The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-04-17
EVILS OF TRAVELLING
AN ENoLisliMAN FlhDs MANY ANNOY.
= ANcEs IN, AMERICA.

AN ENeElsliMAN FlNDs MANY ANNOY.
- AHcEs IN, AMERICA.
How Strangers, Especially Travellers From
England. Arc swindied In Many of Our
Larger Cities-Cab Fares and sleeping
Car Heat.
Although Mr. Rudyard Kipling may
have good deal to say for his peculiar
view of American society, the real truth lie
that England and America can learn q good
many things from each other. English.
men are not all millionaires, and nobody
quite likes to be openly swind1ed.
On the Atlantic the traveller is safe
enough. Travel nowadays on board thos.
ocean greyhounds Is simply 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 II
conveyed to q 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
gnge must, in the first place, be Expressed
at a charge Of Is. Cd. each package. If there
are ladies In the party, this item may mount
up to something considerable.
Of you 90 in a ramshackle equipage
with an Irish driver, possessing none of the
fun Of the old country. On arriving at the
hotel you ask what the fare amounts to.
And then the Englishman's gore rises.
He is accustomed to stepping into Lon
don hanson and driving longer distance
for forin. But the Hibernian charioteei
gravely calls for %. a or s5, just according
to the humor he may be in. And it has to
be paid. The result is that when the trav-
eler flnds himself in his room it has prob
ably taken rs 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 avoid it is,
fortunately, equally simple
The Americans travel with a single big
trunk. Everything goes into-ft as into d
handbag. This Noak's ark can be lex
pressed" at the same charge as dressing
case. And this done, Uncle Sam makes for
the street car and reaches his hotel for 5
cents. This is the way to do it, but 1t is lit
tie short of o 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 palar
tial character and are conducted on both
the American and European plans. No one
should enter house conducted on both
plans. Should he do SO 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 IS, or 9l, per day. Arriving
late 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 p. M, and that il one desired
to have supper 1t should be served on the
European plan. In other words, were ex
pected to pay 81 day for 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 impertinence, But we had to submit.
1t was too late to go elsewhere. At another
of these gorgeous establishments we expe-
rienced another piece Of sharp practice. The
terms were $3.50 per day or 80 shillings each
person. But on our arrival we stepped into
the wrong room for luncheon-i. e., into
the room for visitors on the European plan
The bill had to be paid in cash, and we had
the extreme satisfaction of paying lis 3D.
for two luncheons, in addition to q charge
OF 80 shiilings per day. These are samples
of the impudent swindles that await the
traveller who is not prepared for them. The
only safe plan therefore is to go to house
conducted on either one plan or the other.
/ have said that the American hotels are
gorgeous palaces, but they sadly lack the
homely feeling Of the English home. They
seem to be huge rabbit warrens. They are
ha Nd 1y,1la ,,laa {,,A H.,
But. as a rule, the accommodation and 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 IL is not pleasant for an ordinary
Englishman to swelter in car with the
thermometer at rs degrees or so degrees and
then go out intoan atmosphere below freez-
ing point, or even below zero. The night
travelling also shocks a 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 kind
of sealed compartment.
! confess to a preference for the English
fashion, although Mr.. Hannibal Chollop
would, suppose, have sneered at my pref
udices as 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
1t, to give these checks to collector on
arrival, and to find, for 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 a railway porter in
the states. Then the dining car is q real
work of art. It Is a luxury to be able to
get comfortable meal excellently served
without rushing to refreshlnent rooms and
eating at rate ruinous to digestion and to
health. Some time or another, suppose,
John Bull will wake up.
In the matter of 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
again there is the fly in the ointment. An
American car is never SO full that 1t will
not hold one more. The passengers crowd
the cars, stand on the platforms and hang
on to the steps. 1t is the American way of
doing things, and this settles the question,
but prefer the English cur, with only its
allotted number of passengers.-London
Graphic.