TRAVELLING ON THE CONTINENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2688, 20 September 1905, Page 85

TRAVELLING ON THE CONTINENT.

By Edith Searle Grossmaxnv

IV.— THE CUSTOM-HOUSE FARCE.

To ladies, if not to men, the bugbear of European travel is the Customs House. And, raally, the prospect of rough mcii overhauling and dragging out the contents of one's boxes is trying to one's nerves. In Itajy and France, and even in England, it is still a great annoyance. Those who hava boxes in tlie luggage van are especially -worried, for each passenger must bs present at the examination, and must therefore discover, identify, and follow to the oountei her own Troxes. If you have all your luggage in the carriage -with yoir, the* railway porter often requires you to' lift it yourself, be it light or heavy, and give it to him, for he never takes t&is trouble of conning into the carriage. Ifc is quite bewildering amongst the crowd of passengers and piles of boxes amd trunks of all sorts to find your own, and it is a. wonder half the luggage does not go astray. For the whole business is rushed through, and tlhe train is delayed, with only bare time for the examination and return of luggage. You feel quite sure you will never see your boxes again, or that you must be left behind at tho station when the porter comes in sight, and you manage with' difficulty to find your own place again. It Its an amusing scene to anyone "who can sufficiently detach terse 1 !* front her own anxieties — anxious Englishwomen endeavouring to master their own emotions ; hot, pushing G^rm/wi fraus loudly exclaiming; and imperturbable porters and officials making their way through the crowd. "I will Lave my trunks if I have got to carry ihem myself," I heard one lady exclaiming in calm despair at Modane, while others were rushing wildly to and fro f«P their property. Of course, tine officers hardly ever search any boxes at all, though I have seen a- lady's trunk opened and her possessions taken out. But generally it is all- much ado about nothing. The whole fun of the game is to gst your box into t'ha Customs House-, and then to get it out again. When the officer has marked it ivitib a chalk "P" the process of examination is complete. My first experience was at Rotterdam. It was 5 o'clock on a foggy April morning, a ( nd my German friend mid I were anxiously making our way towards tihe train for Cologne, when an official came up and hailed us, unearthed oar luggage from its peaceful security on the racks of the corridor car, .and sternly bade us follow him. to the Customs House. We gave ourselves up for lost and followed him, the grinning Dutch trager bearing our luggage. It was solemnly placed on a counter . and the official stood grimly by. Now, if his had been a Frenchman, one might have suspected comedy from his portentous frown, but it is so hard aiot to take anything Teutonic seriously. We pleaded we had nothing dutiable. "The boxes must be opened," he said sternly, and summoned an employee, who, calmly and deliberately, under his chiefs unwinking eyes. — did not open them at all, but marked them "P," and banded tliem back to the grinning porter. The official then, with unruffled solemnity, strode away, and the farce was j over. In Germany and Switzerland the Custom House officer goes through the carriages and marks the luggage, so if you have not any luggage in the van there is no trouble at all beyond getting your bags down from the rack and back again. Even tha.t is dome for you if the official is obliging enough. There is no reason why this plan should not be followed at aJil tho frontiers pending that happy time when fireetrade is universal. V.— COOK AND SONS. I should advise all travellers, unless they have discovered a better plan unknown to me, to travel with the green envelopes of Cook and Sons. When I think of that company which so- beautifully combines personal profit with practical philanthropy, I understand the expressions of gratitude from the consumers of pink pills and cascara s-agrad'a. Cook overcomes international barriers. He solves the difficulties of foreign tongues. He, in the person of his interpreters and agents, waits at all the principal stations, and he knows and tells

you everything. He knows the way to every place, the price of everything. He takes care of your money ; he changes it when you pass into another country. He sends you to the best hotels and pensions for the lowest prices. He pays your bills. He provides guide boobs, and (not veiy accurate) text-books of foreign conversation, Continental time-tables for the whole of Europe, information of all kinds. Heplans excursions and provides brakes, steamers, diligences, and heaven knows what else. He is a universal referee. Your ,' respectability is assured if you travel by Cook. He tells you so himself. Cook is everywhere ; Cook is universal. You cannot in the remotest corner of the earth escape from Cook. The Alps are his playground, and he is more at home in them than ever Manfred used to be. Russia or Seivia, Egypt or Hongkong, tihe South Sea Islands or the Land of the Midnight Sun, it is all one to Cook. It is better to give in, and to belong to Cook. He is not always infallible. From an abstract point of view he is one and indivisible, but, humanly speaking, he is compounded of a vast army of young men and boys, and ' boys particularly are liable to error. They may send you to 1 a wrong train, or give , you <--oins tluit are not- current ; but, taken in the main, Cook has every known virtue, and a good many virtues unknown, before his time. He is polite, he is obliging, he is humorous, he is sometimes paternal ; he is a friend in need, a brother m a foreign land. Sometimes Cook is oppressive. He fills too much space in a limited area. You meet him in the Louvre or in Italian galleries. Thirty or more tourists follow in his train, and he hails them from picture to picture, discoursing with the monotony and regularity of clockwork. The foremost of the 30 peer over each other's shoulders, and get, one hopes, some sensation or other out of the show. The rear give it up, and troop dispersedly behind, led apparently by nothing but hypnotic influence of Cook. He crowds the steamboats, he blocks the palaces, he monopolises the hotels. It is true you need ..not, and if you are wipe do not, belong to his conducted parties. You can have all the advantages of his protection if you travel alone. His paternal care extends to the individual as well as to the party. He is a universal providence. But there is rather much of him. He tells you too much. He fatigues your imagination. You long to discover some corner where he cannot come ; he begins to sit heavy on your soul. Sometimes you "wish there "were no Cook.