The morning call., 1891-01-11
MODE OF TRAVEL
IN SWITZERLAND.
A Chaty Letter From the United States
Consul at Zurich,
How the Highest Points in the Alpine Country
Are Reaohed-What the Modern Rail-
way Has Done-Pleasure Boats.

1t was thought in Switzerland last year.
owing to the immense circulation of tourists
caused by the Paris Exposition, that the
tide of travel through the Alpine highways
had indeed reached high water mark. But
the season just drawn to close shows that
the tide has in no wise receded. In fact.
many say that Switzerland has never before
| had so many visitors in any one year. The
| rush has in various quarters been unpre-
cedented. In Lucerne, the very heart of
| the tourist movement, it was no uncommon
thing this past summer to have every spare
| bed IN town occupied, and to find fifty or
| sixty homeless travellers making the best
| they could out of the soft side of a bench or
| settee in the railway station over night In
| Zurich, where, since the completion of the
new quays and the establishment of the
General Inquiry Office the rush of
summer travel has been annually in
creasing, it has happened more than
once this year at the principal hotels to
answer ''al full" and Send away crowds
OF strangers to seek quarters elsewhere in
town. 1t is precisely repetition of what
passed on the Riviera, at Nice, Monte Carlo
and cannes during the months of February
and March. There is but one inference TO
| able conditions of general peace and i'm
proved railway and steamer facilities
people are travelling mere now than they
| used to DO. Formerly only mobiles, poten-
ta;es and very wealthy people travelled in
Switzerland; now it is the mode for every
one to take summer tour through the
beautiful Alpine park. Bankers. trades
people, sch0ol-teacherS. students and clerks
from both sides Of the Atlantic are to be
met every where-on the quays and lake
steamers, III the remote valleys or on the
mountain tops; foreign bicyclists, single or
IN groups, wheel along the country high
ways; you hear the nasal twang Of the
aukee, the broad English accent of AIRY
and Arriet," the ''c'est magnifque" of the
enthusiastic Gallo bourgeois the good
natured gruff tones Of the Teutonic shop
Keeper, IN every small hostelry from the
Rhine Falls to Geneva verify il NAV be said
the woods are full of them"
\ or IL the meantime is the number of So
called swell tourists in any wise diminished,
but on the other hand, its increase has
Kept pace with the general advance. One
has only TO glance al the published list of
strangers, which, like the mosquito-press,
spring into eXlstence at the Swiss resorts in
summer, TO see how many foreign Princes
and PTincesses, Dukes and DuchesseS, and
nobility OF lesser grades, with more or less
houses. Nor among these is Europe alone
represented.
TITLED EAST INDIANS,
Egyptians, japanese and South Americans
have all come as well to pay their tribu te
OF admiration TO the beauties OF the jung
frau, wreathed with her chapet of eternal
snow, and OF the WOndrously blue Swiss
lakes, sparkling in their grim setting of
rocks and wooded peaks. 1t is indeed a
mlngllng OF costumes and languages ana
types and usageS and classes that one finds
nowhere else outside of the great expusi-
tons occurring now and thea at one or
another OF the worlds capitals.
Now II the yearly nr0ad of pleasure
seekers IN Switzerland keeps on Increasing
as 1t steadily has been doing of late years a
question very similar in nature to the NAL
lhuSlau theory presents itself, namely:
How Is switzerland going TO accommodate
them?' But the answer is very simple. In
TINS respect the enterprsing Swiss is on
hand every time, and he Is constantly build
ing more hotels and larger ones, constantly
planning ana building new railroads, level
or inclined, cons tantly providing means of
communication by water diligence and
toot-path, constantly opening up and rem
derlng accessible new points of beauty and
Interest, constantly widening the field OF his
c0mmlssarat by bringing fresh oysters from
Ostend, fat poulets from Normandy, fresh
hsh from the North Sea, tempting fruits
from Italy and serving the delicious trout
fresh from their native lakes.
1t would make in itself alone an interest
ing letter to tell how the hordes of summer
tourists IN switzerland are lodged, fed and
forwarded, without Inconvenience delay or
accident. The ma hinery works us smoothly
as that Of grandfdtherS clock and as noise
lessly too. Itis as good as a visit 20 the cir
Gus, or the Eitfel Tower, to stand in one Of
the great raj way stations, say at Geneva,
Lucerne or Zurich, any day in July and
August and watch the arrival and dispatch
mo- f la fro ha &
people who come and go, the mountains of
trunks that are handled, and vet the perfect
order and system that characterize all.
Now. who would have believed twenty,
nay even ten, years ago that a special fast
train de luxe three times a week between
London and Switzerland could ever be made
to pay? ct it has been paying during the
past season. or during part of 1t, for it was
only put on when the season was we'll adj
vanced, and 1t is to be resumed next year
when the season opens, thanks to the enter
prise OF the London. Chatham and Dover,
the Northeastern Railway Of France and
THE ST. GoTHARD RAILWAY
OF Switzerland By arrangement between
these ana the connecting SWISS lines, train
OF restaurant and fauteuil cars run through
from London IN twenty-cne hours to Bale,
and thence to Zurich or Lucerne. To one
who can recall the easy-going slow coach
travel OF even a quarter Of a century ago.
THIS seems an improvement all but incredi-
bic.
And here is another instance of enterprise
growing out Of the tireless endeavor made
IN Switzerland TO provide new amusement
Tor strangers Few Swiss lakes are more
soft and idyllic in their beauty than the
Lake of Zurich. a banking company in this
city has INT on The happy thought of put
ting on the lake next season fleet of small
steamers capable of holding thirty or forty
passengers eacB, and of running them for
the accommodation Of strangers, partly on
regular routes, partly at the disposal of
parties engaging them. In this way, at
comparatively trihiDg price, any family or
group OF friends may engage pleasure
steamer for day or a half day, already
manned and equipped, just as they would
hire their own "Dahabieh" for a trip on the
Nile, or coach for drive across country.
And without risk OF becoming weariS0me
one may go on to speak of the recent won
derful growth of inclined RAILWAYS in
Switzerland. Time was when the trip up to
the Rigi Kuhn from either Arth or Vitznau
was one Of tue wonders of the age. But
now, in addition to those lines, we have the
spider-web track to the summit of Piatus,
the ladder railway from Montreux up to
Glion, the road from Zurich up the Uetli-
berg, from the top of which one can see
nearly half of Switzerland, and the gi1dy
vet perfectly safe ascent TO the peaks of ST.
Salvatore and Monte Generoso, overlooking
the Lake Of LugaD0, nearly all of Tessin
and good bit OF LombaTdy. Nor is this
all III a few years we shall have the new
railway over the Simplon. forming another
great highway to Italy. and more wonder
full still, the proposed incline railway-lt
may more properly be called a surface ele-
Vator-to the top OF the Jungfrau OF this
the foreigner may be certain, that Swiss en-
terprise keeps pace with the Unsuitable de-
mands Of the tourist sight-seer, and that
both the courage and the money are in
variably forthcoming when there is any
new ana daring enterprise to be planned
and carried out for the delectation of tile
summer stranger.
ANOTHER CAPITAL IDEA,
With which tourists will have to credit
Swiss enterprise, is the establishment in the
principal cities of so-called General INQUIRY
Offices" where any stranger may apply.
free OF charge, for whatever information he
desires in regards TO routes, timetable. con
nections. hotels and all the thousand and