A Tramp Trip: How to See Europe on Fifty Cents a DayThe first-class tourist may see the beauties of a country's landscapes and scenery from the window of a palace-car, but his vision goes no further--does not penetrate below the surface. To know a country one must fraternize with its people, must live with them, sympathize with them, win their confidence. High life in Europe has been paid sufficient attention by travellers and writers. I was desirous of seeing something of low life; I donned the blouse and hobnailed shoes of a workman, and spent a year in a "Tramp Trip" from Gibraltar to the Bosporus. Some of my experiences have been related in letters to the New York World, the Philadelphia Press, the St. Louis Republican, and other American newspapers, and in my official report to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., on the condition of the laboring classes in Europe. While the following pages contain some of those newspaper letters, the greater portion is now in print for the first time. -- Preface. |
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American Appian army asked beautiful beer began black bread Black Sea Bosporus Bulgarian cents a day church clothing coffee Constantinople cost of living crowd Danube dervishes dollars door dress Earnings emperor English entered Europe eyes face father feet fellow five floor forty French gazed German girl glass Golden Horn gondola Grimsel Pass half hand head horses hour hundred Italian Italy knapsack labor lady land LEE MERIWETHER looked macaroni miles milk morning Moscow mosque mountain Naples night nose o'clock Ouida palace Paris passed passport peasant pedestrian Pompeii Pontine Marshes Professor rent Rome Russian seemed side signore sleep soldiers Stamboul stand stared steerage stood stopped streets stroll Switzerland tariffs thirty thousand took tourist town tramp trip Turk Turkish twenty Venice village wages walk walls window women young
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Page 160 - Far along, From peak to peak, the rattling crags among Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!
Page 99 - From cradle to coffin we struggle and seek, Till the fugitive years of our lives are past ; But whether our lots be blessed or bleak, We are tossed like dogs to the worms at last " What is the use of it, then, I say ? Why are we brought from the blank unknown, To weep and dance through a little day That drifts us under a burial stone ? " Another of Mr. Meriwether's foot-notes defines Baedeker as
Page 263 - In 67 months she was tapped 66 times : Had taken away 240 gallons of water, Without ever repining at her case, Or ever fearing the operation.
Page 262 - He wrote sixty-four public works, beside many other pieces ; but his greatest work was Robinson Crusoe, and as such had been commemorated in the memorial. Mr. Reed then unveiled, amid loud cheers, the monument, which bore the following inscription : — "Daniel De Foe, born 1661, died 1731, author of Robinson Crusoe.
Page 7 - Europe has been paid sufficient attention to by travellers and writers. I was desirous of seeing something of low life; I donned the blouse and hobnailed shoes of a workman, and spent a year in a 'Tramp Trip' from Gibraltar to the Bosporus.
Page 30 - The Italian government has taken possession of the excavated city of Pompeii. A law recently enacted strictly forbids strangers entering or remaining after sunset. I was anxious to see the ruins by moonlight, and resolved to spend a night in that resurrected city of the Romans, the law to the contrary notwithstanding. The preceding night had been spent on Mount Vesuvius, and early in the morning...
Page 62 - Parents work at hand-looms ; the grandmother spins (at home), attends to the children and to two goats, the milk of the goats being sold at four cents per quart.
Page 248 - Antwerp and Brussels are built solidly together. The hall-ways opening into the houses are generally dark and narrow, and the stairs leading to the upper stories exceedingly crooked and steep. Often a rope is provided to hold to when going up the steps, it being impossible, or at least dangerous, to ascend otherwise.
Page 24 - A dog in one corner was suckling a kid — the poor thing is not allowed to have its mother's milk, that being reserved for the family or sold in the market.
Page 248 - THE Belgian laborer is as industrious, perhaps, as the laborer of any other country in the world ; two circumstances, however, operate to lessen the results which his energy and labor should produce. First, the extreme density of population and consequent great amount of competition ; secondly, his habits of intemperance.