzerland he might do much worse than start at Lucerne go up one side of Riege and down the other to Flüggen thence to Göttingen and the Rhön Glacier next to Meringen and Interlaken south of a day to Lauterbrunnen etc. on to Bern south to Lausanne by Vévy and the castle of Chillon up the Rhön Valley to Martigny across to Chamonix at the foot of Mont Blanc and then down to Geneva and so out of the country This combination of diligence riding three or four mountain passes perhaps the most delightful lakes in the world and the quaintest of Swiss cities makes a tour not to be surpassed anywhere for views variety, novelty and continuous delight but it leaves out Zermatt in the belief of many the best of all Swiss resorts If possible, ride into Italy or walk over one of the passes rather than through one of the tunnels All the passes are worth seeing but the Simplon from Briege to Domo di Asola is the best next in scenic rank is the Spleugen from Corre to Collico the Garze Bernard is now not much used and the St. Gothard less still The railroad journey over the Brenner Pass is charming and if you can linger in the T-Roll at Innsbruck, Trent or any of the resorts so much the better The scenery on the railroad from Vienna to Venice is perhaps the best to be seen from the cars Do you see little going to Turin by the Mont Senes route? The only other entrance to Italy commonly used is that along the Riviera from Nice to Genoa, a delightful ride In hot weather a glimpse of Italy can be secured without risk of discomfort by going over the Simplon to Lake Maggiore thence to Milan back to Lake Como across to Lugano and over the St. Gothard to Lucerne Tourists who take in only northern Italy mostly spend their energies on Venice Florence, Genoa and Milan with a few hours at Pisa and possibly a stop at Verona and Padua There is little to see at Turin At least a side excursion of a day or two from Milan should be made through the chief Italian lakes and they are worth a week from those who have leisure The Lago di Garda close by the route from the T-Roll to Venice is not often visited by Americans but the slight digression from the route it requires will never be regretted On the way from Florence to Rome stops should certainly be made at Orvieto and Siena possibly at Perugia A month or even more will not exhaust the sights of Rome with all its ruins, its museums its galleries excelling even those of Florence and its 400 churches Naples will repay a week's stay Two weeks will enable the sights here to climb Vesuvius explore Pompeii and make the tour of the Amalfi-Cerento promontory, most charming of Edens giving a day or two at Capri with its wonderful blue grotto and a month about Naples would not be tiresome Between Naples and Sicily there is little of interest and not many Americans reach Sicily Excursions to Corsigans Sardinia are pleasantly remembered by all who take them barring the almost inevitable seasickness of the passage Besides Nice, Monaco Monte Carloa and Montaigne there are few places in southern France familiar to American tourists save of course, Marseille On the road to Paris, Lyon is worth a stay overnight Between Montsennas and Paris Aux-de-Baines during the bathing season from April on is another pleasant place to break a journey Southwest of Paris is Terrain and the Valley of the Loire Chateau and Stately cathedrals a region too much neglected by those in search of the beautiful but like Normandy explored more and more every year by delighted bicyclists Brittany allures the artist North of Paris every enthusiast on architecture will tell you that you must not miss the cathedrals of Rouen and Amines and Rouen has much more than its cathedral for it is the Nuremberg of France In Spain Madrid is the most familiar name but with your choice between Madrid and the two weeks in southern Spain take the land of the moor see the Alhambra at Crenada the Mosque at Cordova the Alcazar at Seville Glancy Cadiz sit Cheri in the Bodegas at Perez bask in the frown of the gigantic rock of Gibraltar and run across for a day or two in Tangier barbarous outpost of Barbaros some where you may yet see genuine slaves find in the thoroughly moorish marketplace a fanatic with a sword stuck through his leg and sleep in the land of one of the few perfectly absolute monarchs yet remaining on the globe in an English hotel with all the comforts of civilization including perhaps the only finger bowls who will find in a whole European tour Algiers is now half civilized with streets as Frenchy as if they were in Paris next moorish lanes with mosques and minarets and all the ways of the Oriental from there you may go by trains to the edge of the desert or into mountain scenery grand and savage at Tunis again you may find almost complete barbarism and at Cairo lately become a favorite goal of the traveler there are the same novelties of another civilization the tour of the Holy Land is now made with a minimum of discomfort and the maximum of safety when the unspeakable Turk isn't embroiled with European powers Constantinople is visited with impunity and delight Asia Minor however is seldom penetrated of Greece more than a word should be said within a generation it has taken great strides in catching up with the rest of the world and Athens today is nearly as modern as any other European capital its hotels streets customs are all more than durable and its ruins are of course of the greatest interest to the student but off the beaten tracks foreigners suffer more or less hardship and women would better not venture unless they are willing to put up with provisions the same thing is true of Spain where many people go you find cleanliness, good cooking, comfort but go into the villages of Spain or any country away from the heart of Europe and the habits of life are too primitive for the enjoyment of many tourists of course this brief sketch does not suggest all the delightful spots of Europe let it be taken as a rough enumeration of those which most travelers will prefer to see or take the time to see in search of health to discuss the matter of health resorts let me introduce my friend Bean he shall be the Solon the Solomon the nester of this treatise and at the same time its scapegoat I suspect he stole much of the wisdom to him but it will be convenient to assume that he knows what he is talking about if he makes any errors don't blame me as he has the pernicious habit of writing anonymously and voluminously for the newspapers there is a chance that he may really be responsible for some of the things he must father willy-nilly if it wasn't Bean who was it that wrote the following quote France is particularly well endowed with winter resorts suitable for persons with chest disorders not to speak of Algeria which is an exceptionally favourable resort for this class of patient there is along the shore of the Mediterranean from the con to Mentone following the magnificent Cornish road a narrow strip of land a true paradise on earth where during the worst seasons the temperature remains between 55 and 60 degrees and between October and May there are more than 100 clear cloudless days in this succession of towns of which there are a dozen at least the effect of the wonderful climate is heightened by the fact that the patients are surrounded by all the luxury and comforts of modern life in the southwest of France there is another group of winter resorts equally famous but answering to rather special indications thus inside of the Pyrenees we have Amelie de Bon Pau with its marvellously even climate and dry sedative atmosphere with its bracing sea breezes while Archichon near Bordeaux is renowned for its lovely pine forests no better council can be given to persons with heart disease than to pass the winter months in a soft and bracing climate such as they will find at Belu Mentone, Hirs or Algiers especially as the sea air is usually beneficial to them they should use every effort to avoid sudden changes of temperature and an atmosphere too highly charged with moisture in choosing an abode they should look for one that has an open situation while at the same time not exposed to the winds for this reason they will find it best to live in valleys rather than on hills exposure to cold is the most important of all the causes that may bring on an attack of uranium in the course of a case of chronic nephritis or inflammation of the kidneys which may have remained latent up to that time by causing a congestive condition of the kidneys exposure to the action of a low temperature reduces the function of those organs to a minimum when the conclusion from a therapeutical point of view that a patient suffering from nephritis should avoid with the utmost pains sudden variations in temperature and life in cold and damp climates when the renal disorder is acute the steady and regular heat of the bed is the condition seen quite long of a rational treatment but with a chronic lesion that is to say with real Breitz disease the patient should wear flannel or woollen garments and if living in a bad climate emigrate to a spot with warm and regular temperature such as hiers, Monte Carlo Menton, San Remo Malaga, Ajatio Palermo, Corfu Algiers or Biscara the action of cold is unfavorable to all neuropathic persons and such sufferers should lose no time at the approach of winter and taking themselves off to regions that are inaccessible to frost hiers, Arcachon Menton, Monaco and Algeria and a number of resorts in Italy where the temperature remains in the neighborhood of 50 to 55 Fahrenheit can be cited as examples of suitable winter stations for such patients climates like theirs keep patients alive indefinitely and have a remarkable sedative action the highest and most constant expression of which is the fact that persons who have lost the habit of sleeping almost entirely regain it at these resorts Nice is perhaps the cheapest of all the French southern coast towns of today for the visitors its hotels and pensions outnumber those of Cannes and Monte Carlo together and you can live modestly at 7 francs or $1.50 a day and up to 25 francs or $5 in luxury and add as much more as you like for wine and special rooms Lady Murray has opened a home at Antibes near Nice for invalid journalists and writers of all nationalities at the very modest charge of one pound a week the house is called Chateau de l'Espitance and stands in its own extensive gardens application for admission should be made to the honorable Lady Murray Ella Victoria, Cannes the home is closed every year from May to November Cannes has been for a century the most aristocratic of all the Riviera resorts it is useless for the stranger to go there with an idea of taking part in its social life unless he has the good letters of introduction to prominent residents for living expenses you may begin at 8 francs in a pension and run up to 30 francs a day in a hotel and as much more as you like for wine and private apartments nearly all the wealthy visitors live in villas doctors commend Cestri for the humidity of the atmosphere which is greater than on the western Riviera Cestri also has a smaller rainfall which is not inconsistent with the softer damper air although it may appear to be so excessive dryness is what makes many parts of the Mediterranean coast so trying to make the most of it the more humid air of Cestri is subject to much less violent variations of temperature in the course of the 24 hours than are the greater number of southern winter stations it is breezy that is the air is not stagnant is often renewed and to this fact the local wise acres attribute Cestri's immunity from epidemics the volcanic region of Avergne is in the very center of France and served by the lines of rail from Paris the true Avergne spas are the most fashionable with its iron effervescent waters at which gathers sufferers from lymphatic affections, anemia chlorosis, cataral troubles, arthritic and certain other phases of gout la bourboule with arsenical waters frequented by somewhat the same class of patient as the former of the French Mont d'Or where the special treatment by inhalations of affections of the respiratory organs is the foremost specialty and where gathers singers actors, clergymen and public speakers who remain in a room filled with vapor and spray for half an hour at a time Saint Nectaire Saint Marguerite Mendegu, Chateau Guion and Chatenouf meet the group of Avergne spas but are of small importance as compared to the three described above Americans resident in France are found in considerable numbers at Royaute and a few at Mont d'Or and it is often remarked that having been once they return again the country is lovely in June and again in September intervening months are very hot although tempered by frequent thunderstorms Aix-les-Bonds in southeastern France on the line from Paris to the Montsigny's Tunnel and Tourine is perhaps the most delightful spa for early visitors gout and rheumatism are treated there with remarkable success the season opens in April Homburg in the towness mountains of Germany not far from Frankfurt is the most fashionable spa in Europe more English and Americans go there than to any other the Prince of Wales Duke of Cambridge and all the distinguished people who are found at Cannes in the winter are grouped at Homburg in the months of July and August then the season is at its height but it opens April 15th and lasts until August 1st pension rates are very moderate in April, May, June and September the usual course of water drinking is 21 days but without medical advice no one should use the waters for any length of time they are salutary chronic diseases of the stomach bowels and liver habitual constipation chronic diarrhea, jaundice, gout for excessive corpulency anemia and various nervous affections now Heim, not far from Homburg has sprung into favor within a decade and bids fair to be the first curative spa in Germany the Engadine in southeastern Switzerland is the most noted resort for tuberculosis patients its great altitude gives its effects to those of the American Colorado the hotels are chiefly inhabited by invalids summer and winter alike on the Adriatic is Abatia, a winter resort that has crept into favor of recent years the situation is charming the wooded coastline giving protection against all inclement blasts and producing an evenness of temperature not known in the most sheltered bays in the French Riviera moreover in summer it is not so hot as the Riviera resorts are more practically unknown and tropical vegetation is abundant and luxurious close quote there are many other health resorts in Europe to describe the various advantages claimed for all of them would be a long task and one of really little avail for the invalids should resort to them only on the advice of some physician acquainted with their merits and demerits any American who can afford to go to Europe to get cured can afford to pay for the advice of a physician competent to speak with authority on this point likewise to know where to go for some difficult surgical operation consult a specialist before leaving home Dr. Lin in his guide to the health resorts of Europe not only urges preliminary consultation with a physician and deprecates acting on the advice of friends not in the medical profession but also counsels a course of preparatory treatment before visiting a health resort Dr. Lin says that many of the mineral water cures have fixed the duration of treatment quite arbitrarily at three weeks but that in reality everyone requires a longer or shorter time depending on many conditions for which the doctors at the stations are in the habit of watching it may however be remarked that at many strong mineral springs most people become saturated with the mineral elements as it were in from three to four weeks it is wiser to rest for a longer or shorter time before taking a new course of baths or waters the results of mineral water cures very often do not show themselves for some time after the cure has been made as the mineral elements continue to work in the system for a long time after taking them into the body it must be understood that it is very often necessary to take more than one summer's treatment at many of the health resorts indeed it is not reasonable to expect a complete cure of a chronic malady in one season although it often happens this is even more true of climatic cures no fallacy is more widely spread and none is less based on reason and experience than the expectation of immediate or rapid cure from change in climate competent physicians abroad as a rule charge 20 francs, 16 shillings 4 dollars for first consultations and visits the specialists 40 to 60 francs 8 to 12 dollars for instance, professor sharlaccott and such men expect 60 francs at the office and about 100 for a visit in england 2 guineas about 10 dollars and 20 cents is the usual fee for consultations general practitioners take less for continuous attendance head baths it is usual to charge a certain sum for the season end of chapter 2 section 3 of going abroad some advice this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by betty b going abroad some advice by robert loose how to go as a rule where there is competition you have to pay for a thing about what it is worth the bearings of this observation lays in the application on it applied to ocean steamers it means that the variation in rates of passage corresponds closely to the relative estimates put by the majority of the traveling public on the accommodations offered for example, it costs a good deal more money to drive a boat across the ocean in 6 days than in 10 days if enough people were not ready to meet this extra cost, 6 day boats would not be run and likewise if there were not enough people to fill the cabins of the 10 day boats they would be given over to steerage passengers and freight if then you feel that what suits the majority will suit you it might also suffice to determine how much money you can afford for the passage and take the first thing you can get at that figure but this simple solution of the problem is officiated by the fact that the tastes and needs of travelers differ greatly and what may seem valuable to one man may seem worthless to his neighbor the fast and slow trip if only the element of time were to be taken into account everybody who did not look on the sea voyage as a vacation a recreation a delightful and justifiable rest would go on the fastest boat assuming that he could afford it but there are very few travelers once past the distressing period of seasickness to whom life on an ocean steamer is not enjoyable the feeling that you are completely cut off and shut off from the life of the land which makes the heart sink when the shore fades from view turns into a positive relief after the mind and body have adapted themselves to the new conditions you are glad that you cannot see a paper get a letter be startled by a telegram be alarmed by an agent harassed by the cares of the office the shop or the home in a vacation on land to be sure you run away from these things but you are always haunted by the fear that they may chase you a fire a death any one of the calamities of life may summon you back to duty at any minute but on shipboard even duty is balked it is the one place on earth though it isn't on earth at all where you can be supremely selfish without giving your conscience a chance to be bothersome there is little chance to work almost everybody plans to do more or less of heavy reading but few do it writing is out of the question where anybody requiring isolation or quiet and rare is the writer who can accomplish anything worth reading without these aids even the novel is slighted you become perfectly content to kill the time between the meals with shuffleboard ring toss cards chess storytelling or plain straight loafing accomplished with the utmost satisfaction when one is stretched out on a steamer chair warmly wrapped and basking in the sun on the leeward side of a promenade deck if it be true that you should count that day lost whose low descending sun views from thy hand no worthy action done then the transatlantic traveler may count just as many lost days as there are between sandy hook and liver pole or whatever may be his goal it is I presume useless to hold up these pleasures before the many novices from whom the apprehension of seasickness and the landsmen's dread of the sea take away all expectation of comfort during the voyage much less happiness and yet it is the fact that at any rate in the summer not one person in 50 is kept below by seasickness more than a day or two or fails to get some enjoyment out of the trip before it is half done if then the voyage is to be a pleasure as to most people it sure to be the longer trip may be preferable to the shorter trip but of course there may be stormy weather the foghorn may make life a burden the time available for your excursion may be limited the demands of business, society or the family may make hours precious so if you are in a hurry to get across it might be penny wise pound foolish not to take the faster boat if the choice were to be made solely on the score of comfort most people would vote for the slower boats to be sure the faster boats are bigger and so have longer promenade decks and that is no trifling matter there are dining saloons smoking rooms, ladies' cabins etc are more commodious an advantage even though there are more people to occupy them on the large boats there are a few large state rooms at large prices but the ordinary state rooms those used by the majority of travelers differ little in size on any of the boats the berths are just as comfortable or uncomfortable no matter what price you pay and the number of tons burden makes no difference in the space allotted for your steamer chair in which you are likely to pass most of your time when you are not at table or sleeping the chief compensation that the slow small boats have for their lack of room is the lesser vibration given by the screw no propeller can be driven faster without jarring the boat more the quiver of a swift steamer is very annoying to some people though others do not mind it in the matter of pitch and roll there seems to be no difference caused by the mere fact that a boat travels 10 or 20 miles an hour it appears to be a question of bottle and load not one of size and speed some of the cheapest lines get much of their revenue from carrying cattle to England the boats do not accommodate many passengers but in some respects are in fact more comfortable than the boats making a specialty of passenger traffic usually their state rooms are well above the waterline so that portholes can be kept open except in the roughest weather and outside rooms are the rule with no second cabin or steerage passengers those of the first cabin feel greater liberty to utilize all the deck room for sport or comfort the odor of the cattle is not obnoxious on the way back no livestock is carried these boats have been modeled with an eye to being as steady as possible in order that the livestock may be transported safely all are brought of beam many of them have bilge keels in the nature of flanges at right angles to the side of the ship which catch the water and check the roll usually they are heavily loaded so that they are well down in the water and this too steadies them in two voyages on a boat of this class I can recall but one day when the steamer chairs had to be lashed and anyone who has crossed on the ocean greyhounds knows what that signifies but do not infer that all freight boats are steady on the contrary among the worst of rollers are some of the old small liners that have been relegated to the poorer class of business it is the big new freighters that are to be commended for comfort in the matter of safety the fast boats have the advantage of lessening the days of exposure to the dangers of the sea the disadvantage of being driven through fog at high speed as to food on steamships the chances are the higher the rates the better the table very few however are the stewards who set what can justly be called a poor table life on shipboard sociability is an important feature of life on shipboard up to within a few years on every transatlantic steamer the distinctions of class and rank wealth and birth were for the while laid aside but of late on the larger boats the snob now and then sets the pace this was inevitable when steamers became so large that their passengers were not thrown in close contact with each other it is significant that there is much less exclusiveness on the return trip perhaps because a few months of travel will make socially timid people learn their own worth perhaps because the larger part of our well to do folk are at heart sensible people quick to observe who take a lesson from genuine aristocracy as maintained across the water and find out that gradations of wealth are not the most accurate tests of merit paradoxical as it may seem the foreign aristocrats are often the most democratic of men but whether you choose one of the larger or one of the smaller boats be sure you will find many delightful friendships anybody who goes to Europe for the ordinary reasons is pretty sure to have in his or her makeup something worth your respect and good will the mere fact that the desire to learn is the most common of all the causes that lead to foreign travel of itself ensures you companions of an intellectually desirable character as a rule they are brainy people and if you enjoy contact with culture and intellects know where can you gratify that most laudable of tastes better than on shipboard but there are all solomons and I doubt if even Saffa was enchanting when she was seasick but the average of learning and geniality and sensibility is higher than elsewhere games are the chief recreation and if you would be popular on shipboard furbish up your game knowledge about the fifth day you will find the most stayed and dignified of people eager to be entertained by amusements that on shore would be childish and many fosters one diversion however that is a little more than infantile that of betting on the number of miles in a day's run on the number of the pilot boat first seen on all sorts of things without the least desire to pose as a moralist I may be pardoned for suggesting to the inexperienced that there are many ways to use money to advantage after you land and that if you decline to risk it in pools and wagers on the steamer you will think the less of you to say no to the inevitable appeal for a charitable contribution usually made under the guise of selling tickets to a concert for the benefit of sailors or lifeguards or somebody else widows and orphans is a harder thing and few have the courage to do it yet the scheme is an imposition and an outrage that steamboat companies would do well to prohibit in every ship's company there are some people who cannot afford such gifts and were grievously wounded by the necessity of appearing mean and stingy if money is to be made at the concerts at all it should be by passing a hat and not by selling tickets blackmail is nonetheless blackmail when it is levied under the guise of charity a little thing you say to make so much fuss over but the little things sometimes make or mar the pleasure of an ocean voyage to take a first cabin passage means that you pay for one birth in some state room in the center of the boat dine in the chief dining saloon and can go anywhere on the boat a second cabin ticket entitled you to a birth in a state room aft dining in the same part of the vessel and being forbidden to go forward of a certain line steerage passengers in the older boats are stacked in tiers of births forward and have a dining saloon being served from the pantry and eating as best they can on some of the new boats a whole deck is assigned to them single men going forward single women aft and the center being reserved for families some family rooms have but two births others three or four giving a privacy formerly unknown in steerage travel clean blankets are furnished on each voyage and dishes are supplied but the passenger must wash his hands he furnishes sheets if he wants them also towels and soap food plain but plentiful is given and any extras can be bought at a fair price from the stewards 25 cents getting a good single meal from the saloon table and $5 ensuring service there from three times a day during the voyage it is possible without hardship to cross at steerage rates on one of these new boats but not on the older boats the room is cramped because no one going across a certain line is permitted the births are all in the bow making sea sickness almost inevitable under the most distressing conditions and the passengers are herded like cattle with a promiscuity sure to revolt anyone of refined instincts to any man or woman brought up in a decent American home the filth of the European born poor met in the steerage is intolerable cabin accommodations are clean the food is good and the company is by no means unendurable indeed there is usually more jollity and good nature in the second cabins than in the first but there is more motion to the stern of a vessel than to its waist and the noise of the screw is more plainly heard so that poor sailors are worse off there the most objectionable thing about it though is that you are debarred from the privileges that within your sight are enjoying the long promenade deck the better dining room the more elegant cabins and smoking room but if you can swallow your pride undoubtedly you will get more for your money in the second cabin than in the first for a much smaller price you get the same transportation births just as comfortable save for the pitching and the screw just as much food though perhaps not in such variety on some of the steamers that apply in New York and Mediterranean ports in winter there is no distinction of first and second cabins so far as privileges go but of course the noise of the screw and the pitching are matters of necessity not of privilege and a poor sailor will find it worthwhile to pay the extra price for a birth amid ships births in outer rooms naturally command a higher price than those in inner rooms but most people who have crossed many times will tell you that they are not worth the difference their only advantage comes from having the porthole for more light and air as you never use the state room safe for dressing and sleeping or trying to sleep and as the inner rooms have plenty of artificial light the porthole counts for very little in this regard in summer in calm weather its fresh air is agreeable but most of the time it can't be left open with safety the portholes in the gangways are open as easily and frequently as those in the outer state rooms and they give the draft to the inner rooms in quantity enough to suffice almost anybody at night doors are hooked so as to be open a few inches or only the portiers are drawn and at the top of the partition there are holes so that when the sea permits ventilation there is usually enough of it the very largest boats have forced draft ventilation the rooms nearest the stairs are likely to get the most air in selecting a state room if possible keep away from the pantries or at any rate in front of them away from the machinery and away from the toilet rooms though in the newer boats the plumbing is so good that it matters little if you are next to a toilet room the rattle of the machinery however cannot be wholly deadened and the smell of food is nauseating almost everybody whether it comes from the pantry of a floating palace or the galley of a fishing shack a ticket on an ocean steamer entitles the bear to one birth not to a state room and unless you pay extra or the boat is not full you will have to share your room with at least one other person frequently with two others for three birth cabins are common let only the most imperative necessity on some plans numbers are placed to designate births which are really couches not ordinarily used unless a child is traveling with its parents on this point it will be well to get information from the agent of whom you secure cabin plans of course nobody else would be put in the same room with a husband and wife in case no two birth cabins were left the couple would be separated the husband being placed with other men but this would very rarely happen there is no room for a full size trunk in a state room a steamer trunk is almost a necessity for anybody but the hearty traveler of the male persuasion who can suffice his wants with the contents of a grip sack the large trunks are ordinarily stowed where they can be reached at certain hours in the day but it is much better to arrange things so that you will not have to go to them sea sickness the great bane of the ocean voyage is sea sickness the infallible remedy for it is yet to be found its mysteries defy the doctors and delight the cranks let your friends know you are going abroad and you will be told of enough medicines to stock a hospital the most opposite methods of diet will be advised one man telling you to eat all you can the next advising temporary starvation a breastplate of wrapping paper is a favorite absurdity only on one thing does everybody agree fresh air say on the deck as long as you can after you have succumbed force yourself to get out of your birth and on deck at the earliest moment your strength will permit when you are nauseated don't resist nature's attempt to relieve you walk walk walk and talk talk talk forget yourself if you can the snobs who are exclusive on shipboard suffer the most before you start fortify yourself with the fact that perhaps a quarter of mankind and an eighth of womankind are mercifully preserved from being sick at sea at all not one person in ten days sick more than a day or two and not one in fifty suffers through the whole voyage suffers seriously I mean for there are not a few who never really get their sea legs the notion that sea sickness is of itself a benefit something absurd no sort of sickness can be beneficial so avoid it if you can and get over it as soon as you can let the diet be simple and ordinary for a few days before going aboard and reduce the hard work sure to be piled into the days before sailing so that your system may be in better condition as the disease is doubtless largely if not wholly nervous in its nature a strong exercise of willpower of the archers if not save you from them that is probably the secret of the success of various remedies with various people they get faith believe they will not be sick and so keep themselves from being sick if you go aboard with the certainty that you will be sick begin to coddle yourself as soon as the boat leaves the dock study your symptoms minutely and go below the moment the vessel begins to rock you can make yourself sick anyway if you have a tendency in that direction and try hard for the person who is sick willy-nilly it may be suggested that the starved system cannot rally quickly and that some nourishment of the simplest kind should be taken anything that aids and quiets the stomach like tea may prove helpful taken sparingly but avoid the dishes called slops in common parlance as you soups for the first 24 hours content yourself with dry meat and hard biscuit champagne has alleviated the misery of many a wobagon passenger but the skeptics declare the cracked ice the real cause eno's fruit salts are said to be good Jamaica ginger has been efficacious and credit is also given to a few drops of camphor in water a cold salt water bath sometimes expedites recovery every vessel has a physician whose aid is at the service of all passengers requiring it without charge but as in public hospitals on shore patients are expected to pay if they can afford it if you give what your family physician would have charged for like services you will not get far out of the way fees, meals, etc at the end of a trip every passenger on a transatlantic steamer is supposed to give fees it is an unwritten law the first constitution the amount to be given always worries the novice who dreads giving too little and usually begrudges giving too much if you give $2.50 to the man who waits on you at table and to like amount to the man or woman who takes care of your state room he or she will be perfectly satisfied that much and no more is expected if more is given you are thought generous but no benefit accrues to you and often but slight benefit to the recipient or frequently the receipts of all the stewards are pulled at the end of the trip and then divided equitably so in making a large gift you but present so much money to the whole body of stewards for one I see no reason why a head steward should be feed it is virtually a duty to feed the under stewards because their wages are small in the expectation that they will receive enough from passengers to make their earnings reasonable this is not the case with the head steward or anybody else on the ship the men who frequent the smoking room usually make up a purse for the smoking room steward but that is wholly a matter of generosity the deck steward usually receives a small fee from those who have frequently called upon him for services and the passenger who is seasick usually calls upon him a great deal when there is a band it is customary to take up a collection for its benefit to which doubtless many contribute who would rather have paid to keep it quiet all in all probably the majority of passengers give between five and ten dollars married couples give between them little more than single passengers and more is given on the outward than on the homeward trip after novices find that feeing is for all but the American a matter of business and not of kindness stewards fees are included in the passage money on a few boats but your steward would probably feel unhappy if he didn't get at least a dollar extra seats at table are allotted by the head steward immediately after the boat leaves the dock and if you have any choice you should interview him as soon as you get on board if you have acquaintances on the passenger list see the steward before the boat starts and give him in writing the names of the people who are friends if you feel sure you will be seasick then interview him if you can to allow you a seat of midships near the door is desirable if that is not also near the pantry and it is well to be on the same side of the boat as your room and as near it as possible on some of the smaller boats when all births are taken it is necessary to have first table and second table at noon and night usually you can have your choice there is little reason for exercising it perhaps the first table people are hurried somewhat and the second table people are likely to find the linen less fresh food and service are the same of course full dress is not expected and indeed would be thought ridiculous by most people as a rule passengers were the same outer garments from one end of the trip to the other morning afternoon and evening necklaces shirts are the rule with men wines are to be had at prices reasonable to one going from America and dear to one returning from Europe payment is made before landing you need not be afraid that the person will forget to present his bill accompanied by the slips you have signed every time you have ordered anything from the wine cart time on shipboard is marked by the ship's bell one stroke of the tongue means that it is 1230, 430 or 830 two strokes 1, 5 or 9 3, 130, 530 or 930 and so on up to 8 bells as it is called which may be 4, 8 or 12 o'clock the ship's time is changed daily and if you rely on your watch without changing each day you may find yourself earlier or later at breakfast than you think for the distance traveled each day is computed at noon and posted conspicuously use of the bathrooms is free but the steward expects to be feed like about everybody else who does anything for you from the time you leave home till you get back the barber charges for his services as onshore deck chairs are not provided by the steamboat companies if you care to take your own steamer chair you are at liberty so to do but there is much less bother in hiring a chair from the company that makes a business of letting them the price for the trip is usually a dollar sometimes 50 cents if you pay it when you get your ticket you will find the chair suitably labeled and waiting for you when the boat starts usually there are enough extra ones aboard to make it possible for you to hire one from the deck steward but it will be safer to make sure of that in advance it would be very poor economy to try to get along without one on some boats the position assigned to the chairs on the first day is kept through the trip and on such boats it is desirable to secure your location as soon as you get on board the matter being arranged with the deck steward on others the chairs remain where they are placed each morning whether occupied or not or does not good form to move a chair not your own at night the chairs are folded and stacked and the early risers have their pick of positions the crafty passenger will put his chair as near the middle of the boat as he can get it away from the draft of a gangway from the pantry ventilators and from the smoking room door on the promenade deck and may he be forever seasick who defies the rule and puts his chair next to the rail where people want to walk first cabin passengers ordinarily are allowed free 20 cubic feet of space and the hold for baggage something more than enough for two trunks of average size paying 25 cents a cubic foot or extra space second cabin passengers get 15 feet once late in the voyage the baggage room is open and passengers can reach their trunks if they wish on the freight boats the trunks are sometimes left in the passageway where they can always be reached one passenger found this a great convenience when her steamer trunk proved half an inch too high to go under the berth before the boat leaves the dock keep your eye on your hand luggage in the throng of visitors who come to say goodbye these can mingle without arousing suspicion and after the boat has started losses are discovered too late to do anything about it friends are more kind than considerate when they send flowers to departing tourists for a few hours the gift is delightful but when the qualms of seasickness begin the flowers must leave the state room and by the time one can enjoy them again they are usually past enjoyment of course the woman who is not seasick can get as much pleasure out of a bouquet on ship as she can get anywhere else very likely it is more pleasurable there but most women alas will detest a rose on the first morning out so one who dares look a gift horse in the mouth would better suggest that parting tokens of goodwill might better take the form of candy or cakes or olives or best of all fruit indeed a basket of fruit is as solacing a thing as can be carried on an ocean trip if you have had the forethought to bring along a stamped envelope or a postal card and care to send anybody a line at the last minute you can send it back by the tug boat that goes down the harbor with the steamer or by the pilot this hint may be particularly useful to anybody starting from Montreal on the return voyage the St. Lawrence boats pick up the pilot at the mouth of the river and letters addressed as the officials of the line may advise there thus your friends can get early news to you if you have so directed and you may be sure that letters will never be more welcome by the way speaking of the St. Lawrence suggests that it should not be overlooked in considering the port from which to sail the St. Lawrence boats must go down or up the river between Montreal and Quebec in the daytime so they leave Montreal in the early morning and touch at Quebec in the afternoon for such passengers as may want to take them there and on returning if they reach Quebec too late to go up to Montreal that day they lie over thus on most trips giving passengers a chance to see the city the St. Lawrence lines have the advantage of a shorter ocean passage than any others there being three days of the trip on the river or gulf and as their course lies so far north in summer it is reasonably sure to be cool while more southerly lines often have unpleasantly warm days at that season on the other hand the farther north the more fogs and icebergs and the more chance of meeting their annoyances or dangers coming back to the subject of letters I may say that the provident passenger who desires to mail letters as soon as he lands will have provided himself in advance with postage stamps of the country in which he is to disembark they can usually be bought without trouble in a money changers office or having on board the person may have a few but usually not enough to supply the demand as one may land in Liverpool or elsewhere with hardly time to catch the outgoing males or may want to send letters ashore at Queenstown or Gibraltar the precaution may be worthwhile the prudent man or woman who expects to be seasick will arrange his or her effects in the state room before the boat gets out of the harbor the boat is about 800 feet long and the speed of a ship at sea is measured in knots which are not themselves distances but are measures of speed and therefore, though a knot is in length the same as a nautical mile the term should not be used as synonymous with a nautical mile the nautical mile is about 800 feet longer than the statute or land mile the speed of a ship at sea is measured in knots the term should not be used as synonymous with mile you may say that a boat has a speed of 20 knots an hour but don't say that the distance across the ocean is 3,000 knots it may be convenient to remember that the fast boats average about 500 miles a day in good weather the slow boats about 300 miles when the boat travels with the sun of course it scores more miles a day than when is bound eastward but the speed of a boat to have them is 6 feet steamship companies seldom if ever advertise the expected sailing time from dock to dock commonly the announced records are made from lighthouse to lighthouse and this may be a very different thing from the time actually taken in getting across there are many delays in crossing bars and in getting up or down the harbor furthermore, advertised passage times are good weather runs Therefore, it is rash to make appointments or lay plans in the expectation that a six-day boat or a nine-day boat will put you ashore just six or nine days after you started. It may, and then again it may not. At least 24 hours is none too small a margin of safety in calculations. A cheap chart of the North Atlantic will be found, an entertaining study on the way over, for the latitude and longitude are posted every noon, enabling one to trace the ship's course from day to day if he cares to keep a record by himself. People who are amicably inclined and know when to stop will do their fellow passengers a service by putting some music in their luggage where it can be easily reached, but the pianist who strums within sound of seasick people will not get their blessings. All the large boats have libraries that are put at the service of passengers, but like most small libraries they abound in things you ought to read but won't. A steward usually is put in charge of giving out the books. Speaking of books suggests to me the subject of dogs, the view of the fact that in Massachusetts and perhaps in some other states the public libraries get the dog tax. Whether ship libraries are so sustained I don't know, but perhaps they are, for dogs must pay their passage. It may cost from ten to twenty-five dollars according to the size and value of the dog. The rule is that dogs, cats, and monkeys must travel in cages, but I doubt if all dogs are so treated for there are dogs and dogs. Working a passage. Young men with more health and strength than money, more grit than fastidiousness, can most economically make the European trip by crossing as stock tenders. Boats carrying livestock leave all our large reports from Montreal to Galveston. Passage over and back is given to the cattlemen. Formerly they were paid from ten to forty dollars for the trip, but now, except in the winter season, men are plenty who are glad to go with only passage and food as the equivalent. The men are shipped either at the cattle yards or at some seamen's employment office. Sometimes one may get passage on a horseboat and then he will be with a little better class of men and have less work, but he must pay for his return passage, twelve dollars fifty cents being the usual charge to be arranged with the manager of the horse department of the transportation company before starting. Cattlemen who do not want to come back on the return voyage of the boat in which they cross must make a special arrangement to that effect with the officials of the company. On the outward voyage, the youth who goes on a cattle boat pays his way with interest. He rises at four in the morning and works hard at feeding and watering the cattle till eight when he gets his breakfast of scouse, a sort of diluted hash with what passes for coffee. More work in the forenoon and then dinner of salt horse and potatoes, then lugging more hay and water to the cattle and then supper of thin, bitter oatmeal and tea or coffee, as you may elect to call it, to use the words of one college student who described his experience to me. Most of the fellows are then tired enough to climb into their bunks, but some go up on the spar deck if the weather is fine. A few are told off to watch the cattle, for the steers are not to be allowed to lie down during the entire voyage. In rough weather, with hatches battened and the iron decks made slippery by the water spilled in carrying it to the cattle, the weak and sick cattlemen cursed and driven to their tasks wish they never had been born. Taken all together is an experience that few lads care to repeat, but young men of the college age long for experiences and this is not one of the sort that brings any permanent ill effects. A stout rugged youth who knows from work on the farm or in the factory what manual labor means or who has gone through the training for a college team and who is not dainty in his tastes can do the thing without more than a brief spell of misery tempered by the satisfaction of achieving a journey that might otherwise be impossible. The surroundings are not altogether painful. Except on passenger boats, the cattlemen have practically the freedom of the ship in their off hours, being allowed to go anywhere except to the galleys. Although the extreme forward and AFS spar decks are conventionally allotted to them. They sleep in single bunks with straw mattresses that are said to be filled with fresh straw each trip, bags holding the straw being steamed. My informant avares that the steam ought to be very hot to do its perfect work. On the return trip, there is no work to be done and the cattlemen loaf to their hearts content. To eke out the ship's victuals, they carry on board such delicacies as their purses may permit. And if it is a passenger boat, the steward will not be averse to turning a penny by furnishing food from the saloon pantry. On the horse boats, the men are called upon to work scarcely more than three hours a day. Western lads who contemplate a trip under these conditions may be glad to know that they can reach the seaboard very cheaply by traveling on stock trains. It is the custom of the railroads to allow a pass for one man with each car of stock. And it is not hard to get hold of the pass from a Western state to Chicago for a dollar. A similar pass from Chicago to New York may cost six dollars for which one can get transportation in a passenger car attached to the fast stock express. No service is required of persons thus shipped with stock, the train men doing the work. A party of college men, whom I saw make the trip, wrote their bicycles to the boat and had them put in the hold uncrated. Mounting their wheels at the Liverpool dock, as soon as the boat landed, they started on a tour that need not have cost them all told $50 for a two months absence from the states, during which time they could see all the things in Great Britain and on the continent that excursion tourists see with a great deal of the most interesting part that the usual excursionist never sees. End of section three.