The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-09-10
September 10. 1897

jolly people, with all kinds of amuse.
ments, side-shows, merry-go-rounds,
swings. games-and beer tables In
spite of all this though, l have not
seen an intoxicated man on the CONT
nent and but one in Great Britain.
Travelling is not as pleasant or COM
Portable over here as at home. The
trains are generally very slow, track
poor and cars wretched. Sometimes
they run fast enough between sta
tions, but they make such exasperat-
ing long stops, while the train crew
will dance around ringing bells and
blowing horns, evidently accomplish
ing nothing and not apparently know
ing "wheresthey are at"
Some Of the street car lines are
curious. In Holland the driver car
ries bell in his hand about like an
ordinary dinner bell, and rings 1T on
approaching crossings. In Antwerp
the driver uses horn sinstead of
bell. All street cars have first and
second class seats. One is usually as
good as the other, but everything runs
to classes in Europe.
The hotels are good of their kind,
but an American don't like the kind.
They are better on the continent than
in Great Britain. An English hotel
is gloomy place-no Office or cheer
full public room. You are assigned to
a room and expected to stay there
They usually have a dark closet-like
room in which you can smoke In the
balance of the hotel smoking is pro.
hibited. Then they have too many
rules and too much red tape in En-
glish hotels. In some we stopped at
we could not get bite to eat until
$3.50 in the morning, and dinner was
30 p. M, and lasted an hour and
half to two hours. The Table d.
Hote dinners over here are fearful
trial. All hands have to take snuff
and SneeZe together, as it were. You
can get no fish until the slOwest man
in the room has finished his soup and
the plates have all been changed, and
so on through eight courses, four or
five Of which is meat. Not bite of
bread butter, tea, coffee, cake or pie,
(pie is unknown IN Europe) and but
few vegetables, and no fruit. The
meats, however, over here, are far
superior to ours, both in quality and
cooking; but at first it came rather
hard to make a meal exclusively of
meat OF course one or two of the
-
eaten alone. One does not get much
enjoyment out of eating spinach or
cauliflower alone. These two are the
most common vegetables.
La many ways it seems to me we
are fifty years in advance of Europe.
Cities over here with half million
people, such as Liverpool and Glas-
! gov, have no better means of street
travel than old fashioned horse cars.
In many places. in the best hotels in
the town, we have had to 90 to bed
with candles for light. But few hotels
have elevators. We see but very lit
tie farm machinery in use. A great
deal of grain is being cut with
sickle. Hay is carried from the field
on the backs OF men and women, and
in many ways they are behind the
times from our standpoint, still we
might learn much from them with
profit. There is over here greater
obedience to and enforcement of law,
a more thorough understanding Of the
i obligations of citizenship and greater
Difference to the rights OF Others and
Of the public. The vandalism so COM
mon in America is not seen here.
Public parks, buildings, statues or
natural scenery are not injured, de-
faced or written on. We in America
have SO much liberty that we are apt
to abuse it, l never so fully realized
the force of the words Freedom and
Liberty as we apply them to our coun-
try as l do now, and do not think
native born Americans can fully ap-
preciate the liberty they enjoy, and
frequently abuse. Even the liberty to
hunt and fish, to drive or walk through
fields or woods or to pick the flowers in
the meadows is denied in many por-
tions of Europe, notably in Ireland.
The land in Ireland and the greater
part of Great Britain is owned by
few. 1t is entailed and kept IN the
family. The poor peasantry in Ire
land are merely tenants, not only in
the country. but in the smaller towns
as well. They can never hope to own
d uuLue. Lucy are COuuueu ny ulSu
stone walls to their little patch Of
ground. Trespass is criminal Of
tense. They are forbidden by law to
harm feather of the hordes of crows
which swarm everywhere and pull up
their potatoes unless closely watched.
Crows in Great Britain are game and
are protected for the sport of the no.
bility. | never saw so much poverty
as in Ireland. One does not wonder
that the tenants finally rebelled
against the injustice of the landlords.
Such things make one better ap-
preciate the privilege of living n the
land where sail men are created free
and equal"
The wagon roads in Europe are tlne
They are everywhere nearly equal to
asphalt pavement. The proper way
to do Europe for one who has the time
is on bicycle. Even the Alpine
passes are mainly accessible to bicycle
riders, and we have frequently wished
| for our wheels.
As this letter has been spun out
fully long enough l will close 1T. l
| feel that l have not said much of in