The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-12-18
SEABROOK'S TRAVELS.
Will Seabrook Continues the Story OF
His Journay Through France,
and His Impressions.
(By ". B. Seabrook.)
Snecial Herald and News.

ence, on Sixty Cents a Day. would
make an appropriate title for the
narrative Of my last weeks ramble.
The necessities Of life are cheap
enough in northern France, but here
the prices are astonishing. Many
laborers support wife and family on
So per week, while the beggars and
gamins subsist without hardship.
when necessary, on daily "expense
account" Of eight or ten cents. My
actual experiences, coupled with re-
liable information regarding locall-
ties which I have not yet visited.
have convinced me that an American
who is willing to dispense with style
and luxuries can live comfortably
anywhere in Europe, with the excep-
ton Of Switzerland, on daily ex-
penditure averaging from so to 70
cents, avoiding, of course, the tourist
hotels and patronizing instead the
places which cater exclusively to the
humber classes Of the native popula-
tion-a method whish, after all, al
fords the only real way to get ae-
quainted with the most picturesque
and characteristic phases Of Euro
pean life.
At Marseille I had no trouble in
finding a clean and airy bedroom, at
the hotel du Soleil ct des Alpes, ~
Rue des Recollettes, for twenty cents
a day. The neighborhood was modest
but thoroughly respectable, and IN a
restaurant next door, patronized by
prosperous workmen and petltes
bourgeoises, I dined for te nand flt-
teen cents, this figure not including
wine which costs an additional SIX
cents per bottle. Approximately the
sure prices prevail among establish
ments of a similar class in smaller
Provencal towns that / have visited.
These places are not frequented by
tranps, peddlers or the "poor;;" Tor
them there are other restaurants,
where they pay four or five cents for
a bed, and two cents for steamlng
bowl Of soup or hash. The existence
of such conditions is not generally
known in America, and IS equally lg-
nored by the average tra"eler, who
lives in the grand hotels ald devotes
all his time to dinners, theatres,
museums and art galleries, so l am
offering these practical data with the
hope that other young Americans who
hsve long dreamed Of visiting the old
world. but who have been deferred
by an exaggerated idea of the attend
ant expenses may be induced to un-
dertake a like experience.
When I set out from Marseille, the
hills and fields, golden with autumn
leaves and ripened harvests, we're
glowing in the warmth OF Indian
summer. The first day afoot,
crossed the little mountain ridge be-
hind the bay, skirted the inland seas
that form the eastern delta Of the
Rhone. and reached Martigues, a
fishing village whose fleets have
sailed the Mediterranean for seven
centuries. and whose boats are handed
down from generation to generation.
Aside from the fishermen, the popu-
1ation is composed almost exclusively
Of eats. The place is literally alive
with them; they crowd the streets
and overflow into the adjacent ditch
es. prowring about by night and day,
pouncing with frenzied delight upon
ravishing landscape or an odorous
fish carcass, mu1ticolored sunset or
a basket of decayed shrimp. Their
life is one long, voluptuous feast.
Heneeforth. forever, my dream OF
Paradise will be something like the
existence of the cats and painters OF
Martigues. Only, if I am accorded
the privilege Of choice. l will elect
to be cat. for I noticed that the
felines were all sleek and fat, while
the artists were gaunt and lean.
After spending the night at Martl-
cues. I shouldered my knapsack, and
with a chance como?Hi"''. @74"red the
Aria plain af Crau, with Aries forty
Kilometres distant rs o." obJe"t:v"
Airt. The Crau is a desert covered
h stones and bo1lderS. aolnhablted
barren Of vegetation, a sort OF
~ C,L,ro fhot 'hoc resist "a