Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-04-19
EVILS OF TRAVELLING,
AN ENGLIStiMAN FINDS MANY ANNOY
ANCES IN AMERICA.

AiIhouBn MT. huuyaru hlplnY may
have good deal to say for his peculiar
view OF American society, the real truth is
shat England and America can learn good
many things from each other English
men are not all millionaires, and nobody
quite likes to be openly swindled.
On the Atlantic the traveller is safe
enough. Travel nowadays on board those
ocean greyhounds is simply a luxury. But
the moment foot is set on shore the stranger
experiences that he is in new country,
where things are not exactly as they are
at home An Englishman's first instinct
on arriving at the conclusion of a journey
is to call a cab. He had better not indulge
this fancy in New York. A passenger ar
irving by any of the liners at Liverpool
would at once secure his luggage, have it
conveyed to cab, tip the porter and on
being set down at his hotel would pay the
cabman, say, half crown. They manage
things otherwise in New York. Heavy lug
gage must, in the first place, be Expressed"
Mt charge of Is. Cd. each package. If there
are ladies in the party, this item may mount
mp TO something considerable.
OF yon go in a ramshackle equipage
With an Irish driver, possessing none of the
fun Of the old country On arriving at the
And then the Englshman's gore rises.
He Is accustomed to stepping into Lon
don hanson and driving longer distance
for O form. But the Hibernian charioteer
graveiy calls for s. 81 or $. just according
to the humor he may be in And it has to
be paid. The result is that when the trav-
eler finds him 'eH in his room it has prob
ably taken '25 shillings to convey himself
and his luggage from the landing place to
the hotel. This Of course is simply gor-
geous swindle And the way to aveid it is
fortunately, equally simple
The Americans travel with single big
trunk. Everything goes into it as into a
handbag This Noak's ark can be sex
pressed" at the same charge as dressing
case. And this done, Uncle Sam makes for
the street car and reaches his hotel for
cents. This is the way to do it, but it is lit
ale short of "A scandal that the law should
not protect strangers.
As to hotels, something pleasant and I'M
pleasant may be said. In all the cities
these establishments are of the most pala-
tial character and are conducted ON both
the American and European plans. No one
should enter "A house conducted on both
plans. Should he do 10 the experience of
our party may be his. We had written
ahead to secure rooms on the American
plan at one of the Fifth avenue hotels. The
charge was s. or Il, per day. Arriving
hate at night. We were 'skied" in garnet.
Judge of our surprise when on entering
the dining room we were calmly informed
that no food was supplied on the American
plan after 8 p. H., and that if one desired
10 have supper it should be served on the
European plan. In other words, were ex
pected to pay II day Tor board and lodg
ing on the American plan and pay for our
supper in cash because the Boston train
happened to be latei This of course was
sheer impertnence Bnt we had to submit.
II was too late to go elsewhere. AT another
Of these gorgeous establishments we expe-
nenced anotherpiece of sharppractice. The
terms were $3.50 per day or 30 shillings each
person. Buton our arrival we stepped into
the wrong room for luncheon-i e., into
che room for visitors on the European plan
The bill had to be paid in cash, and we had
the extreme satisfaction of paying lis. Cd.
for two iuncheons in addition to a charge
Of 30 shillings per day. These are samples
Of the impudent swindles that await the
traveller WHO'S not prepared for them. The
snly safe plan therefore is to go to house
conducted ON either one plan or the other.
gorgeous palaces, but they sadly lack the
komely feeling of the English home They
seem to be huge rabbit warrens. They are
the saddest and dullcst places in the world.
But, as a rule, the accommodation aud the
food are excellent
As regards railway travelling some things
are better than at home, and others are
worse. The rate OF travelling Is mostly
slower and the cost less than in England
But the cars are infinitely better, and trav-
cling is, ON the whole, pleasanter but for
the heat. This is largely caused by the fact
that the porter is generally a negro, and he
heats the train up to his own ideas of com
fort, but it is not pleasant for an ordinary
Englishman to swelter in car with the
thermometer at IS degrees or S0degrees and
then go out into an atmosphere below freez-
ms point, or even below zero. The night
travelling also shocks stranger. In Eng
land there are ladies sleeping cars No
such thing ever occurred to the American
mind. Men and women shake down pro
miscuous," and are curtained off in a kind
of sealed compart ment.
confess to a preference for the English
fashion, although Mr.. Hannibal Chollop
would, suppose, have sneered at my pref
udices az European" But the Americans
can give US points in regard to dealing with
luggage. 1t is something to hand your lug
gage to the hotel porter, to receive from
him at the railway station brass checks for
it, to give these checks to a collector on
arrival, and to find, fora small charge your
luggage at the hotel almost as quickly as
yourself Why English railway companies
do not adopt this plan of dealing with lug
gage passes comprehension. There is
hardly such thing as railway porter In
the states. Then the dining car is a real
work of art. 1t is "a luxury TO be able to
get comfortable meal excellently served
without rushing to reireshment rooms and
eating at rate ruinous to digestion and to
health. Some time or another, l suppose,
John Bull will wake up.
In the matter or street cars the mother
country is also sadly behind. In Boston,
Washington, Montreal, Toronto and other
cities the electric street cars are one of the
chief means of rapid transit. But here