Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-06-14
CASH GOING ABROAD.
The European Exodus Viewed From q
Financial standpoint-It Makes Us
$50, 900 900 Poorer.

The European Exodus Viewed From q
Financial standpoint-It Makes Us
s6O,OOO,OOO Poorer.
New York Corr. Plttsburg Dispatch.
The annual European exodus of Ameri-
can citizens has fairly began. The steam
ships sailing from this port last Saturday
carried over 1000 saloon passengers. There
were quite as many second cabin and
steofage who accompanied them. While
most OF these summer wanderers are from
New York and immediate vicinity they
really come from all sections ofthe country.
New York at this season of the year is
great clearing house of pleasure seekers
departing for new scenes and new coun-
tries.
This simple statement does not fully con-
vey the idea. To quite understand the sig
nificance Of the spring stampede visit to
the great docks where lie the European
steamers would he necessary. These on
Saturday and "Wednesday mornings, which
are the two great sailing days, present the
liveiiest scenes imaginable. The roadways
approaching the docks swarm with trunks
and trunkmen bearing supplies for the
ships, and amid this swarm excited passen-
gers find their way to the piers. Those
piers seem at first sight to be disorderly
mass OF workmen, passengers, visitors,
boxes, crates, trunks and every conceivable
sort of luggage entanglcd in one chaotic
mass.
AS matter of fact, however, there is a
syste,n is the one which experience has
demonstrated the best adaptation of condi-
tions to the desired end. The close OBJ
server will note that tho movements of
every gang of men are regulated so as to
"get there" in the shortest possible space
OF time. Ii yon are stranger loating on
the pier out of idle cui iosity, or for the pur.
pose Of seeing friends off on the departing
steamer, you had better look out for your
shins and your bodily belongings gener-
alIv. Truply loads of hapfyapn and frIlcl..
men are no respecters of persons. The
long line of them that crowd upon the
pier must be constantly restrained by
policemen and ships officers to prevent an
inextricable jam of matter and bodily in
jury TO those on foot.
The huge swinging cranes that grasp
their truck with iron hands creak merrily
to the time of the donkey engines as they
dump their loads down the matches. The
crowds of passengers and visitors creeping
slowly up the gangways are greeted by
other crowds already in possession of the
decks. A little bit of pasteboard is neces-
sary in order to allow you to go aboard.
A petty officer i'll uniform at the foot Of the
gangplank collects this and glowers upon
you AS II you were an inconsiderate bore
and better be some place else. From the
decks oft ship, however, is finer view
OF this pier pandemonium.
On Saturday the same scene may be wit
messed from a half dozen Ships which will
presently steam side by side or one after
ANOTHER down the harbor. Five hundred
to 1000 people will wave their handker-
chiefs from each pier, and thousands of
tears will add their quota to the briny deep.
A fleet of tugs and other small vessels will
accompany each ship to the lower bay.
These will contain the many friends of the
! ,.HOre fortunate or more notorious of the
1oef ips passengers.
~ Last Saturday was but counterpart of
W nany Saturdays yet tn come. 1t is esti-
mated that the average number of persons
Z who go abroad at this season of the year
will reach at least 1000 per day. This means
that from the middle of May to the middle
ofJuly upward of 10000 Americans will
have departed from their native shores in
quest of pleasure and health of foreign soil.
While the exodus will continue during the
summer there will be a considerable fall
ing Oft from the middle of July. Do you
realize what all this means from a financial
point of view? From the poor steerage
passenger who will blow in q couple of
hundred dollars in visit to his fatherland
to the millionaire and his family whose ex-
penses mean that much every day of alb
sence, it is moderate estimate to place
the average expenditure at $500 each for
the trip.
For 10000 this means SSO,0OO,OO0. For
the entire summers crowd S600OO,0O0 will
be more accurate estimate. And this Is
for New York alone. All of this money,
mind you, goes into foreign pockets and
should be carefully set down in figuring
the balance of trade between the United
States and foreign governments. There is
enough expended on foreign pleasures
every year by Americans to create a re-
spectacle navy and sea coast defenses, If
spent at home for that purpose. 1t would
seem worth the while of American states
manship to provide some means by which,
through an American merchant marine, a
large portion of this annual expenditure
might be retained at home.
The annual exodus from New York does
not simply mean that part of our popula-
tion which goes to Europe. 1t is the most
Objectionable feature. But that portion
which leaves the city on pleasure bent
within our own domain is much larger
one. 1t is a great pity that some statistics
can't be had as to nearly the exact number
of people who leave the United States
every summer for foreign travel. 1t
would also be interesting to know Just
how many people leave our great city 10
spend their time in the mountains and ut
fashionable watering places. So far as
New York is concerned the number is
simply marvellous; if the empty houses of
these people could be collected in n single
neighborhood, they would form a vast and
silent city of themselves.