New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-10-17

in figures at the bottom Of the long strip of paper
| handed him. If it does not vaIy too widely from
| his estimate, why should he bother himself about
| the itemsP
THE PRoDIGAL SON ON HIS TRAVELS.
| The traveller who adopts this easy plan is by no
means to he COMPOUNDED with the man who spends
| for show; who delights in spending for its own
sake; who cares about the Difference he thinks it
secures him; who scatters his dollars all over
Europe without knowing what he gets for them
who finds everything too cheap for him and Who
is the laughngstock of every section Of the world
he comes in contact with This mans prodigatv
is more vulgar than the parsmony OF the other,
| and more pitiful; and if the one be contemplate
by his too anxious penuriousness the other is much
more contemplate by his ostentatous squaDdering.
1t is this sort of swagger which, though confined to
small minority, has fastened a reproach upon the
name American in Europe and which has encOur-
aged landlords to make out bills for Americans on
scale which he dare not adopt with others | need
] hardly add that what have said above. about toll
| Grating overcharges, does not apply where serious
| imposition is attempted Nor am / writing for
landlords. / admit that the guests omission to
scrutinize bills encourages the landlord in loose
practices But the evil cannot go too far without
producing its own cure. nor is there any fear that
the race of screws will die ont. There Will
always be enough Of them to exercise wholesome
pressure on the innkceping mind, and rs there is
reason for everything. that may be the reason why
theg were created.
woUID-BE OMNIsCIFNCE.
The other point on which BaedekcT overdOes the
matter is his extreme soicitnde that his pr0tege
should do and see everything that can be done
and seen within te district nc is surveying and
within each hour Of the twenty-four parcelled out
to him for the purpose. AS the compiler of guide
book, the industrious Baedeker himself Is quite
right. He has a duty to his public, and he must
leave no inch of ground untraversed no possible
view of hill or glacier unmentioned. But the trav-
eler who tolls after him is not himself guide.
nor under any other obligation than to make such
use of his time as will best fulfil his object i'll
coming abroad. Curiosity is strong enough OF itself
TO stimulate the energies Of the young traveller
without having a dig in the side from Baedeker at
every step. And most men are 80 constituted that
the number of distinct impressions OF wholly new
objects they retain is limited. Almost every
body Mt first tries to see too much After time he
persuades himself that few clear notions are
better than many confused ones And if he is
seeking not so much diversified knowledge OF
all the objects of interest the Continent as
heathful recreation, he will end by thinking that
the whole panorama of the Overland is worth less
10 MIN imam serenity oI llb plobdof
combine view of the Jungfrau with a careful at
tention to his own mental composure but if he
have to sacrifice either. he will let the mountain go
aud preserve his tranquility of temper
will not dwell on this; everybody can make his
reflections for himself. and 1 shrink from the
danger of becoming didactic.
A GLIMPSE AT B,EDEKER
A specimen or two Of authors austere
morality NAV he given; relating to this and other
topics Unfortunately The most fervent disciple
of the apostolic Bachelor will hardly-unless he
he n German like his masUer-regret the hour he
gives to his dinner and his cigar. We may not
like the table d'hote system, but where is the
American who would have been capable of
soemnly telling his reaC ers as Baedeker does more
than once that there arr circumstances in which |
il cannot bt dispensed with though not in general
to be recommended, inasmuch rs it causes loss of
time and costs dcarY | have met a good many |
Germans mt n good many tables d'hote. l can't |
that any of them seemed To be losing |
their time. In mentioning certain hotel, |
Baedeker adds: "Many Americans" Whether |
this is meant as an eulogy warning is not ~ |
clear as might be wished let us hope the former |
for politeness' sake. If | commended this hotel |
where | am STAYING to my cOuntrymen the |
ground that no Germans come here, am sure NJ. |
Baedckcr would think me unciVil. To the ladies |
AT least he is courteous in marked degree, for we
are told that whereas man by hin self can
manage in any sort of an inn he who travels with |
ladies IN his company must choose one Of the best
hotels SO under the lead OF expense. we learn |
that traveller who does not economic too closely
must not expect to get oil with less than twenty
five francs day Ia limit which he must lie a Ger
man not TO exceed, and that the expend ure for
women and children will not be less nav. their
gives rise to expenses winch for
lone man would he luxury" This is very moderately
mt | should compute that the society of lady
would considerably more than double ones ex-
nrnscs as it does ones cnjOyments. The English,
am happy to say, still keep their rank with the
prudent Baedeker types of sclfndugence
For his own part and writing he does primarily
for his own beloved Tent ons. he hfs given his at
tenipn chiefly to hotels of the less expensive sort
for these latter in his judgment suit the pedestrian
better than these of the first rank, in which the
best bedrooms are reserved for the English. He
adds to the English families and foreigners who
rraye with their carriage qualification which
has An antique flavor about it, In these days, not
one in thousand of the most arIstocratic travel
ers takes his carriage about with HIM.
His remark that Switzerland has the best hotels
IN the world is craftilv qualified with perhaps.
There must he parts Of this globe which the per-
petualy itincrant Bacdckcr has not yet found time
10 visit: Central Africa, for example not to speak
IF New-York where two or three Of the best
hotels in the world" are to be found; conducted on
The European plan.
HOTELS AND THEIR KEEPERS.
In Switzerland as elsewhere, there are good inns
md also bad ; and the bad outnumber the good
while the majority deserve neither wholesale praise
nor wholesale condemnation. Some of the largest
md most renowned are among the most faulty; as
1t Interlaken Here in Geneva there are all sorts,
md at least two of those winch stood highest five
,ears ago are now second rate in fact. if not yet
Il repute At Chamounix. at Zermatt and else
where. the traveller who seeks one of the houses of
irst rank. will find himself at the mercy of
and fare well or i'll according to the