New-York tribune., 1908-08-04
WOMEN WHO TRAVEL
Those Of america Constantly "on
the Go" an Summer.

Travelling alone by women started With the Co
Iumbfan exposition. in 1893 said Mary Garrett
Hav OF the woman's Travel Bureau of this city.
Before that travelled alone from necessity.
but not for pleasure"
Miss Hay OF family IN which all the
men ran railroads. less, and ever since she
was old enough to alone she has been getting
rates certifying tickets and proclaiulins official
trains for womens conventions.
Travel by women has increased enormously in
recent years. said she. and II started with the
Columbian fair That seemed to put the idea OF
taking trips into peoples heads 1t is since then
that the idea has grown UP that everybOdys got to
take a vacation once a year and every woman
who can goes somewhere during that vacation 1t
is during these years that the number of women IN
business has increased enormously. and the
business women are great travellers They don't
make such long and expensive trips. but great
numbers OF them make short and inexpensive ones
1T is within the years since the fair, you may
say. that women for the first time in history
begun to earn good salaries. salaries which would
afford them some OF the luxuries Of life. Before
that the of the stage were the only ones
who made much money You may set this
down as an axiom-every seIf-supporting woman
spends all she afford travel
Americans. and all. men and women alike.
are possessed of fever for travel. They all want
take trips They all want TO go to Europe IL
they can't do that they all want to 20 to Wash
ington to New York or go out to Colorado
and Yellowstone and the Pacific Coast You would
be surprised know the number Of women who 20
to the Thousand Islands and down the St Law
who take the alI-wateT route 10 Boston ana
up the Maine coast. Boat travel is very much on
the increase. You would be surprised at the num-
ber of women from over all the country who come
to New York City in the summer. The two untver-
stiles bring hundreds their sessions. but
thousands besides them come for periods
varying from days to two months
Why after the biennial OF womens clubs at
Boston I encountered nine women from Oklahoma
night at the Martha Washington. and after
I from the Iowa Kansas, Ne
braska, North Dakota and other Western deiesa-
tons They made their trip East include Ne"
York
There is no one who Will pinch and out OF
q small salary take comparatively ex-
pensive trips famous points like the teacher
The teacher gets educational return out OF
her trip too, l think. than almost any one else
She studies up that trip all the winter before and
knows exactly what she is going to see and why:
and when she gets back all she has seen and
learned goes out to the class again, really be
leve it would pay the school systems to help the
teachers travel.
so far my experience goes the American
married woman travels alone. for pleasure only
when she attends conventions. She very frequently
goes away with her children in the summer and
leaves her husband behind. but that is not ex-
actly travel; it is merely get the children 70
some spot in the country at the shore for din
ner. When it comes TO specific touring the nus
band and wife usually go together, and such
trips by husbands and wives increasing very
much. When married woman goes of without
her husband children it is almost invariably TO
attend some convention, and that's another big
new branch of the business Almost all this con-
vention travel among women has grown up since
1882 The Woran's Christian Temperance Union
has held national conventions for thirtyhve years.
but in the early years only the speakers. the
officers and a few prominent persons would go
from a distance The convention would be made
UP OF the people OF the place 1t sounds queer but
it is fact. that Frances Willard CHIEF in
fuenCe in starting American women to travel
alone She was such drawing card and attained
such a personal following among women that she
first stirred plain. home-staying married
make long journeys to national conventions
The biennial of the General Federation now gath
ers the greatest conventions Of women in the coun-
try and each is bigger than the last At Bos-
ton this summer between five and six thousand
women came from a distance and California sent
thirty delegates. Those who have not watched
the growth Of womens travel and wOmen's public
work do not realize what it means for thirty
women TO pay their way from California to
attend q convention in Boston
After the biennial in numbers and perhaps eI-
ceeding 1t in the wealth represented come the con-
yentions OF the Daughters Of the American Revo-
luton Then the annual conventions OF the Ma
tionaI Woman Suffrage Association have increased
steadily since 1893. when II voted not 10 hold us
convention always in Washington Every cohVeh'
ton draws most heavily on the region surround
ing the point where it is held. and after women
have been there once they are inoculateo with INC
virus and want to go again
THERE'S one distinct difference between the Ne"
England woman and the New York woman Wher-
they travel" continued Miss Hay. with laugh
The New England loves that sort or trlp
where one pays everything down in q lump sum De-
fore she starts to carriage rides ana sIreeIc
fare Then her mind is at rest: she kEoWs exacuy
how much she has spent and what she mas -e-I
over and proceeds enjoy herself Ihe Ne"
York woman is more reckless creature WhoN
spends as she goes and let Joy be unconfned Is
her motto The personally conducted trip is enor-
mously popular with New England people; not SO
much SO with New Workers"