New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-18
THE INCONVENIENCE or PROGRESS

THE INCONVENIENCES or PROGRESS.
When the American family, bent upon q
Summer trip to the Old World, gather around
the library table, with the atlas and pile OF
Baedeker's Guides" to plan ont their route,
they are more and more troubled every year by
the difficulty of getting away from the common
place and monOtonous. The improvements
which are gradually reducing the dangers and
discomforts and delays of travel, are destroy
ing it's excitements also, and spelling hall It's
pleasures. The ocean voyage long ago lost Its
terrOrs and uncertainties, and with these dlsap-
peared half its mysterious charms. The time
of arrival is calculated within two or three
hours, and the comparative merits OF ships
are weighed by the same standards that we
apply to hotels. The land journey bCOmes more
and more n matter of routine and Bradshaw.
Railways are bauishing the picturesque diligence
and the comfortable posting carriage. The To-
comotiye shreks under the castle walls, and
tears along the Alpine valleys. Cooks tourists
crowd the banks of the Rhine, paying their
way with COUPONS purchased in Broadway OF
in Fleet Street, The lot of the traveller no
doubt is much easier thanit was twenty years
ago but the tOurist-ah, that is different.
Nobody who has ever crossed the Alps from
Switzerland into Italy can have heard Of the
piercing of Mount St. Gotbard without
pang of regret. But ii viii be six months yet
before the tunnel is ready for traffic, and we
still have this season for the enjoyment OF one
of the most fascinating journeys III Europe.
We may spend the hot weeks among the Swiss
mountains, and as the Summer Wancs find our
selves by the Lake Of the -Four Forest CantOns,
where beautiful Lucerhe lies between the Rigi
and Mount Pilatus. That is n good starting
point for the transit into Northern Italy. A
sail of two or three hours on the branching lake,
pass Tells Chapel and the rock-hewn galleries
of the Axcnstrasse, brings the tourist to the
village of Fluelen, at the mouth of the roaring
! Reussi and there, having secured betimes Il
good place on the outside of the diligence, or
else in the coupe whose glass front and sides
afford an unrestricted view, he begins the ride
across st. Gothard, whose pleasures will soon
be only tradition. The peculiar charm of
this route is the wonderful variety of scenery
and sensation which it Offers in the course of
one easy days journey. 1t mounts at first
gradually through a fertile aliuyial valley,
almost every rod Of which is associated with
the legends Of William Tell; it climbs steep
mountain sides, passing quickly above the YER
dure, into frOwning gOrges, by dizzy pieclplces,
across raging torrents, over the Devils Bridge,
among peaks and glaciers; and so, by toll
some ascent, 1t reaches the bleak, brown, desc
late plateau of the summit of the pass, where
hospice stands amidst a few dark pools, and
snowy mountain-tOps shut in all the horizon.
The descent on the Italian side il a series Of
brcathess surprises. Soon after crossing the
summit the diligence pungcs into the Val
Trrmoa. dreadful and barren pathway of
ayalanchcs marrow and prccipitous, where the
road accOmplishes descent OF nearly 1000
feet in about 4 mile and half, by n series of
forty-six zig-zags tho well-trained horses per-
forming this eiddy part Of the journey at a
rapid trot As he enters the valley OF the
TciuO the tourist passes down in few minutes
from the region of bare rocks through success
siye zones of vegetation to the land of the grape
and the fig. A delectable vista opens before
him a broad sunny veil, closed on both sides
by ramparts OF steep hills with cascades tum-
bling down them, and compact little towns
strung along the miles Of straight road which
runs through the middle. At the end Of this
vale lies n railway station; and thence the vOy-
ager is hurried to Lake MaggiOre, and so to
Como and to N Ian and the Lombard plain.
We shall lose all this in year or two. The
railway will WhIsk us in forty minutes through
tn heart of the mountain; it will bore its way
under tho picturesque rocks by the side OF the
lakes and in planning how to get into Italy we
shall only have to consider which route will
give us the quickest release from disagreeable
ride. Nothing can be more absurd than the
idea of doing Switzerland and Italy by express
train yet it is coming to that. The lounger
OF: the Continent will soon be unknown, and we
shall all spend our holiday rushing from city
to city, from hotel to hotel, seeing nothing on
the way, aud speaking to nobody but the railway
Cnard and the casual Englishman. To those
who are planning an excursion this Summer, we
say, then, take the routes which are menaced
ly modern improvement before their beauties
are gone forever. This may be your last
chance to stroll over fields and along the rivers
the railway engineer is close at your heels,
and tho next time you go abroad the search for
the picturesque will be more difficult.
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SQUABBLIHG OYER THE REMAINS.