The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-10

American imitators of things British, lacking the fine humor of the Japanese,
 have made no substitution ot light ma
 terial for heavy, but have taken on the
 full burden of ponderous British hat
 boxes, poltmanteaus, rugs, bags, hold alls, and even bathtubs,N IL was traV- cling American who gave to the world an account of a refreshing scene on
 board 8 Mediterranean steamer bound
 to Tangier, or some such Mohammedan port of North Africa. A British pas senger with his bathtub had nearly pestered the life out of a meek, eoffee- colored Mohammedan, who accepted
 the Btiton's curses without sign of re- proach; but when. in the course of get ting the luggage ashore the precious bathtub fell overheard and sank like lead, the harmless follower of the Pro- phet was seen to pause in his work and dance gleefully upon the deck, excaim- ing in triumph: "Oh! MT. Goddam, MT. Goddam" It is since that incident that traveled Americans, in their aping of British ways, have accepted even
 the burden of the bathtub,
 A study of baggage at steamship
 wharf Or even at large railway sta
 ton in New York is an instructive les son as to the cosmopolitan character of
 the city. There is one article of British luggage that seldom survives more
 than one journey within the limits of
 the United States. and sometimes gets
 no fanNher inland than the New York hotel at which the traveller makes his first stop. This article is the little
 trunk or box of Japanned tin, much
 used by travellers in Great Britain
 The flimsy trifle hardly survives the first encounter with the American bag t gage handler and after the first jour- ney of six hundred miles ill this coun- try is battered out of all resemblance to its original rectilinear self. It Is an article of luggage not suitable to the eXigencies of American travel. A pa Ethetic feature of the baggage at the railway stations that are doorways to the west is the immigrants luggage. Sometimes it is a mattress from the steerage, wrapped about the few be- tlongings of the new-made American. Again, it is the corded box of the Irish, English or Scotch immigrant. It will be recalled how important q prelmina- Try to Charlotte Bronte's journeyings | out into the great world from her York l shire home was the cording of her box. The corded box is as rare among the I luggage of an American traveller as the old hair trunk, though both are occa- sionally seen. The seaman's locker, rectilinear for stable stowaga, and strong against accidents, figures in the luggage at steamship wharves. One
 knows instinctively it's contents of old Iclothes, photographs, curios, tobacco and long~treasured letters from home. and the array of pictures from the il- illustrated papers pasted on the inside of the lid.
 The elaborate dressing eases that some Americans and all well-to-do
 Englishmen used to travel with are go ling out of fashion. It Is almost q ne- \ oessity that the traveller with this pret- 1 ty piece of luggage take along a valet,
 for the thing weighs like so much lead, land is too precious to be trusted to the tender mercies of the baggage depart ment. The travelling desk also has nearly disappeared, though some in
 genious trunk makers now produce trunks that open so as to form desks, I The luncheon hamper that used to ae- company every traveller across this Econtinent in the days before dining lcars came into use has almost entirely 1 disappeared, The California million Eaires of early transeontinental travel carried enormous and richly laden I hampers, and dispensed often prince fly hospitality to their fellow travellers. The dinner hour on board transconti- mental train was picturesque incident 1 of travel in those days. The travelling
 Briton in Europe still, sometimes. car ries his luncheon hamper, and it is of Eten one of the nuisances of European I travel
 Some of the English theatrical com- Epanies have become so used to travel- ling in America that they have adopted our methods with baggage. They ac- cept with grace the great American trunk, dispense with the hat1oox, the 1 bathtub, the rugs, slnawlstraps, and the lrest, and calmly see their belongings carted eff by stranger, who leaves behind as evidence only a bit of brass l bearing a few letters and numbers. 1t lis a great triumph for American meth- ods that this should have come about. for the travelling Briton clings to his luggage as to the magma charta and the bill of rights He slows it all about him in the compartments of his own railway coach. and keeps jealous eye upon every individual scrap of his queer belongings. His things are un- der t.he seat and over his head. He fights with his neighbor for the last inch of space, growls at the slightest enoroachment from any other mans luggage, and as night comes on opens l up and lights his personal travelling lamp and bures himself in the latest issue of the London Times. The exi- gencies of transatlantic travel have taught some things to those travellers
 not rich enough to buy great chunks of hold space. The single requirement that no trunk above three feet long by one foot nine inches wide and one foot three inches deep shall be carried in the ordinary stateroom has dome vast
 deaf toward emancipating the ordinary traveller from the thralldom of impedi-
 menta.
 rTko,a ,.a. ery,,t. J,itu ,af E11ropea 1IYo-