Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-07-23
Raymond,s Excursions

Very few people have an idea of the
magnitude of the excursion business
as conducted by Raymond & Whit
comb, of Boston, one of whose parties
was in this city Thursday, and the
amount of money handled and dis
! bursed by this firm. In yesterdays
party alone were seventy-five people,
whose fifty days excursion was paid
for, at $500 each, before they left Bos-
ton and Philadelphia. This money is
divided up among the railroads and
hotels which provided transportation
or accommodation, and is at once
placed again i'm circulation in different
portions of the country.
The growth and increase Of this class
of business is one of the achievements
of the past ten years, and originated in
the fertile brain of Walter Raymond,
formerly general ticket agent of the
Vermont Central railroad, whose first
venture of the kind was the taking of
small parties from his own town to the
White mountains for a trip of one or
two days. AS the business showed
signs of becoming more important /.
A. Whitcomb, then a clerk in the
freight office of the Vermont Central
take part in the enterprise and conduct
the business outside Of the office. The
following summer larger parties were
made up from surrounding cities and
towns and the business undertaken
under the personal care of Mr.. Whit
comb. For several years he continued
to manage the excursions, taking small
parties to the White mountains or
Niagara Falls in the summer season,
and to Washington and the South dur
ing the winter, until the trips became
so popular that Mr.. Raymond
abandoned his Office and moved
to Boston, since when the South
ern California, Mexico aud Western
excursions have grown to such an ex-
tent that they require the time and at
tention of large number Of office en-
ployes and conductors, who trayel with
the parties on the road. During almost
every day in the year there are from
one to twenty of the parties travelling
over some portion of the country, ex-
tending from the line of the Canadian
Pacific road TO the city of Mexico, and
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
west to the Sandwich isles. A large
fortune has been made by the promoters
of this class of travel. Mr.. Raymond
personally owns the Raymond, at
East Pasadena, which is one of the
finest hotels in Southern California.
Mr.. Whitcomb is probably the best
man in the United States who could
have been associated with Mr.. Ray
mond for doing this business. TO him
is left all the details of arranging for
the many tours which his company
conducts, and to him is due the greater
part of the popularity Of the firm with
the travelling public.
a new departure of this company is
the sending of parties to Europe. For
several years Mr.. Raymond has OPP
posed the idea until the past spring.
when he was compelled to give way TO
the public demand and sent the first
excursion for tour of Europe. The
success of the undertaking was beyond
anything they had dared to hope for,
and the business will be followed up the
coming spring, when the order will be
reversed and European parties brought
! to the Worlds Fair at Chicago, and a
business far in excess of anything ever
before attempted viii be undertaken.