The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-06-30
Foreign Travel and Our Home
Watering Places. 5 +,


New York yesterday with company OF two
hundred and fifty tourists ON board. The
party consists mainly Of ladies and gentle
men who are engaged in or preparing for
the profession OF teaching, and numbers
three hundred and fifty in all. one hundred
having preceded their companions in u last
weeks steamer. For several weeks past the
outward bound ships have been filled to
their utmost capacity, and It is said
that every statcroom OF the principal
lines is engaged for many weeks to
come We do not undervalue the
attractions or the advantages OF a
European trip 1t is at once delightful and
instructive to visit scenes made interesting
by historical events and TO study by OBJ
servation the institutions and ways OF for
eign nations. Nearly every person OH this
side of the Atlantic who can afford to 30
abroad has the ambition to Go 20, and 1t Is
a natural and commendable desire. Never
theless it requires something more than
this to account for the great increase in
European travel for the past ten years
while our people have been suffering from
the depression OF trade and the shrinkage
of values. The explanation, we be-
lieve, lies in the discovery that it
costs less to 90 abroad than 1t
does 10 spend the summer season
III pleasure seeking at home. If families
could enjoy good accommodations at orr
summer resorts for half the cost OF ii foreign
tour the European steamers would not
drain the country of pleasure seekers and
their money. The three hundred and fifty
tourists who are now on the Atlantic pay
for every expense Of their trip four hundred
dollars each. For this they visit England,
France, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Hol-
land, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, all the
principal capitals and places Of interest and
are to be absent nearly three months. They
would spend rs much, il not more than this
amount in the same space OF time at any
one OF our fashionable summer resorts with
out much effort and without entering
deliberately into the nmusements and enjoy
ments Of the place.
1t has often been said in a spirit of re-
proach that many OF our citizens 80 abroad
and spend their money who have never
seen and know nothing of the beauty and
grandeur of their own country. This is
doubtless true, and while people are free to
do as they please in such matters, if they
sought only to behold Nature in her most
charming and wonderful aspects they would
certainly have no occasion to leave the Amer
lean continent But there are many good
reasons why people like to make the
European tour and men and women Of in
telligence are always benefited and inn
proved by foreign travel. This need not,
however, prevent them from seeing all there
is to be seen in their native land, and q
com parison OF its attractions with those of
other countries would not be apt to impair
their loyalty They may wander all over
Europe without finding q Niagara Falls,
and vet how inany tens Of thousands of our
citizens who can afford to travel have never
beheld that wonder Of nature! They can
find no rivers in Europe equal in beauty of
landscape or in grandeur OF scenery
to the Hudson, the Upper Mississippi and
Missouri, the Ohio, the SusqueA,nna, the
Delaware. and the st. Lawrence, with its
Thousand Islands and its rapids. Nothing
in Switzerland or any other European coun-
try can surpass III magniicence the noun
tain region Of the Pacific, the White Mour-
tains, the Green Mountains, the Catskills, the
Adirondacks or the romantic beauties Of the
Blue Ridge in the neighborhood of Mauch
Chunk and through the entire Lehigh and
Delaware valleys. Our range Of lakes ex-
tends from the grand inland seas Of
the West 10 the beautiful ST. George,
and embraces waters whose attractions
would not pale before those Of the
most popular lakes Of England, Scotland,
Ireland or the Continent OF Europe. Sara
toga in all it's attractions stands alone, and
we have other springs. such rs Richfeld,
Sharon and the Virginia springs, which
II we few successful rivals abroad. Our
D ,rt, Cape May, Rye Beach, Long Branch,
Atlantic City, Fire Island and the watering
places that skirt Long Island are only speci-
mems OF summer resorts that dot our Atlantic
sea line. A journey through the United
States and Canada would take the traveller
tnrOngn every VI SCChcIs,
present nature before his eyes in its
freshest beouty and in its most sublime
grandeur; in the wide spreading land
scape, with its hills and valleys, its
yerlurc and its streams and among
mountain passes where the sound Of mans
football is seldom heard. Such scenes are
well worth visiting. and If our people re-
main in ignorance of the splendors and
attractions of their own country they must
fail to properly appreciate its greatness and
its resources. 1t must, however, be rcmem.
bered that travelling in America and in
Europe are not exactly the same thing.
Despite the petty populations to which the
European tourist is subjected rs he makes
the ..rrand round" lie does not journey