Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-08-27
Cities
o"d People
What Makes
Them Leave?
By ROBERT ]. LEWIS

VAoNCA dSCL4Cy.
1t was called Americans
Abroad-Spokesmen for the
U. S. A"
So many of our co-workers
were just back, on their way,
or travelling abroad that we
had got to wondering what
inspired them to leave.
So we made our own
travel-agency survey, picked
up all the folders we could
lay our hands on, and came
to some tentative conclu-
SionS.
What stopped us cold, at
first, was that little blue
booklet issued by the People
to-People Program.
ANY way you look at it,
representing our country
overseas is a pretty big as
signment unless you're pre-
pared for it, the booklet
said.
Then came a series of
questions. The booklet ex-
planned that Americans
would be likely to encounter
such queries abroad.
One of the first to catch
our eye was this:
why has the United
States been so reluctant to
stop its nuclear weapons
teSts?"
The suggested answer:
THE United States is quite
willing to stop testing nu-
clear weapons if it can be
sure of adequate safeguards
and controls
- = =
NEITHER the question nor
answer can be of very much
help to our co-workerS going
abroad, since the United
States stopped nuclear test
ing in October, 1858.
But the other travel fold
erS were very much on the
ball, and up to date. So much
so, in fact, that we wonder
whether these travel-folder
writer's are not hiding their
light under a bushel.
The things they know
about how to make cities ap-
pear attractive for people
seem to be boundless.
They have an unerring
knack for putting their fin
gers on the details that make
cities irresistible.
In pictures and text, they
have tucked away in their
gaily colored pamphlets all
the genial, timelesS symbols
of the magnetic city that
can be counted on to pola-
rize ones imagination.
IT'S TRUE cities need
such matter-of-fact items as
sewers, expresSways, rapid
transit lines and all the
other paraphenalia of mod
ern life.
But cities also need a little
joy, zest, verve and spirit.
This is what the travel
folder writer's can supply.
Consider Paris. Certainly
it has its sewers. But the
travel-folder writer couldn't
care less.
"Glittering gem of all En-
rope he writes. "Sophisti-
Gated city of adventure-gay
unusual - beautiful-full
of moods and excitement.
Paris has a vitality and a
vivacity that cannot be
matched anywhere in the
world. There is nothing quite
like it's traffic, it's coSmopol-
itan crowds, gay street cafes,
its bustling, broad, tree-lined
boulevards. There's plenty of
time for returning to the
Louvre, poking in bookstallS
on the left bank, doing the
shops or a fashion show,
or thrilling to Paris by
night. -"
And the pictures?
Artists Sketching along the
Seine open-air dining
in Copenhagen's Tivoli Gar
dens brightly lit night
scene along West Berlin's
Kurfuerstendamm E. prom
aderS on the Via Veneto
=
TO THE travel-folder writ
erS, cities are delightful be-
cause they are filled with all
kinds of things that are de-
lightful to people.
Every sound tn at in
trigues, every sight that
rivets attention-these are
the things that concern
them. The scent of smol-
dering joss sticks, and the
click clack of nah jong
counters faScinate the writ
ers of travel folders because
they know these are matters
which faScinate people.
GeraniumS tumbling in
downtown profusion, old
gentlemen doing in street.
side cafes, the gaiety of
- lln.i.an. .anir4n 4lnnn Alnn.r