 Section 10 of Going Abroad, some advice. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Going Abroad, some advice by Robert Luce. Chapter 9 How to Stay, Part 3 Study in the Universities The chances for study abroad are so numerous and varied that it would involve me in an Herculean task to try to consider them all. A few random notes, however, may perhaps be well added to the general observation that access to the universities is easy and cheap, often costless. For the English universities, the system at Oxford may be taken as typical. To matriculate there, that is, become a member of the university, it is necessary to be admitted into one of the colleges, or halls, or into the body called non-collegiate students. A candidate may be admitted into a college as a scholar, or as an exhibitioner, or as a commoner. Scholarships and exhibitions are nearly all awarded according to the results of competitive examinations held by the respective colleges. Most of the scholarships are now open for the competition of use under 19 and are chiefly of the value of $400 a year for practically four years. Some of the exhibitions are hardly distinguishable in any important respect from open scholarships. To be admitted into a college as a commoner, or to become a member of a hall, or a non-collegiate student, it is necessary to pass an examination held by the college or hall, or by the delegates of non-collegiate students, or to have passed some test accepted in lieu of this examination. When once a member of the university, a man must pass certain other university examinations before obtaining a degree. There are two sets of examinations, a difficult one for those who seek honours, and an easy one for those who are content with an ordinary pass. The degree of Bachelor of Arts cannot be obtained in less than two years and eight months from matriculation, nor without residing in Oxford for 12 terms. Passmen may complete their academic course in three years. Full honours men take four years. For the higher degrees of Civil Law, Medicine and Divinity, no more residence is necessary, but further requirements have to be satisfied. For the Master of Arts degree, the only requirement is that the candidate shall have had his name on the books for 26 terms since his matriculation. The bulk of the instruction is given by college tutors and lecturers to a system that allows members of one college to attend lectures given in the others. Four halls are now established at Oxford for the higher education of women. The members are admitted to the college lectures. Neither Oxford nor Cambridge yet gives women degrees, but in other respects they enjoy practically the same educational advantages that the men enjoy. From a summer in England, I glean these facts about the conditions of work there. Any woman wishing to reside at Oxford for purposes of study should write, in the first instance, to Mrs Arthur Johnson, 8 Merton Street, Oxford, one of the secretaries of the Association for the Education of Women in Oxford, who will give full information. The fees, including board and tuition, may be roughly estimated at from $125 to $145 a term, and there are three terms each of eight weeks, beginning about January 20th, April 20th and October 15th. Graduates of colleges included in the Association of College Alumni, USA, are admitted to the examinations without preliminary tests. Students wishing to reside for study at Cambridge should write to the principal of Gerton College or the principal of Noonam College. Information about the London University can be obtained from the Registrar, London University, Burlington Gardens, London. At both Oxford and Cambridge, chance is offered in August for students to reside in university towns and avail themselves of the advantages furnished there by laboratories, lectures and libraries. Work is done in the chemical laboratories and there are numerous courses of lectures on history, literature and art. These privileges are primarily meant to supplement the course of local lectures carried on in connection with the university extension, and in order to share them, American women should write to Arthur Barry Esquire, Syndicate Building, Cambridge or Secretary University Extension, Oxford. At Cambridge, one guinea covers the expense of the course. Board and lodging may be had by some students at Noonam College for 25 shillings a week. At Oxford, the summer meeting of university extension students is limited to a thousand persons, preference being given to those who have previously attended extension courses. Tickets for the month, August, cost 30 shillings. For the first 10 days only, one pound. Visits are paid to the colleges and university buildings under the guidance of residents who give lectures on the history or architecture of the places visited. The Committee of the Edinburgh Summer Meeting offers vacation science courses through August. A ticket admitting to them all costs three guineas. Much of the work is in the open air. Old Edinburgh is studied. The Botanic Garden and Seashore are visited. Women wishing to go into residence there may address Housekeeper, University Hall, Ramsey Lodge, Edinburgh or for general information in regard to classes, etc. Ricardo Stevens, MB. University Hall for Ramsey Garden, Edinburgh. The German universities most in favour with Americans have long been Heidelberg and Bonn. Apart from the instruction, they attract by reason of their locations and surroundings, particularly in the warmer months. Göttingen has always had a large number of faithful devotees and both intellectually and from the point of view of its interesting situation in a little Hanoverian peasant village. It undoubtedly has much to commend it. As winter resorts, Berlin, Leipzig and Munich are in favour. Berlin, since it has become the capital of the United German states, has drawn to it the greatest scholars in the German scientific world and spends a large sum of money to maintain a famous core of instructors. Its libraries are the most extensive in the country. The city is much pleasanter in summer than in winter, but it is hard to find any place in Germany that one can really recommend as a winter resort. Of the 15 other German universities, none exceptionally worth consideration by the American, though often a famous instructor at some of the smaller institutions draws students from afar. Not many Americans would care to go north of Berlin, that is to Kiel, Greifswald, Rostock or Königsberg. Some might stop at Breslau, Marburg or Erlangen. There are always a few Americans at Halle, Jene, Straßburg and Freiburg. In Germany, the winter semester or term begins about the 1st of October and continues into March. The summer semester begins late in April and ends early in August. For the student to matriculate or register costs only $5, and after that he is left to work out his own salvation. There is no compulsory attendance at lectures, no discipline, nothing like the American College Recitation System. The tests come at the end of the course when the student seeks his degree. Then he must prove a thorough knowledge of some department of knowledge within the range of academic instruction, write a thesis that should be a contribution to science, pass a rigid oral examination and pay $75. The fulfilling of these conditions means to the average graduate of an American college two years of hard work. Meantime, his fees will not have amounted to more than $20 or $25 for each half year. In the German universities women have not till recently been allowed to matriculate or take degrees but of late years they have been permitted to attend the lectures. At Leipzig the laws of Saxony prevent the recognition of women and they attend as guests of the professor. At Heidelberg they are required to present the diploma of some college or university. In France the degrees are open to women as well as men. In Paris many of the lectures at the Sorbonne and the College of France are open to the public and often a majority of the audience is above the student age. Many English speaking people frequent these lectures to cultivate the ear by listening to scholarly French. Formal application and registration will usually secure entrance to the closed courses. There are two terms one beginning in the early winter and lasting into Lent the other beginning soon after Easter in the early summer. A recent reform has opened the French faculties of science to foreigners on very advantageous conditions. American students have hitherto frequented Germany almost exclusively because of the liberty the universities of that country offer in the choice of studies in permitting a change of university and in requiring no examinations accepting when the student applies for a degree. Hereafter in France a student will be admitted on an American bachelor's degree and will be permitted to choose his studies. After pursuing any scientific course a year he can, if he wishes, apply for an examination in this branch and, if successful, obtain a certificate d'etude. Three such certificates taken say in calculus, pure mechanics and astronomy will make him a licentie and upon the presentation of a satisfactory thesis he can then secure the French doctorate which is decidedly superior to the German. If the student has the ability and so desires he can discharge all three subjects the same year or, if he prefers he can do it in successive years migrating if he wishes from one university to another and studying at the same time whatever other subjects he may choose. The French system has one distinct advantage over that of Germany because in Germany the student presents his thesis first and, if this is accepted he is admitted to examination everything hangs on one chance he receives the doctorate or nothing. In France, on the contrary the examinations coming first each step is marked the student receiving independent credits for every part of his work if he acquits himself in one branch only he still has his certificate if interrupted in his work before securing a degree he can withdraw with honourable credentials for at least that part of the work he has accomplished. Students of medicine throng to Vienna more than to any other European city because it has the largest hospital the most celebrated professors and the best chances for instruction each professor can take only a limited number of students and the time of the more famous in demand that places in their classes must be engaged long ahead the courses run from 4 to 6 weeks and cost from 10 dollars to 15 dollars each the most ardent students carry on a dozen or more courses at a time without a knowledge of German at the start it would be foolish for an American to go to Vienna unless he can stay there for at least a year for it will take him half that time to acquire enough command of the language to profit his courses he would better go to New York where today the instruction is just as valuable to all intents and purposes saving the matter of the prestige given by the reputation of having worked in the foreign hospitals to study a year in Vienna is likely to cost about the same as a year at Harvard perhaps 700 dollars being the average expenditure by the economical Munich is cheaper and the instruction is excellent though not so varied as in Vienna at Munich the American shows his diploma matriculates on payment of a small fee and then gets the clinics without charge at Paris the student can see but not participate Dublin is the favourite place for lying in work Zurich is the only place where women can take the courses the medical student going abroad should take with him a few of the leading standard books in English if he is a specialist he should take with him the works of his specialty language study the large cities are not the best places for either children or adults to acquire the languages there are too many chances to lapsed into English and furthermore slang argot furishes most in the rank city soil in France for instance the purest French is found in Tours not in Paris the best Italian is heard in Siena not in Rome it is learned at any of the university towns but whether it is better to learn the accent of northern or of southern Germany is an open question the people of Berlin and those in Munich accuse each other of talking provincial German likewise in Spain you will find the Spanish of Madrid differing much from that of Seville and Cadiz there is more of the Lisp in Madrid and in Seville the speech is nearer that of the Spanish in Central and South America in Italy there is even more variation in dialect a Neapolitan can with difficulty understand a Venetian speaking rapidly and the Roman use of the tongue is like neither Neapolitan nor Venetian for purposes of general language study where unusual achievement in any one is not contemplated perhaps Geneva is the best place on the continent as the three languages French, German and Italian are spoken in three regions of Switzerland good teachers of any or all of them are readily found at Geneva it is a puritanical sort of place where a young person would have to work hard to get out of the paths of rectitude and there is nothing frivolous about the city of John Calvin but that makes it all the more attractive to the studios and the sedate its surroundings are charming giving plenty of chance for delightful rambles and excursions at Lausanne, halfway along the lake Gibbon found the best place to finish his immortal work anyone desiring to master French in order to teach it will do best at Paris where the Sorbonne gives during the winter and spring the best chance for scientific study of the language in the summer an admirable opportunity is furnished by the vacation courses of L'Alliance Francaise the strong society for propagating the French language the attendance has grown in 5 years from 50 to 500 and no better testimony of the work of the institution could be cited the course is a plan for the benefit of foreigners of any nationality or age and of either sex they are given in the amphitheatre of the colonial school on the avenue de l'observatoire in what might be called a collegiate neighbourhood not the old Latin quarter but close by where pensions and furnished apartments of moderate price abound there are two series of courses one occupying July and the other August a course consists of from 5 to 10 lessons in charge of some eminent French professor typical subjects in 1899 were historical and comparative grammar of modern French French literature of the 17th century the institutions of France elocution and pronunciation then there are conferences devoted to the practice of conversation or phonetic exercises at the end of each month examinations may be taken for diplomas an elementary diploma for candidates who prove that they understand read and write the language fluently a superior diploma for those who prove themselves capable of teaching the language and its literature all told about 150 lessons and 24 conferences are open in the course of the two months to holders of season tickets is $20 anyone not caring to attend them all may buy not less than 25 tickets one for each lesson at 20 cents a piece and then as many more single tickets as this price as may be desired candidates for the elementary diploma must attend 30 lessons for the superior diploma all the courses of one of the two series and candidates pay $2 for taking examinations members of the alliance take pains to make agreeable the sojourn of the students receptions, excursions and other entertainments serve both for diversion and acquaintance more than 1500 places at the theater are put at the service of the students in the course of a summer information about the arrangements of each year can be secured by addressing l'Alliance Française 45 rue de Grenel, Paris after April 1st an illustrated guide to Paris for the foreign student will be mailed from the same address for 35 cents it contains information about all the public and private courses to which foreigners are admitted and special attention is given to the summer courses also it has a list of families that will take foreign students as borders the dilettante student who prefers to imbibe the language will make the quickest progress by turning his back on Parisian opportunities for hearing and speaking his own tongue let him seek some provincial town of Normandy or Touraine preferably the latter good teachers will charge from 50 cents to 1 dollar an hour but if one settles in a pension where there are no Americans or gets into a private family he will in time acquire a working knowledge of the language without special instruction for English speaking people with some preliminary knowledge of French the teachers guild arranges modern language holiday courses that are given in August to meet the needs of vacationists in 1900 courses will again be held in Lisieux Normandy lasting 4 weeks and in Tour lasting 3 weeks the fee of 10 dollars 20 cents admits to the lectures in French by able professors and to a conversation class the guild makes special arrangements with pension and it is estimated that starting from London the whole cost of the Lisieux course will be fares living in all will be about 50 dollars of the Tour course 60 dollars send 12 cents to the secretary of the guild at 74 Gower Street WC London for a prospectus of the arrangements one need not be a teacher in order to join but at least a slight knowledge of French is essential to getting any profit from the courses music, art and other studies to achieve the greatest triumphs in music it is agreed that some European study is necessary but how much it should be where it should be taken and how early it should begin are disputed questions one American who has been through it says I would advise American girls who expect to study music professionally to do all the foundation work at home as good teachers maybe have there for 2 dollars 50 a lesson as those in London who charge twice as much when they have been thoroughly drilled in the rudiments then they can come to London to be finished but all the rest can be done quite as well in Chicago or New York Christine Nielsen thinks differently in the matter of cultivating the voice says she at present in view of the scarcity of good professors of singing in America the earlier a young American pupil comes abroad to begin her studies the better the placing of the voice is a most delicate point in the early stages of the cultivation of that organ and requires a teacher of great tact and intelligence to perfect it many young American girls come abroad with their voices injured by injudicious training and even when the evil can be repaired it is only at the cost of expenditure of time and money both of which can ill be spared as regards the different schools for singing it is an obvious fact that the Italian method is by far the best it is true that my own teacher Plato was a Frenchman but his method was one peculiar to himself and I know of no professor who now continues it he died several years ago the German method is probably the worst of all especially for the delicate voices of American girls Madame Melba thinks that for the average singer America offers most excellent teachers she can find all she needs at home for operatic singers some foreign training is practically necessary so long as impresarios consider Europe their market and retired artists make it their home but she says no girl unless she has money to throw away I mean by this a large fortune to spend should go abroad for vocal instruction until she has been passed upon musically by at least two or three artists people who value the glory and fame of their art and the life and perhaps the honour of the would-be singer too highly to advise her to enter upon a career of privation and hardship where there is for her by nature's fixed degree no possibility of success if possible these artists should be strangers to the singer people who will not be moved or swayed by any personal interest and will therefore speak only the truth but only those so passed upon and those others who can afford to indulge a hobby should ever go abroad for vocal instruction said Campanini for the mechanical training of the voice it does not matter what country furnishes the curriculum but for proper phrasing and beauty of style I would recommend Italy in France I admit there are very good schools but I do not approve of the tremolo that is taught in them in Italy they have almost perfect methods for properly placing the voice the schools of Italy also noted for teaching dramatic expression the study of music in Paris is very far from inexpensive the most eminent teacher of vocal music demands 70 dollars a month and will take no one who will not begin with her from the very rudiments of the art the rule is from 3 dollars to 5 dollars a lesson or from 50 dollars to 70 dollars a month for the best teachers pupils being expected to take 3 lessons a week in London the music teachers of the first rank charge from 5 dollars to 10 dollars a lesson and teach only certain things separate instruction being required when French, German or Italian is to be learned Germany gets most of the students of instrumental music and Berlin has taken the lead in their instruction it is said that more than 2000 Americans pass each winter there in music study the city has 120 music conservatories and nearly 1000 concerts of one kind or another are given between October 1st and May 1st the masters of the profession charge from 5 dollars to 10 dollars an hour for private lessons but the conservatories are very much lower in price the Royal High School for Music offers yearly several free scholarships for which students of all nations may compete admissions of concerts is cheap according to American notions the best orchestral music can be heard at popular concerts twice a week for 10 cents without great hardship the economical student can reduce living expenses to 25 dollars or even 20 dollars a month the expense of studying art on the continent is nowhere so great as it is in New York as one student in Paris says a fellow can live hisy-pleases I wear only the oldest clothes all the fellows do no one thinks anything of it the rent of the studios is very cheap and the tuition in the best studios is but 4 dollars a month American children would better be educated in American schools perhaps for the sake of the language a boy might well pass a year in some continental school but a girl would better study in America till she is well grounded in the rudiments of knowledge if she is then to study abroad for a while let it be the Pension schools boarding schools of Switzerland rather than of Paris a year there should give her a mastery of French but if German is the object two years of schooling in Germany will be non too little for purposes of miscellaneous study perhaps Dresden offers the most attractions at any rate nearly 3,000 English-speaking people may be found in residence there most of them more or less studios in their intentions Berlin and Hannover offer better advantages in German and literature Berlin, Weimar and Leipzig have more famous schools for music Paris, Florence and Rome take the lead in painting and art but one does not find in any one of these cities all the facilities for the study of German literature, music, painting and decorative art combined as in Dresden this concentration of advantages in an age when the rapid attainment of knowledge means so much must account for Dresden's attracting so many visitors for its climate during the winter season at any rate is very far from delightful fees no other foreign custom perplexes and annoys the American so much as that of feeing he has been brought up in the belief that a service without a price demands no recompense save where the fee system has wormed its way into our larger cities as in the larger hotels he has been accustomed to pay the proprietor of any one establishment for all the work done for him by its employees the spirit of independence and self-reliance ingrained in his very nature has made it natural for him to do for himself all he can to accept from others the minimum of aid in all personal matters in his favorite phrase to paddle his own canoe from the moment he lands in Europe he finds a state of affairs directly contrary to all his experience porters aggrieved if he carries his bag across the railway platform cab men astounded if he walks to his hotel other porters lying in wait to look upstairs even an umbrella somebody solicitors to unlock his trunk he starts out to see the town before he can get through the door the portier bustles up to offer his help to other sites to name good shops to call a cab outside half a dozen cab men snap their whips and beg his patronage from one to a dozen guides may urge their aid he comes to a celebrated church some pitiful pauper opens the door or lifts the curtain within a sexton or sacrostand presents himself to show its sights to unlock the gates of a chapel to take him into the crypt he reaches a museum running the gauntlet to find an attendant in every room sometimes taking a card list of pictures from a table and offering it to him sometimes unlocking a door kept locked merely to four strangers to ask that it may be opened sometimes volunteering needless information and so it goes from one end of Europe to the other always somebody at hand to thrust services upon you and every mother's son of them expecting recompense if the tariff is fixed more is invariably wanted the extra amount being the perquisite of the person with whom you come in contact it is no use to fuss over it to say hard things about it to begrudge the cost take it as a matter of course look at it reasonably and judiciously study it and conform to it lay down two rules of action and adhere to them number one accept no service while not willing to ruminate number two fee only those who do something for you if you want to carry your own luggage carry it if you want to walk why walk what folly to ride simply because half a dozen dirty scoundrels at least they look as if they might be scoundrels and are most assuredly dirty act as if they expect you to ride if you can see in a church or museum that you care to see why give somebody a friend can be bored with his company rather than tell him you don't want a guide guides are sometimes useful sometimes necessary but as to when and where believe your guidebook rather than the man who wants you to hire him cabs are often wise economy hotel people have their uses even luggage porters may be of great service use them when you want them always with the certainty that everybody below your station in life expects to be paid for what he does for you the gentle art of doing favours as practised in America is unknown abroad I overdraw the thing purposely that the reader may get into the right frame of mind there are many Europeans of humble rank who are hospitable or courteous without mercenary motives but even they are almost invariably willing to have their courtesy or hospitality rewarded if you choose once a New England breakman a complete stranger found an umbrella of mine and returned it to me with some trouble he would not listen to the idea of taking any reward his features showed that he was of Yankee birth and his attitude in this matter was that of the genuine American he had done for me something he had not been hired to do had not been asked to do and the satisfaction of having performed a courteous action was all the reward he wanted that attitude is the rule with us it is the exception and the rare exception abroad so be prepared to pay for everything and when you get a gratuitous favour tell the man his rightful place is in America at the same time encourage the pernicious European system by rewarding him for not expecting a reward a hundred to one he'll take it to urge that fees be given only to those who do a service is advice that seems needless yet would that it were heeded by the Americans who go through Europe with the notion that every man or woman into whose hands they can get a coin is a deserving victim of misfortune perhaps it is a duty for us to distribute our savings at random among the lower classes of Europe but I can't see why unless we ought to make it up to them for the cruelty of Providence in planting them there generosity is an admirable trait but every officer of associated charities will tell you that its excess does more hurt than its absence the people with whom a traveller comes in contact are not paupers most of them earn as much as they deserve in some of the Parisian cafes a waiters place commands a big bonus that is men are glad to pay large sums to get the chance for fees did you know that in some of our big American hotels the head porter gets every fee given to underporters that he pays them wages and pays the landlord for the privilege of doing the work your extra dime helps enrich a man you never saw likewise in many European hotels all fees given to waiters are pooled and the man you want to reward particularly gets perhaps only a very small percentage of your bounty for this reason never fee both the head waiter and your table waiter but you must always fee one or the other the portier is the only exception to the rule not to give if nothing is done it is an unwritten law that he shall be maintained by the public not by the landlord he is a useful institution of service to the travelling public as a class and as one of that class he can't to help pay his cost if the chamber maid does for you anything outside her routine work she should get a fee always small otherwise she may be ignored when she lies in wait for you as you descend the hotel stairs for the last time though as a matter of fact you are likely to feel that she needs the fee more than anybody else and perhaps deserves it more so that your conscience will rest the easier if you remember her the declaration of too many tourists that you must fee everybody in a hotel is all nonsense the indispensable are the portier if the hotel has one the waiter and whoever handles trunks or black boots the others are mere charities I'm informed that in Saxony and in Austria courts have sustained servants in suits to secure fees the Saxony case was brought against a commercial traveller who stayed four weeks at a hotel and offered the boots a dollar on his departure the aggrieved boots got a verdict of $2.50 probably the commercial travellers trunks had something to do with the case in Vienna it is reported a servant may hold the guest's baggage if the fee is not large enough as to amounts the easy and common rule is to give 10% of the bill if you stay but one night or take a single meal this applies whether the bill is 20 cents or $2 or $20 a penny in the shilling is all that English waiters expect 10 centimes or $0.02 in the franc or that French waiters expect where a hotel bill is above $2 a percentage as low as 5% may be given without surprise on paying a bill of $5 at a hotel it would be the usual thing to give the waiter 20 cents the portier 20 cents and the chambermaid $0.05 on paying $8 you might give no more and no comment or you might make it 30 cents for the waiter the same for the portier and 5 or 10 cents for the chambermaid the Paris New York Herald sent a series of questions about the tipping system to all the leading hotel keepers of Europe most of them in reply advised from 20 to 40 cents a week for each servant which as hotel rates run makes about the 10% I have advised if say 5 servants get remembered nearly all the correspondents stated that their servants did not depend entirely on the tips received for their living as they received salaries it was to be noted however that the salaries were seldom stated to be more than $8 a month summed up the symposium seemed to prove that the tipping system is too firmly fixed to be abolished that it procures better service for the traveller that it makes the servants more contented and renders them more valuable to the employer and that the person who tips carefully gets just as good service as the one who tips indiscriminately one piece of information given is that hotel keepers while travelling are very sparing of their tips never pay any fees before the time of departure except when making a stay of many weeks in a pension you are not expected in hotels to dole out the pennies or francs from meal to meal or indeed at any time before you go away but if practicable it is well in large hotels to distribute the fees before it is known that you are going to leave as otherwise you may find yourself encumbered with needless attention from servants who may hitherto have neglected you perhaps may not even have shown themselves look at it purely as a matter of business if you haven't the change make the waiter or the porter or whoever you want to fee get your money changed and then give him what you meant to give no more in an American hotel that would be thought stingy abroad it is thought the natural thing in pension 10% of the bills would be an unusual distribution if you stay several weeks 5% will be a great plenty and 2 or 3% is probably nearer the common thing the idea that even servants in private houses must be feed is the most repugnant of all to American instincts yet go to a mansion of rank for even a stay overnight and you are expected to remember the butler and the footman Americans overdo the thing as always in the matter of fees and anger the more pernurious of their British cousins by treating dollars as if they were shillings the notion is wrong that fees are to be given on the occasion of a single meal in a British household they are expected only from those who pass a night or more do not suppose that the system flourishes without protests the Duke of Fife with whom the Prince of Wales stays during his annual visits to Scotland has tried hard to prevent the giving of tips at New Mar Lodge by posting a formal warning against it in the guest chambers and it is known that the Prince shares the Duke's views of the matter in many castles and chateau a box is placed in the hall where guests may put whatever it is their pleasure to give the servants and at intervals its contents are fairly distributed among them all tourists who are shown through Eaton Hall, the magnificent country place of the Duke of Westminster are forbidden to give fees to the attendance and in lieu thereof pay an entrance fee devoted to charitable objects at a few other show places there is an attempt to accomplish the same end occasionally there is a hotel where notices in the rooms beg travellers not to give fees and it is declared that the servants are amply paid Employees of English railroads are forbidden to receive fees but there at least the prohibition is ludicrously ineffective Tuppence, four cents is in practice the legal tender fee on British railroads the garçon, waiter at a café gets fees of one or two cents usually the latter for serving beverages cab drivers are usually made happy by 10% with either four or five cents as the minimum, according as the unit of coinage corresponds to our 20 or 25 cents in such a place as Naples where the prescribed fare is abnormally low only 14 cents to give a lira, 20 cents is frequent in museums and galleries fees of half a franc or half a lira or half a shilling or whatever the unit may be, predominate it is always safe to start on that if more is the custom don't fear that you will not be told of it two people travelling together need give no more than the solitary tourist the fees expected by concierge or janitors are a constant source of complaint by Americans dwelling abroad the concierge is an autocrat a tyrant an unmitigated irritant but the despot must be feed in Vienna for example the front door of every apartment house is required by law to be closed and locked at 10 o'clock every night not a tenant may have a latch key but after that hour must ring up the janitor who gets for his trouble the inevitable 10 coins as a consequence the streets are alive with hurrying people up to the fatal hour and after that are as dead as a country village it is usual for even the theatres to time themselves so that the spectators may be saved their 10 coins New Year's Day is the time when the concierge reaps his or her big harvest in Paris the occupant of a modest apartment is expected then to give at least 5 dollars and entrain of 10 dollars or 20 dollars are not uncommon every small salaried underling also levies tribute in the most bare-faced way making the rounds of his neighborhood and frankly asking for his present it is a word that the postal employees in France could not live on the miserable salaries they get were it not for the annual bonus from the public the ordinary carrier gets 20 dollars a month and expects to add to this at least 50 dollars at New Year's there are postmen of different grades depending on the class of mail they carry each class appoints representatives to collect money from every district and the money is then divided a stranger generally makes the mistake of giving a good sum to the first postman who calls not knowing that two others will follow him for their class they begin their rounds about the 1st of December with calendars worth about half a cent to present to each person on the list they are very polite if it is not convenient to pay the money that day they will trust you for the calendar and pass again all the servants must be remembered with hard cash not with mittens or shawls or neckties if you please but with cash in Parisian families the rich maids cling to the old fiction of a month's wages or what used to be a good month's wages five dollars a month as a proper New Year's gift this has by general custom become reduced to a gold piece four dollars for a servant that has remained more than a year in the family and two dollars for those who have been in service for a shorter time this sum is given in the most profunctury way and conventional thanks are returned in the same manner the German and English servants who have of late years flock to Paris do not expect so much in the way of a present for they demand higher wages than the French born maid usually receives the cab man expects a fee bigger than usual the bus conductor expects two cents more than the ordinary fare the butcher boy and every other tradesman's employee who comes into the house counts on going out the richer the cafe waiters offer very cheap and very bad cigar to every regular patron expecting in return a franc or two and so it goes until the close fisted man wishes the New Year in perdition and even the generous man with an ample purse finds it emptied at least of all the silver end of section 10 recording by Kate M section 11 of going abroad some advice this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Michael Fasio going abroad some advice by Robert Lucy chapter 7 how to see up to times within the memory of living men almost no one of means traveled through Europe without a courier before railroads were built and before good guidebooks were printed he was almost indispensable his tribe survives but in greatly diminished numbers to the self-reliant traveler he is of no use whatever indeed he is frequently a positive encumbrance and worse the time may have been when a courier could save a traveler more than his cost most certainly that is not the case now on the contrary as he gets a percentage on every purchase his party makes which of course comes out of the purchaser in increased price and as it is often for his interest to advise the more costly route the more costly hotel or the more costly excursion he eats up much more than his wages while saving positively nothing in a two week trip in southern Spain which we made side by side with a couple having a courier we invariably reached the hotel first got the better rooms saw all the sights to as good advantage yet the courier was of his kind an expert the fact is that travel has become so general tourist companies foreign lords have so well studied its needs books are so plentiful that one couldn't very well get off the track or have a mishap if he tried doubtless the decay of the courier has also been in some measure due to the growth of the personally conducted party every year sees more Americans going abroad under the guidance of people who make a business or an avocation of conducting tours I have already alluded to some of the disadvantages of this mode of travel such as the limitations of inflexible itineraries it may with perfect fairness also be pointed out that many people find distasteful to travel with the notoriety that attaches to a considerable group of sightseers the name of the inventor of the excursion system has been made the basis of a generic term and as the carriages of any large party roll along the boulevards of Paris one may hear the comment there go a batch of cookies there is in fact no valid reason why one should feel chagrined at the comment no valid reason why one should not enjoy art or architecture or scenery in the company of his fellow men just as he enjoys music or acting or eloquence in their company but logical or not it is the fact that many of us prefer to wander through museums and cathedrals and palaces alone or with few companions against this set the helpfulness of a leader who knows in advance what is worth seeing and why and where there is an anecdote and reminiscence who can save time and trouble assume that he commands the language that he is a past master in the art of timetables that he is a connoisseur in the matter of restaurants that he is a very Solomon in knowledge of hotels may not the leadership of such a man be worth the buying may not it pay to have a joint ownership for two or three months in this embodiment or experience perhaps so but at any rate it is worthwhile reckoning up the cost in advance some of the projectors of these personally conducted parties appear to set a pretty high valuation on their services and their profits may or may not be warranted others are offering prices that are reasonable even cheap of course people take up this business like any other for profit and a fair profit should not be denied them but it is a foolish customer who buys without any idea as to whether the goods are worth the money to determine it approximately take the itinerary offered set down from $100 to $200 for the ocean passages according to the steamer, cabin and season multiply the aggregate of rail distance by the average figures for fares I have given in a preceding chapter allow $2.50 a day the price of cooked coupons for continental hotel bills $8 a day in Great Britain throwing $0.50 a day for carriages, entrance fees, etc the total will be not so very far from a reasonable price for the transportation and subsistence ordinarily offered whether the gain the tourist company or manager makes through discounts for parties through the lower prices of hotels and towns and in other legitimate ways will offset the traveling expenses of the conductor by more than enough profit is a business problem that is the concern of the merchant and tours I submit merely that he may not fairly demand much in excess of the gross retail cost of transportation and subsistence I have taken occasion to commend the helpfulness and courtesy of the tourist agencies let me here add that I have never heard their integrity questioned their managers and their agents surpassed the average of businessmen in fair dealing and honorable methods they are a useful and valuable factor in the world of travel and they would not thrive if they were not helpful to many people their personally conducted tours and many of those organized by individuals are all right for people who like that sort of thing such people however need not quarrel with me because to my mind one of the great pleasures of travel is in learning travel by myself and because I find satisfaction, pleasure and education in planning routes tables, making bargains learning by observation the lay of the land every place in Europe worth the seeing has its local guides speaking your language that are acquainted with the place than any courier can be and usually to be employed at reasonable rates whether you will employ them depends entirely on your own tastes usually they are not indispensable often however they will take you to places that would be harder for you to find by yourself now and then they know something the guidebook does not tell if you are completely ignorant of the language occasionally their services in interpreting will be of much help London and Paris have bureaus of lady guides that I hear commended for their services in aiding both the sightseeing and shopping the guides are said to be women of refinement and intelligence and were not the word lady so vulgarly misused in the title of these institutions an American woman might make use of them at least without prejudice and very lately with advantage whenever you hire a guide and he takes you to some place where fees are probable make him tell you before you enter what fees you are to give thus determining the cost in advance and avoiding the embarrassment of consulting him in the presence of the person to be feed if you plan to do a place by yourself it is desirable to have a list prepared of the things to be seen or at any rate to check them in the guidebook and on arrival at the hotel ask when you can see places not certain to be accessible at all times museums are usually closed on one day of the week churches may be open only at certain hours the times for these things frequently change and no guidebook can keep up with all the changes if you neglect this precaution you may find a day wasted and even miss altogether some important place that you might just as well have seen early in your stay when time is an object it is well to plan and advance your whole stay in any given city allotting so much work to each day the conscientious sightseer spends his evenings and studying up what he is to see the next day to postpone reading up to a place till after you enter it often results in missing important features or in not comprehending them any but an impecunious tourist should prescribe to himself the rule never walk in order to save money or if he insists on being parsimonious let him reflect that time is money to a sightseer and that if the journey is of the hurried variety it is more profitable to save minutes than to save pennies cabs are plenty and cab hire is cheap cars and buses abound in all the cities and their fares are trivial distances are long in places like London and Paris and one needs all his strength for the galleries and palaces and the other places where one must walk a summer tourist should not begrudge twenty or thirty dollars for cabs yet it is not the fact that cabs always save the most time if one is landed on the dock at Liverpool instead of the landing stage he will find at the very outset the time will be saved if he will take the trouble to walk to the street and climb the stairs to the elevated train it is several miles from the center of Liverpool to the docks of the American passenger boats and the trains are the quickest way to get to Liverpool baggage can be sent in town safely by an expressman and will be promptly delivered the elevated train too gives the best chance to see Liverpool's biggest site the docks plebeian though it may seem there is no better way to see the street life of a city than from the top of an omnibus virtually all the buses abroad and most of the streetcars have seats on top often with a fare cheaper than that of the inside seats it is desirable for the tourist women and men alike mount the steps and though the aristocratic native will hire a cab when she does not use her own carriage no American woman need fear ridicule or even embarrassment if she goes about on the top of a bus at first she hesitates but very soon the convenience and profit of seeing city streets from such a point of vantage overcome all scruples and once accustomed to riding on top nothing but rain will drive her inside by the way it is not the custom and in Paris it is forbidden to change from outside to interior while the bus or car is in motion a novice who tried it in Paris relates to me with amusements she did not at the time feel how the conductor put her off the bus when a shower led her to change her place on the continent a sightseer who neglects the cafes and beer gardens misses one of the most diverting and instructive characteristics we Americans have come to entertain such a justifiable abhorrence of the drinking saloon that we find it hard to conceive of drinking resorts where decent self-respecting people may congregate and yet just such resorts are the greatest daily pleasure of thousands on thousands of the temperate respectable people of France and Germany and other continental nations in the Latin countries where wine is the most common beverage the cafe tables choke the sidewalks during all the warm weather in the Germanic countries beer and orchestras appear inseparable and the tables are usually in enclosures to which the potted shrubs give the name of gardens here whole families come to gossip and listen the drinking is the excuse not the reason and a glass or two of beer or wine or what we should call soda is quite enough of a pretext to occupy a seat during a whole evening anywhere in the Latin countries it is quite the proper thing after a table-dote dinner at the hotel to find the best cafe in town and spend an hour or two over a cup of black coffee looking at the illustrated papers listening to music chatting with other members of the party or making the acquaintance easily picked up with one's neighbors the traveler who doesn't do this will have many a long and lonely evening besides throwing away his best chance to study the people from near at hand and when they are most themselves the parks furnish another pleasant way serving the masses to appreciate the love of a French father for his children and his intimacy with them go to the Luxembourg garden in Paris on a Sunday afternoon see the modern Roman at his best on the Pincean hill towards sunset find out what vagaries the human mind can conceive by going from group to group on Hyde Park by the marble arch in London of a Sunday and listening to the orators then reveling in free speech beware of trespassing on forbidden ground near fortresses and of sketching or photographing where you may be arrested on suspicion of seeking dangerous information pickpockets are by no means a rarity abroad it is said they frequent the Rhine steamers all railway junctions and especially the Italian cities personally I have never suffered at their hands nor met anybody who had suffered but the ordinary precautions of travel are doubtless as wise this matter abroad as at home sharpers are said to haunt the channel steamers and on the larger transatlantic boats they sometimes fleece the unwary it may be well to inform the masculine reader that half the questionable sites of Paris are arranged for his special benefit with so much to be seen in Europe that is beautiful and elevating and refining it is hardly worthwhile to spend a time and money in the hunt for debasing spectacles that can be just as easily found in New York if anybody cares to study the dark side of human nature delightful though it may be to have the guidance of some relative or acquaintance dwelling in the city you may be visiting yet be careful about making demands on time that may be begrudged from business or study the American youth who dwells abroad with serious motives cannot without a sacrifice lay down the brush or leave the piano stool in order to give hours to showing his collars about the town the New York merchant does not expect to roam from the Riverside Drive to Coney Island with every Chicago or Louisville or a crossroads customer that visits Manhattan put yourself in the place of your host and conclude what may reasonably be expected or given in the way of time and entertainment end of section 11 section 12 of going abroad some advice this is a LibraVox recording all LibraVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibraVox.org recording by Betty B going abroad some advice by Robert Luce somewhat financial part one merchants in different countries are accustomed to pay each other by means of bills of exchange not with cash for example Jones of New York owes a certain amount to Schmidt of Berlin Braun of Berlin owes the same amount to Henry of New York if Jones pays that amount to Henry and Braun pays an equal amount to Schmidt the debts will be canceled perhaps Henry accomplishes it by writing a draft on Braun in order to Braun to pay the amount in question to the bearer of the order a paper called a bill of exchange which he sells to Jones then Jones mails the order to his creditor Schmidt to Braun and gets his money this saves the expressage on two shipments of gold when the whole body of American merchants owe more money abroad than is owed to them somebody must ship some gold across the water whoever has a bill of exchange a draft on a foreign merchant can pay his foreign debts at the cost of a postage stamp whoever cannot get such a bill must pay the cost of shipping gold this makes a demand for bills exchange increases their value and the rate of exchange is said to be high vice versa when the foreign merchants owe the more bills of exchange hunt for purchasers their value lessens and the rate of exchange is said to be low no traveler wants a large amount of gold on his person or in his luggage where it is heavy and it is likely to be stolen so he takes advantage of the system of bills of exchange he may if he choose buy these bills of an American merchant or banker and sell them to some banker or merchant when he gets abroad but it is more convenient and is the common practice for him to arrange with an American banker to honor drafts which the traveler draws when and where occasion may demand in other words he sells to some foreign banker an order on the American banker which then becomes a bill of exchange when he is traveling through foreign banks till it finds some foreign merchant who wants to pay a bill in America buys it, mails it to his creditor who in turn presents it to the American banker and gets his money of course the thing is complicated and modified when a banking house has many agencies and you draw at one for money you have deposited at another but the general principle of exchange holds letters of credit when a banker gives you what is virtually a certificate that he will honor your drafts to a given amount the paper is called a circular letter of credit there is attached to it a list of bankers in other countries who are obligated to cash the drafts but as they will be honored whoever presents them to the house issuing the letter you can sell them to any banker or other person not on the printed list though it is customary to get drafts cashed at the banking places specified the practice of banking houses in issuing letters of credit vary somewhat in the matter of terms the simplest method is to sell it outright in which case if you pay $1,000 you get a credit of $1,000 or its exact equivalent in pounds they are being charged in addition a fee of 1% for issuing the credit under this method you get no interest for your money the banker has the use of it until your drafts are presented and this with his commission and what he may make through the rates of exchange is what remunerates him another method is for you to deposit with the banker what sum you please for which you get a letter of credit in which the pound is figured at $5 instead of in the neighborhood of $4.86 its real value as your drafts come in they are figured at the prevailing rate of exchange and you are debited with their amounts on that basis furthermore you are allowed interest at the time this is written 2% is being allowed but should the demand for money increase a higher rate will prevail on your return if you have not drawn to the full value of the letter you collect whatever balance may stand to your credit this method may be the more economical if your deposit is large and you do not reduce your balance rapidly the letter of credit may also be secured by depositing with the banker high grade securities against which he will advance what money you may draw thus you will profit by what interest they may bear and by any increase in their value if you are standing in the financial world as high you may be able to arrange with the banker not to deposit either money or securities but to have your drafts presented by him at your counting room it might be said that in such a case you deposited your credit rather than your cash in return for what you pay the banker for issuing the letter of credit you get these advantages the carriage of your wealth in the most portable form a sheet of paper and in the safest form or if the sheet is lost nobody can use it without forging your name and by once notifying your banker you can have him stop payment the chance to get the money of the country at its lowest cost in every city you are likely to visit the use of a list of bankers in whose care your mail may safely be addressed and who will forward it without charge wherever you may direct the chance to use the facilities for writing and newspaper reading with which most foreign banking houses are supplied and the profits that accrue to the man are bills of exchange for sale these profits are not inconsiderable and instances are sometimes reported of shrewd American financiers who pay a small part of the cost of a foreign trip by watching the local market for bills of exchange and speculating as they go along of course it takes experience and wide commercial knowledge to do this the ordinary letters of credit are seldom issued for less amounts of $500 in round numbers $500 when issued for smaller amounts they cost as much as if issued for the full hundred pounds so if your ready money when you are about to start is less than $500 it will be cheaper to take it with you in some other form the common method is to buy what are really drafts for stipulated amounts which can be cashed at banks in many other places some bankers issue them under the name of patent credits which are sheets of checks for five pounds $25 each the aggregate being $250 $500 $1000 or $1500 or at the option of the buyer they give the holder the same privileges in the use of foreign banking house conveniences that he would secure with the ordinary letter of credit you must draw your money in multiples of $25 while on the ordinary letter of credit you can draw any amount you wish be it large or small to the face value less previous drafts of course the commission charge is 1% so that a patent credit for $250 can be secured for $2.50 where the ordinary letter of credit would cost $5 the commission for anything less $5 the same purpose is accomplished by the checks of the banking house instituted for this very end and by the travelers checks of the express company the banking house issues books of checks each of which has the maximum amount for which it can be drawn printed and perforated but it may be drawn for any smaller amount from a penny up if checks are drawn for smaller amounts of the maximum the balances are credited to the owner of the book to go toward a new book or to be refunded the system therefore has the advantage of permitting the holder of a book to pay his bills with checks exactly as he would at home and virtually amounts to a bank deposit against which the depositor can readily draw without the need of personal acquaintance with the person to whom the check is paid as with ordinary banks there is no charge for opening the account and the bank gets its profit from the use of the money it allows a small rate of interest the express company system is one of checks in fixed denominations of 10 20, 50, 100 and 200 dollars with the exact foreign money equivalents paid therefore in gold or its equivalent in the principal countries of Europe printed on each check this certainty as to what he is to receive is an advantage to the holder unacquainted with foreign currencies or exposed to deception but the chief merit of the express checks is the ease with which they can be cashed hotel and shopkeepers all along the general routes will accept them in payment of bills or will cash them the bankers not always easily found or in such a city as Paris your pension may be a mile or two away banking rooms are open only in the daytime and on Sundays and fat days but a few hours if at all so that to reach them at the right time in hurry traveling you may have to waste a day thus even if you carry the bulk of your money in the form of a letter of credit it may be wise to have express orders on hand for speedy use furthermore you can cash them in smaller amounts and you like to get at a bankers the advantage of getting a small amount also counts sometimes when you are about to go from one country to another and haven't quite ready money enough as if you draw a considerable sum from the banker you may lose on the exchange when you get into the other country also if the members of a family or traveling party are to separate for a while the checks may be divided between them identification is secured by comparison of signatures the commission for issuing is half of one percent they are sold for cash under guarantee of the buyer and a responsible bank trust company or banker or against deposits of cash or high grade marketable securities their one disadvantage is that they allow no chance for profiting by fluctuations in the rate of exchange where it not for this a reasonable cost and many conveniences would make them even more popular than they are now currency gold is the international standard of value in Europe and nominally an ounce of gold has the same purchasing power the world over no matter how may be labeled yet even gold is liable to the local fluctuations of demand and supply in Gibraltar for example by reason of the trade relations with England a given amount of gold minted at London may command a higher premium than an equal amount minted at Paris where the demands of exchange do not affect the matter a coin is naturally worth more in its own country than in another so that if you were going from France to Germany it would be wiser to buy German gold in Paris than to wait till you reach Berlin and there buy it with French gold for the same reason do not expect to sell at a premium what foreign gold you may bring home with you from Europe I've been told that United States one and two dollar bills command a considerable premium in many parts of Europe by reason I suppose of their utility in making small remittances to the states by mail but when I acted on this and sent a dollar bill to a London house to pay for merchandise price did for shillings and two pens they sent word asking me in future to remember that they had to sell such bills at a discount yet somewhere I was assured that an American traveler had made a considerable sum by carrying role of American bills to Europe with him and selling them to money changers the paper money of several countries is a depreciated currency and is nowhere worth its face value the effect is deceptive you go to Italy for instance with the impression that a lira is worth a franc and when you get in the exchange more liras than you had francs you think you have made money but your lira is worthless and you have actually profited only on paper this statement however must be modified by calling attention to the fact that prices of small articles together with many standard rates such as those of hotels and railroads are not changed as currency fluctuates when the lira drops a cent or two in Italy the hotel still charges 10 liras and a ticket from Florence to Rome still has the same nominal price so as your English or French gold buys more liras you are the gainer I have already pointed out that therefore it is not wise to buy railroad tickets in a country other than that where a depreciated currency prevails for use in that country a bank of England note is as good as British gold anywhere in the civilized world and is much more easy to carry furthermore it is numbered so that in case of loss on the whole it is better to carry English gold than that of any other nation for the reason that it is usually more in demand furthermore the integrity of the English mint is unquestioned and the accuracy of its coinage is unimpeachable which gives its coins a slight advantage for use on ship board then and for immediate use after landing before you can get to a bankers it is well to take some English coins or banknotes from New York or wherever you sail your banker will sell it to you at a lower premium than a money changer will charge doing it merely as an accommodation and not expecting the money changers profit the purses of the boats will change money until their stock runs short but of course they do not make quite so favorable rates of exchange as you can get onshore the wine lists of the various boats are priced in the currency of the nation under whose flag the boat sails and there is a slight advantage in paying in that currency take sit in your head that the Schilling and the Mark the common silver coins of the British and German coinage respectively are worth about a quarter of a dollar the Frank, French the Lyra, Italian the Posada, Spanish the Golden, Dutch and the Crown, Austrian are worth about 20 cents the Crown in Denmark Norway and Sweden are worth about a quarter of a dollar the Silver, Florian in Holland and Austria about 40 and the Rubeau in Russia about 50 cents the abbreviations for Florian and Frank may be easily confounded when written so look out for them French Silver goes in Belgium and Switzerland the more common gold pieces are 20 Schillings, a Sovereign or Pound in Great Britain $4.86 20 Franks in France $4.86 20 Marks in Germany $4.76 and 20 Crowns in Austria $4.05 in Great Britain, ordinary prices are more often given in Schillings than in Pounds the larger prices the term Guinea is often used though there is no coin of that denomination a Guinea means 21 Schillings one more than there are in the Pound and is equivalent to about $5.10 the Crown of five Schillings is worth about $1.20 the two Schilling piece and the half Crown are nearly the same size and are easily confused in the handling likewise the half Sovereign and the six Pence may be confused in the dark and lead to costly errors in America we carelessly use the term penny as the equivalent of a cent the penny is really worth two cents and the currency is equal to the cent before going from one country to another get rid of all you can of the currency of the country you are leaving the copper and nickel coins of one country are worthless in all others you might just as well squander them is to carry them over the line there are exchange offices at many of the frontier stations but you can get better rates at the money changers bureaus in the city from which you depart foreign money changers are not always gifted with Americans consciences and frequently need watching now and then if you are skillful you can drive a good bargain with one but as a rule it is safer to deal with the banking house the guide books advise travelers to be aware of worthless banknotes and say that especially in Italy there are notes afloat that have only depreciated value if any at all the safest course is to give and get gold wherever you can as for myself the safest course is to give and get gold wherever you can as for myself I never got caught on anything save a swiss two frank piece that was undoubtedly genuine but for some reason or other had been tabooed and disowned by the swiss government we are so little accustomed in america to handling gold that it is not hard to make blunders in its use the pieces of franks or marks are so near the size of the silver shelling frank or mark that if you are not careful you may find you have paid out at night or went in haste a gold piece where you meant to give one a silver you can guard against this by using two purses of different size invariably keeping gold in one silver in the other or purse with an inner pocket in which the gold should be kept some persons usually have the more timid sex carry most of their money in chamois skin bags attached to a ribbon around the neck people who travel in barbaric countries get oiled silk bags to wear under the clothing at the waist but such precautions are no more needed in Europe than in America women can get safety enough by using a pocket in the petticoat which should be hooked or pinned with a safety pin the cautious man will keep his letter of credit passport etc in an inside best pocket pass them likewise with the safety pin going through customs houses when landing in any foreign country and whenever you cross the line between any two countries you must go through the tedious farce of a customs house examination it is tedious because it delays the journey from half an hour to two hours at points utterly devoid of interest and it is a farce for about all American tourists because they carry nothing on which duty is collected liquor, tobacco and food are the things more sought for than anything else and the traveler is likely to carry none of them in dutyable quantities the trunks are all taken from what we call the baggage car and what the English call the luggage van placed on long tables and opened when you produce the key if you are good natured and show no uneasiness the examining official will make only the most cursory examination often merely lifting the lid if you claim two or three trunks frequently you will be asked to open but one don't suggest which one it shall be or the official will have another opened some tourists observing how careless the examinations usually are will foolishly conclude that they don't amount to anything and on crossing the frontier at night will not take the trouble to get out and open their trunks this morning they are surprised to learn that the trunks have been left at the frontier and complain because their heedlessness causes them delay, trouble and expense frequently it is not necessary to take hand luggage from the car racks into the examining room and official will glance into the compartment to see if anything suspicious is there but the ordinary bag or shawl strap bundle will not seem to him worth laboring so don't move your luggage till somebody in authority tells you to do it I never knew of anybody's being an examiner in a foreign customs house so rarely has a tourist anything doodiable that among traveling Americans at least the attempt to bribe is very rare would that the same thing might be said about homecoming Americans whether or not the customs authorities of American ports are in earnest in their attempts to suppress bribery the sad fact is that it goes on, though by no means to the extent commonly supposed it goes on and public opinion does not suppress it to dodge taxes and to bribe customs house officials to deceive the assessor and the inspector are venial sins in the eyes of many people who would not cheat their neighbors nor steal a cent when public opinion does not frown on a public practice however sinful or criminal that practice may be it is hypocritical in a writer to content himself with an abstract denunciation of it let me leave the right and wrong of the thing to the moralist and take the more practical course of pointing out the folly of it to the fashionable woman who tries to smuggle in a thousand dollars worth of laces I have nothing to say to the man who sows diamonds in his clothes I have nothing to say my advice will be solely to the traveler who brings home with him a reasonable amount of clothing and the ordinary mementos and bric-a-brac one picks up in a foreign tour such a person wastes every cent he gets stealthily into the hands of an inspector Uncle Sam is not petty and inquisitorial in this matter he seeks to tax only those who make large purchases abroad it would not do for him to say in so many words that you can bring in a playing cards but not two packs nor ten packs nor a hundred packs but he isn't going to turn your trunk upside down for the sake of finding a solitary pack of cards he is willing you should bring in clothing to an extent and of a quality suitable to your station in life and he says so he is willing you should bring in such curios and souvenirs of slight value as you can easily carry in your luggage when his representative seated in the cabin while the boat is coming up the harbor asks you to sign a statement that you have nothing dutyable he knows perfectly well that the chances are a hundred to one against you being able to make that statement and yet tell the truth to the tiniest detail it is in short a case where everybody recognizes that the spirit of the law is of more importance than the letter even if you have with you the results of such purchases the numbers of tariff legislation meant to reach it will usually be cheaper to pay the duty than to bribe suppose it does cost you ten dollars or fifteen dollars more isn't it better to have a clear conscience and besides feeling that you have done the square thing to Uncle Sam yourself know that you have tempted none of his employees to violate their oaths as well as run the risk of losing their positions pardon this bit of moralizing advice I would give to would be smugglers the same advice that punch gave to those about to marry don't frankness is cheaper than a five dollar bill and usually works just as well but there is no need to be painfully confiding to an inspector to ask him don't you think this tortoise shell comb is dutyable patients in good nature are the most useful qualities in an American customs house as well as in the foreign customs house a smile and a joke get one through quicker and easier if time presses an express agent will save you delay at the moment by sending your trunk through in bond to any place you may designate where there is a customs house but in the long run the cost of time will be much greater to say nothing of the express charges for the chances are when you go to get your trunk out of bond you will find an inspector with plenty of time to make a thorough examination once I tried this the inspector took out every single article of a large and miscellaneous collection spread the whole museum on a table and went through it slowly simply to make a show of earning his salary I take it for though there were several things that might have been taxed he didn't levy a scent of duty perhaps the fact that the trunk had been sent through in bond was enough to make him suspicious that it contained something of value I feared the New York inspectors might seize anyway it took the best part of a forenoon to accomplish what would have been done on the wharf in ten minutes had I but waited abroad if you should send a trunk to a steamboat wharf in another country it will go in bond and you are not supposed to open it till it gets on the boat this may be worthwhile remembering when you pack it the provision as to passengers effects in the dingley tariff law at this writing in force in the United States is as follows paragraph 697 wearing apparel articles of personal adornment toilet articles and similar personal effects of persons arriving in the United States but this exemption shall only include such articles as actually a company and are in the use of and as are necessary and appropriate for the wear and use of such persons for the immediate purposes of the journey and present comfort and convenience and shall not be held to apply to merchandise or articles intended for other persons or for sale provided that in case of residents of the United States returning from abroad all wearing apparel and other personal effects taken by them out of the United States to foreign countries shall be admitted free of duty without regard to their value upon their identity being established under appropriate rules and regulations to be prescribed by the secretary of the treasury but no more than $100 in value of articles purchased abroad by such residents of the United States shall be admitted free of duty upon their return as this provision is interpreted the effects taken out of the country by a resident of the United States may come back free at any time provided their identity is established if therefore the resident has any expectation or apprehension that his effects may not return on the same boat with him he should file with the collector at the port of departure a sworn declaration of what they are the resident who brings back more than $100 in value of articles bought abroad may choose which of them shall be classed as excess and will naturally choose those on which the lowest rates of duty are levied if he does not make the selection it is a duty of the inspector to reverse the thing and assess the article subject to the highest rate resident is construed to mean anybody who makes a journey abroad and during absence has no fixed place of abode a person who has been abroad more than two years and has there had a fixed abode for a year or more is to be considered as a non resident here no invoices are required for personal effects accompanying a passenger but it will be well for every traveler to have with him and ready for exhibit the bills for any articles of consequence he may have bought abroad every member of a family is entitled to free entry of $100 worth of personal effects but women's wearing apparel brought by a man or man's apparel brought by a woman is not free especially stringent are the rules against the importation made of the fur of seals killed in the North Pacific Ocean since December 29, 1897 unless it can be proved to the contrary the regulations assume that the garment comes under the prohibition so that any traveler who takes a seal skin garment out of the country is liable to its forfeiture unless the certificate describing it has been obtained from the collector of customs at the port of departure the tariff rates on some of the articles most likely to be brought by tourists are as follows the figures being the percentage ad valorem of the value unless otherwise indicated bonnet silk 60 books charts maps 25 clothing ready made cotton 60 linen silk and woollen 50 diamonds uncut free cut but not set 10 cut and set 60 engravings 25 flowers artificial 50 fur manufacturers of 35 furniture wood 35 glassware plain and cut 60 gold manufacturers of not jewelry 45 jewelry 60 musical instruments 45 paintings and marble statuary 20 rugs oriental 10 cents a square foot and 40 percent silk laces wearing apparel 60 the dingley law in its relation to passengers effects and the message used in its enforcement at the port of new york have been the subject of the severest strictures at the hands of the new york evening post and its adherence undoubtedly the annoyances at first were considerable but they were in large measure due to the inclination of many travelers to violate a law that the customs officials were in duty bound to enforce as usual the instruments of the law occurred the odium that should attach to the makers of the law if to anybody whether the regulations are or are not needlessly stringent no honest man who believes in fair play can reprove the serious attempt to stop the bribery of inspectors on new york wharves it is our national hope that we live in a country where there's not one law for the rich and another for the poor a hope that wanes wherever officials can be bought the bribe taker and the bribe giver are equally an offense and a menace in a democracy in great britain dutyable goods are tobacco wines liquors tea coffee cocoa and florida water each passenger may take in free a flask of spirits and half a pound of tobacco for private use up to three pounds of tobacco may be passed on payment of a duty of five shillings a pound with the addition in the matter of cigars of a slight difficulty for contravention of the law forbidding the importation in chests of less than 10,000 a broken box of cigars will go through without trouble foreign reprints of English copyrighted books and music are absolutely confiscated and therefore touch knits editions and the pirated American editions will be seized if seen firearms and ammunition cannot be landed in Ireland unless declared to customs then they will be detained until magistrates warrant to carry them has been granted dogs are not allowed to land without a license previously obtained from the Board of Agriculture for Whitehall Place London Southwest in France tobacco wines and liquors are subject to duty matches are strictly prohibited and liable to confiscation household goods and wearing apparel are admitted free with but few if any questions the penalty for false declarations is heavy the duty on ordinary tobacco is three dollars a kilogram two and one fifth pounds on Turkish tobacco five dollars on cigars and cigarettes seven dollars twenty cents the travelers allowed to take in free not more than twenty cigars or half a pound of tobacco and is liable to a fine of five times the duty if they are not declared I suspect however that very few broken cigars pay any duty Italy is harder yet on the smoker allowing free entry to only one and one third ounces of tobacco travelers found in possession of more than this anywhere in Italy are liable to a fine of about fourteen dollars if they cannot prove that the duty has been paid is however is more terrifying than dangerous one might run greater risk in venturing to smoke an Italian cigar in Germany Switzerland and Belgium the only article subject to duty which travelers would be likely to carry are tobacco and spirits and on these the duty is trifling in the Netherlands tobacco spirits and all articles usually carried by travelers are admitted free foreign prices everybody goes abroad for the first time with the expectation that everything can be bought there to better advantage then at home this is not the fact on the contrary Europe sells few things more cheaply making quality into account as well as price most common misconception is in the matter of English clothes for men plenty of tailors in London offer to make a business suit for twelve or fifteen dollars twenty five dollars would be a price far above the average compared with the New York range of prices from twenty five dollars to forty dollars London seems to be giving away clothes but even though the cloth may equal or surpass that offered in New York of corresponding grade the workmanship is poor and the fit is abominable except that given by a few of the high priced West End shops a friend tells me that once he traveled for two weeks on the continent in a suit that had been quickly made in London which disclosed such a wealth of white linen between trousers and vest with the lowest button of the coat button all the time then he gave the suit away to a hotel porter I asked a London tailor why he didn't make better clothes because he answered few people have taken all our best workmen my friend bought a Mirsham pipe in Munich and thought he had a bargain when he got back to Boston a pipe merchant offered to duplicate it for fifty cents less he maintained that the best Mirsham pipe makers have come across in America furthermore our leading merchants buy with each other in offering imported goods and competition has reduced to a minimum their profits on all standard lines indeed no small part of the income of ocean steamers comes from the buyers who are sent across the water to get fabrics and other merchandise says one of them we go direct to the factories and buy their goods and pay duty on the wholesale price selling at a close margin of profit can come very near duplicating the prices demanded by the shopkeepers along the fashionable thoroughfares of Europe it would be almost safe to make the general assertion that Europe excels us now only in products requiring an artistic environment peculiar properties of soil or climate or the labour of work people so poor that they cannot emigrate good paintings would naturally be cheaper where museums abound and art students congregate than in American cities with the climatic conditions of northern Italy particularly adapted to the mulberry and the silkworm it is not surprising to find silks cheaper in the lawn than in Chicago the handmade laces of Belgium and Venice cannot be approached in countries where girls will not work for a pittance nearly everything requiring the use of machinery American prices are the better for the buyer in boots and shoes for instance, Massachusetts can undersell the world in watches we can match any European products except perhaps those of Geneva where generations of hand workmen have accumulated a fund of skilled knowledge that enables the place to sell to foreigners on the strength of superiority in some details though not in all possibly in none of those concerning the watch that would be bought by the mass of mankind End of section 12