The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-04-14
THE WAY TO GO SIGHT SEEING


An Old Philosopher Gives the BoneG. Of
His Experience.
For sightseers l will lay down two or
three rules which have guided me moro
and more in my habits of travelling, and
for which l think there is good founda
ton:
If you will stay two or three daysi in one
place you will get that sort Of affection
for it and knowledge of its interior life,
if one may use so large n phrase. which
makes you always remember it with
pleasure. IF, OF the other hand, yor
should spend the same three days T..
going to three different places yol nave
in each of them only the annoyance of
dropping your anchor and pulling it up
again, only the EStle trials which neces-
sarily belong to the first hours in an inn
or a lodging house, and before these lit
TIE annoyances are well over you have
gone on your way again.
My experience is that / have very little
recollection of any sort of places where
l have simply spent IL night or a part Of
a day, and that for filling up that great
fund Of experience and memories the
maintenance of which is the great object
Of travelling it is always desirable to re-
main for a little while where You are
well Off, that you may become acquaint-
ed not simply with the circumstance
but with the real character of what =! "a
certain way you may thus make u home.
l hold that no man should t.rvel with
the mere idea of being amused. He has
no right TO wal into IL town or an inn
and say - tie first person he meets
there, Come and amuse me: show me
what there is which is entertaining
Wherever II MAI goes he should carr"
certain tastes of lis own. should have
certain objects which have interested
him in life, and lie should inquire with
regard to those objects, as this p~articn.
lar place may have an answer to give g
his inquiries.
And this / say with agood deal of tel.
itation. / know nothing in the, laere
crossing of tbs water which should
change us all into critics of fine art. |
am always IA little amazed when | % by
chance into u picture gallery i'll Paris,
in Brussel3, or III Antwerp, to find there
some well to do Americans whom |
never should by any accident have fOGnd
IN the academy at New York or the art
gallery in Boston. Icannot see why we
should all be compelled to see paintings
in Europe, and in every city III Europe
when at home we dOnnt considartlc tx
animation of paintings to be our l"in'i~
pal and especial business. | lik" to see
a good picture, | think, as much as any
body does. But / cannot understand
why the profession Of IL traveller and
that of q c~onnoisseur in art should be
considered, as certainly they are consid-
cred, as being very much the same thing.
So l do not believe, as I say, that Il per-
son gains qualifications for az art critic
by the accident of his crossing the ocean.
To young travellers | am forever say.
ing, Keep scrapbooks." They are oven
better than journals, by which | meal,,
preserve little queer bits Of printed in.
formation which will come drifting iatD
your hands every day, and which ,r
after years VII have ii value from assc
citation which of course does not attach
to them, and by the same token what
ever is written at tn moment has q
freshness aft-rward which no reCollec-
ton brought out on rainy days can rival.
Here is tie advantage of II fountain
pen or Il half dozen sharpened pencils,
OF which you cannot very easily lose all.
Your Journal may be no sort of use to
anybody else, but it will always be OF
value to your>elf.-Edward Everett Hale
in Boston Commonwealth.