New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-08-20
COOK. OF TOURIST FAME.
THE STORY OF THE GREAT PROMOTER
OF MODERN PLEASURE TRAVEL

NV PERMISSION Of The Leonard Scott Publica-
ton Company
II is no uncommon experience to hnd thdt the
personal traits of remarkable man are coy
nred M, or uartialIv obscured by the work he
has done The edCc he has raised standing
four square aud firmly based, looms 50 IA Sc III
the public eye That tEa architect hlnlsch-Whd
manner Of man he was. and what his methods
his views and opinions and ways OF thought, MS
tastes and habits-may be lost ssht OF OF
passed By \ nineteenth century worthy on
who did great things for his kiLd-not LOT MS
own countiymcn only, nor for any particular
tlass of men, hut for the whole W )r.d, LOT ever!
nationality and for every country Wlthlh tny
frontiers Of civiliZation-has recently al, u anu
although his best epitGph ia like wren Ut
cumspi"c" not even vile survey OF ms
achievements and the enduring Dement'S tlat
have followed in their track, VIII do tuH justice
to the memory of John Mason Cook 1et ne
richly deserves some consistent attempt To APP
preciate him at his true vale: ii Is httlnS that
due justice should be done TO his hgh quaN-
les his generous nature his extraordinary
Eifts: that we should conslder briefly the lead-
ing features OF his remarkable and most sue
cessful career. This can be best Accomplished
BY tracing him through life from the compare
lively small beginnings. the Limitations 6nd dit
fculties Of early days, to his mastery conduct
of a gigantic business which has placed him in
the first rank OF the foremost Englishmen OF
his time.
John Cook was born in 1894 and strangely
Interesting. even pathetic. piclure has been pre-
served of his childhood and adolescence Mar
row means at hOme-thc home Of q leicester
thire temperance lecturer and enthusiast, VINO
gave to tie propagation Of principles much time
which he might more prCitably have applied TO
his handiCraft-fOrbade heightened or elabo-
safe cduc3tion the scholar still at the hOrnbook
Uas already earning wages; at fourteen ne Iett
school altogether, and what he knew in after
life land he knew much he had acquired Tor
himself. lie broken to harness almost as
On infant. and We hear Of him, child of eleven,
nlarshalling troops of other children at a school
feast. Then he stood at the ease and set type
in a printing office till the great muscular
strength with which he was endowed sent him,
by natural selection to the "press"-for those
Ecre the days before the adaptation Of steam to
printing processes and he labor entailed severe
physical eXertiOn. But 10 use his strength was
JOY to him: lac thought nothing of walking SIX
miles every day TO and from his work or OF sit
ting up the whole night through to strike off
couple Of thousand double royal posters, which,
without rest or pause. he would himself dis
tribute next morning through the neghboring
owns
At sixteen his father intrusted party OF a
hundred tourists TO his in the Trossachs,
Journey only completed through that uncon-
qucrable resolve to keep faith with the public
which has ever been one of the best traditions
bf his firm. At seventeen, when the whole
country was agOg to visit the Great Exhibition
h 1851, young John helped to convey some
10000 visitors from the M!dlan1s to London,
working so inde;atgaby hat he often travelled
by train five days and nights at time without
a moments pause. The lad, with characteristic
ICsOurccfulress had conceived a brilliant plan
Of his own to secure support: he would proceed
from Derby to some Midland town with an
empty excursion train. tn IN parade the place
whit vans ara q brass band. and, capturing
the millhands as they came from work on pay
day. carry them of bodily to the train in wait
ing, ana so 10 London ana back again. Later,
when the demands of the French Exhibition Of
1867 ab soTbed all the energies Of the father he
devoted himself 50 assduously to the home ex
cursion traffic that FOR a hundred nights he
never once slept in bed, and was often per
Ietually on the move. lie had had a sharp
training in this when in the employment Of the
Midland Railway, and for three years, during
the season Of summer traffic. ne worked on
average eighteen hours out OF the twenty -four
This rare power of enduring fatigue that would
have broken down many men he retained al
most to the last. Bat when years OF railway
travelling. which averaged annually some forty
thousand miles, produced certain alarming
symptoms. he made a discovery that may 5e
worth giving To the public He found that the
threatened trouble. something 50 nal. disap-
peared when he no longer sat with his oack
to the engine He always thereafter faced IT,
and that the principle is sound Will he borne
out by others whom ne advised to DO the same
the present writer included. All who are called
upon to do much railway travelling will be wise
to sit facing the horses.
THE vEsUvIUs RAILWAY.
Keenness of vision business ins tinct intui-
tive and unerring. were among his leading quail
4tCs. lie had the readicst Judgment in seeing
O. likely opening and WhrT" it would lead. IL
was on this account, no doubt that he acquired
the NcsdYluS Railway. advancing money to its
half bankrupt CcECcsSionair,s and in due course
securing possession Of the linz. He had Ia make
good his right not only against litgants in the
Italian courts. but also against the truCulent
mountajpccrS who would have denied him pos
session. The inhabitants Of the little village of
ReSina were long lntractahlc for they fore
saw Il new regime that would not submit to
their eXaCtirns They had backmalled the
previous holders Ly eXtortlnS "A payment OF 600
year, besides a poll tax levied upon all travel
lers who came UP The mountains to the tune OF
az francs head Nj. Cook altogether rejected
any such proposals.. ana was Al cprc net with
fierce r"plI-aS. The WOiintdlIeerS attacked and