Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-15

~ f. i ]. f. + i siff1
the silent. apologetic attitude they put
on as second nature while they hustle
through their holiday. They are in for
1t now, and they know, too, If they
figure it out, that they are receiving
good value so far as transportation
and the number of their meals and
lodgings
Doubtless the hour of their glory Is
the time when they have returned 10
their homes and can talk of the Won
ders they have seen and the strange
lands visited. irrespective of the dis
comforts they have put up with and
the indiglties they have suffered Ger
tainly, they do not like the usual trav-
eier, seem to joy, as they go along In
the old paths, for the hurried fright
ened. unhathed air never leaves them,
hurled as they are from picture gall
lery to cathedral and from boat to
train.
The evil shows no sign of abatement.
On the contrary, other companies.
spurred on by the success of the first
pioneers of the gang tourist idea, are
planning other and cheaper trips, and,
figuring closely as they do on each
nights lodging and each meal, it Will
he seen at once that one person is
going to suffer alone by this reduction
and that is the tourist
In the CalCulatlOn ne Is reCRoneQ just
as a horse or sheep would be- as
, requiring so much food and so many
beds, 50 many days keep and trans
uortation. If the Rushem company can
take a tourist for $40 through France,
then the Pushem company figures out
to take him for $25 AMI the tourist
buys the new ticket. bleating loudly
about mis- bargain and never thinking
that he alone loses by the transaction
in cheaper hotels poorer fare. worse
hoats and trains, and even more un-
earthly hours for catching them.
Why do people choose this means of
travel? For Cheapness. yes; but this
is not all There are any number of
humans who have a dread of being
clone. Even at home they live in board
Ing houses. for they must have COM
panionship or as they sometimes call
it, Society
The Most Frequent Sign
The idea of Europe alone would
douby alright them; the strange
tongues. the money, the getting about
it all seems too impossible How are they
to know that there are now many
English ticket offices in the foreign cap
itals-interpreters at all stations and
docks, as we'll as at hotels, and that the
sign English Spoken Here" is the most
frequent one on the continent?
So you will see many people, whose
means are ample to enable them TO
travel comfortably and leisurely. loiter-
ing where they found it pleasant or
when the weather forbade start, en-
during all the evils Of this gang travel
and taking upon themselves the odium
of other gangs that have done this sort
of thing for years and have earned the
scant welcome which is at present ac-
corded in European cities to those
travelling this way.
1t Is the presence of the chain gang
in Europe that Is responsible for the
many absurd ideas that exist as to the
habits and customs Of Americans
abroad. For the chain gang flaunts Its
Americanism as flamboyantly as it
avoids laundry bills and objects loudly
to paying for it's baths or providing its
own soap. These three peculiarities
have made it known in every capital
in Europe, and by ruined abbey ana
storied shrine. on the shores of the Nile
and in the Black Forest 1t scatters
soiled lingerie, collars and cutts-a YER
liable trail by which one may know
that the chain gang has passed that
way.
This indignation upon the subject of
soap becomes a thorn in the flesh by
the time the tourist band finds that it
is the custom on the continent, for
cleanly and personal reasons, for trav-
elers to have their own. 1t is not like
this at home! No, for America is not
only richer but cleaner and healthier
country, but the tourist of the gang
fails to understand the matter, just as
the continental hotel keeper looks on
this phase as the shrewd Americans
desire to evade his just expenses. So
the chain gang goes on its way, wav-
ing the flag.
Where is it all to end? With the
rivalry of the several companies en-
gagged in the management of tours,
with the eagerness with which the idea
catches persons who would never
the trip alone, and the new
inducements in the way of cheapness,
the gangs will grow to be plague and
a nuisance even more terrible than they
are now.