New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-09
TP4VELERS md TRAVELING.

| TR4VELERS AND TRAVELING.
OF all the fine things which the always
charming Horatius Flaccus sent down to
posterity, there is none finer than the satire
which describes his journey from Rome to
Brundusium. Very little the poet probably
cared for the quarrels of Octavius and Anthony,
as he travelled in the train of MGcenas, who
went to BruDdusium to promote reconcllla-
| ton. The satire itself is one of the peasantest
of itineraries, full of the sharpest OF observa-
| TONS and the most gOOd-humOred narrative OF
! little troubles and difficulties; drOl grOwls at
the badness of inns and the annoyances of
fellow travellers the billings of the gnats and
J the croakings of the frogs the rustic humors
of the villages; boat travel and travels by
post-chase, through the unfortunate town
mot to he named in verse" Equotuticum),
| through RubT, Barium, and Egnatia, until
Brundusium at last is reached. The journey
was not a very long one and did not occupy
many days yet there are few books of modern
travel which are equal in value and interest
| to this gem of poem.
The great and long excursions which in these
days railways enable us to make and which
at least suggest the humiliation of time and
space, render the journey of Horace small by
comparison and yet we should be glad enough
if we could get from them something like the
result of his insignificant trip. Our travellers,
it would seem, carry their eyes In their
pockets, and only resume them when the final
goal is attained. The main purpose seems to
be to 60 from point A. to point b. as quickly
as possible; and the charm of the feat is not
in what it will produce, but i'll the thrilling
fact that it can be done at all. Last week
whole carload of clergymen started from
Chicago for San Francisco. The week before,
similar freight of men and women left
Boston for the same destination. With con-
tinuous rush. with the scream of the whistle,
eating, drinking, sleeping, each party was
hurried along. All that charm of travel which
proceeds from a sense of personal danger,
however slight will be lOst-all the power of
endurance which is strengthened by suffering,
all that discipline the result of which is a
confirmed presence of mind, all those lessons
in quick decision which imminent danger gives,
will be eluded This is travel with the moral
element left out 1t is no more than a days
pleasuring. There is no stuff in it to vitalze
a boys book to be read with awe and wonder
by the Winter fireside. How would the best
record which could be made of it com
Marco Polo to DR.. Kane7 The pilgrims to
San Francisco will see "antres vast and de-
"serts idle, rough quarries, rocks, and hills
"whose heads touch heaven" but the rate of
progress will be too swift for much observa-
ton, aesthetic OF scientific, and the locomotive
has no poetical bowels of mercy. Nor will the
meandcrers see any " cannibals that each other
"eat,n nor any anthropophagi," nor yet any
"men whose heads do grow beneath their
shoulders" The only possibility of an adj
| venture will be in an accident, and an acct
dent would spoil all. There will be no man
| ners and customs for the travellers to observe,
except the manners and customs of each other
and pretty dull work that will be found after
the first day. The Western parsons will, of
necessity, fall back upon theology, and the
Boston ladies upon the Peace Jubilee. Under
these circumstances, the kindest wish which
we can send after the wayfarers is that they
may have a fine, natural, rOusing scare from
the Indians. Far be it from us to desire that
any clergyman should be scalped, although a
scalped clergyman would draw enormous
| houses should he survive the operation and
return. But group of hostile aborigines
upon their tough little ponies, seen in the
distance, might occasion an agreeable titilla-
ton of moderate apprehension.
We hope it will not be thought that we
speak of these excursions with undue levity,
or that we mscalculate their honest value.
The Germans have word the purport of which
is, "a dweller in small town" No man (un-
less he be a hopeless foOD can 60 from Bos-
ton to San Francisco and back again without
getting great many village notions ont of
his head; and he will begin, however dimly,
to comprehend that the world has boundaries
somewhat wider than he has heretofore sup
posed. Mr.. Emerson long ago, perhaps little
cynically, called travelling "the FOOLS Para
"dise," and solemnly assured his disciples that
they would find nothing abroad which they
might not also find at home; and yet Mr.. En-
ersons practice has been somewhat different
| from his RleashisG since be too. III his day.