The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-05 00:00:00

/American v. European Travelling.

The following letter has been addressed tc a con-
temporary :

Sir,—Safety, comfort, and ease are desirable essen-
tials of travelling. If we are about to embark upon a
lengthened voyage on the ocean, of course our first
inquiries are in reference to the seaworthiness of the
craft to which we entrust our lives and our pro-
perty. But our ease and comfort are inquiries that
promptly follow. The human biped has wondrously
changed since the introduction and utilisation of
steam. In the early days of the present century
the traveller was satisfied with being cramped up
and almost smothered in a crowded compartment of
a mail coach, and was grateful if, as a consequence,
he only suffered a day's stiffness in all his limbs.
If he was an outside passenger, especially in winter,
on the termination of his wondrous journey of a
hundred miles, he was thankful if he was not chilled
through, and escaped with the rheumatics. In those
days we made vast preparations for a journey of a
hundred miles, and the partings of fond husbands
and wives was something touching to contemplate.
But we have wondrously changed ; the adaptability
of human nature to every new innovation is laudable
indeed. If by steam we can traverse five times the
distance in the same period we formerly did in the
stage and the mail coach, we are at once ready to
try the experiment. But the primary skeleton
railway carriages, besides conveying us more
speedily, were soon expected to convey us with an
equal ratio of comfort. As we increased in our
utilitarian manners, we also increased in our love
of luxury. If a steamship made her introduction
into marine society she was expected to present
some new feature of comfort and elegance. Oak
gave way to mahogany, mahogany to black-wal-
nut, satin, and rosewood. Artistic paintings, stained
glass panels, richly gilded carvings, costly mirrors,
and sumptuous carpets were all welcome surround-
ings, which once enjoyed were looked upon as a
necessity. So the Mercantile Fleet takes us in com-
parative safety, and not only do they give us the
sumptuousness of a palace, but they feed us bet-
ter than even the African King Dahomy stuffed his
adipose brides. Now the land is more travelled
on than the sea, and perhaps Americans are, of all
the peoples of the earth, the greatest travellers.
Their representatives may not, like Speke, Grant,
Baker, and Livingstone, have explored and disco-
vered the sources of the Nile, but they have ex-
plored rivers just as difficult to find a bye-path,
and they have explored mountains and deserts over
their whole continent, which have presented as
many, if not greater, obstacles than accompanied
either Baker or Livingstone. Schoolcraft, Strain,
Fremont, Rane, and the thousands who have
wended their way to the Pacific, have encountered
hardships and perils enough to frighten the heart of
the bravest and most heroic of our kind ; and
wherever their footsteps have made a pathway we
find the iron-rail has either pushed, or is pushing,
its way. The American people, active, restless,
and pushing as they are, have, in order to relieve
the weariness of travel, reduced it to a science.
Let us look at their steamboats for one moment.
Can any one who has travelled in :an American
steamboat and an English one failed to draw a con-
trast unfavourable to the latter ? The magnificent
drawing-rooms, the sumptuous adornments, the
comfortable, and in some places the almost regal