The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-09-18
Correspondence Of The Times
From the Atlantic to the Pacific
on Foot,
BY a Discharged Apprentice.

Une nOtlOn, UnhC DeneVe Is qulte COM
mon among green country boys of my
age, that some day or another, would
see and learn something of this world
and of the people who inhabit it.
At this time was earning five dol
lars per month as farmers hired boy.
L had no friends to give me counsel or
assistance, and it was only last spring
that was the owner of sufficient
amount of hard cash, to warrant me in
setting out on my long thought-ofexpe-
dition.
After paying my passage in the steer
age, across the Atlantic, found myself
in Glasgow with about three hundred
dollars in my pocket. A very small
sum, one would suppose, for an Europe
an tour, but it would have been quite
sufficient to have enabled me, in the in
dependent and economical way of trav-
cling had adopted, to have walked at
my leisure, through every country in
Europe. 1 afterwards found that the
major part of the laboring classes in
Great Britain, lived on less than
eighteen cents per day, and it was not
an uncommon thing to find day labor
er in ireland feeding half dozen young
recruits for the Fenian army, on an in
come of shillings (S1.75) per week. 1
talked with an intelligent widow about
ten miles out from Belfast, who sup
ported herself and three helpless chill
dren by making embroidered handker-
chiefs at twelve cents each. She said
that by working from daylight till dark,
(artificial light she could not afford), she
could do the work on one handkerchief
per day. These same handlzerchiefs are
bought by the fashionable young ladies
in this country, at from two to three
dollars apiece, and after being well sat
urated with eau de cologne, are used to
dash the struggling tear from their eyes,
while they read the latest sensational
novel in the Ledger.
l kept an account of my expenses in
England for two weeks, during which
time walked upwards of one hundred
and fifty miles, and they did not exceed
fourteen cents per day. OF course
paid nothing for lodging. In the cold OF
rainy season, when it would not be ex-
pedient to sleep in the open air or under
hay-stacks, about six or eight cents
should be added for the expenses of a
bed. l mention these facts in this con-
nection because so much has been said
about the great expense of travelling in
the Old World, and because these lines
may catch the eye Of some young man
who has the pluck and desires the bene-
fit Of an European tour, but is kept
from undertaking it for want of money.
1 took particular pains to inquire about
the expense of living on the Continent
of Europe, and am satisfied 1 could
travel there both summer and winter on
twenty-five cents per day and grow
fat.
AS / stated, / arrived in Glasgow with
three hundred dollars in my pocket, but
did not long have the care of so much
surplus money about me, before 1 was
relieved of it entirely by O dexterous
thief and had to resort to an occasional
days work in the harvest field and the
rigid economy alluded to, to keep from
becoming a British pauper outright
Under these circumstances, L was thrown
entirely among the laboring classes, or
more properly the slaves of the aristoc-
racy of Great Britain, and it was these
poor slaves, a majority of whom could
neither read nor write, by them hundreds
of eager questions about America, who
taught me how little 1 really knew
about my own country. In fact, in
many instances, I was looked upon as
an impostor, so great was my ignorance,
and 1 resolved, after l had made the
tour of Great Britain, if there was
enough left of me, would return to
this country and go " from the Atlantic
to the Pacific on foot"
/ came home in the steerage of an
emigrant ship along with seven hun
dred emigrant passengers, who, after
years, perhaps of painful toll in the fac
tory or field, and denying themselves
every luxury and many of the most
simple conveniences of life, in order to
save up the few pounds necessary to
take them over the Atlantic, had bade
long farewell to their native land and
the home of their childhood, with tear
ful eyes and prayful hearts had ventur-
ed forth-they scarcely knew where-to
that country of the free, where they had
been told that the poor man could be "a
man for q, that .