Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1899 — SPECULATE IN HISTORIC SPOTS. [ARTICLE]

SPECULATE IN HISTORIC SPOTS.

a $ What the Birthplaces of Faanoas Men Are Worth ae a Bneinees. Last year no fewer than 36,000 peo l pie passed the turnstiles which guard the entrance to the little room in which Borns first saw the light In 1896, the centenary year of Bums’ death, the number reached 38,000, and as 2 pence is demanded from each visitor a very simple calculation will show that a large sum of money is annually obtained by this means. The cottage ia a very humble, onestoried little erection, with a thatched roof, and the poet's father, when he first went to live there, would have opened his eyes pretty widely had anyone been able to tell him what a sum was one day to be* received for It. The place was bought from him (after the poet’s death) by a corporation of shoemakers, who afterward sold it to the present trustees for $20,000. Another famous birthplace which attracts a large number of people is that of Thomas Carlyle at Ecclefech&n, which is twenty or thirty miles north of Carlisle. There is no fixed scale of charges for visiting this cottage, but as 1,205 people climbed the stairs last year and each probably left something with the caretaker It will be easily seen that here, too, is & nice little property. There are other places, more or less well known, scattered about in different parts of England and Wales, which the tourist often visits. Shakspeare is still a veritable little gold mine to Stratford-on-Avon. People from all pqrts of the world make pilgrimages to the little Warwickshire town in order to see the famous poet’s birthplace. The charge for admission to the house Is 6 pence, but as an interesting museum is usuaUy visited at the same time, for which an extra 6 pence is demanded. few persons leave the building without leaving 1 shilling behind them. Then there is An* Hathaway’s cottage to be also seen. This is a mile away from Stratford, at the pretty little village of Shottery, and it is where the poet’s wife was wooed and won. The writer, during a recent visit to it, was Informed that on an average 100 people a day all the year round came to see the cottage, and as each visitor pays 6 pence $3,500 or $4,000 a year must be made out of it