The evening times., 1899-02-02
Si2lttSeP;uE,

Inis Int, fable-which may or may not
| be founded on fact-appears IN the news
from Europe:
\ nan. vith lis Hiia and daughter. having only
,u. Ily 20 -F,,rd in the famous old city Of Flor
.u.e ard DESIRING 10 see al the sights. made an
equitable division 81 the labor. The wife took in
,Uc chgGalc- tie daughter visited the art CALLER
/ jas and Tie ,uau sampled the saloons Thus all
rarli,- vrre satisfied and all conscicnccs eased.
While j; might not be desirable to fol-
I low the example OF this family in all par
ticulars-lhc head of it, if he visited all
/ the saloons in Florence. must have been
( in ra her a deplorable condition at the
! end of his day-there is a crumb Of solid
| sense IL their way of looking at things.
! The fable teaches that when people of
different tastes go sightseeing they can
! oconomize money and time if they do not
. insist on keeping together.
There is perhaps no city in the United
States which is more frequented by sight
/ seers than Washington. New York re-
ceires myriads of strangers in the course
/ OF a year. but most Of them come on some
/ sort of business. The same may be said
/ OF Boston and Chicago. Visitors in this
/ city. on the contrary, nearly always spend
I a great part of their time in sightseeing
| devoting themselves to it with a zeal and
| perseverance which should bring about bet
ter results than is sometimes the case.
The sightseer is, of course, especially in
evidence at inauguration time; and the
mistakes which he makes are also con-
spicuous. II is especially foolish for peo-
pie OF differing tastes TO try TO keep togeth-
er in a crowd. They are a'ways getting sep
arated and then more time is spent in
| searching for the lost sheep than it would
take 10 see the National Museum. The
| interests Of Washington are varied. The
! person who is equally fascinated by all
the notable sights of this city must have
catholic tastes. OF the family which ar
rives here on excursion tickets, with only
limited time to spend in seeing every
| thing, perhaps one member is especially
interested in seeing Congress; another is
anxious to study the Museum; third de-
| lights in the Corcoran Art Gallery and
! the beauty of the Congressional Library;
and another wishes only to poke about in
| all the odd corners ferreting out histori-
| cal traditions, and enjoying the atmos-
| phere of the place. Washington is a city
of magnificent distances in more than one
sense. and if this family is determined to
J remain united, the chances are that each
| member will return home at the end of
! the allotted time with a tumble of con-
| fused memories, an aching head. lame
| body, and a dissatisfied feeling In ali
travels about the city there will be one
member of the party who is perfectly hap
Ply, one who is bored in the extreme. and
the others Will be in different stages of
| lubewarm interest. If each person deter
mines TO see what he or she would most
ly enjoy, and the family assemblies at night
| to recount experiences and make plans,
| the whole party will be satisfied, and il
will generally be found that these wan
derings need not be entirely solitary, since
| there are some things which will appeal to
all.
1t is bad enough to try on a sightseeing
tour, to take in all the sights which one
would like to see, if time be limited and
expeditions must be crowded into a few
short days; but worse than this is the en-
deavor to see in addition all that interests
somebody else. Many Americans who go
TO Europe make this mistake, and it spoils
most of their pleasure. They try to see,
not what they would really enjoy. but the
things which somebody else tells them
they ought to see; and they come out of
the ordeal with overtaxed brains and col