Evening star., 1941-05-18
The Travellers Notebook
Time Limits Big Travel Bargain in
Upstate New York; Going West
Changes, as Equipment Advice Attests

regular fees too steep. But wealth
is no barrier to the bargain, and
long, sleek cars as we'll as the bat
tered and dingy may climb for the
same charge.
Few travellers there are who fail
to remember the days prior to
streamline, air. conditioned trains
journeys in coaches that steamed
under sun that did not spare even
the luxury traveller in Pullman chair
ana private room. Today's comforts
are dramatized more pointedly by
advice to the westbound traveller in
1858, when the trip from st. Louis
to San Francisco took 25 tedious,
gruelling days by stagecoach. Trav-
elers had, 1t is true, an alternative
the dubious comforts of a windjam-
mer that would round Cape Horn
and heave into sight of the Golden
Gate some six months later.
Dug up from the musty past that
only centenarians can remember Is
a copy of the Overland Mail Maga-
zine for 1858, suggesting travel
equipment that warned of danger in
the Western country as well as
taken-for- granted discomfort. Al
bert K. Dawson, New York travel
man, discovered the printed advice
and passed it along as an interest
ing commentary on what is now by
comparison almost overnight travel
from East to West.
Take, said the article, directing
itself to male prospective travellers
One rifle, 100 cartridges.
One Colts revolver, two pounds OF
balls, a pound of powder.
A bowie knife and sheath.
A jair of thick boots and woolen
socks.
Three woolen shirts, six under
shirts
A wide felt hat, a cheap sack coat,
a soldiers overcoat.
One pair of heavy blankets If sum-
mer, two if winter. 4
A tarpaulin.
Six towels, three pairs Of thick
drawers.
Hairbrush, comb and soap in oil
silk bag: pins, needles and thread.
DR.. Dawson points out, of the list,
only the comb and brush need re-
main, unless, of course, a roughing-
it trip suggests the woolens and
boots. Bachelor-travelers can dis
pense even with the essentials In
sewing kit. Stewardess-nu on
the streamliners-porterS, in a pinch
can help out in emergencies.
n n * X
Invented In San Francisco In 1873,
cable cars flourished in many a city,
then died. Today they are a quaint
memory, identified dimly with the
Gay Nineties: yet they still survive in
San Francisco, where the topography
of the downtown area, with its steep
inclines, conspres to bar modern
electric trans and keep the little
grip" cars alive. And therein lies a
travel experience.
Jaunty little conveyances they are,
swaying up one hill. lurching over
the top, plunging down another.
Wherever they go, their speed is
the same-91a miles an hour. Those
who board first get reserved" seats,
where one sits outside, facing the
curb for the view. It's like a movie.
Through Chinatown, with its pa
goda-ed caves, Oriental costumes,
odd little shops: through the finan-
cial district; down to the big ships
and white-sailed yachts in the bay.
Look out for the curve" the grip
man shouts. His passengers get a
flrmer hold on their seats as he
clangs the warning bell and pulls
back big lever to tighen the cars
purchase on the cable. Round the
curve the cable, gliding in a slot in
the street, carries the dinky vehicle,
then, perhaps. up another incline.
It's thrilling ride, this. Gay Nine