The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1921-07-30
EXAMINER MAN WRITES FROM
CALIFORNIA, AND OFFERS
SOME NEW IDEAS
Places and Peoples Evoke PhilOsophi-
Staying at Long Beach
(By J. C. Harrigan)

find that tourists are not merely
sight seers nor pleasure seekers.
While this element enters into the
trips of most of them, yet there
seems to be an underlying impulse
to better the condition. either from
a standpoint of health, climate or
finance. The tourist has keen eyes
before he gets through. for keenness
is necessary to self preservation.
I am sometimes amazed at the
price which one pays for use of the
other fellows brains. You know
that's the basis of business-we pay
the other fellow for the things we
want or have to buy, and we pay in
proportion to his demand or our need.
A tourist who wishes to travel with
out using his own ingenuity or physi-
cal ability has to pay high. In Ana
conda I had the hotel bring two grips
from the depot, and it cost 81. In
leaving, I called a taxi, bundled my
wife and four grips into it, and 1t
cost SOC for the whole works to the
depot. 1t was simply a matter of
handling my own business myself,
or of paying the other fellow for
tending to my business. This prin-
cipal is unchanged any place | have
been. I can specify what I will pay
at hotel, and get good room for
that amount. Or l can appear
oblivious to what may be charged,
and I am charged plenty in addition
to what it is worth. This same prin-
cipal holds true in sightseeing trips
The commercial traveller is the man
who is forming the basis of protec-
tion to tourists, if they will follow
his example. He is cold blooded in
his expenses, for they are not his
own but are met by his house. He
refuses to be exploited. The tourist
learns to expect exploitation and ex-
tortion, but instead of applying bust
ness principles to his expenditures,
merely curses and becomes suspicious
of everybody.
Exploitation of a tourist is the
surest way of committing business
suicide for city, town or business
house. Honesty, courtesy, and an
expression of good will, are real fac
tors in the growth of any community,
and will eventually attract the best
people. Witness the development of
the west. The old west was a mecca
for hospitality until it was corrupted
by the eastern nickle-squeezer, who
apparently learned his profession
from the "made in Europe" immi-
grant.
In every city a tourist has to
learn how things are best done
Some amazing things are discovered
For instance, in coming from Los
Angeles to Long Beach-a city of
nearly 100000 people-there is only
one way of checking baggage on
railway, and that is by coming on
the Salt Lake Ry. The Pacific Elec-
trio, owned by the Southern Pacific,
will not check baggage on ticket
but will advise that baggage be sent
by express. One does not go from
Los Angeles or Long Beach to San
Diego or other towns in southern
California by train, but by stage,
which is quicker, generally cheaper,
and carries hand baggage free, and
offers better scenery.
At Colorado Springs one comes in
to the city by one depot and returns
by another one half mile away
At Kansas City there is no smoking
on any street car. In New Mexico
the law requires Jim Grow com
partments for Negroes, but greasy
Mexican can crowd next to you. One
may eat in the best dining cars in
shirtwaist in summertime, but at
Needles, Ariz., at 120 degrees, a man
must wear coat in the station
dining room. A Pullman coach on
some railroads is not as good as
tourist car on some other roads
Wealth or social position is not nee
essarily discernable from the appear
ance of a traveller. More Odd Fel-
low badges are seen than of any
other lodge, which might indicate
that Odd Fellows are more proud OF
their order, or that there are more
Odd Fellows, or that more Odd Eel
lows are on the move, or that more
of them wear badges, or that-weii,
do your own guessing.
Gasoline prices in the IL states