The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-30
MADE MANY MILES AF00T
DIR. c. L. FLETCHER's INTERESTING
TOUR OF ENGLAND.
He walked Eight Hundred Miles and
Had Unusual Experiences-Saw
the Coronation.


yesterday from England, where he spent
three months in travel. During that time
DR.. Fletcher covered $500 miles of territory.
He walked 500 miles and the remaining
$500 miles was made on trains, carriages
and stage coaches over the highways and
byways of England, sleeping and eating at
roadside inns and the entire time living
with common Englishmen instead OF visit
ing the usual haunts of American tourists.
He returned on the steamship Celtic. said
to be the largest passenger steamer afloat,
and on this trip her passenger list and
crew brought the total number of souls
aboard up to 5000 In the passenger list
Swedes were in the majority, and about
1850 of them who intend making Iowa their
home formed a Swedish colony by them
selves. There were preachers. school teach
ers and representatives from all walks OF
life in Sweden in the party.
The daughter of ]. Pierpont Morgan and
her husband, who were passengers on the
Celtic, were met off Sandy Hook by Mr..
Morgan with his yacht. the Corsair, and
after passing the quarantine station were
taken aboard and into New York city. Dur
ing the passage the Celtic ran into one Of
the equinoctial storms prevalent on the At
lantic at this season, and for three days
was rocked and tossed by it. DR.. Fletcher
says that the storm, without considering
the unpleasantness of its terrors, was a
grand spectacle, and the sight of the great
waves increased each minute by the high
wind will never be forgotten by him.
HIS LONG WALK.
DIR. Fletcher's travels through England
and Wales afoot were very interesting, he
says. His walks averaged from ten to
twenty miles day, and taking his time
and stopping to rest at interesting points
on the way he systematically covered all of
the territory through which he walked, and
found places of interest seldom visited by
Americans doing England" He formed the
acquaintance of many typical Englishmen
cultivated the society of the lower
classes, and, patterning after Dickens and
other English writers, who got close to the
people through association with them,
found material for good stories. DR.. Fletch-
er found that to know an Englishman one
should get at him in the taverns, inns and
public houses. He relates one incident of
the native Britisher's braggadocia, as
shown in an alteration between himself
and deep-cheSted man in Wayside pub
lie house in Devonshire
DR.. Fletcher had entered the inn and
called for a pot of some beverage, and
while waiting for it engaged in a general
conversation with the fifteen other GUS
toners of the place. He ventured con-
graduation that England had successfully
was complmenting the Englishmen on the
success of their arms. when one of the
men interrupted him by saying that the
Americans, despite their fighting qualities
as told by themselves, had signally failed
in their Philippine campaigns. He stated
that when he returned from South Africa,
where he served in the army, he landed at
Plymouth, and shortly after his arrival
there was met by the American consul,
who offered a bonus to him If he would
enlist for American service in the Philip
pines He refused to accept the offer, he
said and on this assertion based his argu-
ment that the Americans could not whip
the Filipinos.
Dr. Fletcher says he is surprised that he
held his temper long enough to call the
man liar. but that he did, and when he
censured the man for telling such an un-
truth he was supported by the other Eng
lishmen present, who rated their fellow
countryman soundly for his offense.
VISITED HALL GAME.
On the Isle of Man DIR. Fletcher visited
Hall Game, the novelist, at his home. and
spent an hour talking to him of his books.
He says Mr.. Game is a modest, unassum-
his own contributions to English literature.
More than fifty old cathedrals and thirty
five castles, some of them crumbling with
age, were visited by DR.. Fletcher, and in
the historical narratives from the voluble
guides who take tourists through the ruins,
he secured a firsthand knowledge of Eng
lish history and Legendary. Dartmoor Elk
moor Mt Snowden, through the Valley Of
the Wye, In Cornwall-"Cousin Jacks
country-in Devonshire, Oxford, Cambridge
and the cathedral towns and trip to the
Isle of Wight were among the interesting
incidents of the tour. The coronation of
King Edward was witnessed after a trip to
London, and DR.. Fletcher, from position
of vantage near the Horse Guards gate,
got an excellent photograph of His Majesty
when he on his way to Westminster
Abbey to be crowned. This picture Is but
one of $50 views taken.
There is one thing that makes England
a miserable country to live in" said DR..
Fletcher. land that is the climate. 1t is a
foggy, chilly, wet, disagreeable place the
year around, and l wore an overcoat every
day of my stay there. There were no fires
in the dwelling houses most of the time,
and TO person used to our climate 1t is
an unpleasant omission. The open air con-
sumption treatment is very popular with
medical men in England now and is being
experimental with In all of the hospitals
The men in charge of the experiments re-
port success, although L think that the
cures which they claim are but temporary
and that the relapSe of the patient into his