Hide Article Text (OCR)
To make a trip to Europe wad once considered quite an achievement on the part of a private citizen of this country, but has at length become one of the most, ordinary circumstances imaginable. Elaborate books are no longer written about it, and the society man who has visited Europe is no longer a temporary hero. It is much cheaper to erase over and pass a few months at Paris or Vienna than it is to spend the summer at an Eastern watering place. During the first six months of 1880, 10,050 saloon passengers sailed from New York for trans-Atlantic ports, and the statistics for the corresponding time of the present year indicate an increase of 2,260. The exodus during the past two months has been heavier than for the same time of last year, and it is estimated that the total number of passengers will aggregate 32,000 before fall weather sets in. May and June seem to be the favorite months chosen for the ocean voyage. ' That great benefits are derived by the nation at large from this disposition to observe life and civilization in older lands there is little question. Many who go return as frivoldus os they went, and perhaps more insipid. The majority are improved by the expedition. The contrast between Republican institutions and the aristocratic institutions of Europe is a favorable one. On the other hand we are far surpassed in art, culture, antiquities, and perhaps inefficient government. There is much to learn ; provincialism receives a severe blow, and liberal ideas are engendered. A nation of travelers can never be far behind the rest of the world. The only unpleasant feature of the business is that the average price of tickets each way is $100, and the thirteen steamship companies that carry these 32,000 passengers are all foreign corporations. The mere expenditure for ocean fare represents the sum of $6,400,000. Presuming that the average expense of each tourist for tire whole trip amounts to $500, the total expense rises to the dignity of $16,000,000. The ^ probabilities are that European trips*annually drain this country of atleast $20,000,000, foi eyery tourist usuallyendeavors to bring back all the plunder he or she can safely get through the wide portals of the Gusfcom-house. An offset exists, however,in the considerable sum of motley annually brought into this country by European immigrants. On the whole the disposition of our people of means to travel abroad in such unusual numbers is not to be severely deprecated. • The real cause of regret is, that there are no lines of American steamships to partially accommodate the tourists.
Newspaper Details
Hoboken Advertiser
Hoboken, New Jersey, US
Sat, Oct 22, 1881
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Feb 2022
Other Publications Near Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken Advertiser
