Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-05

make her the paradise of the automo-
bilist. There are usually about 5000 au-
tomobile parties from America touring
in France during a single season, and
in these parties there are some 10000
Americans. 1t is estimated that they
alone drop $25,000,000 of good American
coin in the course of their travels.
French bankers think that the total
income of that country from tourists
amounts to more than a half billion
dollars. Even Egypts toll on the tour
list amounts to as much annually as
would be required to rebuild the library
of congress.
1t is great boon to a given region to
become tabled in song or story. The
Prisoner of Chillon has brought many
a shekel to the region of Lake Geneva,
and the Lady of the Lake has done
equally we'll by Loeb Lomond. The
lake country of England draws a
host of literary tourists. Lake Lueerne
is the most frequented lake in the
world. In an off year it's steamboats,
carried more than a million and a half
of people and thousand tons of bag
gage.
But Europe has no gripping monopoly
on the American tourist. South Amer
lea, the West Indies Mexico and the
Orient are each year getting larger
share of the tourist business from the
United States and Canada. Jamaica,
with its splendid roads, it's wide range
has become one of the favorite winter
resorts, and Cuba, with it's great new
automobile race course and its new
roads, is also making bid for the man
who has time and money to spend.
Everywhere the world has wide open
arms for the tourist. He brings new
ideas and plenty of money, and goes
laden down with things which cost lit
tie and sell high.
To meet the constantly expanding
tourist business new passenger steam
ers by the score are being built and
placed in commission. In a single
month as many as fifty big transat-
lantic liners will leave New York
alone, with passenger lists ranging
from 200 to $500, and nine-tenths of
those aboard will carry tourist trans
portation. 1t is not to the important
folk who engage cabins de luxe that
the steamship companies look for their
revenue, nor indeed even to Che first
cabin passengers, but to what they
call the middle millions"
It is remarkable how much it costs
to send one of those big liners across,
and how much it takes to stock one
of them The expenses of a single trip
may total $4,000. The provisions are
supplied on large scale. Meat equiv
alent to the weight of 227 men; ham,
sausage and chicken equal to the
weight of fifty men; some $50 barrels
of flour, $4,000 eggs, and 1000 quarts of
milk are some of the larger items of a
ships larder. But as trip nets the
steamship company at least $4,000.
they have no objection to a we'll filled
larder One of the big steamship COM
panies used 1900 beeves, $4,000 hogs,
$4,000 sheep, 100000 eggs, $4,000
pounds of coffee, and 1,1S9,000 cigars in
a single year.
The railroads are getting consider
To-.
of Americans who are spending their
vacations abroad. They are the people
who used to fill up the mountain wa
tering place and the seaside resort,
and they have been profitable patrons
Of the railroads and the innkeepers.
How to turn the tide back to the shores
of America and keep it there Is ques-
ton with which they have labored
earnestly and long. But they have
never made much Roadway in the So
luton of the problem. At one time it
looked as if the See America first"
movement might accomplish that pur-
pose, but tens of thousands still go
Yellowstone park or the Grand can
yon.
One of the most remarkable evidences
of the widespread taste for travel is
the vast number of books of travel and
Sulu6 DOCKS Wnen
one comes to look up the literature on
the subject he finds no place too remote
to have a guide book describing 1t, nor
too far away to be told about fully by
some writer of travels. In fact, the
literature of travel is one of the most
complete there is. And it is being
added to with wonderful rapidity. Fur
thermore, 1t Is always popular. A we'll
written book of travel or a carefully
prepared series of newspaper travel
stories has always been popular, and
never so much so as at present. Those
who cannot be tourists may be read
ers. The day when one-half the people
did not know how the other half lived
has almost passed The descriptive
writer and the camera have brought
the whole world into recognizing famil-
iarity with the rest of humanity.
Tt is the prediction of tourist agents
that the business of globe trotting is
yet in its infancy. They assert that for
every one that goes at least two others
are inspired to go on his return, and
that thus the business is bound to ex-
pand. Seasons of depression cause the
tide of tourists to ebb, but good times
and free money make 1t to Tow in more
genial current than ever. The tourist
agents see many fat years ahead. They
offer some consolation for the quarter
billion dollars that departs from our
shores with the tourists by saying that
at least half of it comes back with the
foreigners who come across to look us
over, and that it is not going to be
many years until the tide of tourist
money which flows this way will equal
that which flows the other way. Eu-
rope is learning that all things of in
terest do not lie east Of the Atlantic -
Copyright 1909. by Frederic ]. Haskin)
TomorrOw-The Hemp Industry.