ABOUT GLOBE-TROTTING

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 87

ABOUT GLOBE-TROTTING

(Bt Oxtr Russian Correspondent.)

" After all, sir, a globe-trotter does pick up curious odds and ends of information about foreign countries, though, of course, he never acquires such an accurate idea of them as does the serious man who stays at home and studies books."

So said the old Scotchman whose acquaintance I made last night in the Austro-Russian frontier station of Szczakowa while we were waiting for the Russian train to transport us to Granitza. He was, by the by, the only other Britisher travelling by that train : Britishers seldom travel to Russia via Vienna^ With a restraint unusual in a Scotchman, he had retired from active business life 20 years earlier, after having made a decent competence in Hongkong shar«6, and he had ever since been travelling for the sake of knowledge and culture — travelling everywhere, practically, save at the North and South. Poles, in Oceania, in Central and South Africa, and in South America. That he travelled to good purpose was shown by the fact that he had acquired a good working knowledge of five languages, and knew everything there was to know about the art treasures and , the historical places of Europe. / "Yes," he_ continued, "the most vivid impression made on me in Vienna was made in the soles of my feet by the cobble-stones with which most of the streets are paved. Then my recollections of Stephans Kirche and the Rathans must take a back (seat, so to speak, whenever in future I think of the Austrian capital. In.' the same way the matutinal cup of coffee in. Athens and the crowds in the cafes in. the morning impressed m.9 more than 'the Acropolis, while a peculiarly good dish of rice and curry blurs my recollections of the Taj Mahal. But you were asking me about the genus globe-trotter. Well he differs widely in different countries. In Japan he visits tea-houses and collects Kakemono; in India you find him, with a sola-r topee on his head, in native bazaars amiably distributing annas among howling little naked children, where remarks about their benefactor would probably, if translated, give the latter somewhat of a shock. In Western America the globe-trotter is a tough cussomer; in Europe, outside of Switzerland and Scandinkvia, he is very domesticated, being mostly, in fact, nothing more than an art-gallery fiend. What has often amazed me is the persistency with which -the brute will insist on -getting into parts of museums, picture galleries, etc., which, being directors' offices and the like, are closed to the general public. If I were an artist I would sketch the typical tourist as I have often seen him — a stout, sleek person with a red-backed Baedeker (you notice my Baedeker is bound in black, for I found that those red covers give one away "at once to guides and touts of all descriptions) in his hand, trying to edge his way past a large and rubicund functionary olad like a fieldmarshal, who indicates by amiable gestures that there's no admittance that way. This anxiety of the globe-trotter to get into out-of-the-way corners of museums is all the more remarkable since he seems to spend little or no time in the rooms that are open to the public, although these rooms sometimes (as in the case of the Vatican galleries, the Pinakothek at Munich, the Zwingler at Dresden, and in all the great galleries) contain collections which would" require months of study. Another peculiarity of the tourist is his habit of frittering away in bogus exhibitions time which is seldom long enough for the most cursory examination of the real 'sehenswerte ' (as the Germans would put it) objects, although the bogus exhibitions are always more expensive than the real ones. The reason^ is, I suppose, that the man's mind is overwhelmed by the vastness of art and history, and finds itself more ' comfy ' and at home amid vulgar counterfeits. Take, for example, the city of Rome, whose ancient and mediaeval remains would provide a traveller with years of work. In spite of this you find people who have only got a few weeks to spend in the Eternal City wasting their time lavishly in bogus ' shows ' like those ' Reconstruction of Ancient Rome' exhibitions which you find on the Appian Way. "As a rule the tourist I am speaking of makes it a point to see everything, and if you miss anyone of the ' sights ' mentioned by Baedeker, he publicly triumphs over you. In Athens the other day I met at table a fellow-countryman who begun comparing notes with me about Constantinople, and who chortled with joy when he discovered that I had not seen the Mevlevi or whirling dervishes, whose performances take place every Friday in their Tekkeh in Pera, close to the entrance to the Tunnel.

" What causes the average globe-trotter to .trot? This is a question, that I have often asked myself, and I think the answer is a mixture of motives, One man is on his honeymoon; another Is travelling for his health; a third wants to be in ,-fche fashion; a fourth to get Ms trunk all pasted over with, the labels of foreign hotels $ a. iifth jb dragged by his wife pj

his grown-up daughters /of some energetic friend who has been abroad before; but almost every tourist is also anxious to gratify . a vague desite to leatn something of ancient history by visiting classic lands with a guidebook, instead of by the_ more difficult method of studying classic history in the original languages. -He has got- enough money, so he thinks -he will now try to get, some culture, or the appearance of culture, by the quickest method. There is, of course, a minority of educated travellers who appreciate the treasures of foreign countries, but amid the art galleries of Europe the average tourist resem^es a worthy Australian couple, acquaintances of mine, who, notwithstanding the fact that they are ignorant of German, had no ear for* music, and knew nothing of the plot of the ' Rheingold,' attended a performance of that opera in Vienna the night before last, and pretended to yenjoy it. In justice to suchflying visitors I must say, however, that, in the expansiveness of spirits and the receptivity of mind produced by travel, they oftentimes -see more of the places they visit, and fraternise better with the natives, than do' ' old. residents ' of their own nationality (especially when those ' old residents ' are engaged in commerce) who, probably as a result of an intensification (owing to the ever-present danger of their absorption by the alien society in \vhich they live) of that instinctive dread of losing their peculiar variety of civilisation, particularly when that variety is of a higher kind, which is doubtless accountable for the fact that mankind is still divided into different tribes and nations, are generally far from waxing enthusiastic about the foreigners out of whom they make their living or about their own globe-trotting fellow-countrymen whose familiarity with the ' native ' tends in their opinion to lower the prestige of the white race. This remark is especially applicable to tke Far East, where you very often find English merchants who have been resident there for a' dozen years without having learned more of the local language than will just ' enable then to drive a bargain with the gharry- wallah as the jinricksha man. It is not so notice-, able on the Continent of Europe, where 1 foreign residents very often become enthusiastic about the people amid whom they are living." , - '

At this juncture toe Russian train, had come, and as I 'Sank to sleep in it I heard my friend, the old Scotchman, insisting on the necesity of a traveller carrying little luggage — no- mare than one' smali handbag, containing only — (1) soap and brushes ; (2) three shirts, 12 collars, onei pair pyjamas; (3). guide-book. He said thai his method of preventing books' from accumulating on his hands was to send all books that he had finished reading- and all guide-books that he haxl ceased using by post to whatever place happened to be for .the moment his base. " For on© does not go abroad," he said, ," to be a slave to one's baggage. Besides, the traveller of moderate '-means must economise, in view of the, fact that he's bound to be swindled occasionally." W,hen I woke up in the morning '"at Warsaw I found myself alone, and then I remembered that the v Scottish sage had told me he was .getting out at Lodz. As I transcribe this summary of his remarks in the reading room of the Hotel Bristol at N Warsaw I cannot help regretting that I have not remembered half the shrewd and instructive things he said about the science and art of globe-trotting.