, 1892-08-27

as he grew older he yea, ned for training in
some skilled handicraft, and persuaded an
uncle to teach him wood carving. He did not
prosper in this department of industry and
obtained employment as an assistant to a print
or Of Baptist literature at Loughboreugh. Mr..
Cook, who had adopted serious views, added
to his employment as an assistant blbliopole
the functions of a rome missionary and Bible
reader for the county Of Rutland and it ap-
pears that in this voluntary labour, in the year
1929, he iourneyed no fewer than two thou
sand six hundred miles, Of which two thou
sand one humid ed and sixty two were perform
ed on foot. In his twenty fourth year he mar
ried q farmers daughter, set up a farmers
business at Market Marlborough, but, still con
tinuing his missionary toll, throwing himself
with enthusiasm into the teetotal NOV sment,
then in it's infancy, became secretary to the
Midland Temperance Association, and p4b-
lisled q children's temperance magazine.
There can be little doubt that the attention
of Mr.. Thomas Cook was first directed to the
subject of travelling by the thousands of
miles of trudging through English towns and
villages, in his long aud faithfully pursued
missionary expeditions. The opening of a
part of the Midland Railway naturally led
him to speculate on the vast amount of bene-
fit that might he conferred, both on the
missionary and the temperance cause if the
railway companies could be induced to run
special trains from Leicester TO Longhborough
for the conveyance of persons anxious TO
attend public meetings. The first special
train Of this kind seems to have been run on
July the 9TH, 184l, and five lndred and
seventy passengers travelled by the train.
The experiment was a great success, and Mr..
Thomas Cook relinquiShed first his turning,
and subsequently the publishing business,
his lime being fully occupied in organising
railway excursions tor Sunday-schools and
temperance societies. The fares charged
were very small, n return ticket from ID rby
to Rugby being but u shilling, and only Six
ponce for children. Afterwards, he made
an agreement with the Midland Railway
Company to place trains at his dis osal
while he supplied the passengers, and in
1445 he was able to advertise q pleasure
trip from Leicester to Liverpool, while ut
the last. named town arrangements were made
for trips Ivy steamer to the Isle If Man and
to Dublin. Soon afterwards he took the
North Midla a, the. Lancashire, the Yorkshire,
and the Manchester and Liverpool lines into
his scheme. Thon the network of his opera
tiol was extended to tho Northwestern,
the Eastern Counties, some of the Scottish,
and some of the Southern lines. His busl-
ness had boon prodigiousIy developed by the
Great Exhibition of 1851, and in 1866 a
touri t Office was opened in London under
Mr.. Thomas Cook son-Mr. John NJ. Cook
who subsequently became his fathers part
nor. The enterprises carried on by the firm
soon grew to gigantic proportions. During
the Paris Exhibition of 1867 more than
twenty thousand English tourists were con-
voyed from London to the French capital,
and it has been stated that Thomas Cook
and Son actually built houses for the purposes
Of lodging some of their patrons. AS amAt-
ter of fact, it may be stated that the firm
did, hire a number of very handsome resi-
dencss for the accommodation of those tour
lists who wished to travel lnxuriously. Among
these residences was a charming little hotel
in the Champs Elysees, the proprietor of
which was an elderly lady named Madame
St. Leon. When Mr.. Thom,s Cook hal
come to terms with this lady. he proposed
that the agreement between them should be
reduced to writing, and witnessed iii the
presence of a notary. "Oh, dear, no" quoth
Mad ,me Leon, cheerfully; II want no writ
ing. An Englishman's word is quite enough
for me. You see that made most of MY
money in England. am Fanny Cerrito."
1t was indeed the renowned dancer of the
Benjamin Lumley management at Her
Maiesty's Theatre who was Mr.. Thomas
Cooks landlady elect. On the 4th of Sep
TENDER, 1870, when the Italian army entered