THE WANDERING AMERICAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 72

THE WANDERING AMERICAN.

(Extract from Mrs Sherwood's Article in the "Smart Set" Magazine.) It has become the useful fashion for a number of young girls, matronised perhaps by one a little older, to travel over Europe very cheaply, for purposes of study and sight-seeing. It is a mo&t commendable curiosity that sends these young wor/n abroad. They come home vastly enlightened. If they choose to stay as newspaper women or artists, or simply as bachelor maids, no one can say a word about them. The worst that can befall seems to be that they do not find very comfortable quarters in the cities where they must eat and sleep, even when looking at Notre Dame. HoAvever, a great city that undertakes to feed people with slender purses Las all sorts of caravansaries. They do not suffer as St. Louis and his crusaders suffered at Acre. The world has softened since 1248. Yet the 11, G00 virgins who wander over Europe sometimes complain that they have met the Tartar army and have not driven them back. Terrifying tales of the appearance, numbers, and ferocity of female boarding-house keepers — women who neither take nor give quarter — follow the wanderers home. Indeed, the' avarice of a certain class has made travelling for these economical girls a very painful experience, although there are few dangers in their pathway, and Cook, that universal soother of travel, can always suggest a way out of the difficulty. Even in Spain, a country proverbially 3000 years behind the rest of Europe, there is a great change for the better now that French railroads and Cook tickets and Swiss landlords are distributed through its picturesque defiles. The American soldier and sailor, wherever he wanders, is now recognised as a hero. This is the time for him to travel. He can go as Nelson travelled after the battle of the Nile, a creature to be cheered and applauded, honoured by kings, worshipped by women, and admired of all people ; for the love of courage never dies, and hero worship is inherent • in us all. , . . One American peculiarity has not left our American — "he still huiries" too much. ' Show me everything you have got here in five minutes," he demands-. He still regrets the lack of his American elevator in Europe. But he enjoys a French dinner and the soft air of Itaiy and its delicate wines. He is fond of fun, and as a national type he is very fond of his wife. Only there are exceptions. His wife ha? a "good time." It is the wandering American woman who loves Europe. She knows very well how to appropriate its artistic treasures. She has an eye to the Campanile and Giotto's Tow^er. She ' remembers her Lempriere, and knows that Ganymede was a boy. She also has a very clever knack at language ; and oh, she buys such gowns, sin^s so well and dnjv*9? such a way ! No sun on an Easter rtaj is half so fair a sight, arcl she carries with her much of her American oxygen. What with her vivacity, sparkle, and now her immense height— for we are raising a crop of asparagus girl«, who shoot up in a night, splendid Glumdak-litches, many who top 6ft ; "'divinely tall and most divinely fair" young goddesses, Dianas and Juno 1 -, AiJantas flying over the plain— the young American woman is indeed a type to be proud of. The wonder is— and still the wonder grows — how she can be so tall and still be so attractive.

The Wandering American gets all of Europe's best. lie is the honey-bee, stealing honey from every opening flower, and no doubt he rejoices that he is no longer slick Sam Slick, Uncle Sam, the Yankee, the maiked and peculiar being whom CapIjiu Basil Hall, Mrs- Trollope, Dickens, and Kipling have painted him. The Wandering Amciiaui starts fiifet for London — or bus done ■-v htictofore— if ht kaves New Wi A&ril or Mav_. London is still

there, the place where the heai't of the universe beats loudest, the place best Avorth, seeing in this world. The Wandering American already knows it well, if he has travelled, but the new Wanderer would better learn it in the summer, when he will nob be distracted by the anxieties of social precedence. Euriil England is a thing of bsauty, and no summer is misspent that is given to England alone. The Wandering American loves Paris and tue Continent. The month of August atHomburg has heretofore been the dear delight of the Wanderer who expected to meet the Prince of Wales at that gay and cosmopolitan watering place. Alas ! there are no more cakes and ale for him. He has, it is said, done much flirting there in his salad days with fair Americans. He is now relegated to the gloomy solitude of a throne. The quiet German watering places all have their quota of princes and grand dukes, who are admired and courted by the Wandering American. "One goes to Aix-les-Bains to be washed, to Schwalbach to be dried and ironed, ' say the London physicians.