The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-18
CRUDE AMERICANS ABROAD
Inexperienced T~ravelersin Europe Who
Suffer More than They Enjoy.
Bound to Get Their Moneys Worth Of Sights,
But Do Not Want to Go a Second Time
Personally Conducted" in Droves.

New York sun.
Now that the expenses of q trip to Eu-
rope have been reduced so that q country
school-teacher may spend three months
abroad on two years savings or less. cns
comes across great numbers of most sur
prising Americans on the highways and by
Ways of Europe. They are such persons ss
one sees at home only in the scattered and
most rural towns or in the depths of the
backwoods. They are of the sort that VEN
lures upon every railroad journey with
fearful misgivIngs, that sits alarmed upon
the edge of the seat. with paper valise and
bird-cage tightly olutched. SO that q bolt
may be made for the door at every station.
Yet here they are. thousands of miles
from home and friends, perhaps set down
in q country of whose language they know
not one word. And they are in . flutter
and cold sweat from morning until night.
1t must be that these honest. adventurous
souls have more courage than Columbus.
or even than that first navigator whom
Horace celebrates. For if a journey of
twenty miles by rail through their own
country 80 alarmed them, think what 1t
lCS uoNom oanb 10 t6ke IQ6 Oc66u NOybR
and the railway journeys whore every thing
is unfamiliar, coaches. guards, languages.
So far as may be judaed by the public ap-
pearance OF these people. they have made
no more preparations for this long journey
than if they had been hitching mp the farm
wagon to 60 for q weeks visit to their
town relatives. In the strand and In the
boulevards of Paris you see Americans clad
In such rustic garments as would make
people turn and stare on Broadway. There
will ba n man in hnffarnnf mr. llama with
dusty boots and o paper collar, or q beard,
thick and u~npruned. hiding his absence OF
o collar. His hands Will be as red and
h f1om the as lo 81 shsin pdl%s Here Hs m ss1ll have ~ns% q
wide-eyed Nebraska or q Kansas baby on
his arm. And there will he . woman. .
farmers wife from crown to heel. In Q
rustling cheap black silk gown and smooth
gance.
A sight like tbis-it is not so rare az ono
might ~thIDk-makes one feel that he ia In q
trance. that be is not on the Strand or the
Boulevard des ltallens, but in Jaytown.
that the market wagons are just off the
street. n that these people arc steering o
different passage through the maze Of
J~aytown's one street In search OF calico at
rs cents a yard instead of IA. And II you
fall into conversation with such q party
they would embrace an American bunco
steerer even if they knew what he was
you would be more amazed.
THE U-NCONDUCTED TRAVELLERS.
For the journeyings of most of these
people the great European excursion COM
panies are responsible. These com panies
hav sent their agents out to Iowa, or Kan
sas. or Dakota, and have made the back
woods ring with stories of Europe and
European trips. They talk about the edu-
eating influences of these trips. about the
~cheapnees, and the comfort and the pleas
ure. AS q result they get together large
parties, who 60 under the direction of u
special guide or q series of guides. But q
few are melted to go who do not want to
more cheaply without paying the company
q commission for taking care of them. 1t
Is those people that one sees drifting
helplessly about, looking as lost as would
q savage from undiscovered central Africa
If suddenly set own in q great city.
Providence has not endowed them with as
much cunning as they think. but they do
know one thing, and that is how to keep q
they only knew what perils of plunder and
rapacity they had avoided by simply hold
ing on tightly to their money, their self
esteem would be vastly increased. 1t is
these people who get through Europe
cheaply. They are the horror of the hotel
keepers. the despair of the professions
guides and Others who live By illegitimste
fees.
They are safer in Paris thar they would
be in New York. They might unbend to
spend a little more money for "fo0lishness'
in New York. but being 30 far from home
they feel q thrill Of terror each time q lit
tie money goes. SO whoever gets oven his
just dues from them must wrench it by
threats of the police. As for getting q
high price or u fee it would be impossible.
There Is no end to the books of travel;
there 10 10 corner of Europe that has not
been written about again and again. But
If one of these people could tell his story
aell of Europe as he saw. and heard. and
felt il, few books of travel could compete
with that telling. One of these persons
dropped down at the same table with a fell.
low-countryman from New York last sum
mer. He was from Nebraska. and his sole
concession TO his idea of tourists costume
was q huge linen helmet that must have
been second or third hand when be
bought it.
The New Yorker pressed him to tell hi.
experiences in Paris, through which he said
10 had been walking for four days, and wat
nigh wore out from packin' that fat baby
of Ourn." He said the thing that impressed
him most about "Perrus' was the mouse
traps. II never see the like,n said he
The whole place must be full o. mice an
rats. And i never see such big cages.
see half q dozen outside o. different stores
as big as o pig-pen. an the wires so ful
apart that four or five Of our homo rat
could walk out abreast" He went on q
great length about these huge mouse-traps
without realizing that they were merely
advertisements. And. indeed, If you star
with his premise. that such ages were use(
to trap and retain rats In Paris, his con
clusion that the rats and rat-traps of Pari
are the mostremarkable things there 10 no
only rational but necessary.
But these brave backwoodemen. VIII,
travel alone through the to them unblazet
wildernesses of foreign cities. are not 81
much deserving OF sympathy nor, indeed
of curious attention as the unfortunate
who travel under the direction of excursion
companies in herds of fifty. of one hundred
of two hundred. even. The life of a barn
storming theatrical com is o mad roun,
of pleasure beside the life of these herds
Snatched from the peace of quiet an,
happy village homes. they are borne acros
the Atlantic, packed in state-r0oms a
tightly as the steamship companies will al
low.
THE PERSONALLY CONDUCTED"
They have paid all their expenses before
hand. The c~ompany's agents Will do every
thing for them. Their route is laid out be
forehand to the day. the hour. the minute 81
most. They can read on the schedule jus
where they will be on any date. at such an
such an hour. or quarter of an hour. The
know at just what hour they Will rise, jus
when and where they will eat, and almos