The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-05-16
SEEK OTHER SHORES.
PEOPLE OF LEISURE SET SAIL FOR
EUROPE.

RThis VIII BE Record Breaking Season.
S16O,OOO,OOO Will BE Expended by Amer
lean Travellers Abroad Every Outgoing
Steamship Laden With Passengers.
The European exodus of tourists is
now we'll under way, and all the out
going transatlantic steamships are
crowded The piers of the principal
lines are taxed to accommodate the
great numbers of friends and relatives
who congregate to bid passengers good
by. Travel Europeward for several
weeks to come will be very heavy.
1t is estimated that fully 500 persons
sailed for Europe ON May /, and larger
numbers have sailed on succeeding
days. Many rich Americans are anx-
lous to get over to London as soon as
possible, SO as to make arrangements
for good seats to witness the queens
jubilee parade.
If you 60 to the steamship offices in
New York, you will be told that the
tourist travel is disappointing. If you
go to the pier when liner slips into
Nor h river, you will see her laden to
the gunwale with the beauty and fash
ion of the land.
The transatlantic steamship confer
ence suppresses the figures. The secre-
tary, Lawson Sanford, says they would
be disappointing if they were knowh.
But the steamship companies in the
conference are none the less doing the
largest business they have ever done and
will find some difficulty in doing more
with their present facilities.
Not less than $4,000 American tour
lists will leave for Europe this year.
There were, according to the custom
house figures, SO, 900 last year. Tray
eled persons and their friends, agents
and bankers, say that the queens jubi-
lee will add at least 20 per cent to this
figure, bringing the number up to more
than 80, 000
These 80, 900 tourists will spend not
less than $3.50, 900, 900, which amounts
to considerable more than the total
value of the annual gold and silver
product of the United States.
Not every one of these 80, 900 tourists
pays his pro rata of this $3.50, 900, 900,
of course, but most of them spend more.
Five hundred dollars apiece is none too
high an estimate for preparation, as old
travellers will testify. This item has the
sound advantage of not being spent
abroad. Much Of the passage money is
spent also in this country, but all the
Test-and it amounts to more than
500, 200, 000-goes to enrich shopkeep-
ers, hotels and railroads operating in
foreign countries.
The steamship companies estimate
the average cost of passage at $3.50. 1t
runs higher in many cases. The lowest
price made by the American line for
first cabin passage, for instance, is 5000
and the highest 81, 100. In the case of
$50 first cabin passengers who sailed
recently on the st. Paul the average
price was not much less than $500.
Taking the lowest estimate, for the
sake of conservatism, we find that the
price of passage for so, 900 tourists, at
$3.50 each, is $12, 600, 900.
The lowest intelligent estimate on
the average cost of the European tour is
81, 250. In this estimate the somewhat
doubtful proposition is conceded that
the tourists spend little in Europe ex-
cept what is required for actual travel
and living expenses. AS a matter of
fact, it is rare that woman ever goes
to Europe for pleasure who does not buy
her gowns in Paris, and scarcely man
comes back until he has lavished con-
siderable money on things European
that strike his fancy. But the bankers
aid i'll making up this estimate by say
ing that the drafts and letters of credit
issued to the tourists average about
1880. For 80, 900 of them that means
$108, 600, 000
Altogether the cost of American trav-
ell in Europe in 1897 will be round
$3.50, 900, 600. -Exchange.