The Indianapolis journal., 1895-09-29
ROUND ABOUT EUROPE
He II Delighted with His Tour by
Wheel Through Beautiful Rural
England-The Important Porter.

The Journal has been permitted TO use
a few excerpts from private letter written
to friend here by Mr.. a f. Potts. OF this
city. who. with his wife, is making a tour
OF Europe The letter IS dated at Inter
laken, Switzerland. Sept 3 He says: We
have at last made a stop by running up
against the Alps, whose heights check US
and whose beauty and grandeur hold us
entranced- To judge from the pictures on
the letter heads the hotel Is trying to rival
the Jungfrau in height. The relative pro-
portions are from the proprietor's point of
view and may be ours before we settle. /
have found, as you warned me, that set
Element in European hotel is not the sim
pie business transaction at the clerks desk
as with US in America It practically
means encounter with a standing army,
consisting of the porter, walters and cham
bermaids and boots. You will note the use
OF the capital p I'm Porter 1t is not an in
advertence. The Porter is the major gen.
eral Of the hotel army, who not only di-
rects all the operations OF the hotel, but
yours as well. He is, besides. the most dig
nified and best informed man you meet. He
speaks all the continental languages and is
the only man who understands the cockney
English Of the Londoners, whose tones are
a cross between those of a cuckoo and
crosscut saw. The Porter is your host
receives you as you enter, attends 10
all your needs, pays all your bills
sent to the hotel, and as you depart
waves you an adieu. And all this without
salary, depending on the fees voluntarily
paid by the guests. 1 was told that one
Porter IN a hotel at Vienna paid 5000 per
year as a bonus for the position. The hotel
proprietor is entirely subordinate. At the
elegant Victoria Hotel, at Amsterdam. we
had the novel experience of having our
lunch served by the proprietor, who had
come in to relieve the pressure in the dining
room while the Porter received the now ar
rivals, fixed terms and assigned the rooms
At the Porters back as you arrive are
the privates in the ranks who seize your
luggage. He seems to have but one name In
most too shy and retiring = In
the presence of the Porter to
live, but he does and means to continue
to live as you find on leaving the hotel.
He is in line with a meek but very mean
ingful smile for each rub he has given you.
One of the mysteries of foreign travel is
how all the help OF the hotel know the
very instant of your departure You may
not have anything but a hand bag and
may slip In however quietly and pay your
BILL but as you turn to go there they stand
smiling, but firm. They do not seem TO
be armed and offer you no violence and are
extremely differential, but there is a moral
suasion in the situation which you cannot
resist And generally you do not wish TO,
for by a moderate expenditure in fees you
will soon find yourself an Oriental poten-
tate. I shall never forget our first wait
er and his unobtrusive luxurious
attentions To serve US seemed an
absolute pleasure to him. We hurt his feel
ings IL we lifted a plate. He was person
ally gratihed for everything we ate, saying
s'thank you in subdued tone as We took
anything he served to us. He stepped
about with velvet-footed silence, anticipated
every need and seemed to apologize for the
coarseness Of the food. That was when my
letter of credit was fresh. We enjoyed him
and his "fellow-workers'' until we began
to realize that If we continued TO purchase
Oriental luxury at the hotels we might have
to return In the steerage.
I have not written much OF our
bicycling experience. because it did
not last as long as We had hoped,
owing to the fact that we happened upon
the rainy season in England, when, as you
seems
without any warning out of perfectly
clear sky, enough to drench you; then the
sun will beam out as though smiling at your
discontinue. entice you from your shelter
onto the road, and, before you are fairly
under way. gather up another little cloud
and drop it on you in sheer deviltry. In
spite OF the weather, however, we made
over three hundred miles our wheels
s~,1o faoh 10
rural England as can be done in no other
way.
BICYCLING BY AVON.
I hope you will not suppose that our
wheels so engrossed us that we lost any
OF the beauty Of the country or the his
torfc charm Of Shakspeare's home or failed
to sit in any OF his chairs or believe any
OF the personal "reminiscences of the
guides who showed us about. We were de-
lighted with one little fellow who was in
training for guide. He came morning and
night to show about, very proud OF his
knowledge of the location Of Shakspeare's
house, Ann Hathaway's cottage and other
points of interest. Finally I asked him,
aWho was this man Shakespeare, anyway"
To which he answered with professional
promptness, why, he was Ann Hatha-
ways husband. of course
Wnen am AT nome, as you hhoN, ain
very proud OF taking one of our little girls
before me on the wheel. By the time We
had reached Stratford I had begun TO get
quite homesick for them, so that the sight
OF a little girl coming from school as we
entered the public square so reminded me
OF my own that stopped and cosxed her
to ride with me, an experience unknown to
children of England. so far as I could see.
She finally climbed on the bar before me
and of we went round the block house
monument which some bungling architect
designed for Geo. w. Childs a memorial
gift from America. BY the time We had
gone once around i discovered that the
child had picked up was only one OF the
outpost of the army OF children who had
just been dismissed from school. When
they caught sight of US they gave a joint
and several yell and began an instant
pursuit, chasing Us round the public square
and pleading TO be next. So / got of and
too another for a round and so another
and another in a vain endeavor
TO satisfy the popular demand,
realizing at each turn that the mob was
increasing in violence and that was get