Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1891 — HOW WOMEN SHOULD TRAVEL. [ARTICLE]

HOW WOMEN SHOULD TRAVEL.

Leave Your Husbands and Brothers at Home and go in Couples. The subject of traveling in France or Switzerland or other Continental countriesisentertainingly'discussed by Mrs. Fenwick-Miller in one of the London periodicals. Beginning with the assertion that two women may travel alone unattended, she says that everybody is most kind to English women who are thus journeying, and adds: “I cannot imagine* that there should be any difficulty isl the path of women of ordinary selfpossession and commonsense in traveling alone, provided they can speak a little French, and I counsel any of my readers who may have been waiting and wishing for some years that some brother or cousin would convoy them to throw away fears and plunge forth alone—that is to say, in that dual .company which, as the adage tells us, is perfection. On such a journey very little luggage is essential. Big boxes are an endless worry. A small leather trunk or large portmanteau suffices. It should be big enough to hold a cotton dress, with an extra blouse or two, say one thin and one warmer, and a dressy bodice for table d’hote, two complete changes of linen (which is enough for a long journey, as. it can always be washed at short notice at the hotels), handkerchiefs, collars, writing materials, toilet articles an extra pair of walking shoes, slippers, and dressing gown, and a few favorite medicines. A waterproof, a warm mantle, and a little shawl can be carried in a strap. Then, if a useful tweed or cloth travelling dress, a light cloak or jacket, and a straw hat or serviceable bonnet be worn, the traveller will find herself amply provided. 9 : “Management is another important point. Either the tour should be COiiipletely planned out before starting, with the aid of a guide book, and rigidly adhered to; or, what is better, one person should be allowed to order the day’s doings from day to day. Discussions and councils are. apt to waste time and, end in dissensions. The person who takes the management, however, must be unselfish and anxious for her comrade’s satisfaction and pleasure; and the other must cultivate a sweet and calm temper, paying for her freedom from responsibility and care by patience when any little thing goes wrong, and by ■pliability of will for the time being. Given these conditions of mind —common sense and energy in the one and graciousness in the other, with affectionate kindness in both —I am convinced that journey of two friends of the same sex is likely to be a more complete success than that of husband and wife, or brother and sister. The physical powers and the mental tastes are more likely to be similar in the former case. Your husbafid is bored to speechlessness if you take him for a day’s shopga?ing in Paris, or ask him to spend a few hours in the fascinating ateliers of Redfern or Worth. On the other hand, you are reduced to misery in Switzerland by what he considers an insignificant and wholly delightful day’s walking. Your woman friend is at one with you under both circumstances. How often, when we have felt perfectly happy and satisfied with ourselves and our doings, we have seen and pitied the bored husband ov exhausted wife! In short, so far from being impossible, it is a super-excellent arrangement for two women to take a Continental trip together.*'