K6M1«1M^P!H »Wl^ The Business OF Trai^el -?/../^^ S?fi jr >v>. •••*: *^ |BiBi?V»»»ani ^^^ii fiffUr Yesrs' Record of Pro^res$ Oakland University (EYR) www.kl.oakland.edu Thank you for letting us use this item. Staff of EYR illoaku@oakland.edu The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924011771668 Cornell University Library G 155.A1.R13 The business of traveha fifty years' re 3 1924 011 771 668 BANQUET TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF THE BUSINESS OF ' THOMAS COOK & SON, AT THE HOTEL METROPOLE, JULY 22ND, 1891, Mr. John M. Cook in the Chair. On July 5th, 1841, the first Excursion Train arranged by Mr. Thos. Cook, ran from Leicester to Loughboro' ; therefore on July 5th, 1891, Thos. Cook and Son had completed fifty years of their business of travel. At the suggestion of influen- tial friends, it was decided to commemorate in some way the Jubilee of the Firm ; and Mr. John M. Cook, acting upon that suggestion, issued invitations to repre- sentative gentlemen to a Banquet to be held at the Hotel Metropole, London, on July 22nd. The invitations were warmly accepted ; and as the day approached, the chief difficulty was to find room for the friends who wished to honour the Firm by their presence. The total number of acceptances was about 300, and included : — Their Royal and Serene Highnesses the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Henry of Battenberg, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of Sutherland, His Excel- lency Aziz Izzet Bey (special representative of His Highness the Khedive), Lord Camoys, Lord Colville of Culross, Sir Graham Berry, K.C.M.G., Sir Henry Austen Layard, G.C.B., D.C.L., Sir G. Birdwood, K.C.I.E., Sir John Gorst, Q.C., M.P., Sir Edward Blount, Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir George Bowen, G.C.M.G., Lieu- tenant-General Sir Redvers BuUer, K.C.B., V.C, Major-General Sir Henry Raw- linson, G.C.B., F.R.S., Sir Henry George Calcraft, K.C.B., Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Clarke, K.C.B., Sir Dominic Colnaghi, Sir Donald Currie, K.C.M.G., M.P., Sir Juland Danvers, K.C.S.I., Mr. Walter, Halton Pasha, Sir Henry Edwards, Sir Gerald Eitz-Gerald, K.C.M.G., Sir Gerald Seymour Vesey Fitz- Gerald, K.C.I.E., Admiral Gough, Major-General Sir Francis Grenfell, K.C.B., Admiral Sir John C. Dalrymple-Hay, K.C.B., Sir Robert G. Wyndham Herbert, K.C.B., Sir Edmund Lechmere, M.P., Sir John Monckton, F.S.A., Sir Arthur Otway, Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, K.C.B., Sir John Pender, "K.C.M.G., Sir James Ramsden, General Sir E. Selby Smyth, K.C.M.G., General Sir Frederick Stephen- son, K.C.B., Admiral .Sir W. Houston Stewart, K.C.B., Sir Thomas Sutherland, M.P., K.C.M.G., Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., Sir Myles Fenton, Sir Edwin Arnold, C.S.I., Mr. J. Henniker Heaton, M.P., Alderman Sir Polydore de Keyser, Sir James Allport, Mr. W. A. Tyssen Amherst, M.P., Admiral F. G. D. Bedford, C.B., the Hon. C. P. F. Berkeley, Mr. Bhownagree, CLE., Mr. T. E. Ellis, M.P., Mr. J. Bigwood, M.P., Mr. J. S. Forbes, Mr. J. C. Bolton, M.P., Mr. J. T. Brunner, M.P., Mr. R. Chamberlain, M.P., Colonel Stanley Clarke, C.M.G., Colonel J. Clerk, C.S.I., Mr. Jesse Collings, M.P., Colonel Colville, C.B., Mr. Alfred Giles, M.P., Lieutenant-Colonel Goldsmid, Lieutenant-Colonel Goodchild, J. P., D.L., Captain Tynte Hammill, R.N., Mr. Cashel Hoey, C.M.G., Mr. James Judd, Mr. Alderman Kempson (Mayor of Leicester), M. Dremel (Brussels), Sir Charles Lawson, Captain E. St. John Mildmay, Mr. W. H. Mudford, Mr. E. C. Nepean, C.B., Mr. J. C. Parkinson, Mr. Fraser Rae, Dr. W. H. Russell, Mr. J. F. Moberley Bell, Colonel Sandwith, C.B., Mr. W. L. Mugliston, Mr. Allen Sarle, Mr. Charles Scotter, Mr. E. W. Verrinder, Mr. W. P. Treloar, Mr. Horace Voules, Mr. Walter Wood, Mr. Alderman Wright, Mr. Frank Harris, Mr. Edward Cant- Wall, Mr. W. H. CoUingridge, Mr. Mortimer Harris, Mr. Edmund Yates, Mr. J. E. Hodges, J.P., Mr. T. Colls, Mr. G. H. Hodges, Mr. F. Hodges, and many of the Directors and Managers of the chief Railway and Steam Ship Com- panies of the Globe. In the honours and duties of the Banquet Mr. Cook was assisted by his three sons ; and during the dinner, and at intervals between the different speeches, the musical portion of the entertainment was contributed by the celebrated artists, Madame Nordica, M. Joseph HoUman, and M. Johannes Wolff, who, with the Quintette de Salon under the conductorship of Mr. Hubert Delma, combined in the following programme, which was greatly appreciated by the assembled guests : — DURING DINNER. THE QUINTETTE DE SALON. Conductor MR. HUBERT DELMA. March "Eastern" . . yakobowsM, Idyl . . " Evening Breeze " .. Langey. SechsTanze. . ( No. I " Ungarisch" ( No. 4 " Slavonic" . . Sarakowski. Minuet Lulli. Valse de Concert "Tout Paris" . . Waldteufel. Czardas ' ' Danse Styrienne " . . Michiels. Intermezzo . . "SansPareil" Gautier. Serenata . . Moszkowski. Valse . . " Ange d' Amour " . . Waldteufel. Entracte . " Die Wachtparade " .. Eilenberg. AFTER DINNER. Violoncello Solo . . .. " Simple Aveu" Thome'. MONS. JOSEPH HOLLMAN. Aria "Nocturne' Chopin. Madame NORDICA. Violoncello Oiligato, MONS. HOLLMAN. Violin Solo . . .. .. ■■ Andante Religioso" .. ThonU. MoNS. JOHANNES WOLFF. Song " Les Filles de Cadix " . . Delibes. Madame NORDICA. Violoncello Solo . . . . "Am Springbrunnen " . . Davedoff. MoNS. JOSEPH HOLLMAN. Song . . • • " Ich liebe Dich " Torster. Madame NORDICA. Violin Solo "Polonaise" . . Laub. MoNS. JOHANNES WOLFF. Duet for Violin and Violon( ;ello, " Mira la Branca Luna " Rosini. MM. WOLFF and HOLLMAN. At the Pianoforte MR. SIEVEKING. Most of the speeches were received, not only with approval, but with consider- able enthusiasm ; and the Banquet has been pronounced, by those who are best able to form an opinion, as being one of the most successful and representative ever carried out, even in this country. It is quite impossible to give the particulars of the enormous number of congratulatory telegrams and letters which have been received by Mr. J. M. Cook from friends and associates and business connections in all parts of the globe, or to print extracts from the numerous congratulatory articles which have appeared in the newspapers and periodicals already received ; but, as an example, we may give the following short leader from the Times of the 23rd July — the day following the Banquet : — " Is it the eager desire which we are all feeling at this moment to get away from London to the mountains or the sea that has made everybody feel so kindly towards Messrs. Cook and their Jubilee ? They have succeeded in impressing their name and organisation so deeply upon the public mind that we cannot think of Zermatt or Oban, of the Orkneys or the Midnight Sun, without at the same time thinking of Messrs. Cook and the little books of travelling coupons that we buy at Ludgate Circus. This success was shown in an outward, visible, and characteristically human form in the Jubilee Banquet which was last night given by the head of the firm. Such a gathering has seldom assembled at the Whitehall Rooms. There were Princes, Peers, and Excellencies : there were soldiers and sailors, members of Parliament, journalists, Bohemians — everybody. The large room could not contain the crowd, and an ' overflow dinner ' had to take place in a second room. Further, there was a serious and enthusiastic letter from Mr. Gladstone, and another, full of gratitude for real services, from Lord Wolseley, giving it as his opinion that the good work done by Messrs. Cook in the Nile campaign could have been done by no one else. Such is the result that may come from a talent for organisation, joined to a keen intuitive perception of a great public need. More- over, Mr. Thomas Cook, the founder of the tours, was happy in that he also founded a dynasty. His son and grandsons carry on, with equal skill, the business which has now grown to such vast proportions, and of which the future seems to be endless. May it continue to flourish, and may the tens of thousands who make use of it to help them on their travels come back from them a little better informed, a little wiser, than they started ! " Grace was said by the Rev. Canon Fleming, and thanks returned by the Rev. Scawen Blunt, M.A. The toasts of the evening were proposed and responded to in the following order : — The Chairman : " The Queen, God bless her ! " The Chairman : " Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the other members of the Royal Family." The Chairman : May it please your Royal Highness, your Serene High- nesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : I have to ask you now to allow me to introduce a toast which I think has never been given in Great Britain, and rarely, if ever, in Europe. It is " The Health of His Highness Mahomet Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt." (Cheers.) For some reasons I scarcely like to read the letter that I hold in my hand, but I feel that I am bound to do so. " Dear Mr. Cook, " I am commanded by H.H. the Khedive, to express to you his con- " gratulations on the jubilee of your firm. Your endeavours for the last " twenty-two years to facihtate tourists, and in making Egypt known to the II world, the services you have rendered to the State in the transport of "troops and baggage, the assistance given to the public schools, and the " services which you have rendered to their Highnesses, Prince Abbas " Helmi Bey, and Prince Mahomed Abi Bey when travelling in Europe "have been most valuable, and in recognition of them His Highness the " Khedive has been graciously pleased to confer upon you the decoration of ' ' the Order of the Osmanieh, Second Class, and upon your three sons — ' ' Frank Henry, Ernest Edward, and Thomas Albert — the Order of the " Medjidieh of the Third Class. ' ' I am, yours faithfully, " ZuLFiCAR Pasha." I am not aware that anyone ever supposed, nor did I ever suppose, that I should be so honoured as that the Khedive of Egypt should send a special representative to this country to attend here to-night. Those of us who are at this table, and who have had the pleasure during the last few years of personally coming in contact with His Highness Tewfik Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, know well, not only his genial and good-hearted disposition towards all of us personally when we are around him, but his sincere and ardent wish to do everything that he possibly can to meet the views and follow the advice of those who counsel him, especially when he sees, as he does rightly, tjjat the advice tends generally towards the advance- ment of his people. (Cheers.) I have, therefore, the greatest possible pleasure in asking you to join me in drinking the toast of " Health, Long Life and Prosperity to Mahomed Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, and Prosperity to Egypt " — (cheers) — coupling with it the name of the special representative of His Highness, His Excellency Aziz Izzet Bey, and also the name of General Sir Francis Grenfell, who will respond, especially to that part of the toast relating' to the prosperity of Egjpt. (Cheers.) His Excellency Aziz Izzet Bey : Your Royal and Serene Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : On behalf of my august master I beg to thank you most heartily for the kind manner in which you have received this toast. I assure you that His Highness most thoroughly appreciates the enterprise of our worthy host whose jubilee we are celebrating to-night, enterprise of which His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge, as well as many others present have had, I trust, delightful experience. Once more I beg to tender my thanks for the' way in which you have received this toast. (Cheers.) ' Major General Sir Francis Grenfell : Your Royal and Serene Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : About three minutes ago I received a message from Mr. John Cook informing me that I was to return thanks for the toast ' ' Prosperity to Egypt." I think, perhaps, I should have been able to fulfil all the conditions if I had a certain time for reflection ; but still, I do feel that I have had a pleas- anter dinner than if I had been told when I came into the room that I should have had to return thanks for this or any toast. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, I am proud to return thanks for this toast, because I feel in mentioning the prosperity of Egypt I am mentioning the name of Mr. John Cook. (Cheers.) I know few people who have assisted in producing prosperity in Egypt more than Mr. John Cook. (Cheers.) During the time I have been in Egypt I have had an opportunity of assisting not only in the military government of the country, but in the civil government, and I have had the great honour of administering a province between Assouan and Wady Haifa, and also at Suakin. I have always taken the greatest interest in the education of the natives, and the last time when I visited the school at Assouan I asked the pupils various questions. One of those questions was, "Who was the greatest man in Egypt?" and they all said "The Khedive." Then I asked, " Who is the second greatest man in Egypt?" and unanimously the reply came, " Mr. John Cook." (Cheers and laughter.) That, gentlemen, I can assure you, is the belief of all the natives, at any rate of the riverain population, who use Mr. John Cook's boats in going backwards and forwards from Cairo to Assouan, and from Assouan to Wady Haifa., He is a man of the greatest business habits, none more so, but in some cases he has hardly carried out those business habits. I have known cases in which Mr. John Cook, when he could have filled his steamers with portly gentlemen from the United States, and from Birmingham and Manchester, has given them over to sick officers and their wives, and to sick soldiers. (Cheers.) That, gentlemen, is most generous, but it is not business-like. (Laughter.) I appeal to those of you who are connected with commerce, and the only remark that I will make on that subject is this, that when I went to Egypt in 1882 Unified stood at 46 and they are now at 96. I think I need say no more regarding the prosperity of Egypt. (Cheers.) The Chairman : The next toast, gentlemen, that I have to ask you kindly to respond to is " The Army, Navy, and Reserve Forces," coupled with the names of Field Marshal His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay, and Lieutenant-Colonel Harfield of the Middlesex Yeomanry. From my personal knowledge of and contact with soldiers and sailors, I know that they are not desirous of having their praises sung in their presence, and I shall not pain them by saying the good things that I could say of theta, especially in connec- tion with their work in Egypt. But I cannot pass by the Voluiiteers without saying two or three words. They have not had much opportunity as a body, but we know, those of us who have had to do work away from home, that there have been dis- tinguished cases of Volunteers, that is those who have been trained in the Volunteer corps at home, and who have volunteered for work abroad, and have rendered great services to their country. (Cheers). Those who were with us in Egypt, I think, will agree with me that not one of those Volunteers did more than Mr. Walter Ingram, of the Illustrated London News, who was an officer in the corps of Colonel Harfield. That is the reason why I wish to couple the gallant Colonel's name with this toast of " The Army, Navy , and Reserve Forces. " (Cheers.) His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge : Mr. Cook, my Lords and Gentlemen : the manner in which the toast has been given from the Chair and received by this company can only be flattering to the individual who responds for the Army on such an occasion, and I do so with double pleasure, because I rejoice that on so interesting a celebration as the present. The Army, Navy and Volunteer Forces appear on the list of toasts. I desire, not alone on my own part, but on the part of the army which I have the honour to represent, to assure you that we feel quite as much as any of you in this room how much we are indebted to Mr. Cook and to his exertions for the assistance we have met with from him on recent occa- sions. I, perhaps, ought not to speak in this sense in the presence of men who have participated in the work in Egypt to which I refer. I. see my friend Sir Frederick Stephenson here, who, as you know, has rendered great service to his country. I see also my friend, Sir Redvers Buller, whose efforts in the various positions he has occupied need no eulogy from me. I see, besides, and, indeed, I claim him as my own, Sir Francis Grenfell. (Cheers.) Although I am addressing you in their presence, I am persuaded that I am only expressing their sentiments as well as my own when I tell you that on every occasion on which it has been possible to assist the public service in the interest of the State, no one has done more efficient work than my friend Mr. Cook. (Loud cheers.) Last year I should not have had the advantage which I now possess in alluding to this subject, for it so Ijappens that last winter I found myself for the first time in Egypt, and having spent several weeks there, I had an opportunity of observing and appreciating the great merits of the distinguished gentleman who has assembled round him so large a company this evening. I can only confirm what has already been said by my friend. Sir Francis (irenfell, that we are as much indebted to Mr. Cook for all that has been going on in Egypt as we are to any Englishman or foreigner in that country. (Cheers.) I am also glad to take this opportunity of assuring you, in the presence of his representative on my right, that no man appreciates the merits of Mr. Cook more than the Khedive of Egypt. Having had constant com- munication with His Highness, I know that he is thoroughly imbued with a sense of the advantages which he has derived from the support he has obtained from this country. Gentlemen, I am representing the military body, and you may imagine that I am representing a very warlike spirit. I do nothing of the kind. I repre- sent merely a warlike spirit in the sense of protecting that commercial interest which I see so largely represented on this occasion. I assure you, I should regret to see a shilling spent on our armaments unless I had the firmest conviction that but for them you could not conduct with happiness, comfort and prosperity, your •daily avocations in the civil interests in which you are engaged. (Cheers.) I ven- ture very strongly to impress upon your minds that there are no portions of Her Majesty's subjects who ought to endeavour in every respect to support the services, ■whether of the military naval, or auxiliary forces, in this country more than those great commercial bodies, many of whom are so admirably represented around Mr. Cook's table. I trrrst, therefore, that you will never look with disfavour upon what is essential and necessary for the interest of the service I have the honour to repre- sent, and that you will never be led away by any of those fads and absurdities, if I may so call them, which occasionally, I grieve to say, are disseminated amongst the public. I thank you heartily, Mr. Cook, and you, gentlemen, for the manner in which you have received this toast of the Army ; and I feel assured that we, as a body, appreciate as highly as you do, the great advantages that we have derived from the admirable service rendered us by the distinguished gentleman who has presided so ably on this occasion, and in whose honour so large a representative body surrounds him to-night. (Loud cheers.) Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay : My Lords and Gentlemen : I have been <;ommanded by the great authority here to return thanks for the Navy, and I do so with great pleasure before this company. It is quite true that the Navy, in many of its individual persons, has derived the greatest benefit from our illustrious and ■eminent chairman, but, generally, I believe we outrun his discretion, and the officers in charge of the naval manoeuvres at this moment, I am afraid, have not the advantage of his assistance in their particular duty. (Laughter.) But he can send us round the world in a far shorter time than Captain Cook, his great name- sake (who took three years to do it), and in a far more comfortable manner. I ven- ture to say that if Captain Cook were now alive he would claim Mr. Cook as the person who, above all others, had taken advantage of those great discoveries which he placed before the Navy and the world. I do not wish to make a Naval Exhibi- tion of myself. (Laughter.) I am sure that Mr. Cook has done all in his power to make the Naval Exhibition as great a success as its distinguished vice-chairman on my left desires. I will not detain you longer than to thank you for the honour you have done the Navy in receiving this toast. (Cheers.) Lieutenant-Colonel Harfield : I beg to thank you for associating the Reserve Forces with this toast. Our kind and generous host has referred to a gal- lant young officer who was in my regiment. The strength and efficiency of the Volunteers is well known to you all, the matter having been brought prominently before the public within the last fortnight in consequence of the honour conferred upon the Metropolitan Force by the German Emperor. I venture to say, in the presence of His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief, that if ever it should be the misfortune of the country to call out the Volunteers in the event of an invasion the Yeomanry force will be able to give a very good account of itself. (Cheers. ) The Chairman ; Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen ; The sweet harmony to which we have listened (from Madame Nordica) will have pre- pared us for the next toast, ' ' The Two Houses of Parliament. " (Cheers and laughter.) Now, I am not going to introduce a word on politics, but I think that a considerable number of the gentlemen I see before me to-night understand well the necessity of a Lower and an Upper House, and they know well that the Com- mittees of both those Houses, especially during the present session, have worked hard, and have given, most careful attention to the important subjects and interests which they have had carefully to dissect, and although their decisions have not been in favour of all present, still all will say they have done their duty. (Cheers.) They will say something more, and that is, that the two Houses of Parliament have supplied the railway managers of this country with plenty of hard work, not only for this session, but for the next two or three sessions to come. Gentlemen, I give you "The Two Houses of Parliament," coupled with the names of His Grace the Duke of Sutherland and Sir John Gorst. (Cheers.) His Grace the Duke of Sutherland briefly returned thanks for the House of Lords. Sir John Gorst : Mr. Chairman, your Royal Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen :— I do not know whether it is a remnant of the modesty which I pos- sessed in my younger days, but I confess I feel great diffidence in rising to return thanks for the House of Commons in such an assembly as the present. It is not only that I see around me many of my parliamentary colleagues, who belong to parties in the House for whose sentiments I am not accustomed to be a spokesman — (laughter) — but we have also the presence of illustrious Englishmen from every part of the British Empire, who, perhaps, have not a very high opinion either of the eloquence or of the business qualities of the House of Commons. I think that this is an occasion vfhich strongly impresses itself upon every one of my colleagues in Parliament that we are not merely a body which manages the domestic affairs of the United Kingdom, but that we are also the repository of that ultimate force which controls the great empire beyond the seas over which the Queen of England rules. I am here to-night not merely as a friend of Mr. John Cook, but also as the humble .representative of the greatest dependency of the British Crown.the Empire of India. I ought to take an opportunity of bearing testimony, which my Chief, Lord Cross, would have done had he been able to be present, to the great services which have been rendered to the Empire of India by the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son in their management of the pilgrim traffic. It is not only the Mahommedans of India who are accustomed to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, it is also the independent Mahommedan race beyond the frontiers of India, who pass through India and em- bark from British India ports for Mecca. When these pilgrims arrive upon the Indian frontier, the representative of the British nation into whose hands they fall is Mr. Cook, who conducts them through British India, maintains them at Kura- chee or Bombay, the port of embarkation, and conducts them by sea to Arabia ; and if it is necessary that they should have any illustration of the advantage of his cori- duct, I believe that the extortions and sufferings which they endure on the land j(5urney to Mecca and Medina, give them a practical object-lesson in the excellence of Mr. Cook's management, and in the justice of the British nation. (Cheers.) I do not think that the political effect of this just and fair treatment can be exagger- ated. The great quality which constitutes the prestige of the British nation in the East is its firm and unswerving justice, and these Mahommedan pilgrims, whether they are independent peoples, or whether they are our own Indian subjects, have the most admirable example of fair treatment and justice, in the manner in which they are treated by Mr. Cook while they are in his hands on their pilgrimage. I do not know whether this fact has ever sufficiently been brought to the knowledge of the English people, and I do not think that the nation is fully aware of the debt of gratitude which it owes to Messrs. Cook and Son for this practical and useful strength- ening of our power in the East. I hope I shall be forgiven for having ventured to bring this fact prominently before the guests assembled to-night. I can only assure you that, admirable as may be the conduct of Mr. Cook's firm in relation to English tourists, and in relation to pleasure and business excursions in every part of the British Empire, there is no department where their operations have been productive of so much valuable assistance to the nation, as in that of conducting pilgrimage traffic in British India. (Applause.) The Chairman : Your Royal and Serene Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : The next toast is a rather wide one — it is long, broad, or circular — all over the globe, " The Railway and Steamship Interests of the World." Before I mention the names of the gentlemen coupled with this toast, it would be well to inform my friends that we have in this room representatives of the Colonial, Indian, Egyptian, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Belgian and Dutch Railways, and in addition we have representatives of our near neighbours the French. I propose coupling with this toast the name of one whom I consider the most distinguished Englishman who has ever taken part in the management of French Railways, the only man whom our neighbours have permitted as a foreigner to hold the proud position of President of the Western Railway of France, and the Vice-President of one of the largest, if not the largest railway in the world, the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean. I need scarcely say that I refer to Sir Edward Blount, whom I will ask to respond for the railways of Europe. With regard to this side of the Channel, I think I cannot do better than call upon two gentlemen whose names frequently appear in unison, though they are not always, perhaps, in unity. Sir Edward Watkin, and Mr. J. Staats Forbes — (cheers and laughter)— and for the shipping interests of the world I will name Sir Thomas Sutherland, Chairman of the P. &0. s.s. Co. (Cheers.) I give you " The Railway and Steamship Interests of the World." ' Sir Edward Blount: Your Royal and Serene Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : The gallant general on my right and the gallant admiral on my left have both said that they had only two minutes' notice that they were required to address the meeting this evening, but they are always ready for the charge. I have only had two minutes, and I am not ready for the charge. I can only say that after sixty years' living in a foreign country it is most grateful to me in my old age to come back and hear the sentiments which have been uttered with regard to me in this room to-night. When I came into the room my worthy friend on my right (Sir James Allport) and I had a little discussion, an amicable one, as to which had known Mr. Cook the longest. I told him that I invented Mr. Cook. (Laughter.) My friend said, " I knew him two years before you, and therefore I invented him." (Laughter.) Let me tell you under what circumstances I invented Mr. Cook. I opened the railway from Paris to Rouen in 1840. After that I opened the railway from Amiens to Boulogne, running in opposition to the North of France Railway. I wanted to find somebody who could carry out that opposition, and I found Mr. Cook. I have known him nearly fifty years, and I must say, having been connected with I do not know how many thousands of miles of railway in France, Portugal, Spain, Austria, and all over Europe — I believe I am at present chairman or director of something like 25,000 miles of railway — I really do not know what I should have done, or how I should have got any traffic at all if It had not been for Mr. Cook. (Cheers.) I have followed his career from the commencement up to this moment, when he gives tickets for every railway in Europe. Allusion has been made to for- eign countri^ further off. I can only speak of Europe, and I know that in every country in Europe he gives tickets for all the railways. He sends us pleasure trains, which, it is true, do not give us very much per mile, but they teach people what our road is. They show it to the public ; and allow me to say that Mr. Cook, by show- ing English people what France is, has done a great deal to ally those two nations together. (Cheers.) I shall be presuming on your kindness if I say any more. I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for myself and for my friends in aU the French railways. With regard to the engineers, they sometimes come over here, and they are always received most admirably. They were very much struck two years ago with the manner in which they were received at the opening of the Forth Bridge. I have often heard them talk about it. I can only say to all my railway comrades here that whenever English engineers may come to France, what- ever they may wish to see, or whatever we can do for them in any way, we shall be always at their disposal. (Cheers.) Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., was called upon, but it was stated that he had left. Mr. James . Staats Forbes : Your Royal and Serene Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : Where is Sir Edward ? (Laughter.) And what about Mr. Cook coming down upon me in this sudden manner ? The gallant general complained that he had only just heard of the announcement of his name in connection with the toast, and that in consequence of that he had enjoyed his dinner. Mr. Cook, when he received me in the most gracious manner in the hall, intimated that in, the course of the' evening he might have to call upon me as representing a portion of the great railway interests of the Globe. Well, I enjoyed my dinner, but I confess I should have been more at ease if I could have followed Sir Edward. (Laughter.) It has been my habit to follow him — (laughter) — and the moment I get out of my leading-strings I feel a little lost. Still, 1 will endeavour, in as few words as possible, to do what justice I can to so great a theme. Gentlemen, how are we to go at this period of the evening all round the world ? I do not know. When I am in a difficulty on this subject I appeal to Mr. J. M. Cook, and I say to him "Cook, yoii and' I started about a half-a-century ago in this business, but my local troubles have so sat upon me all this time that I have not been able to think of any other part of the globe but our own snug little island." And, gentlemen, that is quite enough for one man. Who can find words to do justice in so short a time to so great a theme ? The great railway interests which, born and developed in our time, and from small beginnings, like the case of the great man who had the happy thought of a special train from Leicester to Loughborough, has developed into so great a power, a power so great that it occupies a considerable part of the attention of the House of Commons, which is addicted to interfering in matters in which it has a certain smattering of knowledge. (Laughter.) Statesmen have been good enough of late years to devote a great portion of their time to railway interests, and to keeping us in order. When Mr. Lemuel Gulliver awoke on his back one day, he found him- self bound hand and ffiot with a number of threads, so great a number that though each individual thread was very weak, in the aggregate they were very strong. That is the position of the railway interests. I have tried to form some idea in my mind of what that railway interest has done for humanity. I remember the late lamented Mr. James Nasmyth, who was an absolutely correct mathematician and a great practical man of thinking, trying to make out what a million of people meant. He had in his mind something practical. "Bring me," he said, "something which my senses can conceive, something that I can see! and understand, to show me what a million people are." Well, I think I see one of the great motive powers of the state looking at me, Mr. Walter, of the Times. The only simile I could think of was this. Be good enough to take an ordinary edition of the Times, and count all the words in it, and you will find that you have about a million. So if I am asked what have the railways done I can only say that I never under- stood it until Mr. John M. Cook brought me to-night to this great gathering of representative people, and impressed upon my mind how great and how widespread the interest was. This question is altogether too big for me. It is a great satis- faction to myself, in the absence of Sir Edward — (laughter)^as representing the great railway community, to feel that we have in our short life, only half-a-century or a little more— really if I were speaking at the board of the Royal Society I might occupy you a considerable time in enlarging upon what railways have done, but I need not do so because everybody knows it, everybody who travels in our small island, everybody who travels on the Continent, everybody -wtho is under the care of my friend, who has made travelling both profitable and pleasant. I think I had better leave it, therefore, to your own sense of the importance of the subject rather than enlarge upon it. I will only say that the great railway interest has its reward in this, that reflecting men will easily comprehend how important a thing it is to humanity at large. (Cheers.) Sir Thomas Sutherland, M.P. . Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords and Gen- tlemen : I have been called upon to return thanks for the shipping interests of the world. Everyone is perfectly aware of the great superiority which steam shipping possesses over railways. It was never more admirably exemplified than it is on the present occasion, when it appears to be necessary to have three important representa- tives of Railway Companies to respond to the toast of the Railway interest, while one humble individual like myself is considered to be equal to replying to the toast of the Shipping interest of the world. I confess that in approaching the task which you have been good enough to devolve upon me, I am somewhat confounded by the greatness of the subject in its applicability to the whole world, and I suppose even to the whole universe ; for I have no reason to doubt that the shipping interest extends to other worlds than our own. But I am consoled by the fact that if I were called upon, as I often am, to respond to the toast of " The Shipping Interest of the United Kingdom," I should not find myself in any very great doubt or diffi- culty in representing the sentiments of those who are fellow-members of the same interest as myself. Moreover, I am emboldened in the task you have confided to me by the reflection, which is one of great pride and satisfaction to me, as it must be to this company, that in responding for the shipping interest of the world, I am responding, as to three-fourths of it, for the shipping interest of our own country ; for of the whole shipping interest of the globe at least three-fourths will be found sailing under the English flag. In responding to a toast of this kind it might natu- rally be expected that I should enter upon a somewhat detailed statement as to the condition and prospects of the great interest on whose behalf I am charged to make these observations. I need scarcely say that nothing would be easier than for me to enter upon a scientific and commercial history of that undertaking, which I could sum up by stating that in so far as its prospects are concerned, they are at the present moment uncommonly bad. (Laughter.) But I am disposed, and I think rightly disposed, to spare you, especially having in view not only the patience with which you have listened to what I have said so far, but also the still more important fact that we have yet to listen to, and drink with enthusiasm, the toast of the evening. (Cheers.) Sir James Allport : Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen ; I have been selected to propose the toast of the evening, viz., " Health and Pros- perity to the Firm of Thomas Cook and Son," which I am sure you will receive with cordial welcome, because I happen to be not, perhaps, the oldest railway man here — I am ready to give way to my friend Sir Edward Blount, — but because I claim to be Messrs. Cook's oldest English railway friend. I have known Mr. Thomas Cook close upon fifty years. I have known Mr. John Cook ever since he came into active life. I knew him as a boy. I believe that the Midland Railway Company were the first to appoint Thomas Cook and Son as Railway Excursion and Tourist Agents. I have watched their progress since that time. I will not repeat all the praise which you have so justly heard bestowed upon Mr. Cook by His Royal Highness, by General Grenfell, Sir John Gorst and others. Everything that they have said I can personally confirm in my experience of Mr. Thomas and Mr. John Cook, and of late years, especially of Mr. John Cook as to his ability, his integrity, his judgment and his capacity to undertake even the largest business in connection with travelling. I could have gone through the history of railway tourists, for I remember perfectly well the first train that was run by Mr. Thomas Cook from Leicester to Loughborough. I believe I was one of the first to run an excursion train in connection with the Midland Railway Company. But time will not permit me to go through all the details to which I had intended to refer. It is marvellous to look back to the first period of tourist arrangements in this country, and then to look at the magnitude of the work now carried on by Mr. John Cook, for I am bound to say that the whole burden of the business is, and has been for many years, upon his shoulders. I think it is one of the marvels of the day. There is scarcely a civilised country in the world where the name of Thomas Cook and Son is not familiarly known. They have conquered the world in regard to travelling. A great civilising beneficent system like theirs, perhaps, never could employ the word conquest^-but I am sure they may vie with Alexander. There is, however, a very great contrast between his work and theirs : the one being a work of war, bloodshed, massacre, and tyranny, and the other a work of peace, beneficence, and goodwill to mankind. There is only one part of the world that remains for them to conquer, and I sincerely hope that the peaceful rivalries of the nations of Europe will enable Thomas Cook and Son to open up even that dark spot in Central Africa. I cannot speak too highly of Mr. John Cook's talent as an organiser of traffic, and as a conductor of the largest transactions that have ever come under my notice in connection with private individuals. I sincerely propose the health of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. May they continue for many years to prosper in the future as they have done in the past ; and I hope that the mantle of the grandfather and the father will fall upon the shoulders of the sons whom I see here to-night, that they may continue for generations to come the name of Cook and Son, as the pioneers of travel throughout the civilised world. (Cheers.) I have much pleasure in proposing ' ' Health, Prosperity and Long Life to the Firm of Thomas Cook and Son." (Loud Cheers.) The Chairman : Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords and Gentlemen : It is quite true that in my varied career I have undertaken difficult tasks, and according to what you, gentlemen, have said to-night, I have generally come out of them fairly well. But the task that I have before me now is far more difficult than the whole of these that I have hitherto undertaken, simply because the English language will not give me words sufficient to express to you my heart-felt gratitude, first for assembling here to-night, and secondly for the very kind manner in which you have spoken of the work of which for many years I have had the whole responsibility. (Cheers.) But there are some regrets to express. The chief one — in this I am sure many of you will agree with me — is the fact that the founder, Mr. Thomas Cook, my father, who still lives — (cheers)^ — although some of our friends of the press long since reported him dead, and gave accounts of his life and history — is absent from us this evening. Unfortunately, if he were here he could not see any of us. The last time I spoke to him he did not recognise my voice. It is only upon a very im- perative certificate from his medical adviser that he has been prevented from coming into this room for a short time to-night. But I know that whatever is reported as having been said so kindly will be read to him and appreciated by him most sincerely. There are one or two other regrets which I am bound to refer to. I hold in my hand a letter, dated Hotel de I'Europe, Brussels, July i8th, from His Grace the Duke of Rutland, which, by your permission, I will read : — " Dear Mr. Cook, " When I received the invitation to attend your Jubilee Banquet, I " had little or no doubt of being able to fulfil that pleasant engagement on " the 22nd, and so accepted it without hesitation. Last week, however, on " my way home from Homburg (whither I had gone by the agency of your " tickets), I was detained here by an attack of gout, which, though slowly " passing away, leaves me no hope of being able to enjoy your hospitality " on that very interesting occasion. I regret the disappointment both on " public and private grounds, for I should have liked to bear testimony to " the impetus given to the comity of nations as well as to the increased ' ' means of health, happiness, and knowledge conferred upon millions of our I' countrymen during the last half century by your beneficent enterprise, " while as a Leicestershire man I should have privately rejoiced over its "purely local beginning, your venerable father's first trip, if I remember " rightly, being to Loughborough, and his second to Belvoir Castle. With " all good wishes for the success of the festival, and of the great undertaking " whose origin it commemorates, believe me, dear Sir, ' ' Yours very faithfully, " Rutland." Another letter that I received this morning I think, even in the Field-Marshal's presence, I am bound to read. It is from Lord Wolseley : — " Dear Mr. Cook, " I wish I could have accepted your kind invitation to celebrate the " fiftieth anniversary of your first travelling arrangements. I should like to " have had that public opportunity of bearing witness to the good work you I did for us on the Nile, in 1884 and 1885. No one else could have helped ' us as you did, and believe me, we all fully appreciate, not only the efficient ' service you rendered to England upon that occasion,' but the unvarying 13 ' ' kindness we all met with from you and from your agents. I hope you will " live long to enjoy the fruits of your labours, and that your great firm may " continue to be in the future the comfort of all those who travel, no matter ' ' where, as it has been for the last half century. Pray accept my heartiest ' ' congratulations upon this auspicious event, and believe me to be, ' ' Very gratefully yours, " WOLSELEY." Yesterday and to-day I received, it is impossible to say how many, telegrams from all parts of the globe. The letters that I am now reading are simply two or three from gentlemen who had intended to be here but have been prevented. There is one which I hold in my hand which I feel bound to refer to, and to read a portion of it. It is dated Hawarden Castle, Cheshire, July gth. " Dear Sir, " Until the heavy affliction befell me at the close of last week, al- " though I have been long prohibited from attending public dinners, I had " a vain hope of being medically permitted to make yours an exception, and " to avail myself of your very kind invitation. This has now gone by ; but ' ' I cannot satisfy myself even at this moment with a merely formal negative. " I desire simply to say that I do not regard your festival as a mere celebra- ' ' tion of commercial success, and of the active qualities which produce it. I " conceive that the idea which your house was, I believe, the first to con- ' ' ceive and patiently to work out, has distinctly placed you in the rank of "public benefactors; and the competitors who have sprung or may yet "spring up around you are so many additional witnesses to the real great- ' ' ness of the service you have rendered. "With warm, good wishes for the coming and for every occasion that " concerns you, I remain your very faithful and obedient servant, " W. E. Gladstone." I shall not trouble you at this late hour with a long speech or many statistics ; but I feel that many of you having so kindly come from long distances it would not be right to part from you without giving a few statistics which are not generally known or published, although some of you may say that I have published plenty in the book I have sent you. 1841 : Leicester to Loughborough, llj miles, 570 pas- sengers at one shilling per head. In 1865 (very nearly half the 50 years) the whole personnel oi the business consisted of Thomas Cook, myself, two assistants, and one messenger ; and the total receipts for the year under ;^20,ooo — which both my father and myself considered a great success. In i8go we had in operation 30,348 different series of tickets, giving travelling facilities over 1,823,959 miles of railways, oceans and rivers, with 350,000 miles of the railways and steamboat communications of the globe. During the year i8go, we issued no less than 3,262,159 tickets ; and I think I may be pardoned for referring to the fact that we refunded to some of the purchasers of those tickets who could not use them from exceptional causes, such as death and sickness, no less than ;^44, 644, the full value that the public had paid us, although our conditions enabled us, if we thought well, to deduct our commis- sion from the amount. On the last day in December, 1890, we had in stock in our various offices 4,830,365 tickets. Our accountant assures me that that business was controlled by 7,195 ledger accounts ; and when I tell you that one month's statement to one Continental Railway Company had in it no less than 44,568 figures you will be able to form a slight idea of the work of our Accountants' De- partment. To regulate this business, and enable us to conduct it in all parts of the globe, we have 45 distinct banking accounts ; and either as our own property or under rental or lease, we have 84 offices worked by the salaried staff of the firm; and in addition 85 agencies. As I have told you, in 1865 the staff consisted of my father, myself, two assistants and a messenger. In i8go we had a staff of 1,714 permanent salaried members. In addition it required 978 persons, chiefly Arabs, to work our business in Egypt and Palestine ; making a total of 2,692 employes of the firm. I am bound to say, gentlemen, that that is something to be proud of. (Cheers.) Although I cannot admit that I am entitled to all the kind things that have been said to-night, still I know that something has been done. I feel specially honoured by the gentlemen who have gathered around lis to-night. You will pardon me if I make a slight reference to one gentleman present, or perhaps two. I may take Sir James AUport first, from the fact ihat I once served under him on the Midland Railway for the munificent salary of £60 a year, which was considered a good sum in those days, and for which my diaries show that for six months out of the twelve I averaged more than eighteen hours out of the twenty- four for the benefit of the Company. It has been a special pleasure to me, Sir James, to see you here and to hear your testimony based upon old and long con- nection. We have also present the Mayor of the Borough from whence the business sprang. Alderman Kempson, Mayor of Leicester, who is older even than our friend Sir Edward Blount. I think I am correct in saying that he is in his eighty- sixth year. He is here as Mayor of Leicester to show his appreciation of what' has been done in that Midland town by the firm which I represent.- Gentlemen, as I said at the commencement, I cannot find words to express my gratitude. I can only hope that in a short time, when I let go the helm, my three sons — (cheers] — with the able staff of assistants, accountants, and agents whom they have around them, may be able at the next jubilee to show as good an account as we-have shown, and that they may prove that they are more entitled than eitBer their grandfather or their father before them, to the thanks and good words of every class of society.' (Loud cheers.) Sir Thomas Sutherland will pardon me if I- close my speech by a quotation from one of his delivered in this room some time back, when he said that if Macaulay's New Zealander ever stood on London Bridge tosurvey tjie ruins, he would be brought there by a P. and O. steamer, and with a round-the-world ticket issued by Thomas Cook and Son. (Loud cheers. ) The Mayor of Leicester : I should like to say one word. The inhabitants of Leicester are greatly indebted to Messrs. Cook for what they h'^ve done. They have contributed generously to the institutions of the town, and they are greaifly esteemed by the inhabitants. I am glad to be here to express the good feeling which is entertained towards them. You know what they have done for social intercourse in the world far better than I can describe ; but I do wish to beaj my testimony to the great respect in wl^jch they are held by the inhabitants of Leicester. (Cheers.) The Chairman : I now rise to propose the last toast — "The Press." I cannot say much about it. They have said a great deal about me sometimes, and in later years always in my favour, I am' happy to say. We know that the Press is a great power. The Press of this country has the privilege of being a great power in other parts of the globe ; and with all due deference to the Press of other nations, from my own observation, I maintain that the Press of England, to say the least, can hold its own with the Press of any other country, and is a far more reliable teacher than most others. I beg to couple with the toast the name of one of the most dis- tinguished members of the fraternity — Sir Edwin Arnold. (Cheers.) Sir Edwin Arnold ; Your Serene Highness, my Lords and Gentlemen : He would be a bold man who at this time of the evening would dare to be glad that the duty devolved upon him of answering to a toast of such importance. I hear8 from Sir Francis Grenfell, at an earlier period, that his digestion was compromised^ What, then, must mine be ? What must be my position ? Still I declare that I rejoice to have this opportunity of bearing my humble tribute to the merits and services, public, universal, cosmi'cal I may almost say, rendered by the firm of Cook & Son. Travelling was a fine art, which this firm has brought down to the common people. I am as much accustomed to the slums of Jerusalem and Japan as to those of London, and I have never been " personally conducted," but I have been personally succoured. One day I was sailing up the Nile, and after twenty days' delicious navigation the storm-wind caught us up and capsized us. There IS were twenty Arab sailors, my wife, daughter and son. We escaped, thanlcs to the knowledge of boats that I picked up at Oxford. I cut adrift the little felucca, and landed my wife, and son, and daughter, and the Arabs ; and after drifting three- quarters of an hour down the Nile, I reached the pther bank, and landed at Girgeh . .with six and threepence in piastres in my pocket, having lost ;^50o or ;^6oo in my dahabeah. When I was there Messrs. Cook's steamer stopped for me, and saved that abominable crossing of the desert. His Grace the Duke of Sutherland lent me a pair of breeches and socks. When I arrived in ' England — having travelled as far as Paris in Arab clothes — I sent a cheque to Messrs. Cook's office, but it was returned, with the gracious message that they were only too glad of the opportunity of succouring a British subject, in distress. (Cheers.) After all that has been said in regard to the development of this great enterprise, I shall be silent : first, be- cause' I am sitting here in the presence of my elders and betters, and next, because I hold, as a journalist of thirty years, that, as Pericles said of Athenian women, the best thing that can be said of a good journalist is that he should seldom be seen and never heard. (Cheers and laughter.) M. Louis, representative of Belgian Railways (speaking in French), said: I trust that I- may be permitted to say a few words in French. I greatly regret that I have to apologise for not being able to speak English. In the name of the Chemin de Fer Qrand Central Beige, I beg to coiigratulate Messrs. Cook on the great and imposing spectacle presented by the assembly of this evening, and on the brilliant pigsition which they have acquired in connection with their vast enterprise through; out the whole vporld. By land and by sea they have rendered the greatest services to the publi^, and I desire to drink to their health, to the development of their business, and to the maintenance of the cordial relations existing between them and alHhe railways of the world. (Cheers.) M. Seve (Belgian Consul-General) : My Lords and Gentlemen : I am a Belgian, and, what is more, I am a friend of Mr. Cook's family. I cannot help thinking that in any festivity of this kind we ought not to forget the family of a man who has done so much for the wealth and honour of his country. In doing honour to Mr.- Cook, we ought not to forget the excellent, intelligent, and splendid com- panion of his life. (Cheers.) I have the honour to propose that we drink to the health of Mrs. Cook., In England woman is highly respected, and Iler Gracious Majesty is treated with special respect and consideration. We* must not, then, forget Mrs. Cook. Let me mention an incident bearing «n this subject of the respect paid to woman in England. A gentleman went to India five years ago, full of love and hope. He became rich, and he wrote to the lady of his love asking her to come to him. " Go," said he, " to Cook's Office in London, and you may be sure that any woman going under Cook's flag will always be respected in any country in the world." (Cheers.) As Consul-General for Belgium, I can assure you that in the opinion of the consular body there is no institution which bnngs so much wealth to a country as Messrs. Cook's agency. It is of the greatest value commercially, industrially and politically. The great increase of wealth in your* own country is in great measure due to the activity and energy of such firms as Mr. Cook's, and I shall be very glad if' in my country we can have such men rendering similar service, and with similar results. I beg again to propose the health .of Mrs. Cook. (Cheers.) THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. " Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education ; in the elder, a part of experience." THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL A FIFTY YEARS' RECORD OF PROGRESS BY W. FEASBR EAE Author of Austrian Health Beaorta, etc., etc. 1841— LEICESTER TO LOUGHBOROUGH (12 MILES) 1891— ALL OVER THE GLOBE LONDON THOS. COOK AND SON, Ludgatjs Circus New York: 261-262, Broadway 1891 MESSRS. THOMAS COOK AND SON GKATEFTJLLT DEDICATE THIS WOKK, COMMEMORATING THE JUBILEE OF THEIB. BITSINESS, TO THEIB FBIENDS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. PEEF AC E. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have been frequently requested by their friends to supply an account of the origin and pro- gress of their business. They consider its fiftieth anniversary a fitting occasion for complying with that request. I undertook to write the story for them, and the necessary documents were placed in my hands. If it be alleged that the firm's name appears too often in the follow- ing pages, it may be replied that this was inevitable owing to the business itself being emphatically a personal one. It has been doubted whether any member bearing the name of Cook is now connected with the firm. Examples are given in the last chapter of misapprehensions on this head. Eeaders of this work will learn the authentic facts, and ji_ is probable that the work itself, in addition to communicating much novel information, will render it more difficult for an impostor to succeed in per- sonating one of the firm or to be accepted as belonging to it. W. Feaser Eae. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. — Old and New Fashioned Tkavel . . 1 n. — ^The First Exctjesion by Eail . . 12 m. — Okgajtising Pleastjrb Trips . . . . 27 IV. — ^The First Great Exhibition . . . . 43 V. — ^Progbess and Improvements . . . . 53 VI. — Headquarters in London . . . , 71 VII. — A New Depaetuee 88 Vlil. — From London to Jeeusalem . . . . 99 IX.— Home Work in 1868-1869 .. ..106 X. — Development of Eastern Travel .. 112 . . American Knights Templar in Europe 125 XI. — Girdling the Globe . . . . . . 132 XII. — Continued Progress 140 XIII. — ^Literary Mud-Throwing . . . . 149 XIV. — Accelerated Progress . . , . . . 161 XV. — Changes in the Firm . . . . . . 173 XVI. — General Gordon's Expedition.. .. 187 XVII. — Organising Pilgrimages to Mecca . . 208 XVIII. — Life and Labours of Mr. J. M. Cook 220 XIX — Progress in the United Kingdom . . 246 XX. — A Summary of the Business in Europe 260 XXI. — The Business in Eastern Countries . . 270 XXII. — India, Australia, and America . . 287 XXIII. — How the Business is Managed . . 295 CHAPTEE I. OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TRAVEL. George Stephenson's railways are the engineer- ing glories of the nineteenth century, just as James Brindley's caiials are of the eighteenth. Canals superseded roads as highways over which to convey goods, while the railway surpassed both the road and the canal as a medium for the com- fortable and rapid conveyance of passengers. The Marquess of Salisbury recently pointed out to the citizens of Glasgow that if railways were made in the dark places of the earth, civilisa- tion would begin there, that the slave caravan cannot co-exist with the iron road and the steam engine, and that "the peculiarity of a railway which everyone may have had the opportunity of observing in this country is that where it is once laid it kills every other mode of locomotion that formerly held the same ground. After a railway has existed some time there cannot be, except as A THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. a matter of luxury or caprice, any other kind of locomotion to compete with it." English children born after 1850 knew more about railway carriages than stage coaches, they travelled by rail in infancy, and they learned about the coach from story-books. The steam engine not only revolutionised travel, but it led to an innovation in the dialect of the nursery. Children were soothed by their nurses with the prospect of a ride in the "puff-puff" ; the fathers of these children were told that they would be drawn along by the "pretty gee-gees." No persons are so foolishly conservative as nurses ; nowhere do traditions which produce mischief linger so long as in the nursery, and any change which is recognised there must be wonderful. Those who were old when railways were new and who were unprejudiced against novelties, looked forward with great interest and satisfaction to the alterations which would follow. Sir Walter Scott, when advanced in life, wrote a long letter to his friend Miss Joanna Baillie, on the 11th of Jiily, in 1823, in which the following passage has a special interest now : " The in- creasing powers of steam, which, like you, I look on half-proud, half-sad, half-angry, and half- pleased, in doing so much for the commercial OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TBAVEL. 6 world, promise something also for the sociable; and, like Prince Houssein's tapestry, will, I think, waft friends in the course of a few hours, and for aught we may be able to tell, bring Hampstead and Abbotsford within the distance of — ' Will you dine with us quietly to-morrow ? ' I wish I could advance this happy abridgment of time and space so as to make it serve my present wishes." It is interesting to note what the greatest man of his age thought of railways, and to know that, when lesser men were denouncing them and doing their best to hinder their construction, Sir Walter Scott took an active part in getting one constructed, and subscribed towards the capital required. He wrote to Daniel Terry in 1825 that he had invested £1,500 in a railway " which will bring coal and lime to Abbotsford at half price, and double the rent of the arable part of my property." His testimony can be cited to prove that travel by road had become more expensive shortly before travel by rail was possible. In 1828 Sir Walter Scott and his daughter Anne journeyed from Edinburgh to London in a post-chaise at a cost of £50. Sir Walter noted in his Journal that he did not pay more than £30 in preceding years when making A 2 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. the like journey. If alive now, Sir Walter Scott could pass between breakfast and dinner between the capitals of England and Scotland for as many shillings as he had to pay pounds in 1828, and in a carriage far more comfortable than any post- chaise which he had ever seen. Dr. Arnold had a deeper insight than many of his contemporaries into the character of the change which railways would effect. After gazing upon a train rushing along the line of rail between London and Birmingham, he exclaimed : " I re- joice to see it, and think that feudality is gone for ever. It is so great a blessing to think that any one evil is really extinct." Till communication by rail was provided, the opportunities of passing from place to place could be fully enjoyed by the great and the rich alone. The noble or the nabob could drive in his carriage whither he pleased and whenever he chose ; men of lower degree or lesser wealth could journey on horseback or in the lumbering waggon ; while the men and women who formed the majority of the population had either to walk or remain at home, contenting themselves, as best they could, with the thought that it was right for them to remain in the place ^nd station wherein they were born. OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TEAVBL. 5 In the pre-railway days, and when steamboats were as unknown as steam-coaches, it was not micommon for the villager to live in his native place from birth till death. The citizen was not more venturesome, seldom stirring outside of the city in which he was born, where he was edu- cated, had served his apprenticeship, had entered into business on his own account, had married and reared a family. It was possible for him to have been a husband and a father of a family for twenty years, as John Gilpin was, without taking a holiday, and it was probable that, if he went holiday-making, his outing did not cause him to go far afield, though it might easily have been more pleasurable than that of the bold linen- draper and captain of the Train-bands in London. In the days to which reference is now made travel was not only costly but trying. The risks to be run were many. A journey of a hun- dred miles was then looked upon with greater apprehension than a journey round the globe is at present. Those who made the venture were re- garded by their friends as more foolhardy than an African explorer is regarded now. They took solemn leave of their friends and relations ; they made their wills, and requested the prayers of the THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. congregation that they might reach their destina- tion and return home in safety. "While the construction of railways has trans- formed the greater part of the globe and con- tributed to the advancement of civilisation, and while the marvellous result has been effected within the lifetime of men who are not yet very old, it is equally noteworthy that the de- velopment of travel by rail was not the main object with which the earliest railways were con- structed. The first railway, the Stoclcton and Darlington, was opened for traffic in 1825. Its projectors did not intend that the trains on it should be drawn by locomotives, neither did they base their calculations of profit upon the returns from passenger traffic. According to the original plan, these trains were to be hauled by means of fixed engines when horse power was unavailable or incapable of doing the work. George Stephenson, the engineer of the line, was firm in the belief that locomotives would serve the piirpose of haulage far better than horses or fixed engines, but the directors of the company held the con- trary opinion. Though not expecting that many persons would travel by rail, they both thought it possible that the line would supply " a OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TRAVEL. 7 cheap and expeditious means of conveyance for travellers." At the opening of the Stockton and Darlington line many persons openly expressed a desire to travel by it, and a passenger coach, named The Experiment, was btiilt to accommodate them. This coach was drawn by horses. Nobody then imagined that a locomotive engine was fitted for drawing coaches filled with passengers. Some time elapsed before the horses were discarded and the locomotive substituted for them. Mr. Porter remarks in his Progress of the Nation, " that of all the railways constructed, or contemplated, up to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line, not one was undertaken with a view to the conveyance of passengers." The railway from Liverpool to Manchester was opened on the 15th of September, 1830, and while the rejoicing at the completion of the line was universal, the sorrow was as widely diffused on account of the death of Mr. Huskisson. He was run over and fatally injured at the time the assembled multitude was cheering. The cheer- ing was elicited by the manner in which the train moved along with the aid of steam. The accident was due to the impotence of the driver of the locomotive to arrest its progress by 8 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. applying a break. At that time a train came to a standstill after the steam had been shut off and the impetus had ceased. The invention and adaptation of a break was nearly as im- portant as the application ,of steam to drive an engine. The break was the tamer of the steam giant. Even before the locomotive had been improved and rendered docile in the driver's hands, Stephen- son was justified by its performance in speaking as he did when it was still misunderstood and unappreciated by the public. He then addressed his son Eobert and John Dixon in these words, which proved prophetical : — " Now, lads, I will tell you that I think you will live to see the day, though I may not live so long, when railways will come to supersede almost all other methods of conveyance in this country ; when mail coaches will go by railway, and railroads will become the great highway for the King and all his subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel upon a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great and almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to be encountered, but what I have said will come to pass as sure as you live. I only wish I may live to see the day, though that I can scarcely hope OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TEAVEL. 9 for, as I know how slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the locomotive adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years' successful experiment at Killing- worth." When railways performed even more than was predicted of them the desire to travel by them was eagerly manifested, and the con- struction of them went on with great rapidity. Foreign countries copied the example which England had set, until lines of rail became as common as highways. In some countries, of which America is one, the railway has preceded the road. Yet the facility which a railway afforded for moving from place to place did not immediately produce so great an extension of travel as might have been anticipated. It is true that a hundred persons could be carried by rail for every ten that a stage coach could accommodate. Indeed, if but a very small number of those who now go to any railway station in England had presented themselves at the booking office in the same town when stage coaches ran, the greater number would have been told there was no room for them. If it could be imagined that all the English railways were closed, and the stages and the mail coaches restored, the business and 10 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. social life in England would be paralysed for a time. In the old coaching days there was no pos- sibility of thousands of men and women, living inland, going to the seaside for a day and return- ing home in the evening. Now an excursion trip is a matter of course. When Lord Anson and Captain Cook sailed round the world, they were regarded as heroes of an adventure as daring and wonderful as any which can be found in the histories and poems of Greece and Eome. Now the tour of the globe is a matter of everyday occurrence. Steam on land and sea has brought the farthest parts of the earth into proximity. The complaint now is that too many persons think the trips which they make under the auspices of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son de- serving of commemoration in a volume. How- ever, it is easier to publish a book than to ensure its being read, and the reading pubHc has but to leave the books produced by the globe- trotters alone in order to ensure a cessation of an old tale being retold. Yet the public at large owe a debt which cannot be repaid to him who has contributed to make their travel easier and less costly. The credit of having done so belongs to Mr. Thomas Cook. The firm which he founded OLD AND NEW FASHIONED TRAVEL. 11 has now existed for fifty years, and the stages through which it passed, till it has come to be generally recognised as the terrestrial Provi- dence of the travelling public, will be recounted in the following chapters. 12 CHAPTEE II. THE FIEST EXCUESION BY BAIL. So long as railways were still novelties in Eng- land, there was an apprehension on the part of many persons lest a journey over one of them might not prove a form of sudden death. Writers in the most powerful organs of public opinion appeared to consider the new mode of locomotion a device of Satan, and communicated their fears to their readers. When it was proposed to make a rail- way from London to Woolwich, and to carry passengers between the two places at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, a contributor to the Quarterly Beview, who was aghast at the proposal, wrote that " We should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to be fired off upon one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine, going at such a rate." But it was not a particular railway so much as railways in general that excited the dread THE FIRST EXCURSION BY RAIL. 13 of those who had been accustomed to travel in post-chaises or stage coaches. A chaise or a coach might be overturned, and such an occur- rence was regarded with equanimity, whereas it was supposed that no journey by -rail could be undertaken without a serious loss of life. The article in the Quarterly, from which the above quotation has been made, set forth not only that railways were dangerous, but also that their construction on an extended scale was impracticable. The reviewer's words excite a smile now, and his article deserved a place in Mr. Caxton's History of Human Error. Two sentences will suffice to show the nature- of his opinions and the futility of his forecast : "As for those persons who speculate on making railroads general throughout the kingdom, and superseding all the canals, all the waggons, mail and stage coaches, post-chaises, and, in short, every other mode of conveyance by land and by water, we deem them and their visionary schemes unworthy of notice." Having dismissed railways as visionary schemes in one sentence, this confident writer disposes of the locomotive in another. " The gross exaggerations of the powers of the locomotive steam engine, or, to speak in plain English, the steam carriage, may delude for a 14 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. time, but must end in the mortification of all concerned." Not only were some writers in. the public press entirely blind to the advantages and the future of railway enterprise, but the Post Office authorities, as was to be expected, perhaps, took many years to make up their minds before em- ploying railways for the conveyance of letters. Eight years after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line, an Act was passed authoris- ing the transmission of the mails by rail. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was much more alert than the Postmaster-General in turning railways to profitable accoimt. As early as 1832 a tax was levied on railways, one of the earliest Acts in the reign of WiUiam the Fourth enacting that a half- penny was to be paid into the Exchequer for every four persons carried over them. Not long after Queen Victoria ascended the throne a tax of five per cent, was levied on the gross receipts of railways, and thus the railways became contribu- tors to the revenue, when eminent writers were still in doubt whether they were practicable or ought to be patronised. Sixteen years after the Liverpool and Man- chester line was opened for traffic, the pubhc excitement ui favour of railways rose to an extra- THE FIRST EXCURSION BY RAIL. 15 ordinary and, as the event showed, a disastrous height. The feeling in favour of constructing them wholesale was then widely entertained. Lines were planned by the hundred. Capital was raised by the million, and a railway mania raged, during which as many as two hundred and seventy Acts were passed, authorising new lines of rail. Those who had been reluctant to travel by rail lest they should be blown up were now eager to invest their savings in new rail- way projects which were bubbles that burst more quickly than the locomotives which were expected to blow up as a matter of course. Thousands were beggared by the monetary panic which ensued, and legitimate railway enterprise was retarded. However, the mischief proved to be temporary only, and, since then, the construction of new lines of rail has continued in accordance with the requirements of the country. Those who are in the habit of travelling by rail at the present day can have no notion of the difference which existed for many years after several railways had been constructed and patron- ised in this country. At the outset many persons were ready to travel by rail through curiosity, and others whose business obhged them to pass 16 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. from one place to another readily availed them- selves of the new steam coach. Yet the mass of the people did not benefit at first by the new means of locomotion. The fare was lower by rail than by road, and the time taken was infinitely less. It was not till 1844 that Parliament obliged railway companies to run cheap trains every day, and a cheap train then meant one in which pas- sengers were charged not more than a penny a mile. The companies were at liberty to charge as little as they pleased, but they naturally hesi- tated to lower the fares till they were convinced that they would profit by so doing. None of the managers of the railway companies appear to have had an inkhng, in the early days of locomotion by rail, that the maxim, " Small profits and quick re- turns," which has been followed by those who have made great fortunes in business, would prove as applicable to the conveyance of passen- gers. It was not generally understood that the locomotive power, and the consequent cost re- quired to transport a train containing a dozen passengers, would not be greater if a thousand were carried, while the dozen passengers could not be made to pay a sum adequate to meet all the expenses. Moreover, the charge THE FIRST EXCURSION BY RAIL. 17 made for a first class passenger was limited to threepence a mile. If, then, twelve first class passengers paid five pomids for the trip from London to Edinburgh, it might happen that the train conveying them was run at a loss. On the other hand, if one thousand pas- sengers were carried the same distance for five shillings each, the actual profit would be large, as the gross sum yielded in the former case would be sixty pounds only, and in the latter two hundred and fifty pounds. Besides, it might be easier to find one thousand persons prepared to pay five shillings, than to find a dozen ready to pay five pounds each. These considerations seem commonplace now, but they were both novel and startling when railway travel was in its infancy. The man who deserves the credit of having taken them into account and acted upon them is Mr. Thomas Cook, who was born at Melbourne, in Derbyshire, on the 22nd of November, 1808. Like many men who have made their mark in the world's history, Thomas Cook's parentage was humble, and his boyhood was a struggle. His father died when he was four years old. He left school at ten, and began to work for his daily bread. His first employment was in the gardens 18 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. of the Melbourne estate, where he was paid at the rate of a penny a day. He was an only child,, and his mother, who kept a small shop for the sale of books and other things, was partly dependent on his earnings for her support. As he grew elder his desire to get on in the world was intensified, and he thought that, if he mastered the art of wood- turning, which was the occupation of his uncle, John Pegg, he might become independent sooner than if he remained working in a garden. Accord- ingly, he was apprenticed to his uncle, and learnt his trade. Not liking a mechanical pur- suit, he determined to engage in another which was more in accordance with the desires which inspired him, his longing for self-improvement being keener than that for gain.* Though not slothful in business, he had a taste for that gentle craft which Izaak Walton has irmnortalised. But he could not go fishing in the Trent when he pleased, and in order to do so he had to get through his task in the turner's shop, and he often rose at two or three in the summer months in order that he might be able to find time for his only relaxation. Leaving Melbourne, Thomas Cook went to Loughborough in Leicestershire, where he was employed by Mr. Joseph Winks, a printer and pubHsher of books in connexion wit'j the General THE FIRST EXCURSION BY RAIL. 19 Baptist Association. His religious views led him to enter the field of missionary labour, and in 1828 he was appointed a Bible reader and village^ missionary for the county of Rutland. He was unwearied in following his vocation. He notes in a diary kept during 1829 that he traversed 2,692 miles in that year as a missionary, out of which hei walked 2,106 miles. In 1832 Mr. Thomas Cook married Miss Mason, the daughter of a Eutland farmer, and then he took up his abode in Market Harborough, where he began business as a wood-turner. His purpose was to carry on this business and his missionary work concur- rently, still retaining his position in the Baptist Association. 'A year after his marriage the temperance movement, which Father Mathew had begun in Ireland, extended to England, and Mr. Thomas Cook was eager to take part in the crusade against strong drink. He soon made himself a name as an active and emphatic opponent of intemperance, and he was appointed Secretary to the South Midland Temperance Association in Market Harborough. His zeal for the cause led him to print and publish, at his own risk, pamphlets relating to temperance, and he was the founder of the Children's Temperance B 2 20 THE BUSINESS OP TEATBL. Magazine, which was the first English one of the kind. The opening niunber appeared in 1840. On the 9th of June, 1841, Mr. Thomas Cook walked from Market Harborough to Leicester, a distance of fifteen miles. His object was to be present at a large meeting of the friends of tem- perance, to be held in the Leicester Amphitheatre, over which Mr. Lawrence Haworth, member for Liverpool, was to preside, Mr. Haworth being an ardent temperance reformer, and becoming conspicuous afterwards as a railway director. During Mr. Cook's walk he read an account of the opening of an extension of the Midland Counties Railway, the section of it between Derby and Nottingham having been in operation since 1839. As he read, it occurred to him that the new railway might be turned to useful account in furthering the temperance cause. At that time, as he has recorded, he knew little of railways, having only travelled over the Leicester and Swannington line, from Leicester to Long Lane, a terminus near the Leicester Collieries. The reports in the papers of the opening of the recent completion of the Midland railway from Derby to Rugby by way of Leicester had created a sensation in Leicester- shire. An arrangement had been made to hold a THE FIRST EXCUBSION BY EAIL. 21 large public gathering at Loughborough, of the members of the Temperance Society and their friends. Mr. W. Paget had offered the use of his park for the purpose. Suppose, then, thought Mr. Cook, that the railway company were to consent to run a special train from Leicester to Loughborough for the occasion, the success of the meeting would be assured ! In the speech which he made at Leicester in the evening he gave expression to the thoughts which had passed through his mind during his walk, and he asked those present who approved of the suggestion to hold up their hands. The majority responded to his request, and the result was to confirm him in his wish to carry his plan into effect. He remained in Leicester with a view of making an arrangement with the railway com- pany. He saw Mr. John Fox Bell, who was then its secretary, and laid the case before him. Mr. Bell's reply was : " I know nothing of you or your society, but you shall have the train." Further- more, he handed Mr. Cook a contribution towards the preliminary expenses. Having been so successful in Leicester, Mr. Cook next proceeded to Loughborough to com- plete the arrangements there, the demonstrators having to be fed after being conveyed to the place 22 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVBL. of meeting. Everything was duly planned, and, on the 5th of July, 1841, the train for which Mr. Cook had bargained carried 670 passengers from Leicester to Loughborough and back at one shilling a head. This is believed to be the first 'publicly advertised excursion train which was run in England. It is worthy of note that the charge then made for the double trip is the same as the charge for one which is made now by excursion train between the two places. "Whatever may be the opinions as to excursion trains, the facts just stated cannot be gainsaid. Nothing that has yet been proved deprives Mr. Thomas Cook of the merit and title of their pioneer. Others have followed him and have availed themselves of his ideas ; but, though the imitator may prosper, he is an imitator after all. Mr. Thomas Cook was as original in his way as George Stephenson in his. "The whole thing," to use his own words, " came to me as by intuition, and my spirit recoiled at the idea of imitation." Before the excursion train proper, for which Mr. Cook made the arrangements, had gone to Lough- borough from Leicester and returned, trains for the members of Mechanics' Institutes ran between Birmingham and Cheltenham, Gloucester and Manchester and Liverpool. These trains, however, THE FIRST EXCUESION BY BAIL. 23 were exclusively reserved for members of the Institutes, while that which Mr. Cook started was openly designed for and was actually open to the public at large. It was a special train, and an excursion train besides; the other trains were special trains only, such as any number of persons could have hired from any railway company. It may be admitted, however, that the running of excursion trains was but a question of time, even if more than one person had not contemplated the innovation. Should it turn out that Mr. Thomas Cook was anticipated, he is none the less an originator, because he never heard of anyone doing what he had accomplished. If his priority as an originator of excursion trains should be called in question, nothing more can be proved in opposition to his claim than the probable fact of the idea which flashed upon him in his lonely walk, and which he carried into effect, having passed through other minds either beforehand or contempor- aneously. It is certain that a notice appeared in the Birmingham Journal for the 12th of June, 1841 — three days after Mr. Thomas Cook gave his idea to the inhabitants of Leicester — emanating from the committee of the Mechanics' Institute in that town, to the effect that an excursion for their 24 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. members would take place by rail to Cheltenham and Gloucester on the 29th of that month. Thomas Cook did not see this notice at the time, nor did he learn that it had appeared till many years after he was the recognised organiser of excursion trains. Hence his claim to independent action may be termed indisputable. When the first excursion train carried its 570 passengers from Leicester to Loughborough, no doubt existed in the minds of the passengers or of the spectators that the event was exceptional and extraordinary. Not one of them had thought it possible to organise a trip on such a scale. The passengers were treated as conquering heroes. A band of music preceded them on their way to the railway station in Leicester. On reaching Loughborough they were made to feel their importance as pioneers, as the inhabitants of the town congregated at the railway station to greet them. The return journey was not less memor- able, and when the excursion train reached Leicester at 10.30 p.m., the passengers were welcomed home by a vast concourse of their fellows, and they were treated as persons who had performed a notable feat. Yet the actual merit was not the portion of those who travelled by this train, but of him who had planned and put THE FIRST EXCURSION BY RAIL. 25 it in motion. The music of the band and the cheers of the people in Leicester and Lough- borough contributed to reward Mr. Thomas Cook for the idea which he had originated, and of which the fruits have surpassed any expectation which he had formed. The success of this excursion train was an epoch in the life of Mr. Thomas Cook. His name was spread abroad, and other societies than that with which he was connected applied for his advice when they wished to arrange an excursion. He gave them the benefit of his experience, and his advice grew more valuable as his experience increased. He found that a new and unexpected opening for his energies had been made. The busi- ness of wood-turning could no longer receive a due share of his time and attention. He still con- tinued to print and publish books, and he did so at Leicester, whither he removed from Market Harborough. At the close of 1841, Mr. Cook realised that his lot in life was to be different from what he had planned, and that owing to a circum- stance which, though trifling at the moment, was fraught vdth great results as to the future. The notion of running an excursion train for the con- venience of a party who were desirous of making a demonstration in favour of temperance was the 26 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. exciting cause of Mr. Cook making the simplifi- cation of travel a business for himself in order that it might become a pleasure and a boon to his fellow-men. 27 CHAPTEE Til. ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. As a result of Mr. Thomas Cook having caused a special train to run from Leicester to Lough- borough, in which upwards of five hundred and seventy passengers were conveyed to their destination for one shilling each, he was fre- quently applied to when others wished to arrange for an excursion train to be run on conditions resembling those of the first. His services were in most request during the summer months, and he was fully occupied in the summers of 1842, 1843, and 1844, in planning and conducting excursions of members of temperance societies and children attending Sunday-schools. The trains for this purpose ran between Eugby, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and Birmingham, while spots of rural interest, such as Matlock and Mount Sorrel, were also visited. The cost per head was very small ; the return fare between Eugby and Derby, 28 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. a distance of 100 miles, was sixpence for children and one shilling for adults, the charge being the same for the still longer journey from Leicester to Birmingham and back by way of Derby. In September, 1843, Mr. Cook resolved to afford the Leicester school children a treat, and at the same time keep them out of mischief, by giving them a trip from Leicester to Derby and back at the time of the races. The children and teachers who went on this excursion numbered nearly 4,600, the children paying sixpence each, and the teachers or parents one shilling. In the following year he realised that conducting pleasure trips might form a business of its own, and be conducted so as to benefit those who were passengers and re- munerate those who acted as organisers. With that view he applied to the Directors of the Midland Eailway to make arrangements to place trains at his disposal while he provided the passengers. Having arrived at an understanding with them, he advertised a pleasure trip from Leicester to Liverpool in 1845. On this occasion more was contemplated than a mere trip to Liverpool and back. Stoppages were to be made on the way, while arrangements were made for crossing to the Isle of Man or to Dublin, and the steamer Eclipse was chartered to convey excur- ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 29 sionists to the Welsh Coast. Mr. Thomas Cook compiled, printed, and published a small guide, containing notices of the places of interest on the way, and the sights which were to be visited. An inducement held out by him, which doubtless influenced many to apply for tickets, was that a pleasure trip of 500 miles would be made at the very small cost of fourteen shillings first class, and ten shillings second. The Handbook of the Trip to Liverpool, which is now a curiosity in the literature of travel, is noteworthy for the minuteness of the information which its compiler supplied ; everything is laud- ably precise and clear, and the opening sentences afford examples of this : " The train will leave Leicester at Five o'clock in the morning of Monday, August the 4th, reaching Syston at Ten minutes past Five ; Sileby, Twenty minutes past Five ; Loughborough, Half-past Five ; Kegworth, ,a Quarter before Six ; arriving at Derby at Ten minutes past Six. A train will leave Nottingham at Half-past Five, uniting with the Leicester train at Derby. Parties will have to be ' wide-awake ' at an early hour, or they will be disappointed. Promptitude on the part of the Eailway Company calls for the same from passengers." This train, which left Leicester at five o'clock in 30 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. the morning of Monday, the 4th of August, 1845, was the forerunner of many which now start from stations in different parts of the world throughout the year, yet it was an entire novelty at the time — as great a novelty, indeed, as the first train which was drawn by Stephenson's locomotive "Bocket " over the first railway specially designed to transport passengers as well as goods. This tour, for which Mr. Thomas Cook supplied tickets and provided accommodation in a train, was not confined to one line of railway as other tours had been. The receipts from the sale of passenger tickets had to be apportioned, through the Eailway Clearing House, among four companies : the Midland Counties, the North Midland, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Manchester and Liverpool. The public fully appreciated the advantages which Mr. Thomas Cook had provided for its benefit. All the tickets were sold a week before the day appointed for the pleasure trip, and so great was the desire to be one of the party that many persons bought tickets from the original holders, paying double price for them. In consequence of the demand, a second train was run on the 20th of August under the same conditions as the first, and was as crowded as it. ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 31 Mr. Thomas Cook did not content himself with providing tickets at low prices for pleasure- seekers, and making such arrangements as should ensure that they would be carried by rail or steamer to their destination in comfort and safety. Before any trip was advertised, he visited the towns where stoppages were to be made, and personally ascertained whether there were any sights, and also what hotels accommodated travellers at moderate rates. In the coaching days passengers who desired to stop on the way could generally find room in the inn where the stage-coach halted. The number any coach could carry was seldom in excess of the accommodation provided along the road for those requiring it. No coach nor any series of coaches then conveyed several hundred passengers on a particular day. However, when the pleasure trains brought many hundred passengers to a town at the same moment, the demand for accommodation might far exceed the supply. Moreover, those who took a pleasure trip were persons to whom every shilling might be an object, their desire being to live cheaply at an inn as well as travel cheaply in a train. As a result of Mr. Thomas Cook's ex- perience in 1845 and subsequent years, he became more convinced than at the outset of the neces- 32 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. sity for housing as well as conveying passengers, and this led him to devise the plan of hotel coupons, which is now familiar to thousands who travel with the tickets of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. A noteworthy circumstance in con- nexion with this trip is that, when 350 of the passengers who elected to visit Wales in the steamer Eclipse landed at Carnarvon, one man only among the natives could speak enough English to act as guide. The trip from Leicester to Liverpool in 1845 was fertile in consequences of which its pro- moter had not dreamt when he planned it. He gained experience in what was then an origiiial form of industry, and his ideas widened with his increased knowledge. If so much could be done in a comparatively narrow field, what might not be achieved when the field of operation was widely extended? When in North Wales he wrote in his diary: "Prom the heights of Snowdon my thoughts took flight to Ben Lomond, and I determined to try to get to Scotland." In arranging a pleasure trip to Scotland, Mr. Thomas Cook was engaging in an undertaking which was startling in its novelty. If the firm which he founded should now announce a per- sonally-conducted tour to the North Pole the ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 33 public would not be more surprised. Scotland was then an unknown comitry to the mass of the English people. The poems of Burns and the poems and novels of Sir Walter Scott had invested the country with a halo of romance, and many who could afford the expense had visited the Highlands. In 1810 The Lady of the Lake was published, and from that year the post-horse duty in Scotland yielded largely in excess of what it had done previously, owing to the numbers who journeyed to view the scenery of Loch Katrine. But the travellers who swelled that tax had ample means wherewith to gratify their tastes. The majority of the nation could not expend so much money, and it was for the majority of his countrymen that Mr. Thomas Cook catered. He found his path beset with obstacles. The railway station nearest to Scotland at that time was in Newcastle-on-Tyne. It was easy to get ■ from Leicester to Newcastle by rail, but from that town northwards to the capital of Scotland the journey had to be continued by road or by sea. As the result of two visits to Scotland to effect the preliminary arrangements, Mr. Thomas Cook had to abandon his design of carrying the ex- cursionists from Ne'wcastle to Leith or Granton in a steamer, and he had to arrange for taking 34 THE BTTSINESS OF TEAVEL. them to Fleetwood by rail, thence to Ardrossan by steamer, and from Ardrossan by rail to Glasgow and Edinburgh. While Mr. Thomas Cook was on this tour of inquiry he was accompanied by his only son John Mason, who was then a boy of twelve. Though young, the lad was an old traveller, having been his father's companion in nearly all the pleasure trips which he had planned. On this occasion the father and son spent the first night at Chester- field, the second at York, the third night and the fourth at Newcastle. During their stay at the last town they were taken by Mr. (now Sir) James Allport to the top of a slag-heap and shown the spot upon which the foundation stone of the high- level bridge across the Tyne was to be laid. A handbook was prepared for the trip, and as the title-page shows how comprehensive the little work was, it may be copied in full : " Handbook of a Trip to Scotland : including Railway Glances from Leicester, via Manchester, to Fleetwood ; Views on the Lancashire Coast and the Lakes of Cumberland ; Voyage from Fleetwood to Ar- drossan; Trip on the Ayrshire, and Edinburgh and Glasgow Eailways ; Scottish Scenery, and Descriptions of Edinburgh, Glasgow, &c., &c." The compiler wrote towards the end of the OEGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 35 preface : — " Having undertaken the arrangements of an excursion to Scotland, he cheerfully steps forward to communicate such information as he conceives will be found most useful for those who avail themselves of a privilege which no previous generation ever had offered to them — an oppor- tunity of riding from Leicester to Glasgow and back, a distance of about 800 miles, for a guinea ! " The inducements held out by Mr. Thomas Cook were sufficient to cause 350 persons to make the trip, which was unmarred by any drawback save the inadequacy of the steamboat accommodation between Fleetwood and Ardrossan. Any discomfort which had then to be borne was compensated for when the party reached Glasgow. There its members were treated as persons of note. Guns were fired in their honour when they entered the railway station ; a band of music was in readiness to escort them to the Town Hall, where they were welcomed in enthusiastic speeches. "When they reached Edinburgh by special train from Glasgow the citizens of the Scottish metropolis greeted the English excursionists with extreme cordiality. An entertainment was given in their honour, over which Mr. William Chambers, the eminent pub- c 2 36 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. lisher, presided. They were addressed in words of warm eulogy, and the chairman's speech, in response to a suggestion of Mr. Thomas Cook, was published soon afterwards with the title, The Strangers' Visit to Edinburgh. Visits were made to StirHng and the parts of Ayrshire specially associated with Burns, and the party was afforded ample opportunities for seeing the land which was a strange one to its members, while the presence of the English visitors was hailed as a happy augury of closer intimacy between the northern and southern inhabitants of Great Britain. The occasion was memorable in every respect. It was the first excursion of the kind ever planned, and it was the beginning of a series which was conducted under the auspices and with the tickets of its originator, without intermission, until the year 1863. In 1847 two excursions of a like kind were planned and carried out, and, besides those to Scotland, others were made to the English lakes and the Isle of Man. One of the Scotch excur- sions in that year was made from Manchester, Newcastle, and Berwick to Edinburgh, over the railway which then ran between these places ; while subsidiary trips were arranged as far as Glencoe in the Highlands and to the Western OEGANISING PLEASUBE TRIPS. 37 Islands, the places visited including Oban, lona, and Staffa. The business which Mr. Thomas Cook had now established and made his own led to increasing and incessant demands upon him. Those who wished to travel about at a low cost and with great comfort were as anxious that he should give them the opportunity as he was to accede to their requests. Many places of interest were not accessible by train or steamer, and Mr. Thomas Cook had resort to coaches to carry those who desired to be conveyed under his care. One of the most successful of these excursions was one by coach from Leicester to Belvoir Castle. The late Duke of Eutland wrote the following letter with reference to it : — " Longshaw Lodge, " September 4th, 1848. " Sir, — I delayed to acknowledge your letter of the 17th August until I had heard of ' the trip to Belvoir ' by some of the inhabitants of Leicester, to which it related, having been successfully and satisfactorily accomplished. I rejoice to hear that such has been the case, and I hope that proper attention was paid to the party by those who have charge of the castle and grounds during my absence. 38 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. " I fully concur with you in the desire which you express to see the different classes of our great community bound together by ties of increasing strength. For many years it has been a source of great happiness to me to mingle with the various classes of society, to study their various conditions, and to endeavour to be of assistance when assist- ance was likely to be useful, and the knowledge both of the character and of the disposition of those with whom I have thus mingled which I have gained in my intercourse with them has increased my desire to mark, whenever an oppor- tunity may offer itself, my regard towards them. But it would indeed be extraordinary if I did not desire that the inhabitants of Leicester should receive courteous attention on such an occasion as that which occasioned you to write to me, for I have invariably received from them a kind and friendly welcome whenever I have been called by duty or pleasure to their town. " I remain. Sir, " Your very obedient servant, (Signed) "Eutland." A noble Marquess who possessed an interesting mansion in the same district was less disposed, at first, to act with the liberality of the Duke ; a letter from him to Mr. Cook, dated August the 8th, ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 39 1850, contained the following passage : — " I beg to state that I object entirely to any excursion train being formed with a view of visiting this place, and I cannot give permission for my park being used for the purpose proposed in your letter." The writer of this letter afterwards changed his views, and he deserves credit for eventually throwing open, not his grounds only, but also his mansion, containing many works of art, to the excursionists who desired to see them. About this time the Duke of Devonshire gave Mr. Cook permission to arrange for pleasure parties visiting Chatsworth. Many excursion trains were run for the purpose of visiting this historic mansion, and the Duke was always ready to help in making the excursionists enjoy their visit. The success of the earliest excursions to Scot- land led to an extension of the system. There was, however, no continuance of the enthusiasm which the first party of pleasure-seekers from England excited when, its members reached Glasgow and Edinburgh. Bands did not play on the arrival of every party, neither were pubHc meetings held and speeches make in their honour. When Columbus and his companions first set foot on the island which he named San Salvador, they 40 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. were treated as gods. Not many years elapsed before other visitors to this island, and others of the Bahamas, were treated by the natives as mortals who were no better than themselves. Yet, while the tourists to Scotland in the years subsequent to 1846 were received with less enthu- siasm, they were made quite as comfortable as the members of the first party, the arrangements for entertaining them having been perfected by the experience of what was required. This form ol passenger traffic waxed larger year after year, as many as 5,000 excursionists visiting Scotland under Mr. Thomas Cook's wing during a single holiday season. In the year 1861 the whole system of tourist tickets throughout Scotland was in Mr. Thomas Cook's hands, and the railway, steamboat, and coaching companies then gave him special facilities for making his arrangements. His work in this quarter received a check in 1863, when the railway managers decided by a small majority not to recognise his excursion tickets. For a time, then, he left Scotland for other places ; but he afterwards resumed his excursions there, not as formerly, on an exclu- sive basis, but in competition with others — a kind of enterprise in which he showed himseh fully able to hold his own. ORGANISING PLEASURE TRIPS. 41 At the close of the season of 1850 Mr. Thomas Cook was able to meditate with satis- faction upon his labours since the year 1841. Within the period of nine years he had esta- blished a new industry. He may be credited with having completely altered the Cjarrent ideas about travelling. A long journey by rail had ceased to be a subject of apprehension, and it was even spoken of as a pleasure trip. What the originator of the pleasure trip thought of his position may be most appropriately expressed in his own words : " By the end of the season of 1850 I had effected arrangements with almost all the railway companies of the Mid- lands, the North of England, the North Western, the Eastern Counties, and some of the Southern lines. Interchanges of traffic had been made with numerous companies, and, in addition to the established system for Scotland, I was extensively engaged in conducting local trains and opening out more comprehensive plans for visiting watering-places and tourist districts, in- cluding Ireland, the Isle of Man, &c. These open- ings and facilities had familiarised the people of the Midland Counties with the most celebrated places in the district, and the various railway companies had legun to make excursion traffic a 42 THE lUSINESS OP TEAVEL. great feature in their regular travelling arrange- ments, and the necessity for local agency was greatly diminished. But though circumscribed in plans of local operation, I had become so thoroughly imbued with the tourist spirit that I began to contemplate foreign trips, including the Continent of Europe, the United States, and the Eastern Lands of the Bible." 4a CHAPTEE IV. THE FIRST GEEAT EXHIBITION. The year 1851 was one of great expectations ; in the opinion of not a few it was the beginning of the Millennium. It was, indeed, a memorable year, yet it did not usher in an era of inter- national goodwill and perpetual peace. The Great Exhibition which was then opened in Hyde Park was regarded as the symbol of the fraternity of nations. Though less noteworthy than some supposed, it yet constituted an attraction for all who desired to witness a grand spectacle. Mr. Thomas Cook had planned a trip to America in the winter of 1850. He desired to I see the New World ; moreover, he was anxious to learn from inquiry on the spot whether he could not arrange for conducting excursion parties to America from England, and from America to Europe. He started for Liverpool with a view of gaining information from the managers of the 44 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. Great Atlantic Liners, and of entering, if possible, 'into arrangements with them for their joint advan- tage. Stopping at Derby on the way, he met Mr. John Ellis, then Chairman of the Midland Railway, who told him that he must not go to America, as his services were required to organise and advertise cheap excursions from all parts of the Midland Eailway system to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Mr. Paxton (after- wards Sir Joseph) was also present, and urged the point ; Mr. Thomas Cook at once decided to give up America for the time, and before leaving Derby the Board of Directors entered into an agreement with him for advertising and conduct- ing special excursion trains during the months that the Great Exhibition was open. In the months preceding its opening, the conditions upon which Mr. Thomas Cook undertook to carry passengers to London from the Midland and Northern Counties were widely advertised. Mr. Cook took more than a professional interest in the work, believing as he did, in common with many others, that the World's Fair was to be a memorable gathering of the repre- sentatives of all nations, at which they were to tacitly admit that the era of war was over, and that henceforth the rivalry between them was not to THE FIEST GEBAT EXHIBITIOK. 45 have the battle-field for a theatre, but was to be con- ducted in the workshop, in the art gallery, in the mart for commerce, and in every enterprise which adorned and dignified humanity. If another Dr. Johnson were to pen another poem on The Vanity of Human Wishes, he would find in the hopes entertained concerning the Great Exhi- bition of 1851, and the results which actually followed it, ample material for his purpose. It is fortunate that the prophets of evil, who were not silent before the Exhibition was opened, received less attention from the public than those who predicted the glories which they supposed would irradiate" the immediate future. The desire was diffused throughout all classes in the land to visit the wonderful Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, which was regarded as rivalling that which Aladdin had caused to be reared by magic. Two railway companies, the Midland and the Great Northern, eagerly competed to carry pas- sengers to London, and Mr. Thomas Cook availed himself of the Midland for the accommodation of the thousands who were eager to make the journey under his auspices. On a Monday morning in May, after the Exhibition was open, the superintendent of the passenger traffic for the Midland and Mr. 46 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVBL. Thomas Cook were up at five o'clock to see the first train start, carrying excursionists from Leicester to London and back for fifteen shillings. The Great Northern was also a competitor for the traffic, the result being that by nine o'clock on that Monday morning the fare fi:om Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, and other competing points to London and back fell to five shillings, at which price it remained till the close of the Exhibition. As Mr. J. M. Cook has written, when reviewing what his father and himself then did and went through : — " It was a time of intense excitement, and all the trains on the line except the day express were made available for excursion tickets. Frequently the night mail would be run in from two to six divisions. At the call of a band of music I saw workpeople come out of factories in Bradford, pay five shilHngs for a ticket, and with a very few shillings in their pockets start off on Saturday night to spend Sunday and Monday in London, returning to work on Tuesday morning. The people of Yorkshire were thus educated to travel, and my returns at the end of the season showed 165,000 who had taken the excursion tickets. It was a lively time from May to November, and I closed my season engagement by taking from Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester 3,000 THE FIRST GBEAT EXHIBITION. 47 Sunday-school children to see the Exhibi- tion." It was characteristic of Mr. Thomas Cook's foresight that he had formed clubs of working men some months beforehand, who, by making small weekly payments, were qualified for being taken to London and boarded while staying there This arrangement proved to be exceed- ingly popular. The success achieved by Mr. Thomas Cook was won at the cost of exhausting labour to him and his son. Their greatest triumph was the fact that, out of the enormous number of excursionists who travelled with their tickets, not one suffered any mishap. This was partly due to the constant supervision exercised by Mr. Thomas Cook and his son, and partly to extreme attention to detail on the part of both. In the case of the 3,000 school children, for instance, unremitting attention was paid to them from the time of their leaving home till that of their return. Omnibuses, vans, and cabs were provided for conveying the children from the railway station in London to the Exhibition, and back again in the evening; in short, there was no lack of an attention which might be termed parental. Nor were the adults neglected. Either Mr. Thomas Cook or his son accompanied each 48 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. party, and during the busiest part of the season both father and son were traveUing day and night on five days out of the seven. The essence of Mr. Cook's system consisted in personal super- vision. He did not rely either upon information obtained or work done at second-hand. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first of a series, the following one being held at Dublin in 1853. Mr. Thomas Cook made the arrangements necessary for carrying excursionists to Ireland, the numbers in Great Britain who availed them- selves of the opportunities which he supplied being very large. He entered into contracts with the Irish railways and coach proprietors to issue tickets for circular tours in Ireland, in connexion with the Great Southern and Western, Midland, and Great Western Eailways of Ireland. From that date a trip could be made throughout Ireland by those possessing Cook's tickets as easily and economically as through England and Scotland by their holders. In 1855 the Emperor Napoleon decided upon an industrial exhibition being held in Paris. A stone building was erected for the purpose in the Champs Elysees; there it still remains, and is called the Palace of Industry. Mr. Thomas Cook determined to arrange for those who wished to THE PIEST GREAT EXHIBITION. 49 visit it to do so under his guidance, and also to enjoy a trip through a part of the Continent. He was able to announce a " trip to France," from Leicester to Calais and back, for thirty-one shillings. Having gone over the ground and laid his plans, he advertised in 1856 " a grand circular tour on the Continent." He conducted a party which started from Harwich to Antwerp on the 4th of July, 1856, the party visiting in succession Brussels, the Field of Waterloo, Cologne, the Ehine, Mayence, Frankfort, Heidelberg, Baden- Baden, Strassburg, and Paris. The return journey to London was made by way of Havre and Southampton. The applications from others desirous of visiting the Continent in the same way were so many that a second party, numbering fifty, left Harwich under Mr. Thomas Cook's guidance on the 16th of August in the same year. Heidelberg was reached three days afterwards, and the members of the party, who were accommodated at Schrieder's Hotel there, met together and passed a vote of thanks to their conductor, in which they stated their entire satisfaction with the result of his efforts to render them comfortable. The whole proceedings were reduced to writing, the 50 THE BUSINESS OV TRAVEL. document containing them being signed by each member of the party, and presented to Mr. Thomas Cook. Some of those who signed it are still alive, and they always use the tickets issued by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son when travelling abroad. These trips made in 1856 were the beginning of the vast scheme of Continental travel which can now be enjoyed through the medium of Cook's tickets. There is not a line of foreign railway in Europe over which they are unavailable. Confining this narrative for the present to the work undertaken and accompHshed by Mr. Thomas Cook in connexion with the Exhibi- tions which succeeded that of 1851, 1863, and 1855, it may- be stated that, when a Fine Art Exhibition was held in Manchester in 1857, Mr. Thomas Cook's services were invoked, and he saved the Exhibition from proving an utter failure. The attendance during the first month was very small, the visitors coming chiefly from the town and its neighbourhood. In August the manager was sent by the commission to try and come to terms with Mr. Thomas Cook at Lei- cester, and arrange for a series of excursions. Both he and his son were then in the Western Islands of Scotland. The manager followed THE FIRST GBBAT EXHIBITION. 51 them thither, and had an interview with them at Oban. Mr. Thomas Cook agreed to run excursion trains to Manchester from different parts of England and Scotland. The directors of the Scottish lines were very exacting, and insisted upon large guarantees before they would undertake to run trains. How- ever, the trains were so crowded with passengers that the receipts exceeded the sum deposited by way of guarantee. Owing to Mr. Thomas Cook's exertions the Exhibition was visited by 50,000 persons, and this saved it from financial loss. The commission presented Mr. Thomas Cook with an address of thanks and a testimonial for the valuable aid which he had rendered. A second Great Exhibition was opened in London at South Kensington in 1862, and though this had neither the novelty nor the other attractions which rendered that in Hyde Park eleven years previously one of the world's wonders, still the visitors to it were many, and no less than 20,000 6f them were housed during their stay in London by Mr. Thomas Cook. A second Exhibition was held at Paris in 1867, and the crowned heads of Europe accepted invita- tions to be present as guests of Napoleon III. Where crowned heads congregate other persons D 2 52 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. gather together, and the number of visitors to Paris in that year was very large. In order that the tourists who availed themselves of Cook's tickets should be made to feel at home in Paris, a house was taken for their accommodation, and to which the name of " Cook's Anglo- American Exhibition Hotel" was given. This hotel was at 15, Eue de la Faisanderie, in Passy, and the building was supposed to have been occu- pied by Benjamin FrankHn when he was agent for Congress during the War of Independence. The work of Mr. Thomas Cook was so useful and well-executed on this occasion that, when the next Exhibition was held in Paris, that is in 1878, the firm of which he was the head was appointed General Passenger Agents to the British Section, and this was done at the request of the Prince of Wales, who was its president. This firm had already acted in a like capacity at the Exhibition held at Vienna in 1873, and at Philadelphia in 1876. In 1878 the nmnber of passengers carried under Messrs. Cook and Son's auspices was 70,000. At the close of that Exhibition he was able to boast of having paid to the French Minister of Finance an amount equal to one-thirtieth of the total receipts for admission to the Exhibition. 53 CHAPTEE V. PEOGEESS AND IMPEOVEMENTS. Feom the 5th of July, 1841, when a special excursion was run between Leicester and Lough- borough, at the instance of Mr. Thomas Cook, there was an increasing determination on his part to extend and improve the system of travel of which he was the originator. His wish was that those who travelled with his tickets should profit by doing so, and he regarded his excursions and tours as a species of liberal education. Information concerning the places at which the excursion parties halted and the scenery through which they passed was supplied by him . in print as well as orally. It occurred to him that children would benefit quite as much as their parents by being taken to strange spots, and that travel would prove to them a useful and easily-acquired lesson in geography. In 1856 the first juvenile excursion train 54 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. started from Newcastle for Edinburgh, and 2,000 children were carried by it. On reaching their destination the children were taken to the historic places of interest in the capital of Scotland, and they were brought back to Newcastle filled with an amount of information which they could scarcely have obtained from any amount of school teach- ing. A novelty introduced by him in the same year was a " moonlight trip." This did not imply anything in shape of evasion on the part of a tenant to the detriment of a landlord. The design of such a trip was to allow those who made it to have "an outing" on. cheap terms and without interfering with their hours of labour, working men being the persons in whose interest the trip was planned. Trains were run during the moon- light nights of the summer months from the principal towns in the Midland and Northern counties to Scarborough and other seaside places, the charge being very low. The trains went and returned by night, the excursionists being able to spend a day at the seaside. In 1861 many working men of England were enabled through the arrangements of Mr. Thomas Cook to see something of the world outside of their native land. A committee was then formed, with Sir Joseph Paxton as president, to promote PROGEESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 65 a working man's demonstration in Paris. The train then carried 1,673 working men, under Mr. Thomas Cook's care, from London to Paris, and the demonstration was a success to all concerned save him who had made the arrangements and taken the risk. The South Eastern Eailway Com- pany exacted such hard terms that Mr. Thomas Cook was a heavy loser, and as the company refused to act in what he deemed an equitable spirit then, his firm has since chosen to act in concert with that company's rivals. As has been mentioned in a previous chapter, the tourist arrangements which Mr. Thomas Cook had perfected in Scotland came to an end in 1863, owing to the Scotch railway managers refusing to sanction the issue of tickets by him.* Cook's tours in Scotland were then at the height of their popularity, and their originator had reason to expect that the reward of his energy would follow. The Scottish railway companies deter- mined, however, to dispense with his services, while hoping to follow his lessons to their exclusive profit. His remonstrances did not receive a favourable consideration. Hence he determined both to abandon his work in Scotland for a time and to close the offices which he had * See page 40. 56 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. established there. Turning from Scotland as a tourist field which was closed against him, he directed his attention to the Continent of Europe. Here he hoped to find new ground and fresh opportunities for prosecuting the business of travel which he had made his own for upwards of twenty years. He soon learned that the new field was limited only by the boundaries of the habitable globe. Mr. Thomas Cook had endeavoured, during two or three years before this time, to make special arrangements with the London, Brighton, and South Coast Eailway for conveying passengers to the Continent by way of Newhaven and Dieppe. The directors of the company were slow to under- stand at the outset that it was for their interest to close with his proposal. After much negotia- tion the business was advanced a stage through the friendly intervention of Sir Joseph Paxton, who urged Mr. George Hawkins, the manager of the cpmpany, to give Mr. Thomas Cook a friendly and considerate hearing. Mr. HawMns had con- tended that both his company and Mr. Thomas Cook would be the losers if the suggestions of the latter were acted upon, but he reluctantly agreed to make a trial of the scheme conditionally upon the Western Eailway of France, with which his PROGBESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 57 company was in alliance, also agreeing to do so. Provided with a letter of introduction, Mr. Thomas Cook went to the offices in Paris of the Western of France, with the result of persuading that company to try the experiment. The success was far greater than had been anticipated, and the manager of the Brighton company afterwards admitted that his line had never made a more profitable bargain than that which was grudgingly concluded with Mr. Thomas Cook. When the Scottish railway companies were informed of Mr. Thomas Cook's new plans for excursion traffic in the summer of 1864, they made overtures to him to resume the issuing of tickets for tours in Scotland ; but his other engagements then absorbed his time, and he was obliged to devote himself to elaborating plans for tours on the Continent. In addition to carrjdng passengers from London to Paris by way of Newhaven and Dieppe, Mr. Thomas Cook provided for their comfort when in Paris by contracting with hotel proprietors to keep them while there on reasonable terms, and by furnishing conveyances to the sights and places of interest. Thus the excursionists who journeyed to Paris with his tickets found their total expenses during their stay reduced 'to the 58 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. lowest point, and one which accorded with the state of their purses. As many as 578 persons availed themselves of this opportunity to visit the capital of France and spend some days there, doing so for a sum which was less than their fathers would have paid to journey by coach from the capital of England to that of Scotland. Two steamers, the Lyons and the Orleans, were employed in transporting the sightseers between the shores of England and France. Having made a beginning in foreign travel, Mr. Thomas Cook resolved to extend his tourist system over other parts of the Continent. With that object he visited Switzerland in this year, and he endeavoured to provide facilities for tourists visiting Geneva, Chamounix, Martigny, and all the places comprised in what is now commonly known as the regular Swiss round. He found the managers of the railways and the proprietors of the hotels ready to entertain and further his projects. Having matured his plans, he advertised a personally conducted tour to Switzerland. As many as 500 persons responded, the result being that two parties were brought together — the one starting on the 31st of July, the other on the 1st of August. It was a special feature in this system of PBOGEESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 59 tours for each party to be accompanied by some one who should convey information, and also see that the programme was punctually carried out. In England and Scotland it was made a condition of the excursions that the manager should accompany them. In a foreign country the necessity for personal super- vision was even greater, as few of those who composed the parties headed by Mr. Thomas Cook were acquainted with any language but their own. Mr. Thomas Cook was accompanied by a guide and interpreter, whose services were at the disposal of his party, and the tourists were thus enabled to enjoy what they saw in a way which they might not have done had they travelled singly, and to do so at a far less cost than if they had been obliged to hire guides and interpreters for themselves wherever a hall was made. Yet the system, though excellent, had its detractors, and the personally conducted party was written about as if those who composed it ought to be ashamed of themselves, and he who headed it ought to be punished. Those who wrote or spoke in this strain betrayed as much ignorance as spite. Persons of rank and wealtli who had made the Grand Tour did so in much 60 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. the same manner. The nobleman and his family were as much " personally conducted " as any of Mr. Thomas Cook's parties, the only difference being that the latter were larger. The conductor of the former was called a courier. The courier rendered services to his employers resembling those Mr. Thomas Cook rendered to those who joined him. What constituted the essential difference between the two was that Thomas Cook's parties were taken more quickly over the ground, were enabled to see more in a shorter time, and to make the trip and visit the sights at a much lower cost than a family party traversing the same ground under the guidance of a courier. Moreover, those who did not choose to join Mr. Thomas Cook's party might obtain their tickets from him and travel independently. The earliest trips to Switzerland caused Mr. Thomas Cook more anxiety than the succeeding ones, yet everything went as smoothly as he could have anticipated, while the field of his labours was widening every day. Writing from Paris on the 4th of August, he says: "France and Switzer- land now present to me new and almost unlimited fields of tourist labour. At this moment I am surrounded in Paris with some 500 or 600 enter- prising tourists, and am expecting an addition of PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 61 400 or 500 more to-night. Already a party of 100 has started for Switzerland, and I expect to follow them to-morrow with 260 to 300 more. . . . This is, I believe, the largest party that ever left England for a tour in Switzerland ; and to myself it is an event of unbounded satisfaction, attesting as it does the undeviating attachment of old tourist friends from all parts of England and Scotland." It should be added, with reference to the concluding words in the foregoing extract, that many of those who had once made trips under Mr. Thomas Cook's guidance were ready to do so again, and thus, when he advertised a tour over fresh ground, he could count upon the immediate support of many old friends. Besides, when a tour promised to be a great success, and had inviting elements of novelty, the applications for tickets were generally in excess of the supply. Moreover, the tourists who were pleased acted as living advertisements. Thus it was in the case of the first tours in Switzerland. The two which started on the 31st of July and the 1st of August respectively brought back persons who were delighted with what they had ex- perienced, the result being that a third party left for Switzerland on the 15th of September. After annexing Switzerland to his happy 62 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. hunting ground for tourists, Mr. Thomas Cook was ambitious to extend bis sphere of influence to Italy. In order to do this he crossed Mount Cenis in a dihgence to Susa, traveUing thence to Turin, Milan, Florence, Leghorn, and Genoa. He returned to Paris from Genoa along the Corniche. One visit served to explore the land only ; a second was often necessary in order to complete arrangements with railway companies and hotel-keepers. Having got everything in due order, he undertook to conduct tourists from England to Italy, the first party starting on the 4th of July, 1864. The event was memorable in tourist travel, and the announcement of the projected Italian journey created as much talk as that of the first excursion train. The appli- cations for tickets were in excess of the number available. The public learned the charms of that tour from a graphic paper in Temple Bar, entitled " Tripping it Lightly," which was written from personal experience by Mr. J. C. Parkinson, who was then at the outset of his brilliant Hterary career. Thousands of tourists now leave Eng- land yearly for trips through Italy over any of the lines of rail which are in operation there. As has been said already, the original plan on PBOGEESS AND IMPilOVEMENTS. 58 which Mr. Thomas Cook worked impUed the conveyance of a given number of persons by fixed trains over a particular extent of ground, within a stated period and under his own super- intendence. At the outset it was the prospect of so many passengers being carried on a par- ticular day that induced railway companies to make arrangements accordingly, and to make lower charges as inducements to the excur- sionists. It was some time, however, before they could see the advantage to themselves of allowing Mr. Thomas Cook to issue tickets for travel over their lines ; but when this was sanctioned, the convenience of travelling with his tickets was greatly increased. In 1864 he achieved the result which has been so fruitful since in benefit to railway companies and travellers. Then the issue of tickets between most of the railway stations in England to the chief places of interest in Switzerland was made for the first time on conditions which were fully appreciated by the travelling public. Anyone purchasing one of these tickets could travel when it suited him. The chief railway companies in Switzerland were not slow to recognise that they would be the gainers by allowing Mr. Thomas Cook to have coupons which might be arranged in such 64 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. a way as would suit the convenience of those using them, and enable the holders to begin their journey when they pleased, and to continue it as they pleased, till their supply of tickets or coupons was exhausted. Moreover, the Swiss companies issued these coupons on terms which permitted the holders to travel at a reduction of thirty per cent, on the ordinary fares. The readiness of these companies to adopt what was an innovation was not less commendable than their liberality in dealing with Mr. Thomas Cook. They placed such implicit confidence in him that they did not ask for any guarantee or payment in advance, being satisfied to settle with him at the close of the holiday season. "While the Swiss railways treated him with a confidence which had its reward, the Scottish companies were made to feel their mistake in having withdrawn their confidence from him. The experiment which they made in 1863 in carrying on excursion business on their own account proved a disastrous failure. They were exposed to a competition which they had not foreseen, many of those who used to follow Mr. Thomas Cook in his excursions through Scotland having gone to the Continent under his guidance. Some of the owners of steamboats PROGRESS AND IMPEOVEMENTS. 65 and proprietors of coaches informed him that they had worked their businesses at a loss, that the advertising did not repay itself, and that, instead of having money to receive from the railway companies for passengers carried in con- junction with the trains, they had to pay the companies their proportion of the advertising and working expenses. What the Highlands lost, the Continent gained. Indeed, the number of foreigners travelhng abroad increased so greatly that some persons complained of the Continent being spoilt as a place in which to spend a quiet holiday. Charles Dickens was anxious to learn what truth, if any, there might be in these complaints, and he commissioned Mr. Edmund Yates, his most trusted contributor, to investigate the matter and record the result in All the Year Bound. Accordingly a paper appeared in the number for the 7th of May, 1864, entitled " My Excursion Agent." This paper was of great use at the time, and it possesses a historic value now. The substance of it well deserves reproduction. Mr. Yates found Mr. Thomas Cook in his office near the British Museum, and at the outset of the interview Mr. Cook stated that he was not a contractor for excursion trains or trips, E 66 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. that he had no responsibility, and that the work was entirely performed by the railway companies OTsr whose lines the trips were taken ; that he made suggestions as to the routes, etc., that his profit accrued from head-money or percentage on those whom he induced to travel — in fact, that he was a traveller on commission for various railway companies, in which capacity he paid all his own advertising, generally a heavy amount. He further said that he had been twenty-three years engaged in the work, during which upwards of a milhon of passengers had been under his charge ; that, in arranging for trips to Scotland, he had drawn passengers from the West and South of England, as well as the Midland and Northern Counties; and that, in the course of twenty-four hours, special trains would bring two thousand excursionists to Edinburgh. He added that he undertook to arrange for passengers being carried, and that he did not profess to cater for them, though he did his best to indicate where they could be housed and fed in comfort and at a low charge. If they wished it, he would settle their hotel bills, being repaid at the end of the journey, and, to quote from Mr. Yates, " It speaks highly for the honesty of ex- cursionists when Mr. Thomas Cook declares that PEOGBESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 67 during his whole experience he has never made a bad debt amongst them, or lost a farthing by them. Had he ever been asked to lend any of them money? Frequently, and had never re- fused ! He had lent as much as twenty pounds to one of his excursionists, an entire stranger to him, and had been repaid. Had he taken any security ? Not he ! Sometimes a gentleman would offer his watch, but what did he want with a gentleman's watch ? He told him to put it in his pocket again." The most interesting part of this sparkling article relates to the character of the excursionists, a subject about which imfounded notions prevailed when Mr. Yates wrote, and the particulars which he collected on this head proved to be most instructive. The general character of the excur- sionists was said to be good, but the special character depended upon the destination of the excursion : — " The trip to Edinburgh, and the shorter excursions in England, attract tradesmen and their wives, merchants, clerks away for a week's holiday, roughing it with a knapsack, and getting over an immense number of miles before they return ; swart mechanics, who seem never to be able entirely to free themselves from traces of f.heir life-long labour, but who, my Agent tells me, E 2 68 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. are by no means the worse informed, and are generally the most interested about the places they visit. In the return trips from Scotland to England come many students of the schools and- universities — raw-boned, hard-worked youths, who, in defiance of the popular belief, actually do return to their native country for a time, probably to make a future raid into and settlement in the land whose nakedness they had spied into in early youth. As to Swiss excursions, the company is of a very different order; the Whitsuntide trip has a good deal of the Cockney element in it, and is mostly composed of very high-spirited people, whose greatest delight in life is ' having a fling,' and who do Paris, and rush through France, and through Switzerland to Chamounix, compare every place they are taken to with the views which formed part of the exhibition at the Egyptian Hall, carry London everywhere about them in dress, habits, and conversation, and rush back, convinced that they are great travellers. From these roysterers the July and September excursionists differ greatly : ushers and gover- nesses, practical people from the provinces, and representatives of the better style of the London mercantile community, who form their component parts, all travel as if impressed with the notion PEOGEESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 69 that they are engaged in Mfilling the wishes of a lifetime, in a pleasant duty never to be repeated. They stop at all the principal towns, visiting all the curiosities to be seen in them, and are full of discussion among themselves, proving that they are all thoroughly well-up in the subject. Many of them carry books of reference with them, and nearly all take notes." In reply to questions from Mr. Yates, he warmly insisted upon the safety of excursion trains, and he showed figures in proof of his opinion. From 1851 to 1863, the Midland Eailway Company had carried 2,678,688 pas- sengers by excursion trains ; one accident only had occurred, and this was at Market Harborough in 1863, when a life was lost and serious injuries were inflicted upon several passengers. This ac- cident cost the Company ^18,000. After hearing all that Mr. Thomas Cook had to say, Mr. Yates arrived at this conclusion : " Now, surely this kind of thing is a good kind of thing, and ought to be encouraged. It is right that a hard-working man, labouring in one spot for fifty weeks in the year^ should, in his fortnight's holiday, betake himself to some place as far away fi:om and as different to his ordinary abode as lies within the reach of his purse, and this he can only do by the aid of such 70 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. providers as my excursion Agent. ... If these, then, be, as I fancy they are, some of the results of the work of my excursion Agent — ^work in it- self requiring clearness of intellect and honesty and stability of purpose — I think I have a right to claim for him a position, modest but useful, in that great army of civilisation which is marching throughout the world." n CHAPTEE VI. HEADQTJABTEES IN LONDON. At the time when Mr. Yates received the infor- mation which appeared in All the Year Bound, and of which a summary was given in the last chapter, Mr. Thomas Cook had no pubhc office in London. He had a boarding-house in Great Eussell Street, Bloomsbury, where excursionists were accommodated during their sojourn in Lon- don. Under the terms of the lease no trade was to be carried on in this house, nor was any notice of a business character to be affixed outside. He converted a small conservatory into a temporary office, where he saw visitors and supplied tourist and excursion tickets, and it was here that Mr. ya^es had an interview with him. Mr. Cook's Head Office was then in Leicester. Early in 1865 he determined to cpen an office in London, and this afterwards became the Head Office, In the preceding year an important change 72 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. had occurred, Mr. John Mason Cook then joining his father, and eventually constituting the firm which is now known all over the world as that of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, and of which Mr. J. M. Cook is at present the sole responsible and managing partner. Mr. J. M. Cook had accompanied his father in his excursions through England and Scotland, and was then useful to him in many ways. But it was not thought, after he grew up, that there would be sufficient work to occupy him all the year round as assistant to his father ; hence he entered the service of the Midland Railway. After leaving the railway company, he began business on his own account. In 1864 he decided to rejoin his father, to the great satisfaction of the latter, who, as he then wrote, was thus "liberated from details of office work, and enabled to carry out foreign schemes of long projection in both the Eastern and the Western hemispheres." Though the business carried on by Mr. Tho- mas Cook had grown to be profitable as well as extensive in 1864, yet it was many years after the first excursion train had been run by arrangement with him that he was in any degree remunerated for his labour in projecting excursions. Between HEADQUAETBES IN LONDON. 73 1841 and 1845 he energetically promoted them during the summer months, but he did so as a labour of love, and chiefly in the interest of benevolent societies. He depended for a liveli- hood on his printing and publishing business in Leicester. However, in 1854, seeing that tie field of enterprise vsras growing wider, and the demand upon his time becoming greater, Mi. Thomas Cook resolved to devote ]jimself entirely to arranging for excursions by rail, by road, and by water, and to obtain from the companies with which he had business relations a commis- sion for his services. His first London office was opened at 98, Fleet Street, early in April, 1865. This was thought a hazardous venture, and, as the whole house had been taken on lease, it was deemed pru- dent to arrange for the sale of guide-books and all requisites for tourists, including the procuring of passports, so that some returns should be made to repay any loss which might be caused by supplying tourist and excursion tickets alone. Moreover, the forwarding and delivery of parcels to all parts of the country was undertaken with the view of adding to the returns. The upper floors of the house were set apart for the accom- modation of visitors, the place being designated 74 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. " The Tourist and General Boarding House," and it was to be conducted in the same manner as the "British Museum Boarding House," which Mr. Thomas Cook had opened in 1862. He was careful to announce that the house in Fleet Street had not only been thoroughly renovated, redecorated, and refurnished throughout, but also that it was "perfectly clean from basement to the ceiling." Mr. J. M. Cook took charge of the London office, having an old friend of his father as his assistant, and a boy to act as messenger. The manager's work was burdensome. He had to conduct the correspondence, while attending to the applicants for tickets, and to give instructions to his assistant between the pauses in letter- writing. A monthly magazine called The Excur- sionist had been issued by Mr. Thomas Cook for several years, and its editing now devolved upon his son, who, when the day for publication drew near, had to visit Leicester, where it was then published, and see that everjrthing was in proper order. He could not neglect his work in London, during the day, even for such a purpose; the consequence being that he had to leave Fleet Street for Leicester the night before publication of The Excursionist, returning to London by the mail train in the morning. HEADQUARTERS IN LONDON. 76 The duties of Mr. J. M. Cook were not con- fined to the London tourist office in Fleet Street and the publishing office in Leicester. He had to plan fresh tours on the Continent, and to make the arrangements for carrying them out. In the year 1865, the greater part of the European Continent was rendered easily acces- sible to the tourists who placed themselves in the hands of Messrs. Thoraas Cook and Son, as in that year tickets were issued by the firm for tours not only in France, Switzerland, and Italy, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, along the Rhine, in most of the German States, and in Austria. Further facilities were provided for tours in Ireland, while the excursions to Scotland were resumed on a new and improved footing. So far from fhe tourist office in Fleet Street proving a financial failure, as was feared, it more than fulfilled the most sanguine expec- tations which could have been formed. The need for such an office was demonstrated by the result. Yet, however gratifying this was to Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, the yield to the firm of this London office was but a trifle com- pared with that of their other offices in succeed- ing years. Since the year 1865, the sums of money taken at all their offices in one day far 76 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. exceeded the amount taken at 98, Fleet Street, in the course of the year 1865. Having placed his son in a position of trust and conimand for which he was admirably prepared, Mr. Thomas Cook resolved to carry out a long cherished purpose and visit the United States of America. He sailed in the City of Boston, of the Inman line, in November, 1865, a steamer which was a favourite with passengers, but which had a melancholy fate, sailing from Halifax for England in 1869, and then disappearing without leaving a trace. Before starting, Mr. Thomas Cook drew up a circular letter, which he forwarded to the pro- prietors and conductors of the newspaper press in the United States and Canada, and in which he wrote: — "At the commencement of the great work which I have proposed to myself, in the organisa- tion of a System of Excursions and Tours betwixt Great Britain, America, and the Continent of Europe, I address myself first to you, as the leaders of public opinion on the North American Continent. In Great Britain, during the twenty- five years that I have devoted to the development of various systems of cheap travelling in every part of the United Kingdom, as well as in France, Switzerland, and Italy, my best assistants and HEADQUAETEES IN LONDON. 77 allies have been connected with the newspaper and periodical press. Editors of, and contribu- tors to, many of the principal journals of Eng- land and Scotland have generally regarded my work as appertaining to the great class of agencies for the advancement of Human Progress, and to their generous aid I have been indebted for much of the success which has crowned my exertions." After explaining that he desired to arrange for tours from America to Europe, and from Europe to America, and to promote international inter- course to the fullest extent, Mr. Thomas Cook added : " This is a matter of great public interest which I desire to inaugurate, but which will live and engage the influences of the Press in your country when I have ceased to labour in that peculiar vocation to which I have already given the best efforts of more than a quarter of a century." In the course of an address "to the People of America," he said : " In England and Scotland more than a million of tourists and excursionists have availed themselves of my arrangements ; tens of thousands have travelled with me, many making it a yearly practice to make a trip under my arrangements. These have been my best advertisers, inasmuch as they have recommended 78 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. my tours to their respective circles of friends and neighbours. . . A personal visit to America is the realisation of a long-formed project. In 1850 I bad nearly completed my negotiations for a special trip to the States, when, by a seemingly mere turn of the wheel, I was diverted into, another line of operations in connection with the Great Exhibition of 1861. Since that time the subject of excursions to America has been re- peatedly urged upon me, and but for the dis- organisation of the Great Republic I should in all probability have gone into the matter two or three years ago. But this, after all, seems to be the best time for a great attempt to harmonise extensive schemes of American and European travel. My own Continental Tours have reached a point of interest and solidity which gives me encouragement to combine with them the in- terests of another Continent ; and in America, too, there is now a field of operation of un- paralleled scope and interest." Before Mr. Thomas Cook crossed the Atlantic, he sought letters of introduction from persons who knew him well, and who were well known themselves. Among them were the managers of railways in England and Scotland, Switzerland and France, with whom Mr. Thomas Cook had HBADQUABTBES IN LONDON. 79 established business relations, and who were per- sonally acquainted with his methods and wit- nesses of his triumphs. Conspicuous among these letters were two which operated as talis- mans in America, the one being from the late W. E. Forster, the other from the late John Bright, and both deserve reproduction. W. E. Forster wrote : "I am very glad to find by your letter of the 17th inst. that you intend arranging for excur- sions between England and America during the year 1866. Such intercourse, well managed, would not only be of advantage to the individuals travelling, but would be of real service to both countries, by removing the prejudices which are the result of ignorance, and which will quickly yield to the kindly influences of mutual hospi- tality ; and as regards management, these excur- sions cannot, I am sure, possibly be in better hands than yours." John Bright wrote : "I have read your circular with great interest. Your project is one which will involve care and responsibility — but with your long experience I do not doubt its success. " If you could assist some hundreds of English- men to visit the United States in the course of a year, and as many Americans to visit England, you will be of service to both countries. I am 80 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. quite sure that much of the unfriendly feeling which has existed here towards the United States during the last four years has arisen from the strange ignorance which has prevailed among our people on all American matters, and this ignor- ance, so discreditable and so injurious, you will do much to remove. " I wish your scheme every snccess. Prom all I have heard of you I feel the gre.atest confidence in your power to carry out your undertaking to the satisfaction of those who confide in you. I believe you will find in the United States a dis- position to co-operate with you, and to lessen your difficulties in every possible way." The value of the foregoing letter was greater than that of all the others put together. Mr. Thomas Cook records that, when some of the busy gentlemen with whom he came into contact saw John Bright's letter, they told him, " You _need no other recommendation, as the name of Bright will carry you everywhere in America." Yet neither John Bright's name nor the kindly character of Mr. Thomas Cook's mission sufficed to charm the Custom House officers at New York. He took with him five thousand copies of his pamphlet for gratuitous distribution, and he was compelled to pay twenty-five dollars, or £5, to the HEADQUAETBES IN LONDON. 81 Custom House for the privilege of giving them away. He arrived at New York when winter had begun, and he went from it to Montreal, thence to Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Guelph, Lon- don, Detroit, and through the State of Michigan to Chicago. In mid-winter he journeyed through Wisconsin, and he met some old friends at Leicester in that State. He also visited St. Louis, and Springfield in Illinois, where he saw the house in which Lincoln lived, and the provisional tomb wherein his remains were placed. Having visited Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, he returned to New York, whence he sailed for England in February, 1866, having journeyed about ten thousand miles — six thousand by steamer and four by railway train. He found the excursion system imperfectly developed in America, and he made arrange- ments for trips being made over 4,000 miles of railway at a uniform rate of two cents, or two- thirds of a penny, a mile. His son started from England on the 21st of April, 1866, in charge of the first half of an excursion party, the second following on the 25th ; the first numbering thirty-five, and the second somewhat less. The tourists visited Eichmond and the 82 THE BtrSINBSS OP TRAVEL. battlefields of the South, the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and other points of interest along or near to the route followed by himself. The result was a disappointment to Mr. Thomas Cook, and he wrote : "Jealousy and competition of companies and agents defeated my purposes and destroyed my hopes. In the following winter my son again crossed the Atlantic with the view of promoting travel to the Paris Exhibition. He thought he had laid his plans securely, and several great companies promised their aid in giving effect to the arrangements, but our plans were again thwarted, after printing thousands of posters and tens of thousands of explanatory bills. The information benefited others, but left us unremunerated." Though the result was a disappointment to the organiser of the tour, none of those who accompanied him had any ground for complaint. The difficulty which had to be encountered was both unforeseen and formidable. Mr. J. M. Cook found on landing at New York that most of the railway managers declined to be bound by the engagements into which they had entered with his father. He at once began fresh negotiations which were successful, and they were so rapidly conducted that not a single day was lost out of those which the party HEADQUAETEES IN LONDON. 83 was to spend on American soil. After he had conducted the party over a large part of the United States and Canada, and before returning to England, Mr. J. M. Cook completed arrange- ments with the managers of American railways, according to which forty-one series of tickets that Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son would issue were to be recognised by them, the holders of these tickets being entitled to use them when they pleased. This was the foundation of the extensive business in tickets for travel throughout the United States and Canada which is now conducted by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. The first excursion to America was but one of several events which made 1866 a noteworthy year in the development of tourist traffic. Then it was that new arrangements with the Midland Bailway Company were brought to a successful close, the result being that Thomas Cook and Son undertook the advertising of all the cheap excur- sions of that company to and from London, com- bined with through booking to all parts of the Continent ; thus the dwellers in the Northern and Midland Counties could take tickets available for all the stations on the Midland line and the chief points of interest in France, Switzerland, and Italy. F 2 84 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. In this year also Mr. Thomas Cook accom- panied a party of about fifty during Holy Week to Bome, and he then had an opportunity to exhibit his capacity for coping with a sudden emergency. He had arranged beforehand for his party being accommodated at a hotel in Rome. On reaching Florence he received a telegram from the landlord of this hotel informing him that it was useless bringing his party to Eome, as not a bed was to be had there. He telegraphed back that such a message was unwarranted, and that he meant to irfd the landlord to his bargain. He started by the night train for Home in order to ascertain personally how matters really stood, and to hinder any disappointment to his party when it arrived. He found that the hotel was full, and that he must have recourse to extra- ordinary measures to house those who would soon arrive, and who were under his charge. There- upon he hired the palace of Prince Torlonia for ten days at the cost of £500, thus obtaining lodgings for bis party, and he further arranged for meals being provided for them at restaurants in the neighbourhood. He had no right to expect that the members of Lis party would bear any share of the increased outlay which he had been forced to incur on their behalf; yet, to his gratifi- HBADQUARTEBS IN LONDON. 85 cation and their credit, they contributed £4 each toward the expense, thus bearing half the loss. Then, as on other occasions, his determination was to keep faith with the travelling public, and his sincerity had its reward in tne confidence which the public placed in him. A further development of the international tourist arrangements was effected in 1866. In the first place, tours were planned between England and the Channel Islands ; in the second, a great extension was given to the circular tours in Switzerland, North Italy, and round the Italian Lakes, and in the third the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean -Eailway Company was induced, at the instance of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, to agree with the Eastern Company for a new circular ticket from Paris by way of Eontaine- bleau, Dijon, Macon, Geneva, Lausanne, Eribourg, Interlacken, Lucerne, BMe, Strassburg, and back to Paris, or vice versd, a ticket which still commands a large sale, and has been one of the most popular, as it enables the holder to break his journey at any point, and to combine with it tickets for visiting any part of Switzer- land. A party which left London for Italy in September, 1866, under Mr. Thomas Cook's 86 THE BUSINESS OF TEAATBL. charge had the good fortune to be present on a great historic occasion. After visiting the Itahan lakes the party proceeded to Venice, where preparations had been made for the evacuation of that city by the Austrians and for its re- occupation by the Itahans. The members of the party saw King Victor Emanuel enter Venice on the 7th of November, and they were eye-witnesses of the tumultuous joy displayed by the Venetians at escaping from the yoke of the hated foreigner and being miited with their Italian brethren. In the winter of 1866, a year which, as has been said already, was one of note in the annals of tourist traffic, Mr. J. M. Cook paid a second visit to America, his object being to arrange for tourists visiting the Exhibition to be held at Paris in the following year. He had a stormy passage across the Atlantic, and exhausting journeys on land, travelling 4,000 miles chiefly by night in order to see the managers of railways in the United States and Canada by day. He accom- phshed his object of estabhshing a system of through booking, at reduced fares, between the chief railway stations in the United States and Canada and Paris. He started for home in January, 1867, and he had one of the longest passages in a mail steamer of which there was HEADQUABTBES IN LONDON. 87 any record, the time taken from Portland to Liverpool being twenty-one days. Much of his labour was in vain. Ah immense mass of in- formation was disseminated in the form of posters and bills, but the principal gainers were not Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Some of the railway companies broke their promises and acted with advantage on the hints which they had received, and did so to the detriment of those who gave them. 88 CHAPTEB VII. A NEW DEPARTUEE. Though references to the Paris Exhibition of 1867 have already been made,* yet a few additional de- tails may be added in illustration of the progress made by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Their connexion with this Exhibition, and the promi- nent place which they attained while it was open, made their name and their system known to thousands who had not heard of either before, and led to a great increase in their business. In the year before the Exhibition was opened Mr. Thomas Cook visited Paris to make pre- liminary arrangements concerning it. He carried with him letters of recommendation from the English Eoyal Commission, and he was intro- duced to M. Leplay, who was the private secretary of Napoleon III. M*. Leplay assured *See page 51. A NEW DBPAETUEE. 89 Mr. Cook that the Emperor was ready to assist him in promoting the visits of English working- men to Paris. Though not holding an official position, Mr. Thomas Cook considered this assurance sufficient to justify him in believing that his plans would receive official support. Accordingly, he leased open spaces at Passy upon which he built structures for the housing of ex- cursionists who were to be carried to Paris and back at low fares. In concert with M. Chardon, the proprietor of the London and New York Hotel, he leased a large empty building at the corner of the Boulevard Haussmann, and pre- pared it for the reception of visitors desiring first-class accommodation. While the scale on which these preparations were made appeared to be that of a sanguine man, the issue showed that no miscalculation had been made. At the close of the Exhibition a report which was supplied by Mr. Thomas Cook to M. Leplay showed that, in accordance with the arrangements made by him, upwards of 20,000 persons visited Paris ; that out of the number half found accommodation in the premises provided by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son ; that 50,000 letters had passed through their London office, and that as many as 100,000 90 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. personal inquiries had been made at that of&ce and received attention. These remarkable results were due in great measure to the agreements made with the English railway companies. Mr. Thomas Cook was ap- pointed by the directors of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Eailway the managing agent, during the time the Exhibition was open in Paris, of all the company's excursion and tourist traf&c, and he persuaded the directors to issue return tickets from London to Paris at the low price of twenty shillings. The charges for accommo- dation in the Messrs. Cook's premises in Paris were so low that a working-man could make the trip and spend four days in Paris for an outlay of thirty-six shillings. Thousands of British working-men availed themselves of the opportunity to visit the capital of Prance. This result was due in part to the opening by the Midland Eailway Company of a new route from Manchester by way of the peak of Derbyshire to London, which gave additional facilities for the inhabitants of Lancashire travelling to the Continent. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son had to open an office in Man- chester for the convenience of tourists from that part of the country, and they issued more A NEW DEPARTUEE. 91 tickets there to Paris by the Newhaven and Dieppe route than were issued by all the com- panies in the United Kingdom. Mr. Thomas Cook was highly gratified to observe the success of his plans for enabling his poorer fellow-countrymen to visit this great Exhi- bition in Paris, and he was as proud of this achieve- ment as of his pecuniary gains. His lifelong desire had been to bring- the people of all countries, or those in the same country, into closer asso- ciation, and his belief was that if the inhabitants of his native land were brought into personal contact with those of other lands, both parties would be benefited. He had reason to believe as well as to hope that the English working-men who visited Paris in 1867 would afterwards entertain truer notions about France and the French than they had previously done, and he was justified in assuming that, with more accurate knowledge, a kindlier feeling would prevail. The Paris of those days was a different city from what it has since become. The Second Empire was then at the height of its glory ; every- thing had then been done which despotic power could effect to make Paris a city of pleasure, the seat and magnet of holiday-makers from all 92 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. parts of the globe. A spectacle so seductive had 'not been witnessed before, and may never be seen again. Those who were spectators carried away impressions which they could not readily forget. Many of those who saw Paris in its luxurious days were enabled to do so owing to Thomas Cook and Son having smoothed the way for them and made their visit one which taxed their pockets lightly. Despite the absorbing nature of the business which the Exhibition at Paris in 1867 imposed upon Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, the firm was not inattentive to matters of home concern, and continued to pay careful attention to the excursion traffic within the limits of the British Isles. Excursion trains carried passengers hold- ing Cook's tickets between London in the South, Penzance in the West, Norwich in the East, and Inverness in the North. The burden of the work requisite for this diversified and widely extended system of excursions fell upon Mr. J. M. Cook, who had to forego his nights' rest, as well as occupy his days, in supervising the plans which were executed without a hitch. During the time that these excursions lasted Mr. J. M. Cook was out of his bed for a hundred nights. A NEW DEPARTURE. 93 In all that has been written since the begin- ning of this chapter, the facts, though striking, are not novel ; indeed, this narrative still exhibits a continuous advance of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son in the path vyhich they had trodden and made their own. It is true that the progress in 1867 was marked and marvellous; still, it was the sequence of preceding efforts. The new departure, which deserves special notice, was an attempt to accomplish a result hitherto un- attempted, and which many persons might have deemed impossible of attainment. It was com- paratively easy, after the first steps had been successfully achieved, to familiarise travellers on the Continent with such a system as that which Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son devised. Those who had never left their own country before, who were unacquainted with foreign tongues, and who wished to visit other lands and see with their own eyes the historic places and sights about which they had read, were glad to join a personally con- ducted party to the Continent, and to feel that, from the hour of their departure to that of their return, they would be able to pass from place to place, and from one curious spectacle to another, without having to undergo any personal incon- venience, and without having any difficulty in 94 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVBL. receiving an answer to any question which they might put. Many persons, however, are imbued with the Enghsh love of independence and of isolation ; they prefer to travel either alone or else in company with their family or personal friends, to stop at the place which pleases them as long as they desire, to select their own route, and to feel themselves free to follow the impulse of the moment. Knowing their countrymen thoroughly, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son made an arrange- ment in 1867 whereby this erratic instinct could be gratified, while the persons in question remained dependent upon the firm for the oppor- tunities of making Continental tours. After much thought, long negotiation, and personal experiment, Mr. Thomas Cook perfected arrangements whereby the tourists who bought the tickets which he issued might at the same time provide themselves with hotel coupons which would serve for their entertainment during their trip. In all countries the traveller's most anxious moment is that when he has to pay his hotel bill. He may not begrudge paying a fair price for the service rendered, but he objects to overcharge in any form, and when he is in a foreign city and is himself a foreigner who is unacquainted with the language of the people, he is apt to consider ; A NEW DBPAETUEB. 95 himself a victim to whom no mercy will be shown. Enghsh travellers suffered greatly, when travel on the Continent became general, from the reputation which their forefathers had established. When Englishmen made the Grand Tour in the last century they had plenty of money in their purses, and they were not reluctant to scatter it broadcast. Hence an English traveller came to be regarded by a foreign hotel-keeper as a fit subject for legalised plunder. Charges were made in his bill which never appeared in a bill rendered to a native of the country, and it was erroneously supposed that every English traveller was as able as he might be willing to pay what- ever price might be demanded. "When travel became more common, and the travellers had but a limited sum to expend, it became an im- portant question how to receive full value for their money, and above all how not to be imposed upon. The problem was solved by Mr. Thomas Cook. He entered into arrangements with hotel-keepers in various countries, corresponding with those into which he had entered with railway companies. To the companies he said: "I will take tickets for particular trips at a fixed price, and I shall arrange 96 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. with others to use them on my terms." In this way the companies were assured of a fixed number of passengers over their lines, and also that Mr. Thomas Cook would exert himself to induce these passengers to travel. In like manner he said to hotel-keepers : " You can afford to house and board men or women for so much a day, giving them certain rooms and repasts in return for a fixed payment. I undertake to guarantee the payment, or make it in advance, if you will enable me to arrange with the persons who visit your hotel, and claim to be lodged and en- tertained." Those who chose to avail themselves of this arrangement bought hotel coupons from Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, these coupons giving the bearer the right to demand lodging and meals at any hotel named in an accompanying list. The holder and user of the coupons had no trouble about his bill when he left the hotel ; he had simply to hand over so many coupons for so many days' board and lodging. If he had been served with anything extra, he had to pay the price ; but he was under no obligation to pay any- thing in excess of the amount which he had paid to Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son before leaving home. In this manner he was saved much worry, which was a great gain, and, what was quite as A NEW DEPARTURE. 97 important, he could calculate to a nicety before starting on his tour what sum he would have to expend while it lasted. Just as in railways and steamboats there are dif- ferent classes, so there are hotels where the luxury is greater than the comfort, and others wherein there is more comfort than luxury. The second- class hotel, like the second-class railway carriage, may be considered by some travellers quite good enough for them, while other travellers may de- sire the greater show in a carriage and the better situation in a hotel because they are able to pay for them. Now, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son not only issued second-class railway tickets, but they also issued coupons available at hotels of various classes. It depended, then, upon the tourist what hotel he would patronise, just as it did as to what class he would occupy in a steamer or railway carriage. In all cases the main object was attained, that of depriving travel in a strange land of its greatest drawback, and many thousands have shown their appreciation of the system. Mr. Thomas Cook personally tested his new system before inviting others to do so. He used his hotel coupons in a tour through Italy, to Vienna, down the Danube, through Hungary, Tyrol, and Switzerland. As time passed and ex- G 98 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. perience was gained, he made modifications in the system, which has been largely adopted, and is now fully appreciated. There are 1,200 hotels in various parts of the globe where Cook's coupons are accepted, and where the traveller carrying them is free from all doubts or anxieties about the length of his bill and the accuracy of its items. 99 CHAPTEE Vni. FROM LONDON TO JEETJSAIiEM. PuESTJiNG the idea which had been the main- spring of his action as an organiser of tours at home and abroad, Mr. Thomas Cook resolved to pay a visit to the Holy Land in 1868. To him, as to millions of the human race, the lands of the Bible had an irresistible fascination. There was a time when this fascination led to much shedding of blood. The Crusaders went thither to slay the Saracens : Mr. Thomas Cook went to de- vise plans for rendering the Holy Land generally accessible to his countrymen. There was no- thing belligerent in his piety or sanguinary in his nature. His pride was to conduct his countrymen in the pleasant and picturesque paths of peace. Before starting for the East, he conducted the largest party that had ever been under his charge from Paris to Naples. As his custom was, he had previously made the trip in order to familiarise a 2 100 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. himself with the route, and then he issued a detailed programme of the tour, which lasted a month, and cost £40. No better illustration can be supphed of the method pursued by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, when their tourist system had been matured, than such a tour as this. Nothing was left to chance, provision being made beforehand for what each person concerned might count upon. Mr. Thomas Cook assumed, however, that all the tourists would reach Paris by the appointed route, and be accommodated there at one of the hotels which was ready to receive them. After leaving Paris, he said they were to make a halt at Chambery, the ancient capital of Savoy. Thence they were to proceed to St. Michel by special train, continuing their journey by special diligence to Susa, where a special train would convey them to Turin. By taking the night train from Turin to Florence they would have a day in which to see the capital of Tuscany. He earnestly re- quested the members of his party not to proceed in advance of him, lest their hotel coupons should not be understood, and also lest they should have difficulties at the railway stations. He proposed travelling from Florence to Rome by way of Pisa and Leghorn, spending a night at one of FEOM LONDON TO JEEUSALBM. 101 these cities, and seeing the Cathedral and Lean- ing Tower at Pisa. The party might spend a week in Eome at the hotels with which he had made arrangements, and which he indicated. He was quite confident about the members of the party being adequately entertained when they reached Naples. Practical advice was given about luggage, how much of it to take, and on what terms to take it ; and advice quite as practical and confirmatory of the paternal care which he exercised over those who were under his guidance is supplied in the following passage from his programme : "Nothing in former times weakened my power to serve so much as having to contend against the eagerness of young and active gentlemen who would run off from the stations to secure The best rooms and to bespeak them for others of their immediate association. I checked this impetuosity by requesting hotel keepers to send first comers, as the most vigorous, to the highest rooms ; but I more effectually repressed it by sending in advance a list of the party, distinguish- ing married couples, ladies, &c., from others, and getting rooms allotted to all before their arrival. It is a pity that all young and strong visitors do not give preference to the highest rooms, which 102 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. are generally by far the most quiet and pleasant. How many young ladies and gentlemen are there who will copy the example of a young lady who wrote to me two years since, requesting that I would always bespeak for her ' a room high up ' ? I shall be glad to receive such instructions to note in my circular to hotels. Such preference might be given without partiality ; but if you are not prepared to make this request, just quietly leave the matter in the hands of myself and the hotel proprietors, and we will do our best to make all things pleasant." No more instructive passage than the foregoing could be quoted out of the many papers of advice and suggestion prepared by Mr. Thomas Cook. It displays at once his common sense, which is as rare as genius, and a faculty for organisation which few men possess. Indeed, it may be doubted whether the feat which Wellington re- garded as a most difficult one, that of marshalling a given number of soldiers in Hyde Park and getting them out of it in good order, was really more confirmatory of a faculty for organisation than the successful direction of a body of tourists from the beginning to the end of their journey. Soldiers can be ordered to do what their com- mander requires, while tourists are too ready to FBOM LONDON TO JERUSALEM. 103 break the rules which have been laid down for their guidance, and to substitute their own wishes for the orders of their leader. When a number of soldiers do this, through misunderstanding the word of command, or through the incompetence of their chief, a regiment or a division becomes " clubbed," and the difficulty of evolving order out of chaos is then most serious. Happily the parties under Mr. Thomas Cook's guidance, or that of his son, had the vnsdom to obey orders ; hence the tours were not only conducted in accordance with the plan settled beforehand, but they were also pleasant and profitable. "What applies to tours in Europe has an application quite as pointed to those in the East, which involved arrangements even more complicated than those which Mr. Thomas Cook had to make in Europe and America. While applying the system to tours through Palestine which they had made their own in Europe, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son did not profess to be the first to introduce personally conducted sets of tourists there. In the time of the Crusades the bands which visited the Holy Land did so under a leader. In modern times it was customary for parties going thither to have a directing head. Indeed, travel in the East has 104 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. usually taken the form of a caravan, several persons going together as much for their common safety as for their comfort. What Mr. Thomas Cook deserves credit for having done was carefully surveying the ground, and making preparations in advance before undertaking to lead a party of tourists to Palestine. He had fitted himself for being a con- ductor of such a party, the consequence being that the parties under his charge had good reason for satisfaction. Before visiting the lands of the Bible he took counsel of the veteran traveller, James Silk Buckingham, as to the best route, and he collected information from other quarters, and after gaining all the knowledge obtainable at second-hand, he proceeded to see for himself how far the picture in his mind corresponded with the reality. He journeyed to Constantinople in the first instance ; thence he went to Beyrout, Jaffa, Alexandria, and Cairo. On his return home, in December, 1868, he advertised a tour to Palestine and the Nile in the following spring. Before a month elapsed thirty-two ladies and gentlemen had taken tickets for the trip to the Nile and Palestine, and thirty to Palestine only. Two steamers, the Benka and Benisooif, were engaged for the Nile trip, and two camps were formed in FROM LONDON TO JERUSALEM. 105 Palestine, some of the party on the return journey visiting Athens and Constantinople. This was the beginning of the Eastern travel to which further reference will be made in a future chapter, and which developed into a leading branch of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's busi- ness. It is a part of the business in which American tourists play as prominent a part as English, and one which has had the patronage of clergymen of all denominations. Not the least of the results has been the transformation of travel in the Bast. Before Mr. Thomas Cook led his first party through Palestine, travellers were at the mercy of savage chiefs, who made them pay dearly for the protection which they afforded, or the permission which they granted to pass through their districts. These chiefs were as fickle as they were avaricious, and as dilatory as they were exacting. Now, the plans of travel laid in London are carried out to the letter and the day, in the Eastern regions which Cook's tourists traverse. Moreover, the element of danger has been almost entirely eliminated, and those who would have hesitated to trust themselves in Palestine as it was a generation ago, now go thither without fear, and their confidence in the measures taken by the Messrs. Cook is fully justified. 106 CHAPTEE IX. HOME-WORK IN 1868-1869. It is characteristic of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's business that home requirements demand as great attention as those for foreign travel. Before the son had taken the position of managing and responsible partner it happened that, while the Bast was being opened out by one partner to the tourist, the other partner was fully occupied with negotiations in England and the Continent. This was true even before Mr. J. M. Cook formally entered into partnership with his father. In 1868 the Directors of the Great Eastern Eailway Com- pany appointed Mr. J. M. Cook to manage their Continental passenger traffic by way of Harwich. At that time the Harwich route to the Continent was little used, and tourists were not offered special inducements to avail themselves of it. Mr. J. M. Cook determined to provide what was lacking to render the route popular, and with HOME-WOEK IN 1868-1869. 107 that object lie made repeated visits to the Con- tinent, where he had frequent conferences with the managers of the railways in Holland, Belgium, and Germany. The entries in his diary show that during the autumn and winter of 1868-69 he travelled 20,000 miles before his self-imposed task was fulfilled. At the outset he was met with the objection that, if the fares were reduced to the figures which he suggested, passengers could not be carried over this route at a profit. The President of the Ger- man Ehenish Eailway Company, after having had several interviews with Mr. J. M. Cook, advised him to abandon what he styled his visionary project. Instead of doing so he persisted in endeavouring to obtain a favourable reply to his proposal, and urged that, at all events, the experiment might be tried. His pertinacity produced an impression, though ho failed to carry conviction to the mind of his hearer. A meeting of the railway managers was summoned to give him another hearing and a final reply. At this conference the general opinion prevailed that it would be judicious to pacify Mr. J. M. Cook with a partial concession, and thus to get rid of him. Hence it was agreed to sanction an issue of one or two series of special tickets in consideration of Mr. J. M. Cook pledg- 108 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. ing himself that at least 600 first-class passengers would buy these tickets during twelve months from the date of the agreement being made. Not long afterwards the conference reassembled to hear a report from him, and all the members were surprised to learn that upwards of 500 persons had bought and used these tickets in the course of a single month. The passenger traffic by way of Harwich grew so rapidly that, within a year after it first began, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son opened their first Continental offices at Brussels and Cologne, in order that persons on the Con- tinent might be supplied with tickets by the new route. During the summer of 1868 Mr. Cook's time was chiefly occupied in developing Continental traffic by way of Harwich, and in conducting parties of tourists through Holland, Belgium, and the Ehenish Provinces. A special train left the old Bishopsgate Station in the autumn with about 100 persons bound for Italy. This was the beginning of a large and increasing tourist traffic over the G-reat Eastern to Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Italy. A farther addition to the business which Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son had fostered in connexion with the Midland Railway Company was effected HOME-WORK IN 1868-1869. 109 in 1868, the year in which the Company's new station was opened at St. Pancras, and was con- sidered a wonder of railway architecture. The company had then improved its access to London by opening a line from Bedford, and was enabled to compete for a share of the passenger traffic between London and all the chief towns of the Midland, the Lancashire, and the Yorkshire dis- tricts. A still more memorable event in the year 1868 was the opening of the tunnel through Mont Cenis. The diligences which ran over the mountain, and the Fell railway which did so also for a time, had the drawback of breaking the journey, and of rendering it much more fatiguing as well as more costly than when railway carriages could run through the mountain on the railway from France to Italy. Not only was the general traffic increased, but the tourist traffic grew in a still greater ratio, and the increase materially added to the business of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. One of the most marked changes made after the tunnel through Mont Cenis was opened related to through traffic to the East. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son were enabled to issue tickets from England to India and Egypt by way of Mont Cenis and Brindisi, the sea passage being made 110 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. by the Italian Steam Shipping Company for navigating the Adriatic. In 1869 the firm was gratified with a proposal from the late Earl of Shrewsbury, which was in accord with the chief desire of its founder, whose ambition had been to enable his countrymen to know their own country better, and then to form acquaintance with countries in other parts of the world. Mr. J. M. Cook was asked to act as his lordship's representative in opening his pictur- esque grounds of Alton Towers, in Staffordshire, to parties of excursionists. He gladly accepted the responsible and agreeable duty, and he arranged so that in one day as many as 10,000 excursionists were conveyed by cheap trains to the grounds. During the earl's lifetime it was a great treat to working-men to visit Alton Towers, and private parties were also enabled to enjoy the privilege at any time during the summer season under arrangements made by Mr. J. M. Cook. The greatest historic occurrence in this year, and one of special moment to British commerce, was the opening of the Suez Canal on the 17th of November. Mr. Thomas Cook was one of the invited guests who passed through the canal on a steamer in the opening procession. He then made the personal acquaintance of M. Lesseps, HOME-WOEK IN 1868-1869. Ill and the intimacy between the two men led to the fomider and maker of the canal helping the pioneer of tourist traffic in his efforts to use it for the development of his business. 112 CHAPTEE X. DEVELOPMENT OF EASTEEN TEAVBL. The number of persons desiring to visit the Bast under the care of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son increased year after year. In 1870 Mr. J. M. Cook was appointed by the Khedive to act as the agent of his Government for passenger traffic on the Nile. Many parties went under the guidance of the Messrs. Cook, or a representative, during the winter of 1869-70, to Palestine, the Nile, Greece, and Turkey. Their business ceased to be one which supplied the wants of their countrymen only, and it became international. Provision had already been made for Americans joining in the tours, and the like facilities were now extended to dwellers on the Continent of Europe. It was found by experience that many persons wished to make a tour with Cook's tickets with- out joining one of his parties, and for their convenience a series of international tickets was DEVELOPMENT OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 113 prepared, the holders of these tickets being enabled to travel, when they thought fit, in any of the countries which were named upon them, and within the period for which they were available. StiU, the personally conducted tours in the East continued to be well patronised. In no other way could those who visited Egypt or the Holy Land receive so much attention and be spared so much trouble. The members of such a party had literally no occasion to take thought for the morrow, save as regarded getting up and being ready to start at the appointed hour. No member of a Eoyal party for whom provision is made on all occasions could have had a greater indiffer- ence as to what might occur during the journey than the tourist had who placed himself in the hands of Messrs. Cook and their agents. Great capacity for organisation had to be displayed in providing for such a party and con- ducting it to its destination. A few figures will best show what was necessary. Let it be supposed, for instance, that a party numbering sixty was bound for Jerusalem, and let the question be put and answered as to what such a party required in order to be accommodated during the journey through Palestine. The first item was twenty- one sleeping tents, and these had ,to be pitched H 114 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. when the party halted, and struck and carried while it was on the move. The second was two dining saloons and three cooking tents. Sixty- five saddle horses had to be provided for those who rode, and eighty-seven pack horses, mules, and twenty-eight asses for the transport of luggage and other things. Such a party was accompanied and served by fifty-six muleteers, five watch dogs, three dragomans, and eighteen camp-servants and cooks. Thus 180 mules, asses, and horses, five dogs, and seventy-seven men were required to accompany the sixty travel- lers and provide for their wants. This was a modern caravan, led in the European fashion, by one who possessed some of the qualities which distinguish the successful general. Cook's tourist parties enjoyed wonderful im- munity from mishaps, and the one to which reference has just been made was as fortunate as the others ; yet it had a hairbreadth escape. Its members visited Athens in April, 1870, and were there when a sad tragedy happened. A party consisting of Lord and Lady Muncaster, Edward Lloyd, barrister, Mrs. Lloyd and child, Frederick Grantham Vyner, Edward Herbert, Secretary to the British Legation, Count Albert de Boyl, Secretary to the Itahan Legation, accompanied DEVELOPMENT OP EASTERN TRAVEL. 115 by servants and guarded by an escort of troops, visited Marathon on the 11th of that month. The party had reached Eaphini on the way back to Athens, when it was attacked and overpowered by a band of brigands under the leadership of the brothers Arvanitaki. The ladies were allowed to depart soon after the capture, while Lord Mun- caster was set at liberty on the 13th conditionally on his going to Athens and procuring a ransom of £32,000, along with a free pardon for the brigands and the release of their comrades who were in custody. The Greek Government refused the amnesty, and sent troops after the brigaiMs, who put to death Mr. Herbert and Count de Boyl on the 21st, and Mr. Vvner and Mr. Lloyd on the 22nd. Most of the gang were shot by the pur- suing force. It was ihe general behef in Athens that the brigands hoped to capture the party under the charge of Mr. Thomas Cook, who, acting on the advice of the British Minister, declined to conduct his party to Marathon unless an adequate mihtary force accompanied it. As the Greek Government did not agree to this con- dition, the visit to Marathon was abandoned, and the members of Mr. Cook's party were spared what might have proved to be a tragic fate. The sudden outbreak of war between France and H 2 116 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Germany in 1870 was a startling event to many peaceful travellers on the Continent. It was the year appointed for the Passion Play at Ober Am- mergau, and hundreds of English and American travellers wl ^ were provided with Cook's tickets had started to wit.^ess it ; besides, both members of the firm were engaged in conducting parties of these tourists. Many of them hastened back to England at the first rumours of war ; others found it impossible for a time to travel in Germany, as the railways had been shut against civilians and were exclusively employed in conveying soldiers and munitions of war. Much inconvenience was thus occasioned to travellers, and those who were able to pass from place to place were unable to make full use of the tickets with which Thomas Cook and Son had supplied them. Many years after Mr. J. M. Cook was gratified to learn from a Scottish gentleman who was one of these ticket holders that the course then pursued by his firm had given him fentire satisfac- tion and made a lasting impression upon him. He had tickets in his possession for which he had paid £25. Being a soUcitor, he knew that, in the circumstances, he had no claim upon the firm for the return of the money, its obligations having been cancelled owing to the war. He was DEVELOPMEKT OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 117 not less surprised than delighted to receive, a few weeks after his return home, a cheque for the amount which he had paid, and since then he has frequently repeated his pleasant experience as testimony in favour of Messrs. Cook and Son. Moreover, he has naturally made a point of always travelling with their tickets. "While the war lasted between France and Germany it seemed as if the greater part of Messrs. Cook and Son's occupation was at an end. The part of the Continent over which they had issued tickets to tourists intent upon relaxa- tion and pleasure became the battleground of hostile armies, and remained so from the summer of 1870 till the spring of 1871. Even the firm regarded the outlook with anxiety; yet, as the event proved, there was no reason for dismay. The war interrupted travelling from one place to another over routes which had become beaten paths to the tourist, and, what was still more annoying, the area within which war raged was one over which it had been necessary to pass in order to reach places where peace prevailed. It turned out, however, to the surprise of Messrs. Cook and Son, as well as to their pecu- niary advantage, that the time during which hos- tihties prevailed was one when their services were 118 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. in special request. Non-combatants who wished to travel for business or health applied to them for advice and assistance. Those who had gained ex- perience in travel, and considered themselves as capable of finding their way about the Continent as of doing so in the streets of their native cities, now sought aid at the hands of a firm which had gained a reputation as the guide and friend of the traveller. The firm was prepared to afford help to those who sought it, being fitted for indicating unknown or little used ways for journeying from one point of the Continent to another. As a result of the applications made at this time, the firm became convinced of the advantage that would accrue to travellers if they were supplied with tickets which would give them a choice of routes, and render them independent in the event of one route being blocked. Hence a system of international tickets was instituted which has since become most popular and useful. At the present time the issue of such tickets forms one of the largest parts of the business conducted by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. An example may be given out of many affording a clear impression of the kind of service rendered during the Franco-German war to those who invoked Messrs. Cook's aid. The late Arch- DEVELOPMENT OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 119 bishop of Canterbury was seriously ailing, and his medical advisers had ordered him to proceed to the Eiviera. How to get there puzzled him, and he appKed to Messrs. Cook for advice. The only route then open was through Belgium, Germany, and Austria, over the Brenner Pass to Genoa, and thence to the Eiviera. At his express request Mr. Thomas Cook acted as the conductor of the Archbishop and his family to their destination. "While the father was thus engaged, the son was employed in another way consequent upon the war. The route to Brindisi through Prance was closed to passenger traf&c, and this injuriously affected the intercourse between England and India. At this time the route to the Continent by way of Harwich, which Mr. J. M. Cook had laid open, proved to be of exceptional value. He was invited by the representatives of the German railway companies to meet them in conference at Frankfort with a view to consider how far passenger traffic to Brindisi might be conducted by way of Harwich and through Germany and over the Brenner. Three years before then he had found these gentlemen opposed to his views, and firm in the belief that passenger traffic between Eng- land and the Continent could never be deve- 1'20 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. loped on a large scale by way of Harwich and Antwerp, or Harwich and Eotterdam. However, the irresistible logic of facts had now convinced them of their error. The president of the German Ehenish Eailway, who had repeatedly told Mr. J. M. Cook that his views were unpractical and would never find acceptance among the managers of German railways, now stood up in this confer- ence and proposed that Mr. J. M. Cook should be appointed agent for all the companies concerned in the development of passenger traffic through Germany and over the Brenner to Brindisi. The proposal was carried imanimously, and the appointment was made with a salary added. After much toilsome journeying and planning, Mr. J. M. Cook effected an arrangement for the issue of through tickets from London to Brindisi, and concluded an arrangement whereby a passen- ger could make the trip with one book of coupons which served from his departure to his arrival. The convenience of this was very great, and it was fully appreciated. "When the war ended in the spring of 1871 the passenger traffic reverted to its old channel, yet the French railway companies had been taught a lesson by which they profited. Heretofore they had obstinately refused to permit through tickets from London to Brindisi being DEVELOPMENT OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 121 available over their railways ; but they were shown what had been done in Germany, and they reluc- tantly felt themselves obliged to do likewise. The German railway companies had reaped advantages from Mr. J. M. Cook's services as their agent, and now the most important of the French companies desired to profit by the services of the firm with which he was connected, and in this year the directors of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Eailway appointed Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son their agents for the development of passenger traffic over their lines, a position of authority and distinction which the firm had never hoped to occupy. The winter during which the Franco-German War was waged proved to be the most severe in living memory, and it had an influence on the conveyance of passengers to Egypt and Palestine as well as upon the movements of armies. Owing to inundations and heavy falls of snow the lines of communication were often cut or blocked, and it involved much extra labour on the part of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son to enable the tourists under their care, or holding their tickets, to catch the steamers at Trieste or Brindisi. Despite many and unforeseen difiiculties,.no in- stance of failure occurred, the reputation of the 122 THE BUSINESS OF TBAYBL. firm for punctuality and dispatch being uniformly maintained. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son were called upon to assist in conveying relief to the famishing poor of Paris during the armistice. A committee had been formed at the Mansion House, funds were raised, and the provisions bought with the money were despatched under the care of the late Mr. George Moore and the late Colonel Stuart Wortley, while Mr. J. M. Cook accompanied them and assisted in the arrangements. The party started on the 31st of January, 1871, with seventy tons weight of provisions. Ordinary traffic was then suspended on the railways running to Paris, and the trains which ran were imder the orders of the German military authorities. The Germans were not anxious to facilitate traffic with Paris during the armistice, and the party taking this relief had many obstacles to overcome. As soon as the trucks had been imloaded in Paris they were returned to Dieppe for a firesh load, Mr. J. M. Cook accompanying them. It occurred to him that many persons would be curious to see Paris during the armistice, and that if a party were organised it might benefit M. Chardon, the hotel proprietor with whom his firm had long been on most friendly terms. An DEVELOPMENT OP EASTEEN TRAVEL. 123 announcement to that effect was issued, and in the course of three days a party numbering 150 started for Paris, where some remained till the outbreak of the Commune. The skilful way in which the provisions were taken to Paris and this party of sightseers conducted thither made an impression on the public mind. The late Mr. James "White, one of the members for Brighton, made some remarks in the House of Commons on the 25th of April, 1871, which showed his opinion of Messrs. Cook's capacity for undertaking the most onerous work, and executing it with success. On that day he brought forward a motion condemning additional taxation, and in the course of his speech he said that, owing to some antiquated arrangements made when railways were novelties, the Govern- ment paid 50 per cent, more for the conveyance of troops than private persons would pay for the con- veyance of the like number of men. Moreover, private persons were allowed to carry a certain weight of luggage free, whereas all the baggage carried by soldiers was charged for as an extra. Mr. White affirmed that if Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son were entrusted with the transport of troops within the United Kingdom, "the country would probably be a gainer to the extent 124 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. of something like £120,000 or £130,000, while the soldiers would find the change attended by a great increase of comfort." The closing of a part of France to passenger traffic was continued for some time after the con- clusion of peace between France and Germany, the Communists of Paris having risen in rebeUion. At the beginning of June, 1871, the capital of France was again open to the world. Mr. J. M. Cook, who had watched his opportunity, entered Paris almost at the same time as the French soldiers who marched from Versailles. He soon effected what was necessary for his system of tourist and excursion tickets coming into operation again. The demand for these tickets on the part of American and English tourists was enormous, the desire being general to visit Paris and the chief places of note during the war which was over. 125 CHAPTEE X. (Paet 2.) AMERICAN KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN ETJEOPB. Feeemasons are to be found in every quarter of the globe, but in no part are they more demonstrative than in the United States of America. In the United Kingdom all their proceedings are conducted in the privacy of their lodge-rooms, vphile in the United States they are fond of parading the streets and affording a spectacle to their fellow -citizens. While Freemasonry proper consists of three degrees, there are many fancy and ornamental degrees which attract the lovers of gorgeous paraphernaHa, and of these degrees that of the Knights Templar is the most popular in America. The members of it are addressed as Sir Knight, and when they parade in public they are clothed in as fantastic a garb as that of a general officer in the Grand Duchy of Gerolstein. In 1871 a party of American Knights Templar 126 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. determined to visit Europe, and the arrangements for their trip were effected by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. The party was headed by Sir Knight Jenkins, and numbered forty-five. The members belonged to encampments in Pennsylvania, and most of them lived near or in Pittsburgh. Their trip to Europe was regarded by their brethren as a great event, and 150 escorted the party to New York, whence it sailed for Liverpool in the Oceanic, a new steamer of the White Star Line, which was then considered a marvel of naval architecture. The party landed at Queenstown on the 12th of June, 1871. Mr. J. M. Cook was in waiting to conduct it through Ireland and Scotland, where his father took it in charge and accompanied it to London. Conductors guided the party through the Continent as far south as Naples, including Ober Ammergau, where the Passion Play was held which had been fixed for the preceding year, but had been postponed on account of the war. Finally, Mr. J. M. Cook conducted the party to Queenstown and left them on board the Oceanic bound for America. The Knights Templar enjoyed their trip and were gratified with the completeness of the arrangements which Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son had made for their comfort and enter- AMERICAN KNIGHTS TEMPLAE IN EDEOPE. 127 tainment. They were welcomed by their brother Masons wherever they went, as they naturally expected to be, and notices of themselves and. their doings appeared in many newspapers. These notices were most frequent and detailed in American newspapers, which give a promi- nence to the movements of Freemasons which the conductors of European journals do not think fit to accord. While these Knights Templar were the subjects of many articles, the same publicity was given to Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, and the firm thus received an amount of advertisement which bore fruit. Sir Knight Jenkins, the leader of the party, was quite as much impressed with Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's business as with any- thing else which he saw in Europe. He offered to join them, and, his offer having been ac- cepted, the firm of Cook, Son, and Jenkins was established in New York, with branch offices in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. Afterwards a separate office was opened in London at Ludgate Circus for the transaction of American business. A special visit was paid to America by Mr. J. M. Cook with a view to make his new partner acquainted with the railway managers in different parts of the 128 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. country, and to initiate him into the mysteries of the business. At the end of six years this partnership was dissolved. Since then Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have conducted their American business themselves at their Head Office in Broadway, New York City. Travelling in France after the Franco-German War was more unpleasant than before, owing to the re-imposition of passports and the amount of police supervision. The railway companies were most anxious to attract passengers, while the French Government rendered travelling a burden. In the interest of France as well as in that of his customers, Mr. Thomas Cook made an appeal to M. Jules Ferry, the French Minister who was responsible for what had been done. He represented that the vexations caused by passports had lessened tourist traffic and occa- sioned a financial loss to the French railways. This consideration had its weight ; but another was still more effective. He assured the Minister that French losses were German gains, and that much travel which would naturally pass through France had been diverted to Germany. As a result of Mr. Thomas Cook's representations, the obnoxious regulations were first modified and then rescinded. AMERICAN KNIGHTS TEMPLAE IN EUROPE. 129 More than one consequence of the Franco- German War has been mentioned ; another may now be stated, and is one which illustrates the universality of Messrs. Cook's resources. No sooner had one outlet for tourists been closed than another was opened or improved by the firm. When the difficulties of tourists travelling on the Continent in 1871 were considerable, Messrs. Cook then exerted themselves to further tourist and excursion traffic throughout Great Britain. Tjbey were the better able to do so, as they had been appointed Agents for the Great Western Eailway Company for the development of excursions and tours throughout the west and south-west of England. In the following year the Midland Eailway Company gave them a like appointment with relation to all traffic of the ex- cursion and tourist kind in and out of Birming- ham, an appointment which obliged them to open a branch office in Birmingham. After that office had been open for a year, and Messrs. Cook had been at work during twelve months, they were able to report that the receipts for cheap excursions in and out of Birmingham had nearly doubled since they became the company's agents. Indeed, whenever Messrs. Cook took a personal interest in a railway or an exhibition, the receipts I 130 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. of either- soon increased. This was exemplified when the first of the series of Exhibitions was opened at South Kensington, when Messrs. Cook were enabled by their arrangements with the Midland Eailway Company to arrange for many thousands visiting it at very low fares. The success which had attended their efforts to increase passenger traf&c led the shareholders in railway companies to turn to them for help when it was needed. A striking illustration of this occurred at a meeting in Dublin of the Great Southern and Western Eailway of Ireland. The directors were then taken to task for having refused propositions made by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son relating to the development of American and English tourist trafiic in Ireland. The feeling of the meeting was clearly in favour of the Board negotiating with Messrs. Cook. Soon after the meeting, Mr. J. M. Cook was invited to attend a conference of the managers of the Irish railways at the Clearing House in Dublin. Up till 1855 the tickets of Mr. Thomas Cook had been accepted by Irish railways, but the jealousy of an English railway competing with the Midland led to a breach of connexion between him and these railways, one which was happily repaired in 1872, when the tickets issued by AMERICAN KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN EUROPE. 131 Messrs. Cook and Son were made available thenceforth over every Irish railway. Several matters of note which occurred between the years 1871 to 1873 will be noticed in a future chapter, the year 1872 deserving one to itself. Before beginning it, however, it may be chronicled that a legal change took place in the business at the end of 1871. From the year 1864 Mr. J. M. Cook had been an acting partner in the ordinary sense of the phrase, and the change in the style of the firm did not really affect his position. Now he was openly announced as a partner, and the title of the firm was altered to Thomas Cook and Son. Though this title has been used before in this work, it is from the year 1871 only that it can be used with literal accuracy. At this time the offices of the firm consisted of the Head Office at 98, Fleet Street, a branch office at the St. Pancras Station of the Midland Eailway Company, and branches at Manchester, Leicester, Brussels, and Cologne. There were about a dozen agencies at home and abroad chiefly for the exchange of vouchers for tickets. In May, 1872, an important addition was made to the offices, as in that year a branch was opened at Geneva, being the first office established on the Continent exclusively for the business of international tours. I 2 132 CHAPTEE XI. GIEDLING THE GLOBE. Me. Thomas Cook considered the culmination of his labours to be the institution of an annual tour round the world. When he first planned an excursion train to enable his friends and acquaintance to attend a temperance meeting, he had no expectation of the extent to which the original idea would be carried by himself, or of the purposes which it might be made to subserve. It was not long, however, before he felt that he had a mission in the world, and he pursued it with constancy in the face of discouragements which were trying, and of opposition which happily proved futile. He believed that the more his fellow men saw of each other the better they would understand each other's ways, that the more the world was known by the dwellers in it, the truer would be their knowledge, and that GIRDLING THE GLOBE. 133 intercourse by travel was one form, and not the least effective, of missionary enterprise. He started in the business vphich he had made his own without any capital more tangible than his brains, and without any other support than that which might accrue from the exercise of his faculties. Though his work was philanthropic in the best sense of the term, it could not be carried on unless a profit were to be made. As a labourer he was as deserving of reward as any other, and when his business increased the pecuniary reward did not tarry. A physician who gives up his talents and time to the relief of human suffering is not expected to do so without a fee ; a banker may be a very good man, yet he does not keep his customers' money without reaping a profit. When Mr. Thomas Cook was reproached with making a commercial speculation of his business, he was able to retort that no business could be conducted except upon business principles. What gave him as much gratification as his enrichment was the realisation in succession of many sanguine hopes. He began by enabling his fellow-countrymen to see more of each other, by conducting the dwellers in the Midlands to the Isle of Man and the Highlands of Scotland, by enabling the dweller at the Land's End to see 134 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. with his own eyes what stands for the house of John o' Groats at the extremity of Scotland. Then he carried parties of his countrymen to France, and such parties of Englishmen had never before trodden French soil on a peaceful errand. Next he opened to them the beauties of the Ehine and of Switzerland, the historic scenes in Italy, the marvels of Tyrol and the Danube, and, after having made the European continent a play-ground for tourists in summer, he conducted parties in winter to the region of old Nile and to the sacred lands of the Bible. All these things were events as important in the intercourse between nations as the battles and sieges which historians have delighted to record. None of them, however, was more noteworthy than the crowning achievement of his career as a pioneer of tourist travel. Mr. Thomas Cook made the entire globe the theatre of his enterprise. He started in 1872 with nine companions to make what he considered an exploratory tour round the world. The members of the small party represented England, Scotland, Russia, America, and Greece. The start was made from Liverpool to New York, in the "White Star steamer Oceanic, the time being the autumn, the weather being bad, and the passage occupying GIBDLING THE GLOBE. 135 thirteen days. Five days were spent in New York, a halt was made at Niagara, three days were devoted to Chicago, then rising from the ruins of the great fire twelve months before a still finer city than it had been. A visit was paid to Salt Lake City, into which there had been an influx of non-Mormons, owing to the silver mines that were supposed to be sources of wealth, but which absorbed more dollars than they yielded. Then San Francisco was reached, and 6,300 miles out of the 25,000 to be traversed had been passed over. Twenty-four days were spent in the voyage from San Francisco to Yokohama, in the course of which the ISC of longitude was reached, and London was under the feet of the travellers. Recording his impressions in letters to The Times, Mr. Thomas Cook wrote . " This going round the world is a very easy and almost imper- ceptible business ; there is no difficulty about it, and but for the discrepancies of watches, the daily log of Captain Warsaw, and the salubrity of the climate in November, we should not realise our approach to the meridian line, or suppose it possible that the next land we see will be that of the rising siui." It is superfluous to describe this interesting trip'j in detail, or do more than note any special points 136 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. in connexion with it. Those who desire to learn more will find what they seek in Mr. Thomas Cook's Letters from the Sea and from Foreign Lands — descriptive of a Tour Bound the Globe. Suffice it, then, to add that, in addition to what has been noted, this pioneer of travel round the world voyaged over the inland sea of Japan to Shanghai, passed from Shanghai to Hong Kong, thence to Singapore and through the Straits of Malacca, and by the Bay of Bengal to Ceylon, and from Point de GaUe to Madras and Calcutta. Having landed in India, the party journeyed over 2,500 miles there, proceeding as far as Delhi, calling at Agra, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Benares, and Allahabad on the way to Bombay. From Bombay the party voyaged to Aden and Suez, travelling through Egypt and Palestine, visiting on the homeward journey Constantinople, Athens, Corfu, Trieste, Northern Italy, and France, till England was reached again, after an absence of 222 days, during which the globe had been girdled. Since Mr. Thomas Cook made the preliminary and exploratory tour round the world, the means for doing so have been brought by his firm within the reach of all who can pay the price, while the tour can be made with such ease, owing to the GIRDLING THE GLOBE. 137 arrangements made by him, that it has become commonplace. Yet the credit due to him is the greater on that accomit. It was not considered he had undertaken a light task when he started, and the editor of The Times regarded it as a matter of public interest, and inserted the descriptive letters which Mr. Thomas Cook penned by the way. He made his countrymen under- stand what the world was like as a whole, how greatly human beings resembled each other on its surface, and if he dispelled many illusions, he replaced them with as many facts. Others have written their impressions since he committed his to paper, without adding much valuable material to the stock of human knowledge. For those who have eyes to see and the faculty of giving freshness to their story, there is something to be written about any part of the earth's surface which will suggest fresh ideas in the reader's mind and charm him. The charm found in Mr. Thomas Cook's narrative is the novelty of the whole, and the enthusiasm which he felt when he committed his ideas to paper rendered his narrative the more attractive. His object was not so much to write a book which it was a pleasure to read, as to prepare the way for others following in his path. The 138 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. conclusion at which he arrived was that he had learnt with perfect accuracy the best way round the globe, had famiharised himself with what was to be met with on the road, and had ascertained the most convenient means of transport, and the fit- ting places at which to break the journey. He had learned, moreover, the times and seasons at which to make the tour, and he had settled the means and terms upon which it could be made. It was the conviction of Mr. Thomas Cook that any tour, rightly conducted, would serve to edu- cate those who took part in it. His hope was that a tour round the world would prove an edu- cational agency on a large scale. He could not expect, however, that many persons had the leisure or the funds to avail themselves of it, and he was always ready to give effect to his ideas on a small scale when he could not do so on a large one. To him it was gratifying, after return- ing from his world-wide journey, to arrange for a party from America to be conducted through Europe, the members of the party being school teachers and their friends, and the number being 150. He thought that if these teachers spent their holidays in this fashion they would be greatly benefited in every respect on returning to GIEDLING THE GLOBE. 139 their duties. The first party returned home filled with praise for the attention which they had re- ceived. Other parties of a like kind paid visits to Europe, but the numbers fell off, and the work, which had an auspicious beginning, did not realise all the expectations which Mr. Thomas Cook had formed. Yet the failure was temporary only. The system which he originated has had a develop- ment which he might not have foreseen. At present it is common in the United States to constitute every year what may be styled " travel clubs," these being formed by a lady or gentleman who brings together a certain number of persons on specified conditions, the club when complete enjoying a trip to Europe and back, or a tour through it, under the auspices of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. 140 CHAPTEE XII. CONTINUED PBOGBESS. So long as father and son were working together in the development of the tourist and excur- sion traffic, the father might be fulfilling his part at one part of the world, while the latter was labouring as energetically and in the same direction in another. This is specially true of the years 1872 and 1873, when Mr. Thomas Cook was planning to render the globe tributary to his system, while Mr. J. M. Cook was providing for the claims and wants of dwellers on the European continent. During the absence of his father on the remarkable tour which forms the subject of the last chapter, Mr. J. M. Cook was called upon to make arrangements for the International Ex- hibition which was to be held in Vienna during 1873. In obedience to the requests made to him by Baron Sir Anthony Eothschild, who was then English Consul-General for Austria, Mr. J. M. CONTINUED PROGBBSS. 141 Cook paid several visits to the capital of that country. The special purpose for which Mr. J. M. Cook's help was required was to furnish a report to the Government of Austria upon what was required for the transportation of large numbers of visitors to the Exhibition, and for their being housed while in Vienna. After careful investigation he arrived at a conclusion, and drew up a report, which was submitted to the Austrian Government. Many of his suggestions were acted upon, but no heed was paid to others. He was surprised, but his surprise did not last long. In common with others he read the prospectus of an Austrian Joint Stock Company, in which his views were set forth. The president of the company was a relative of an Austrian Minister of State. Mr. J. M. Cook protested against this attempt to appro- priate the result of his labour, and as a sop to him it was proposed that he should become a director of the company. He scouted the pro- posal. He had not executed the work he had undertaken with any such object. At the same time he expressed his conviction that the com- pany would be a failure. Despite his protest and prophecy, the company was constituted, and it expended large sums in 142 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. advertising. Moreover, it took offices, and made all the arrangements which were deemed neces- sary for beginning operations and fulfilling the promises of the prospectus. Its career was short. A few days after the Exhibition opened this company collapsed. During this company's brief existence it was a competitor with Messrs. Cook in arranging for tours to Vienna. Meantime, Mr. J. M. Cook was not idle, being in almost constant motion between England, Germany, and Austria, for the purpose of establishing a system of tourist tickets to and from Vienna, and also for an issue of tickets at reduced rates to exhibitors. In April, 1873, the obstacles which had baffled him rapidly disappeared. A meeting was held, composed of eighty representatives of the railways carrying passengers and goods to Vienna, and those pre- sent at it assented to Mr. J. M. Cook's proposals. The decision of the meeting was shown to be wise after the months had elapsed during which the Exhibition was open. Then it appeared that the bulk of the passenger traffic had been con- ducted under the arrangements made by Messrs. Cook and Son. Moreover, the exhibitors had been benefited by the terms made on their behalf, and this testimony in Messrs. Cook's favour CONTINUED PEOGRBSS. 143 was set forth in the Blue Book of the Eoyal Commissioners. The striking result is there recorded that Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's position as passenger agents had enabled them to arrange for exhibitors and their representatives being conveyed from England to Vienna and back for the moderate sum of £4 Is. 9d. A cattle show was held in Vienna at the same time as the Exhibition, and very valuable animals were sent to it by the Queen and by members of the Eoyal Agricultural Society. Messrs. Cook and Son were asked to undertake the transport of these four-footed excursionists, and they under- took the novel duty. It was as important that the cattle should arrive in good condition as that they should be carried safely, and this result was attained, the cattle not suffering any loss of flesh during the journey, and arriving in time to enjoy a rest before being exhibited. This, too, was a personally conducted trip, one of Messrs. Cook and Son's agents accompanying the steamers and trains in which the animals were transported. Before passing on to note other incidents which marked 1873, it may be stated that, in the previous year, the first attempt was made to bring Spain within the boundaries of tourist land. In 1872 the first party under the charge of one of 144 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Messrs. Cook's conductors made a trip through the Iberian Peninsula, and the foundation was then laid by negotiation with the Spanish railway managers for a regular system of tickets to be issued for that country. In this year, also, Mr. J. M. Cook was busily engaged with the plans for a new of&ce in Ludgate Circus. The large pile which was erected there was ready for occupation at Easter, 1873, and it has served since then as the Head Office of the firm. To the many offices which the firm had in different parts of the world another was added at Cairo in 1873. This office was built on a part of the gardens attached to Shepheard's Hotel, and it soon proved too small for its purpose. After being enlarged several times it was pulled down, and the more commodious offices now standing on the same site were built. Tourist traffic in Egypt had increased to a vast extent since the winter of 1870, when Mr. J. M. Cook took his first party up the Nile in a Government steamer. Having been appointed agents for the Govern- ment of Egypt, his firm instituted a regular service of steamers on the Nile in 1873. Before then there was no such service at stated times, though an Egyptian Company had undertaken to supply one. CONTINUED PEOGEBSS. 145 At the close of the year 1873 many changes were made in Messrs. Cook's relation to some railway companies at home. Their contract with the Great Eastern Eailway Company expired on the 31st of December. By the terms of that contract they were bound not to enter into arrangements with any Channel service in competition with that of the Great Eastern, but they now declined to be hampered by any such condition. Moreover, the chairman of the Chat- ham and Dover Railway had made overtures to them which they were disposed to entertain. In consequence of this the new contract between , the firm and the Great Eastern Company left the firm free to act as it pleased. Negotiations were now begun with the Chatham and Dover, the desire of Messrs. Cook being to obtain the agency for the short sea route between Dover and Calais. The manager of the company at that time was unable to realise that they could be of assistance in developing passenger traffic over this route, holding that his company could do the work for themselves. The manager was asked by Mr. J. M. Cook to name a sum which he considered to be an adequate gain on a year's working under the proposed arrangement. The stun was named, and the K 146 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. arrangement was carried out. In September of tlie same year Messrs. Cook's accountant informed them that the amount payable to the Chatham and Dover Company for business done during the month of August exceeded the sum which the manager held to be an adequate return if spread over twelve months. It is scarcely necessary to add that, when Mr. J. M. Cook placed the accounts, along with a cheque, before the manager, the manager's sur- prise was as great as his regret that he should have been so sceptical when the negotiations were in progress. The harmony between the firm and the company has not been interrupted since, nor is there any likelihood of a rupture between them so long as the receipts due to the firm's agency are often as great in a single week as the manager doubted they would be at the end of a whole year. In consequence of the new contract with the Great Eastern Eailway Company it was necessary to revise the arrangements entered into by Messrs. Cook with the railways in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Austria, over which passenger traffic from England to the Continent was carried by way of Harwich. A conference of foreign railway managers was held at Stuttgart CONTINUED PBOGRESS. 147 in February, 1874, to decide as to the terms offered by the Great Eastern and Messrs. Cook respectively. The chairman of the con- ference expressed his preference for those of Messrs. Cook, and he did so on the gromid that since Mr. J. M. Cook had acted as agent for the passenger traffic of the Great Eastern, 90 per cent, of the tickets used by passengers over the Harwich route had been issued by his firm. Mr. J. M. Cook, w^ho v^as present at this con- ference, had Httle difficulty in persuading the railway managers present to adopt the principle of his proposals, but he found that some of the details were objected to. A difficulty remained, after agreement had been reached on other points, and this appeared to these managers to be insur- mountable. It was that several railway companies in Germany and Belgium were forbidden to give credit to a private person for the conveyance of passengers. Mr. Cook met this by offering to make payments in advance wherever necessary, and he explained to the conference the plan on which he proposed to circulate tickets. His explanation was accepted as perfectly satisfactory, and his proposals were agreed to. The arrange- ment then arrived at is in operation still. The new system introduced in 1874 enabled K 2 148 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Messrs. Cook to combins their tickets over Con- tinental railways with tickets or coupons for every route between London and the Continent, and thus they are now in a position to announce that their international tickets are available for one passenger or several at any time and by any route. 149 CHAPTEE XIII. LITEEAEY MUD-THROWING. The narrative of Mr. Thomas Cook's career, and the rise of his firm, up to the present stage, the period covering the lifetime of a generation, has been a record of uninterrupted success. There was no pause in the development of the business in the year 1874, the date which the story has now reached ; but the story itself may be interrupted for the insertion of a chapter in which one form of the opposition will be set forth to which he and his son were formerly subjected. They were un- harmed by it ; on the contrary, those who tried to do them an injury gave them a good advertise- ment; still, the endeavour to inflict pain was apparent, and it was not for lack of malice and uncharitableness that some writers of books or in public journals failed in their object. It was shown in an earlier chapter how correctly an article in All the Year Bound, written by Mr. l50 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Edmund Yates at the request of Charles Dickens, set forth Mr. Thomas Cook's views, stated the results of his experience, and supplied an answer to the objections which had been raised with regard to the business of travel which had be- come the occupation of his life. Charles Lever, writing in Blackwood's Maga- zine under the name of Cornelius O'Dowd, did his utmost to discredit Mr. Thomas Cook and his tours. Lever was Vice-Consul at Spezia when he first wrote on the subject ; he was afterwards promoted to be Consul at Trieste. His first paper, which was published in February, 1865, and headed " Continental Excursionists," set forth what he considered to be a new and growing evil, consisting in Mr. Thomas Cook having " devised the project of conducting some forty or fifty persons, irrespective of age or sex, from London to Naples and back for a fixed sum." This wicked scheme had been carried into effect with a success for which Lever was unprepared. He had seen with his own eyes "the cities of Italy deluged with droves of these creatures, for they never separate, and you see them forty in number pouring along a street with their director — now in front, now at the rear, circling round them like a sheep-dog — and really the process is as like herd- LITERARY MUD-THROWING. 151 ing as may be. I have already met three flocks, and anything so uncouth I never saw before, the men, mostly elderly, dreary, sad-looking ; the women, somewhat younger, travel-tossed and crumpled, but intensely lively, wide-awake, and facetious." Writing such as this is neither pointed nor lively, and it might have been passed over without any other remark than that Lever had a poor opinion of his fellow countrymen and countrywomen, and thought it rare fun to disparage them. It was no joke, however, when he proceeded to tell his Italian friends that these tourists were convicts whom the Australian colonies had refused to receive, and that they were sent to Italy by the English Government under arrangement with Mr. Thomas Cook, who was to drop a few in each Italian city, where they were let loose and suffered to go whither they pleased. The Italians have little sense of humour, yet were it otherwise, those to whom he spoke could scarcely suppose that Lever was jesting, if such had been his aim; indeed, he professed to be in earnest, and those to whom he communicated the stupid fiction accepted it as a fact which was as characteristic of, as it was discreditable to, England. Lever himself was pleased with what he had 152 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. written, and he seemed so well satisfied with liken- ing tourists to convicts that he recurred to the sub- ject in StocAiwootZ for October, 1869. There, under the heading of " A Light Business Eequiring no Capital," he wrote that one of the " Growths of our present day civilisation" was "the Conti- nental bear-leader, who conducts tribes of un- lettered British over the cities of Europe, and amuses the foreigner with more of our national oddities than he would see in a residence of ten years amongst us." Such passages as the foregoing appear stupid as well as stale when read after the lapse of years. Their malevolence has long ceased to wound. What is noteworthy is the gross ignorance of Lever, or his assumption that his readers were utterly ignorant also. In Italy, as in some other countries, the travel- ling English acquired a reputation for eccentricity many years before Mr. Thomas Cook was born, and those who contributed to establish this opinion were young Englishmen of rank or fortune. No tourist who ever accompanied Mr. Thomas Cook was guilty of such an outrage as that performed by Sir Francis Dash- wood at Home in the church of the Caravita during the Lenten flagellation services. He was the associate of Horace Walpole, Gray, and other LITERABT MUD-THBOWING. 153 Englishmen who then made totirs through Italy ; in later life he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he died as Lord Despencer. He entered this church while the members of the congregation were engaged in self-flagellation by way of penance, carrying a horsewhip, which he laid right and left upon the bared bodies of the worshippers. He had to fly the city for this escapade, which was quite as serious as some of Lever's jokes. It may be, as Lever wrote, that the tourists under Mr Thomas Cook's care were " unlettered," if by that word he meant that they could not speak any language but their own. Though a misfor- tune, thia is not a crime, yet none of them ever committed any breaches of good manners, such as were frequently perpetrated by their countrymen in earlier days., which had caused many impres- sionable Italians to regard travelling Englishmen as wealthy lunatics. On a memorable occasion in the House of Lords the Earl of Sandwich earned the retort that he was " Satan reproving Sin." When Lever vilified Cook's tourists he was in the same position. Several years previously, after he had beggared himself with gaming at Baden-Baden, he was staying at Carlsruhe, where he was remark- able for his eccentricities, and where, it is recorded. 154 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. he was accustomed to ride at Ml. speed through the streets, " with his children, and sometimes even Mrs. Lever, attired in very conspicuous habi- liments, with long flowing curly locks of auburn, so that the people at first took him for a circus proprietor. Then, too, he infringed etiquette with regard to the Court and its great officials." He acted in like manner in Florence, and there the natives supposed that he must be Franconi from Paris. In his own person he " amused loreigners " with more " national oddities " than " the tribes of unlettered British" whom he denounced. The terms which he used were so exaggerated that the more intelligent readers of his writings might question whether he were in earnest. He took credit for imposing upon his Italian friends ; he might have intended to impose upon his English readers. Such expressions as the follow- ing carried their antidote with them ; their ex- travagance rendered them impotent : " These Devil's-dust tourists have spread over Europe, injuring our credit and damaging our character. Their gross ignorance is the very smallest of their sins. . . Foreigners may say, ' We desire to be able to pray in our churches, to hear in our theatres, to dine in our restaurants, but your LITERAEY MUD-THROWING. 155 people will not permit it. They come over, not in twos and threes, but in scores and hundreds, to stare and laugh at us. They deride our church ceremonies, they ridicule oiu" cookery, they criticise our dress, they barbarise our language. How long are we to be patient under these endurances? Take my word for it, if these excursionists go on, nothing short of another war, and another Wellington, will ever place us where we once were in the opinion of Europe ? " When Lever penned the foregoing lines he was either writing nonsense, and doing so consciously, or else he was temporarily irresponsible for what he wrote. Though this writing appears ludicrous now, it was not without some effect when it originally appeared, and Mr. Thomas Cook thought it his duty to publish a reply, which was as pimgent as it was effective, as the- following short extract will show : " Let me ask why Mr. Lever's susceptibilities should be outraged, and his refine- ment trampled on, because thirty or forty English- men and Englishwomen find it convenient to travel in the same train, to coalesce for mutual benefit, and to sojourn for a like time in the same cities ? Eeference to a modern compilation shows me that this hypercritical gentleman star.ted upon his career as a student of medicine in Dublin, 156 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. that he subsequently took a German degree, and that after practising for a short time he forsook his profession for novel-writing as being at once more profitable and less laborious. Apart, then, from his talent for producing fiction — of which I would speak with all possible respect — Mr. Lever is an Irish gentleman of the precise class to which the English clergymen, physicians, bankers, civil engineers, and merchants, who honoured me by accepting my escort to Italy last year, indisputably belong. By what right, then, does he constitute himself their censor? By what right doers he assume them incapable of properly enjoying and intelligently appreciating the wonders of nature, and the treasures of art, brought before them by travel ? Drawn from the same sphere of society as himself, educated in a like way, and possessing doubtless many tastes and sympathies in common with him, the only social advantage he can claim is the doubtful one of having lived nearly all his life abroad. It is surely a moot point whether the surroundings and moral tone of the curious little colonies of English people scattered up and down the Continent are so vastly superior to those enforced by public opinion at home, as to entitle the self-expatriated Briton to look down upon us with contempt." LITBEABY MUD-THROWING. 157 Believing that anyone writing as Lever had done would be indisposed, in his official capacity as Consul, to pay heed to the complaints of Jourists or to render help to Mr. Thomas Cook if he required it, the latter addressed the Earl of Clarendon, then Foreign Secretary, on the sub- ject. In this letter he affirmed that he had suffered for a time when Lever's calumnies first appeared in Blackwood, and were circulated in the Press; but that the London Press had recently taken sides with him. It was the resumption of the attack in Blackwood which impelled him to ask Lord Clarendon to consider whether, while Consul, it was fitting on Lever's part to take up a position of antagonism to his countrymen in foreign lands. The publicity gained by this appeal served Mr. Thomas Cook's purpose. With every desire to gratify him. Lord Clarendon could do little more than express his sympathy. What Lever wrote appeared under the name of " Cornelius O'Dowd." If he had given anything approaching an official colour to his attacks, then it would have been possible to take him to task. The loser was Lever ; the gainer was Mr. Thomas Cook. The ungentlemanly conduct of the former predisposed many in favour of the latter, and 158 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. tours through Italy and other countries continued to be more popular than before Lever execrated them ; nor has England lost her place among the nations, as Lever foretold she must do, owing to these tours continuing and Mr. Thomas Cook's business flourishing. Another case of the same kind may be briefly mentioned before passing from a topic which is as dead as Cornelius O'Dowd. Happily the following is the last of the attacks upon Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son which deserve notice; that firm, like all successful firms, has imitators, and imitators are not complimentary to those who have preceded them, and whom they are unable to surpass, but statements due to business competition may be left alone. It is those only who call in question the system of which Messrs. Cook are the originators, and who asperse them in the conduct of their perfectly legitimate busi- ness, whose charges or comments deserve to be refuted or criticised. In 1875 Mr. J. T. Wood, who had made many notable discoveries at Ephesus, delivered a lecture on his labours at the Cooper Insti- tute in New York. He said in the course of it: "The stream of visitors to Ephesus in- creased very much during the time the explora- LITEEAEY MUD-THKOWING. 159 tions were carried on. Amongst others, Mr. Cook, the great organiser of excursions in every part of the world, came to see me every year. I don't know what you call Mr. Cook's followers here on this side of the Atlantic, but in England we call them Cookites." Without intending a compliment, Mr. Wood paid one to Mr. Cook, for the nickname which he af&xed to these tourists was really a compliment to him. He was regarded as having done service for which others wished to be known by his name, just as the admirers of William Pitt called them- selves Pittites ; of Charles James Fox, Foxites ; and of Sir Eobert Peel, Peelites. He went on to say that the " Cookites are generally very ancient maids, and still more antique bachelors." Even if the tourist parties were generally composed of old maids and old bachelors, no one could have ground for complaint. There is no law or custom forbidding maids and bachelors of mature years making a tour in any part of the world ; yet Mr. Wood's statement was simply untrue, as the un- married element did not preponderate in the tourist parties which visited Ephesus under Mr. Thomas Cook's guidance. Mr. Wood found fault with them also for "wandering in the lanes, picking up flowers which they could have picked any- 160 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. where." Again his comment was irrational, as those who visit -Ephesus may botanise in pubhc places without being gjiilty of a fault, while the desire to carry away wild flowers from a historic spot is natural, if not commendable. Mr. Wood's objections to Messrs. Cook and their tourists proved more disgraceful and damaging to him than to them. 161 CHAPTEE XrV. ACCELEEATED PEOGBESS. Eesttming this narrative at the close of 1874, the events of the following years will be noticed in their order. The business of Messrs. Cook grew in an accelerated ratio as time passed on. Much that would have appeared wonderful if it had occurred at an earlier stage in the develop- ment of their system now appears to be a matter of course. Every enterprise of a novel kind passes through three phases. At its inception, those who do not share the sanguine views of its originator, pro- nounce it impossible. After a beginning has been made, and several steps have been taken in ad- vance, the candid critic will pronounce the whole to be preposterous. "When entire success has been achieved, and the affair works like clockwork, then the first objectors and the determined oppo- nents will sneer at the whole as very easy and L 162 THE BUSINESS OE TBAVEL. commonplace. The more perfectly a machine works, and the more smoothly a great business is conducted, the greater is the difficulty in realising that the result is due to repeated victories over obstacles, and to the display of heroism in the face of discouragement. As their business grew, the number of the offices in which to conduct it had to be increased. One of the most important of them was opened at Liverpool in 1874, upon the Mid- land Eailway Company obtaining a direct line to it. Other offices were opened about the same time in Dublin, Edinburgh, and Bome. In this year Mr. J. M. Cook had laboured so hard in his vocation that his health was impaired, and he had to seek relief in rest and change. He chose the Black Forest as a place through which to make an excursion, proceeding from Freiburg on the one side to Schaffhausen on the other. Though holiday-making himself, he could not help thinking about providing fresh ground for other holiday-makers, his ruling passion being that of his father's — a desire to make any place of beauty accessible to tourists. He was struck with the lack of them in the Black Forest. During his trip there he met one Englishman only. On returning to business, he arranged for the exten- ACCELERATED PROGRESS. 163 sion of tourist tickets to the points of interest in the Black Forest, the result being that on one night during the first season upwards of 100. holders of Messrs. Cook's tickets slept at St. Blasien. While a place comparatively so near at hand as the Black Forest was now added to the tourists' pleasure ground, others far distant from England were rendered more accessible in this year, Messrs. Cook having made fresh arrangements for tours through Sicily and Algeria. An innovation in the English railway system was made in 1874 by the Midland Company, which then abolished second-class carriages, and charged a trifle more for tickets by the first- class than had been charged previously for those by the second. Competing companies expressed strong disapproval of the change, and it was regarded with suspicion and distaste by some of the travelling public. However, the result justified the step taken by the directors, the receipts improving as a consequence of the change. Other companies have taken the Uke course since then. About two years later another step was taken by the Midland which proved advantageous to Messrs. Cook. On the 1st of May, 1876, that L 2 164 THE BUSINESS OP TBAVEL. company opened a new direct route from London to Scotland by way of Settle. This enabled them to reintroduce their tourist and excursion system into Scotland, and to combine tours through the English Lake District with those through the Scottish Highlands and to the Western Islands. In consequence of this they had to establish their own offices in Leeds, Bradford, Leicester, and Glasgow. The Work which ensued in 1876, owing to the resumption of tours and excursions through Scotland, was undertaken by Mr. J. M. Cook, his father being then engaged at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. The British Commission appointed Messrs. Cook their passenger agents for the British ex- hibitors of Philadelphia, and the firm itself was conspicuous among the exhibitors there. Mr. Thomas Cook, who had devoted much labour the year before in making arrangements for the Exhibition, remained in Philadelphia during nearly the whole time that it was open. "While the senior member of the firm was occupied in America, the junior was busy in England devising fresh plans consequent upon the new route to the Continent by way of Sheer- ness (now Queenborough) being opened in 1875. ACCBLEEATBD PEOGEBSS. 165 During the time that Mr. J. M. Cook was con- nected with the Great Eastern Railway Company as passenger agent, he had repeatedly urged the directors of that company to run steamers to Flushing, but he failed in convincing them of the importance of that place as a Continental station. Foreseeing that the Flushing route was destir.ed to be a popular one, he entered Into negotiations with the Dutch Company which had control of the steamboat service, and his firm was ap- pointed passenger agents to it. Thus Messrs. Cook were able to issue tickets, as soon as the new route was opened, between Great Britain, Holland, Germany, and Austria. As Mr. J. M. Cook had anticipated, this route soon became popular. Till 1875 they had paid but little attention to Scandinavia ; in that year, however, they expended much money in sending repre- sentatives to arrange for tbe introduction of their tourist system. The arrangements were foimd to be very imperfect under which steamers went to the North Cape, and the first party which proceeded thither under Messrs. Cook's auspices had to be carried in a steamer which was chartered for the purpose. But new vessels were afterwards built for tourist traf&c, 166 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. and tickets issued by the firm were available for all the lines of steamers, railway, carrioles, and carriages through Norway, with coupons per- mitting the holder to journey through Sweden, Denmark, and Eussia. At present they provide their own carrioles and landaus for tourists who visit Norway with their tickets. In the far East, as well as in the far North, the firm had accomplished much in 1875. Mr. J. M. Cook then completed arrangements with the Egyptian Government, under which a passenger steamer was passed over the First Cataract of the Nile when in flood, this being done -in order to begin a regular steamboat service between the First and the Second Cataract. In the following year that Government resolved upon running mail steamers between Assiout and Assouan, and Messrs. Cook and Son persuaded the Government to allow tourists, as well as natives, to be conveyed in these steamers. Then the firm was appointed sole agents for the postal service, and continued to act in that capacity in connexion with the Government steamers till they built their own, and entered into a contract for the exclusive conveyance of the mails and the civil and miUtary officials by their steamers. A further step in advance was made in 1877, ACCELERATED PBOGRBSS. 167 when a hotel was opened at Luxor, where the invalids and others desiring to enjoy the climate of Upper Egypt could do so without incurring the expense of a dahabeah. From the first this hotel was frequented by invalids who remained there during the season. Since then the demand for accommodation has been so great that the hotel had to be considerably enlarged. A second hotel has been built, and, even this proving insufficient, one of Messrs. Cook's steamers had to he off Luxor last season to accommodate those for whom there was no room in the hotels. Though Egypt received much of their attention at this time, other countries were not neglected, and in 1877 Spain and Portugal were brought more directly within the sphere of their activity. In the autumn of that year Mr. J. M. Cook took charge of a party numbering forty, which made a tour in Spain. While there he attended a conference of the managers of the Spanish railway companies, which was held to consider his proposals for the development of passenger traffic in the Iberian Peninsula. The political and military disturbances in Spain had made that country for a time an undesirable resort for tourists. However, order being restored, and the hope that it would be preserved 168 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. appearing justified, the time was propitious for the encouragement of tourist traffic. This being recognised, the proposals of Messrs. Cook were ultimately accepted, with the result that the tourist can now journey through Spain with their tickets, and the Spaniards can avail themselves of them also, an office beii.g opened by the firm in Madrid. Whenever a great Exhibition was now held those who were concerned in its management had come to regard the help of Messrs. Cook as indispensable ; hence it was almost a matter of course that they should be appointed passenger agents to the British Commission at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. On this occasion their resources were strained to the utmost, and the work which they executed was enormous. On this occasion, as at the Exhibition in 1867, Mr. Thomas Cook gave much time to providing accommodation to the thousands of working-men who visited Paris. Some figures will serve better than any words to convey an impression of the scale upon which the excursion business was conducted by his firm. The holders of its tickets made 76,000 journeys between London and Paris, and 20,000 persons were carried in carriages provided by them to see the sights in ACCELEBATED PEOGEESS. 169 and around Paris, as many as 728 being conveyed from Paris to Versailles and back in a single day. When the accounts of the adminstrators of the Exhibition were published, it was seen that 12,600,000 persons paid for admission, while of these the holders of tickets issued by Messrs. Cook and Son numbered 400,000, being one- thirtieth of the total admissions. Messrs. Cook sold 20,000 of their own guide-books and 10,000 guide-books issued by others. Despite the continuous efforts made to provide for the expansion of their business, it happened now and then that they were so fully occupied with the work in hand as to be unable to give heed to anything else for the time being. Hence there are few matters of note to be chronicled while the Great Exhibition of 1878 was open at Paris. Yet even in that year the firm responded to a call made upon it, and entered upon a new field of labour. The policy of Lord Beaconsfield had then led to the inclusion of the Island of Cyprus among the dependencies of the British Crown, antl while the Government had to arrange for its govern- ment, there was a desire expressed for further information about the island itself, and Messrs. Cook and Son were applied to as being the 170 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. persons best capable of obtaining trustworthy information. With the object of satisfying the desire for authentic information about Cyprus, Messrs. Cook deputed representatives in whom they had confidence to investigate and report, these gentle- men being accompanied by a medical man. They carefully executed their mission, travelling over the island and examining it in detail, and they drew up a report, which was presented to their employers, and printed in pamphlet form. This pamphlet attracted the attention of the pubhc, and it received special notice from members of the House of Commons, who referred to the statements made in it during debates concerning Cyprus. It also served as a work of reference to persons in high official position who afterwards paid a visit to the island. Yet neither the services rendered to the Paris Exhibition of 1878, nor the efforts made in that year to discover the actual condition and character of Cyprus, gave Messrs. Cook so much grati- fication as did the position which the Midland Eailway Company then attained. From the out- set of their labours in the tourist field, the Mid- land Eailway had been preferred by them, and the Company had given them loyal support in turn. ACCELJiKATED PROGRESS. 1?! Competing lines with the Midland looked askance at Messrs. Cook, and would not enter into arrangements with them because they were closely associated by sympathy with the Midland. In this year, then, the Midland Eailway Company improved their route between Birmingham and London, and thus fulfilled the indignant prophecy of a late manager of the London and North Western Eailway Company made many years before. When conversing with Mr. Thomas Cook, he then said with reference to traffic ,from , Scot- land : — " Why, you will actually be trying next to carry passengers from Birmingham to London." If he had survived tiU 1878 he would have found that he had proved to be a true prophet, and that as many as 5,346 excursionists had been carried firom Birmingham to London by Messrs. Cook over the Midland Eailway on the 5th of August, 1878. The notices of what happened in this year, which had a special bearing on the business of the firm, may be fitly closed with an interesting episode. While crossing the Atlantic in De- cember, 1878, Mr. J. M. Cook conceived the notion of a tour "on the track of the IsraeHtes," the members of the party not to be older than twenty-one nor younger than sixteen, and the 172 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. party to be accompanied by a gentleman who was versed in Biblical history, and capable of impart- ing his knowledge to those under his care. The party left England on the 19th of January, 1880. Everything went well, and all the members of it had reason to feel pleased with their experience. Not the least noteworthy circumstance in con- nexion with it is the fact that the conductor of the party was Mr. F. H. Cook, the eldest son of Mr. J. M. Cook, and the grandson of the founder of the firm. 17a CHAPTEE XV. CHANGES IN THE PIBM. In a previous chapter it was stated that Messrs. Cook had opened an office in New York and taken Mr. Jenkins into partnership. The English partners found the capital, and it was expected that the American would find an equiva- lent in the shape of increased business. The American office was conducted in a liberal and costly fashion, the rent . alone amounting to £1,200. However, the partnership was a failure, and Mr. J. M. Cook had to apply to the American courts to terminate the arrangement, with the result that on the 31st of December, 1878, the business in America, as in other parts of the world, remained exclusively in the hands of the English partners, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Yet, though the firm became entirely 174 THE busine;ss ,of travel. English, its founder ceased to take an active share in its management. At the close of 1878 a new deed of partnership was drawn up, con- stituting Mr. John Mason Cook sole managing partner and the person alone responsible for the conduct of the business, an arrangement which still continues in force. As the operatipn^of the firm ramified in many directions, it became necessary to transact a banking and exchange business, and "this grew so important a department that in 1879 it was made distinct from the general business. Since then it has continued to expand, and Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son not only act as general bankers but as foreign bankers also, issuing their own drafts and circular notes, and remitting money by cable to the chief cities throughout the world. The year 1880 was signalised by local exhibi- tions in Europe and an International Exhibi- tion in Australia. As has been shown already, Messrs. Cook are in their element wherever an Exhibition is held, being specially fitted for aiding those who take part in it either as exhibitors or spectators. These services were now rendered to the Fine Arts Exhibition at Turin ; the Industrial Art Exhibition at Diisseldorf ; the National Art CHANGES IN THE EIEM. 175 and Industrial Exhibition of Belgium ; the Pis- catorial Exhibition at Berlin ; and the Passion Play at Ober Ammergau. The number of visitors to the Passion Play holding Cook's tickets was so large that the firm had to send one of their qualified conductors with a party every week. It may be noted in passing that the widely-circulated reports to the effect that speculators had made money out of the Passion Play itself have no application to Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. They had received proposals from residents to join them in building hotels or erecting temporary accommodation for visitors, but these were dechned without exception. They strictly confined themselves to arrange for the conveyance of visitors and for their entertain- ment and lodging in the village, the chief villagers supplying them with a statement of the vacant rooms, and one of the firm's representatives remaining on the spot in order to ensure that the new arrivals might take the places of those who had departed. Those visitors paid for their lodging and board and for their tickets of ad- mission. Messrs. Cook never took any money from the villagers or from the public for anything connected with the village of Ober Ammergau. In addition to opening an office at Melbourne 176 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. in connexion with the International Exhibition there, Mr. J. M. Cook made arrangements for the introduction of his firm's ticket system throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Egyptian Government having been im- pressed with the manner in which Messrs. Cook carried on their business, agreed in this year to grant them a concession under which the passenger steamers on the Nile were to pass under their exclusive control. By way of return for this privilege they undertook to expend large sums in rendering the steamers more comfort- able, and to conduct the service at their own expense and risk. On the other hand, the Government gave them a monopoly of passenger traffic on the Nile during the term of the con- cession. The system of travel which Messrs. Cook originated, and which is associated with their name, had been extended over Europe, Australia, America, Egypt, and Palestine; and there only remained India a fresh field wherein to plant and develop it. In 1880 Mr. J. M. Cook proceeded to India to survey the ground. His father and him- self were of opinion that, while it would be well to arrange for the visits of Englishmen to India, it would be even more serviceable if the wealthy CHANGES IN THE FIEM. 177 natives of India could be induced to visit Europe. Mr. Gladstone was then Prime Minister ; they informed him of their projects and requested his assistance. This was the first time during the forty years that the business of Messrs. Cook was in operation that they had asked any favour from the Government of their country. They considered, however, that as their present purpose was of national importance, they might now request of&cial countenance and support. Mr. Gladstone's reply to their request was most cordial ; indeed, he was personally predisposed in their favour, and he expressed his willingness to introduce the subject to the India Ofi&ce with the statement that, "in his opinion, your proposals well deserve the most favourable consideration that circumstances will permit, on account of the real public value which attaches to your successful efforts for pro- moting inter-communication between countries." An interview with the late Sir Louis Mallet, the Under-Secretary of State for India, was very satisfactory. Moreover, the following communi- cation was sent to Mr. Cook from the India Office, over which the Marquess of Hartington then presided : " The Secretary of State for India is disposed to regard with favour any plan which M 178 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. woTild embrace arrangements on reasonable terms between yourself and the Indian Government, or the Indian guaranteed companies, to facilitate railway travelling in India and add to the convenience and comfort of passengers." A letter expressing these views was addressed by the Under-Secretary to the Indian Government and the Indian railway administrations. The Marquess of Salisbury, who had been Secre- tary for India, was also approached on the subject, and his desire in this matter accorded with that of his political opponents. In the course of a con- versation he used these words : " Mr. Cook, I do not hesitate to say that the Government ought to render you every possible assistance to enable you to carry out your ideas, as it is impossible to calculate what benefit you will ultimately be to the nation. If you can only induce a number of wealthy Englishmen to visit India, and see for themselves the value of that country to England, and also induce even a small number of the wealthy Indians to visit England, and enable them to realise who and what the people are at home who govern them in India, you will cer- tainly be of great service from a social and international point of view, and, it may be, politically." CHANGES IN THE FIBM. 179 Owing to the introductions and recommen- dations which he carried with him, Mr. J. M. Cook was able to arrange for international traveUing tickets over the whole of the Indian railways. He considered himself justified in making the outlay attendant upon establishing offices in Bombay and Calcutta, and in appointing the representatives required for carrying out his system of travel throughout India. The result fulfilled his anticipations, and there has been a large increase in the numbers of English and Americans making tours through India, while many Indian chiefs and notable natives have availed themselves of the opportunities afforded by his firm to travel round the world, in addition to visiting England. The course of the business in 1881 was in the beaten track, few incidents occurring which deserve record. Several minor Exhibitions were held on the Continent, which gave Messrs. Cook the oc- cupation to which they were accustomed ; these were the National Exhibition at Milan, the Exhibition of Art, Industry, and Horticulture at Stuttgart, the Exhibition of Hunting and Sporting Appliances at Cleves, and a Geo- graphical Congress at Venice. In 1882, however, the firm had occasion to M 2 180 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. revise its arrangements, consequent upon the opening of the St. Gothard tunnel. Much of the traffic which had passed through the Mont Cenis tunnel was diverted to the new route, which sup- plied an alternative one to the Mont Cenis for passengers from England to the East, while the traffic between Germany and Italy increased with a rapidity of which the promoters of the tunnel had never dreamt. In April, 1882, Mr. J. M. Cook, being in Jerusalem, was called upon by Mr. Noel Temple Moore, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul, who was authorised by His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales to place the travelling arrange- ments of their Eoyal Highnesses Prince Albert Victor and Prince George in the hands of the firm, and Mr. F. H. Cook had the honour of conducting the Eoyal party through Palestine, the firm after- wards receiving the following testimonial : — "Marlborough House, Pall Mall, " September 20th, 1882. " Dear Sirs, — ^All the arrangements made for the convenience of the two Princes and their companions during their forty days' stay in the Holy Land gave their Eoyal Highnesses and every member of the party the utmost satisfac- tion. Mr. F. H. Cook, whose company we CHANGES IN THE FIEM. 181 enjoyed the greater part of the time, and your agent or representative at Jerusalem, were both most indefatigable in doing everything they possibly could to conduce to the success of the expedition. We went over nearly six hundred miles, and some of the day's marches were longer than so large a party usually accomplishes. But what was designed was always carried out, spite of weather and other drawbacks, and we owe you every thanks for the energy and promptitude with which each difficulty as it arose was always faced and overcome. "Believe me, dear Sirs, " Yours very faithfully, (Signed) "John N. Dalton." At the end of May and the beginning of June in this year the firm was engaged in a novel and difficult duty. This consisted in conveying a party of French pilgrims to and through the Holy Land, the party numbering 1,004. The sea trip was made in two large steamers chartered for the purpose, the Guadaloupe and the Picardy. No less than 750 were encamped under canvas between Caifa and Jerusalem. Grave doubts were entertained as to the possibility of such a large party being conducted without mishap. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs sent a 182 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. representative to London to have an interview with Mr. J. M. Cook, and inform him that the French Consul-General in Palestine had tele- graphed to the effect that the risk rmi by such a large party was enormous, and that he would not accept responsibility for what might happen, and suggesting that the pilgrimage should be pro- hibited. Mr. J. M. Cook did not share the fears of the French Foreign Minister in Paris, or of the French Consul-General in the East. He stated that his arrangements were completed, and that he had no apprehension of failure in any parti- cular. Though the French ofi&cials opposed his plans, the pilgrimage was conducted without a hitch, and when it was over and the pilgrims had returned in comfort and safety to their homes, the French Consul-General admitted that he had under-estimated the resources of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son and their capacity for organisation. A more trying ordeal awaited the firm in the summer and autumn of this year. Then it was that Egypt was in the throes of a revo- lution, that fighting took place between the Egyptians in rebellion against the Khedive, and the British troops supporting the Khedive's authority. CHANGES IN THE FIRM. 183 When the fighting was over, the Duke of Con- naught and his suite, and afterwards Sir Garnet (now Lord) Wolseley and suite, were conveyed from Egypt to England under arrangements made with Messrs. Cook and Son. The time and energies of Mr. J. M. Cook were fully occupied in Egypt, where he had to provide for the new order of things, and to answer the calls made upon him by the War Department. He undertook the transport of the wounded and sick after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir from Cairo to Alexandria by water, this mode of conveyance being better for them than that by rail, and he freely did so without making any other charge than the actual cost of running the steamers. Moreover, he conveyed the convales- cents from enteric fever in steamers up the Nile, with a result which surprised as well as delighted the medical authorities. The official reports show that, after passing sixteen days on the Nile under the care of the firm, from eighty to ninety per cent, of the patients recovered, and were able to rejoin their regiments on reaching Cairo. Moreover, the General in command intimated to the firm that the cost of these patients was less than half what would have been incurred if they had been sent to sea instead of up the Nile. 184 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. In proof of the satisfaction which was felt by the mihtary authorities, the following document, written by order of the Duke of Cambridge, may be produced. It is dated from the War Office, Pall Mall, 8th February, 1883. " Gentlemen,— The Lieutenant-General commanding the troops in Egypt having forwarded for the information of the Field Marshal, the Commander-in-Chief, a report of the cordial assistance rendered by your firm in conveying convalescents for sanitary reasons in your steamers on the Nile, I have now the honour, by desire of his Eoyal Highness, to convey to you an expression of his thanks for the admirable arrangements made by you on these occasions, by which the troops have greatly bene- fited. His Eoyal Highness fully appreciates the public spirit evinced by you in conducting the various services on which you have been employed for military purposes in the above country. (Signed) Aethue Heebeet, Lieut.-General, Quartermaster-General. ' ' The other events in 1883 in which the firm had an interest were the International Exhi- bition at Calcutta, for which they acted as pas- senger agents, and the completion of the Arlberg tunnel, which led to a rearrangement of the plans for international traffic. In this year CHANGES IN THE FIRM. 185 the firm opened offices in Constantinople and Athens. In the United States the opening of the Northern Pacific Eailway was celebrated by the President of the Company entertaining guests from all parts of the world. Mr. F. H. Cook was one of the number. He desired to see the wonders of the Yellowstone by himself, and to see also whether he could devise plans for trips through it. Accordingly, he left New York some weeks in advance of the main body, and traversed the greater part of the park on horseback. He returned and joined the party at St. Paul's, Minnesota, and accompanied it during the re- mainder of the trip. Before narrating the most noteworthy occur- rences in which the firm had a share in 1884, to which a part of a new chapter will be devoted, the less striking ones may be mentioned now. During this year several special parties were con- ducted to the desert of Sinai ; special tours were made in America as far as California, and through the Yosemite Valley and the Yellowstone Park. Passenger travel in Scandinavia underwent a fresh development, and arrangements were made for tours to Iceland and Spitzbergen. In this year, too, several Exhibitions gave Messrs. Cook 186 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. occupation ; a national one was held at Turin, an Exhibition of Goldsmiths' Work at Buda- pest, and .a World's Fair at New Orleans. In September, 1884, Mr. F. H. Cook travelled through the Crimea and the Caucasus with a view to ascertain what arrangements could be made by the firm of which his father was the chief, for extending the tourist system to those districts, the result being that a set of tours was planned which comprehended the Caucasus, the Crimea,' Bulgaria, and other parts of the Balkan Peninsula. 187 CHAPTEE XVI. GBNBEAIi GORDON'S EXPEDITION. In January, 1884, the Government resolved to send General Gordon to the Soudan, and Messrs. Cook were requested to convey him as far as Korosko. Before Gordon mounted his camel at Korosko on his last journey to Khartoum, he wrote the following letter to them, the date being the 1st of February : "Gentlemen, — Before leaving for Berber I would wish to express to you my own and Lieut. -Colonel Stuart's thanks for the admirable manner in which we have been treated while on your steamers. Your agents have also on every occasion shown themselves kind and obhging, and have in every way assisted us to the best of their abihty. Hoping that I may perhaps again have the pleasure of placing myself under ' your ' guidance, I remain, ever yours truly, (Signed) C. E. Gordon, Major-General and Governor-General. " 188 THE BtrSINES,S OF TRAVEL. When tlie expedition to Khartoum for the relief of Gordon was seriously contemplated, a meeting was held at the Admiralty on the 23rd of April, 1884, at which Mr. J. M. Cook was present by request. Shortly before then he had returned from Egypt to England, and the authorities at the Admiralty desired to learn his views concerning projected movements on the Nile, and to receive information about the country. From that time till the beginning of August he was in frequent attendance at the Admiralty and the War Office. His own knowledge of the Nile was more minute than that of the officials with whom he came into contact, yet even he could not supply some particulars. There were no authentic facts about the state of the Nile for 200 miles of its course — that is, the part between the Second Cataract and Dongola or Hannek. In a map drawn in 1831 the Third Cataract is marked at Hannek, when, as he ascertained later, there was a rapid, not a cataract, but a number of serious cataracts between the second and the so-called third at Hannek. The result of conferences between nim and the heads of the Admiralty and War Office was that his firm contracted to convey to the Second GENBEAL GOEDON'S EXPEDITION. 189 Cataract the whole of the men and material constituting the expedition. They were ordered to arrange for 6,000 men, and about 10,000 tons of stores. They were to be conveyed from Assiout, the terminus of the Upper Egyptian railway, to Wady Haifa at the foot of the Second Cataract. Besides, 400 whale boats were to be carried by railway from Alexandria to Assiout, thence to Wady Haifa by steamer. The Messrs. Cook were called upon, before the House of Commons had voted ^£600,000 on account of the expedition for the relief of Gordon, to give an estimate of the cost. At the Admiralty, calculations were made as to the work to be done, and the opinion of the officials there was that in addition to what has been stated, about 12,000 tons of coal would be required. But the expe- dition grew in magnitude, and the work to be executed increased in proportion. The final accounts show that Thomas Cook and Son con- veyed about 11,000 English and 7,000 Egyptian troops, about 130,000 tons of stores and war material, and 800 instead of 400 whale boats. The firm had also to carry up the river between 60,000 and 70,000 tons of coal, part being con- sumed in the steamers belonging to them. The firm also carried down the river to Cairo at the 190 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. same time about 50,000 tons of cereals which were collected from the fellaheen in lieu of taxes for the Finance Department. In order to fulfil their contract the Messrs. Cook had 28 large steamers running between the Tyne and Alexandria; they had 6,000 railway trucks in use between Alexandria and Boulac or Assiout, and 7,000 for the trans- portation of military stores. On the Nile they had 27 steamers running day and night and 650 sailing vessels of from 70 to 200 tons capacity. They employed for this service about 5,000 men and boys, being the fellaheen of Lower Egypt, and Mr. J. M. Cook publicly avowed that no men ever worked more wiUingly and continuously so long as they received fair pay and fair treat- ment. He had agreed with the War Office on behalf of his firm to deliver the last of the 400 whale boats at Wady Haifa, at the foot of the Second Cataract, by the first week in November, provided they were handed over to his firm at Alexandria on the appointed days. Although the number of men and the weight of stores many times exceeded what had been calculated origin^ ally, and although the firm did not receive a written authority from the Government till the. 2nd of GENERAL GORDON'S EXPEDITION. 191 September, the last of the whale boats was delivered at Wady Haifa in the first week of November, as had been promised. Despite the pmictuality and the thoroughness with which the Messrs. Cook executed their con- tract, there is an insinuation in the report of the expedition issued from the War Office that the expedition had been impeded owing to the short supply of coal, and that the Government were at the contractor's mercy when adding to the supply. The books of the firm prove this to be base- less and unfair. Before the signing of any con- tract with the Government and his firm, and acting on his own impressions, Mr. J. M. Cook ordered 20,000 tons of coal to be despatched from the Tyne to Egypt, and some of the coal arrived at its destination prior to the signing of a con- tract with the Government. On the 26th of July, 1884, the Government ordered from the firm for their own use 1,300 tons, 500 being destined for Assouan, 500 for "Wady Haifa, and 300 for Korosko. When the officers in command of the expedition began to realise the importance of having a good supply of coal, the firm had delivered 17,000 tons to the Government, at the price which had been agreed upon at the outset for^the 1,300 first supplied. 192 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. "When Mr. J. M. Oook was at Assouan in October, 1884, he was called upon to bring up a further supply of coal for use on the railways and steamers used by the Government, and to do so as speedily as possible and at any cost. He then stated that to ensure rapid and regular delivery of the articles he had undertaken to supply, he had paid the native boatmen double their regular rates, and allowed them to load their boats with half cargoes, being equal to four times their usual pay, in order that they might sail quicker; besides, if coal were brought by steamer the cost would be several pounds a ton. However, he undertook to bring up a further supply in the shortest time possible for an advanced rate of ten shillings a ton. This offer was gladly accepted, and a fresh contract embracing its terms was made on the 22nd October. The ofl&cer in com- mand, who signed this contract, said after doing so: "Mr. Cook, the Government ought to be thankful that they have an honest firm to deal with, because you might just as well have ten pounds as ten shillings." The books of the firm contain entries which conclusively dispose of another part of the in? sinuation in the report of the War Office, a report which may have been compiled by a GENERAL GORDON'S EXPEDITION. 193 clerk who had no personal knowledge of the facts. Mr. J. M. Cook, being on the spot, had the advantage of seeing with his own eyes how the expedition was conducted, and he can em- phatically vouch for not a single day's delay having hindered its progress. It is improbable that the statements in the report, to which ex- ception is now taken, would have been made if the writer had been correctly informed as to the obstacles which had to be surmounted, and had known anything of the difficulties which were over- come as they arose. For instance, the enormous risk which the firm voluntarily and ungrudgingly undertook cannot have been borne in mind; certainly there is no trace of it in this official document. No private firm had previously worked in the same way for a purely national object. It has been stated in an earlier chapter that, during an important debate in the House of Commons, the late James "White, one of the members for Brighton, informed the House that at least £130,000 might be saved if the transport of troops within the United Kingdom were entrusted to it. Now, the firm was called upon to discharge a duty still more arduous, and one for which certain departments of the State had neither the qualification nor had been shown to possess the re- N 194 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVBL. quisite knowledge. For the first time in English annals a warlike expedition, in which the nation had a deep and special interest, had been entrusted to private hands. The firm which undertook the task, and incurred a responsibiHty which it required no common courage to accept, never failed in its engagements, and performed much more than it had undertaken. The follow- ing letter addressed to it by the Eight Honour- able Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Secretary of State for War, is one of which its members had just reason to be proud : " War Office, " 30th July, 1886. " Gentlemen, — I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 13th instant, requesting an expres- sion of opinion as to the manner in which the contract for Transport of the Troops on the Nile during the expedition of 1884-5 was performed by you. " In reply, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman directs me to inform you that, considering the amount of organisation required in arranging for th« service, the difficulties of the Nile navigation, and the great strain on the local resources, he is of opinion that great credit is due to you GENERAL GORDON'S EXPEDITION. 195 for the satisfactory way in which your contract was performed. " I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, " (Signed) Evan Colvillb Nbpban, " Director of Army Contracts. " Messrs. Cook & Son, " Ludgate Circus, E.G." Few of the facts were known to any one man so well as they were to Mr. J. M. Cook. His own brief narrative of what he had done and witnessed was delivered before his fellow members of the Eoyal Geographical Society at a meeting on the 5th of January, 1885, over which General Sir J. H. Lefroy presided. The chairman introduced the speaker as one who " was not only a traveller, but the cause of travel in others," adding that, " like other Government agents, he was under certain restraints of prudence and reticence, and there- fore they might not ask him 'to teU them all he knew ; but he might say a great deal that would be highly satisfactory and reassuring to the 'meeting." Mr. J. M. Cook said, in response to this flattering invitation, "When the British expedition was first contemplated, even the very highest of&cials in this country expressed the opinion that there seemed to be no one who knew anything of the actual navigation of the Nile N 2 196 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. between "Wady Haifa and Dongola, or of what were supposed to be the clear parts of the river between those points. When the preparations for the expedition were under discussion in April last, there really was no one who had recorded any practical experience of that portion of the river which proved so difficult for our soldiers to pass over. When he had finished his part of the work he decided to go to Dongola, and to see for himself what the real obstacles to navigation were. Although he had been travelling on the Nile for sixteen years, he had not the most remote idea of the enormous difficulties to be encountered, or he certainly should have hesitated from running some of the risks that he had to run if he had been able to foresee them. But having accomplished the journey, he was glad to assure Lord Wolseley and the high officials in England that beyond the laborious portion of the naviga- tion from Wady Haifa to Sakarmatta, 109 miles, which was the worst part the expedition had to traverse — there being five or six very serious cataracts to encounter, with a succession of rapids and rocks only just covered by the Nile water, which, by its peculiar colour, prevented them being seen — there were only small cataracts that were not dangerous. GBNBBAL GORDON'S EXPEDITION. 197 " He had been puzzled to know why Hannek was ever placed as the Third Cataract of the Nile, for there was no cataract there at all, nor any- thing to indicate it had ever been one. It was a very small rapid in comparison with others. There were four or five cataracts between what was termed the Second and the so-called Third Cataract, and that was one of the secrets of the delay in the concentration of the troops at Dongola for the advance on Khartoum. It was quite true that during the high Nile season the Government sent very competent naval officers to survey that portion of the Nile and report upon it ; but they could only report upon what they saw, and they could see nothing of what it would be when the troops had unfortunately to work their way up at low water. It was a succession of great diffi- culties, and in all his travelling experience and his contact with military movements, nothing had pleased him more than to work day by day by the side of our soldiers on the river, especially the Staffordshire Eegiment, which was the pioneer regiment, and had to find out the channels and difficulties for those who were following them. He was near that regiment almost the whole of the time they were working their way up. The soldiers had had no previous experience whatever in river 198 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. work, but they worked most freely and willingly in trying circumstances, and pushed along whistling and singing to keep their spirits up, and it was certainly a most interesting sight. " The difficulties were chiefly these : In many points there was very shallow and rapid water. From Sarras to Sakarmatta, a distance of 74 miles, the rise was 450 feet as near as he could ascertain by his aneroid. He himself travelled in the most favourable circumstances, having the assistance of the Egyptian troops, and his was the only boat, except whalers, that succeeded in getting through from the Lower Nile to Dongola. Even the pinnaces were not able to go up the whole distance. His boat was only twenty-four feet long, six feet six inches beam, drawing only twenty inches of water, yet at five different points it required 170 men, in addition to his own crew, to pull it through the cataracts, and at one point seventy-five Dongolese had to be employed in addition. That would give some idea of the troubles that our soldiers had to encounter. " Out of the six or seven thousand troops working in the boats there was scarcely one case of serious illness. He himself did not come in contact with one case, and all the medical officers that he spoke to gave the same report. The men GENERAL GOEDON'S EXPEDITION. 199 were in splendid health. Of course they suffered the first few days, especially from blisters, having to walk on parched granite rocks tugging at their boats, which were moved along some days only one or two miles, while for five consecutive days his glass registered ninety degrees in the shade, and was scarcely below eighty degrees at night. Still the men worked along cheerfully, and the sickness was of no importance whatever. The sickneFJ that had been mentioned in the news- papers was among the troops who had been stationed for some months at such places as Assouan and Wady Haifa, where they had nothing to do. " Considerable differences of opinion had prevailed as to the wisdom of sending out the whalers and the Canadian boatmen. When he was asked his opinion he said it was not necessary to send out whalers, and that he could find plenty of boats in the country to work the expedition. He also thought then that it was not necessary to send out Canadian boatmen, because sufficient natives could be found to do the work, but he was bound to admit now that in that opinion he was vyrong. The necessary boats could not have been found in the Upper Nile, and it would have been impossible to conduct the expedition as far 200 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. as Dongola by the river without the assistance of European boats. At least half the Canadians sent out were the finest boatmen he had ever come in contact with, and he was satisfied that the work they did, and the impetus they gave to the other men, would fully repay the Government for the cost of conveying them from Canada to Egypt. After ascending the seventy-four miles he made up his mind that no power whatever would induce him in any circumstances to come down the Nile through the cataracts and rapids that he had worked up, but there again he had to give way, and he did come down the Nile in one of the whalers. He and his son passed through the whole of the cataracts of Dal, Akasha, Tangor, Ambigol, and Semneh, and he felt as comfortable and as much at his ease after he had passed through the first cataract as he did when sitting in his own easy chair in his library. After he saw the manner in which the Canadians steered through the first cataract, he was perfectly satisfied that he need not trouble himself any more, and he accom- plished in little over eleven hours the distance which took him thirteen days on the upward journey, though in the latter case he had all the assistance that the Egyptian army and Govern- ment officials could give him. . . . GENERAL GOEDON'S EXPEDITION. 201 " The question naturally arose, how many boats had been lost, and how many lives had been lost, by capsizing? Up to the time when he left Sarras, which was about 12th December, the whole of the 800 boats, with the exception of about forty or fifty, had left Sarras, and he had met them at different points on the river. He saw one only entirely wrecked. Through a mis- understanding, arising from the difference of language, a Dongolese crew let go at the inost inopportune moment, and the boat went down the cataract and was broken almost straight in two. That was the only whaler up to that time that had been capsized with any serious injury. Some days his boat could not go half an hour without striking on some rock, and although it had timbers an inch and a half thick, he had to take it out of the water several times to have it repaired. On one occasion there were twenty holes knocked in it at one cataract, and two days were required to repair it. He supposed that about one hundred boats were injured, but only in such a way that the men could repair them in a short time ; and as a rule they were in the water again ready to go forward within an hour or tv/o. A few lives had been lost, among them seven of the Canadians, but he believed if the matter were 202 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. investigated it would be fomid that these Cana- dians were not real boatmen ; they were men who were not accustomed to the workipg of boats. Five soldiers had been lost, one of them through getting on the wrong side of the rope ; he was pulled into the cataract and carried away. He saw several of the soldiers fall into the habit of the natives of stripping themselves naked and pushing the boats, and one soldier who did so was carried away by an undercurrent. The loss of life had been remarkably small, and he was only surprised that hundreds of lives had not been sacrificed." The foregoing outline of what Mr. J. M. Cook stated at a meeting of the Eoyal Geographical Society may be supplemented by a few extracts from an address which he afterwards delivered to the teachers and pupils of the Eoyal Normal College for the Blind at Upper Norwood. Before giving thece extracts, a passage may be reproduced which has great interest for the many admirers of the intrepid and unfortunate Colonel Burnaby. He was a friend of Mr. Cook's, and, like him, was a native of Leicestershire. The last time Mr. Cook saw Burnaby was on the banks of the Nile on the morning of the 12th of December, 1884, when he wished Mr. Cook a happy Christmas and New GENEEAL GOEDON'S EXPEDITION. 203 Year with his family. Mr. Cook went on to say : "As for Colonel Burnaby's fate, I cannot say it was a surprising one. It was exactly the way you would have expected him to end his days. He had volunteered into almost everything. He volunteered to go to Suakim, and at Tamai was wounded fighting by the side of Baker. On the present occasion, I may say, he went away from England, if not in direct opposition to the in- structions of the War Office, at all events with- out their sanction, and he announced that he was going to Central Africa. He told me at Dal that if the British Government had not sent an expe- dition to the Soudan, he and his friend Captain Gascoigne intended to go to Khartoum to see the position- Gordon was in. That is the kind of pluck and daring which, not only Colonel Burnaby, but so many of our English officers have shown in this expedition, an expedition for which, in my opinion, neither they, nor Egypt, nor England can ever be repaid." One of Mr. J. M. Cook's objects in visiting Dongola was to have an interview with the Mudir, and when he reached the place he was informed that the interview would be granted. He liked the place itself, saying of it — " The town of Ordi or New Dongola is picturesquely situated, and if 204 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. it ever became my fate to stay at any one point in Upper Egypt, I should hope it would be Ordi. The river takes a big sweep here, and at low water it appears like a village at the head of a bay. Cultivation is universal, and every morning you can buy anything you want. Fresh melons are plentiful." On being ushered into the presence of the Mudir, he found this ruler squatting on his chair, another chair being before him with an ink- pad for his seal, several papers being on this chair, and the holy spear, which he never parts with, being close to a table at his side. When close to him, Mr. Cook thought from the Mudir's appearance that he had not five minutes to live. " He is as thin as a lath, his sinews are attenu- ated, and looking at him you would think he was just going into his grave ; but after you have spoken with him a few minutes, and he begins to feel at ease, you would conceive him to be as I did, one of the most powerful men from a brain point of view that I have ever been in presence of. He was a little reticent at first, especially in speaking through the interpreter, but he gradually warmed up." After the Mudir had hstened to a case presented by a native, he turned to the interpreter, saying, as if he had read the thoughts which passed GENEEAL GORDON'S EXPEDITION. 205 through Mr. Cook's mind: "Tell Mr. Cook Mahommed Achmet is no Mahdi. There is no Mahdi. If there were a Mahdi, I should be the one : — I am not." Then, changing the subject abruptly, he said : " Tell Mr. Cook I invite him to rest here a fortnight. At the end of that time I will send him with an escort to Khartoum." Mr. Cook was natur- ally astonished at the offer. He thought the offer the most singular ever made to him, and, as he said in relation to it: "Here was England spending a few millions to rescue Gordon from Khartoum, and here was a gentleman who offered to send me there in a fortnight. I tried not to move a muscle, and said, ' Ask his ExceUency whether he considers it would be perfectly safe to go to Khartoum in a fortnight.' ' Certainly,' he replied, ' with my escort, in a fortnight ; the route will be perfectly clear, and there will be no obstacle.' Then I said, ' Ask his Excellency why Gordon cannot come away from Khartoum.' That seemed to stagger him. Pushing his turban back, he said, ' Ask Mr. Cook, if Gordon leaves Khartoum, who is to govern there.' . . . Now here is a singular coincidence. This conversation took place on December 3rd. On December 28th, Lord Wolseley telegraphs that he had sent a mes- 206 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. senger to Khartoum, who left Korti on December 18th, and who had returned with a reply from Gordon. That is the very day on which I should i have left Korti had I accepted the Mudir's offer. . . . I came away impressed with the idea that I had had a conversation with one of the ablest and cleverest men I had ever seen. If he had not stood firm to the interests of Islam (if you like, but we expect it to prove to the interest of Egypt) the hordes of Soudanese would have taken the country." From April, 1884, till April, 1885, the time of Mr. J. M. Cook was chiefly occupied in England and in Egypt with the direction of the work which his firm had undertaken in connexion with the expedition for the rescue of Gordon. When, unhappily, the expedition had ended in failure, and the heroic and chivalrous Gordon had perished at the hands of miserable fanatics whose welfare was as dear to him as his Hfe, Messrs. Cook found that the steamers on the Mle belonging to the Egyptian Government which they had navigated under contract were so much strained and damaged as to have become unfitted for the conveyance of first-class passengers. It was clear to the firm that the fleet must be renewed, and representations in that GBNEBAL GOBDON'S EXPEDITION. 207 sense were made to the Government of Egypt. The Government declined to do vi^hat was sug- gested. Hence they had no option between abandoning their contract for Nile traffic and providing a fleet at their own expense. The firm had no desire to become shipowners instead of being agents for those who possessed vessels ; however, the new responsibility had to be under- taken, and vessels suitable for traffic on the Nile were designed to meet its requirements and were constructed to the order of the firm. Even the work which the firm had undertaken on the Nile in 1885, though absorbing in itself, was but a part of that which had to be performed, seeing that much attention had then to be given, in the firm's capacity of official pas- senger agents to the International Inventions Exhibition at South Kensington, an Inter- national Exhibition at the Alexandra Palace, and the Japanese Exhibition. In addition to these matters at home, others of a like kind had to be cared for abroad, such as the International Exhibition at Antwerp, and the National Exhi- bition at Budapest. 208 CHAPTBH XVII. OEGANISING PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. The energies of Mr. J. M. Cook were largely exerted during the winter of 1885 and 1886 in arranging for the conveyance of visitors from all parts of the world to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, which was to be held in London in connexion with the Jubilee of the Queen. His firm received the following letter, written from South Kensington, on the 2nd of January, 1885 : " I am requested by His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales, President of the Eoyal Commission, to inform you that he has had under consideration your application for the appointment of Passenger Agents to the Eoyal Commission of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. " His Eoyal Highness, considering similar services rendered by your firm upon the occasions of the International Exhibition at Vienna in .-873 OEGANISING PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. 209 and at Paris in 1878, approves of the appointment of your firm upon the same conditions as upon those occasions. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Philip Cunlifpb Owen, Secretary." Having accepted the appointment made in the letter which has just been reproduced, Mr. J. M. Cook felt it his duty to visit India in order to discharge the obligations which devolved upon him. At the time he was making the necessary arrangements, he received a letter from the Earl of Dufferin, then Governor-General of India, inviting him to co-operate with the Indian Government in devising plans for the better treatment and safer travel of the Mohammedan Pilgrims from British India to Jeddah and Yambo on their way to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. During his visit to India, in 1881, Mr. J. M. Cook had been approached on the same subject by Indian officials. It was not'^rious that these pilgrims, many of whom were subjects of the Queen, had to suffer great hardships in ful- filling a duty which they accounted imperative, and that they had to visit the shrine of their Prophet at an outlay which they could iU afford, and undergo an amount of personal suffering which endangered their lives. In the preceding chapter it was shown how the 210 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. Messrs. Cook had become the owners of a fleet of steam vessels against their will. But, in the whole of their career they never shirked any fresh responsibility which they considered themselves bound and able to bear. When Mr. Thomas Cook arranged in 1841 for an excursion train to convey a large party of his associates in the cause of temperance from Leicester to Loughborough, where a demonstration was to be publicly made, he would have been startled if told that, before another fifty years had passed over his head, the firm which he had founded, and had grown popular as well as wealthy, would exert its powers of organisation to carry thousands of pilgrims to the shrine of their Prophet and to the holy city of then- faith. Yet there was nothing derogatory or im- proper in Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son being parties to such an arrangement. During the long and prosperous career of their firm one object, and one only, had been unremittingly kept in view, and a fixed principle had been acted upon. To enable people to pass easily from place to place, and to do so in comfort, was the aim which had been uniformly kept in sight. It was not considered to be the duty of the firm to inquire into the religious faith and the nationality of those who availed themselves of its resources while organising ORGANISING PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. 211 travel. Hence, there was nothing more absurd or indefensible in the firm taking charge of a pilgrimage of Mohammedans, than there was in its rapresentatives guiding French Eoman Catholic pilgrims to the lands of the Bible. It was right and proper, then, from the point of view of the firm in which he was the sole respon- sible partner, that Mr. J. M. Cook should make a favourable response to the proposition made to him by the Governor-General of India. He found that his services, if given, would be welcomed by all concerned. In November, 1885, he was in Egypt on the way to India, and there he had an interview with Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, from whom he learned that, while at Constantinople, he had been in communication with the Home Government, as well as with that of India, as he had been impressed with the propriety and necessity of the Government taking special steps to aid the pilgrims. On reaching India, and after having an inter- view with the Governor-General, Mr. J. M. Cook was requested to remain in India till he had completed and put into operation the arrange- ments which he deemed necessary to attain the desired result. His task was not easy. He perfectly understood this, writing: " I know that o 2 212 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. this business is surrounded with more difficulties 'and prejudices than anything I have hitherto undertaken." He had learnt, moreover, that before application had been made to him others had tried to redress the grievances with which he was expected to grapple, and that no im- provement had been effected owing to their action. Yet this did not dispirit him. On the contrary, he avowed that the gloomy statements of failure to which he had listened acted as incentives on him to do his utmost to prove that he merited the confidence reposed in him by the Government of India. The nature of the work undertaken will be understood from the substance of the conditions which were laid down by Messrs. Cook. The first was the appointment of the firm as agents for transporting Mohammedan pilgrims from India to Jeddah and back. The second was that, as agents of the Government, Messrs. Cook and their representatives were to receive assist- ance from the Government officials throughout India. The third was that- one of the firm's tickets was to be issued to each pilgrim by the Government officer along with a passport. The fourth was that the Pilgrimage Office in Bombay was to be under the control of Messrs. Cook, ORGANISING PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. 213 the latter being responsible to the Government for the proper use of it. The fifth may be given in full : " Thomas Cook and Son are to arrange with the railway administrations, steamship proprie- tors, etc., etc., for the conveyance of the pilgrims, quoting through fares from all chief stations in India to Jeddah and return; they are to do everything they can to secure the proper transit in satisfactory ships, with proper accommodation in accordance with the regulations laid down in the manual issued by the Grovernment, and to do their utmost to meet all the present objectionable features in precisely the same manner as they conduct the other parts of their business." The sixth was that Messrs. Cook were to appoint the assistants required for carrying out the work, and the seventh that the members of the firm or their representatives were " to comply with the requirements and regulations laid down from time to time by the Government of India, precisely the same as though they were in the service of 'the Government." When these conditions, and an eighth relating to remuneration, were considered by the Governor-General in Council, it was resolved that they should be accepted. In the last paragraph of the minute of the official proceedings it is stated : " The Governor- 214 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. General in Council feels convinced that a scheme of the nature above described cannot fail, if successfully carried out, to be pro- ductive of much benefit to Indian pilgrims to the Hedjaz ; but if success is to be ensured, it is essential that every assistance should be afforded to Messrs. Cook and Sori, not only by local governments and administrations, but also by district and other oiScers upon whom it will devolve to give effect to the detailed arrangements. His IJxcellency in Council accord- ingly trusts that local governments and adminis- trations will see that this is done, and will direct local officers to co-operate in every possible manner with the representatives of the firm in carrying on their operations." Accordingly it was ordered " that a copy of this resolution be for- warded to all local governments and adminis- trations for information and guidance, and to the foreign and financial departments for the issue of any further orders required. Also, that it be published in the Gazette of India and in all local gazettes for general information. Local governments are requested to arrange for its translation and publication in all vernacular gazettes." In order to complete his plans Mr. J. M. Cook OEGANISINa PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. 215 had to journey many thousand miles through India, which he did accompanied by his youngest son, Mr. T. A. Cook. He had opposition to face, because there were vested interests in the pilgrim traffic, many persons having grown rich at the pilgrims' expense. However, all the necessary arrangements were finally made, and the pil- grimage ceased to be a subject of scandal and the cause of imisery. Messrs. Cook were thanked by the Khedive and by many distinguished Pachas and Sheikhs in Egypt and Turkey for the service which they had rendered to their co-religionists. The labour which Mr. J. M. Cook underwent was trying, and it proved to be more one of love than he had counted upon. His firm found that no pecuniary profit could be obtained so long as their business relating to the Mohammedan pilgrims was conducted under the terms of the appoint- ment made on the 4th of January, 1886. While in India, Mr. J. M. Cook was requested to arrange for the visit to Europe of the Indian princes and chiefs who figured conspicuously in the ceremonies at the Jubilee in 1887. This Jubilee gave the firm constant occupation for some time before it began, while it lasted, and for some time after the concluding ceremony. Many visitors to England during the Jubilee 216 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. were induced to extend their tours owing to the facilities afforded them by the Messrs. Cook, and tourist traffic in England, Scotland, and Ireland largely increased in that year. It was a very busy year for them, because, in addi- tion to conveying pilgrims to Jeddah and Yambo, en route to Mecca and Medina and back, and providing for the conveyance of distinguished and other persons from India, the British Colonies, and all parts of Europe to London, they had to open a new steam service on the Nile. In this year a further addition was made to the opportunities for visiting the Continent by way of Queenborough and Flushing, the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, in conjunction with the Boyal Zeeland Steam- shipping Company, having instituted a day service between the ports in England and Holland. As the passenger agents of these companies, Messrs. Cook were interested in the change. Their fame had been spread abroad as far as Austria and Hungary, and the demand for their tickets became great enough to justify them in opening an office in Vienna. This was in April, 1888; not long afterwards they gratified their OE&ANISING PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA. 217 Hungarian clients by opening one in Buda- pest also. At present the firm have contracts with the Government and other railways ini Austria and Hungary under which their tickets are available over all the lines in these countries. An office was opened in Madrid this year. They had been appointed passenger agents for the International Exhibition at Barcelona, and they found that passenger traffic in Spain had expanded sufficiently, and the demand for their international tickets had become great enough, to necessitate an office in the Spanish capital. In August, 1888, Mr. J. M. Cook travelled by one of the first trains from Vienna to Con- stantinople over the new line of railway connect- ing Constantinople with Central Europe which was then opened. The chief object of his journey was accomphshed, which was to obtain authority for his firm to issue tickets over that route, which revolutionised the arrangements for travel between Europe and the Orient. It was shown in a previous chapter how the firm of Messrs. Cook and Son had to become the owners of steamboats on the Nile, and thus add a new feature to their business. In 1888 another addition was made in the shape of the funicular 218 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. railway up Vesuvius. The company which had constructed and worked the railway was then bankrupt, and if the line had not passed into other and more efficient hands, it would have gone to ruin. Further capital was expended upon it by Mr. J. M. Cook, its new proprietor, and it was reopened for traffic in 1889. The firm's engagements in Australia were widened this year by entering into relations with the several railway companies for the extension of international travel through New Zealand and Australia, and the tickets issued by them will now serve for every line of railway and steamers in the Commonwealth of Australia, and between it and all parts of the habitable globe. This additional business is conducted in offices at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland, and at many branch agencies in other towns. Much of the time of Mr. J. M. Cook and his sons and assistants was occupied in 1888 with the details of the Great Exhibition at Paris in the following year. In no year since the firm began business was the increase in its receipts greater than in 1889, when about 200,000 journeys were made from London to Paris and back under their auspices. The number of persons accommo- dated in the hotels with which Messrs. Cook OEGANISING PILGKIMAGBS TO MECCA. 219 had dealings was double that in 1878. The visitors to Paris in 1889 who saw the sights by arrangement with this firm were twice as many as in 1878, one hundred horses being employed each day in the vehicles provided for the purpose. The information conveyed to intending visitors to Paris was set forth in 12,305,000 biUs and pro- grammes, and these were issued in Great Britain alone, while, in addition, hundreds of newspapers contained advertisements about the Exhibition from the firm. While the regular business of Messrs. Cook and Son continued to increase in 1890 as in the years which preceded it, the Passion Play at Ober Ammergau again called for an exercise of their organising powers. The large number of about 6,000 persons was conveyed to Ober Ammergau and back. As on the former occasion, they were provided with accommodation in the village during their stay. > Out of the vast number of visitors who then placed themselves in the firm's hands none had reason to regret doing so, there not being a single authenticated case of failure to carry out the programme. 220 CHAPTEE XVIII. LIFE AND LABOURS OP MB. J. M. COOK. The personal history of Mr. Thomas Cook in his early days when he carried out his idea for excur- sion traf&c in the intervals of his business was told in the second chapter of this work. In a previous chapter it was stated that his only son rejoined him in 1864, and in a later one that this son became sole managing partner in 1878. Eeaders of the preceding narrative will have learnt how many and onerous were the tasks which devolved upon Mr. J. M. Cook, how he was called upon by the Government of his country in seasons of emergency to lend his aid to national enterprises, how, under his close direction, the firm to which he belonged grew in importance, at one time buying or building a fleet of steamers, at another acquiring a railway ; how, like a modern and peaceful Alexander, he has conquered fresh fields for the tourists who take him as their guide, LIFE AND LABOUBS OP ME. J. M. COOK. 221 and how the business which he conducts has now the habitable globe for its field. During many years the contemners of new men and new methods ridiculed the business carried on by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, but they failed to hinder the advance of a firm which has become one of the marvels of a wondrous age. So widely ramified is that business, and so compre- hensive is its scope, that those who cannot realise its greatness call in question the very existence of its moving spirit. Even those who are friendly to it must be anxious to learn something about its working, and a widespread and legitimate curiosity will be gratified by setting forth in detail the events in the life and career of Mr. John Mason Cook, who represents in his own person the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. The town of Market Harborough was the birth- place of Mr. J. M. Cook : he first saw the light there in January, 1834. His father was then a wood-turner. His parents had a struggle with the world, and they were not able to give their only boy an expensive education. When still very young he was sent to a dame's school, and later to a British school in his native town. In 1844 his parents removed to Leicester, where his father engaged in printing and publishing. 222 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. While a small boy, and living in Market Har- borough, lie evinced a strong liking for w^andering. When six years old he made a trip from Market Harborough to Melbourne in Derbyshire, his father's birthplace. The first day he walked from Harborough to Kibworth, the second he went by omnibus from Kibworth to Leicester, the third he went by rail from West Bridge to Long- lane, thence by canal boat to Shardlow, and from Shardlow to Derby by omnibus. On the fourth day he was carried to Melbourne from Derby by Green's carrier's van. This journey is across country, yet it can now be made by rail in one hour and a half. When the boy was ten years old, and his parents were settled in Leicester, he was sent to a new proprietary school there. The cost was more than his father could well afford, and with a view to the boy earning something he was put to learn " the case " in his father's printing-office. He was at school during a part of the day, and when away from it he was kept at work either as a compositor, or in helping to send out his father's monthly publications. He was often at his post in the printing-office early in the morning, during the dinner hour, and at night. He was kept out of bed all night at the end of each LIFE AND LABOURS OF MB. J. M. COOK. 223 month. His time being so fully occupied out of school, he did not make a good figure in it. In- deed, it was scarcely possible that he could keep pace with the other boys, who had their lessons only to learn, and to play during their intervals of leisure. He left school before he was fourteen. Mr. Thomas Cook thought it desirable that his son should obtain instruction in another printing- of&ce than his own, and with that object sent him to Derby, where he lived with his grandmother, and began work in an office there. The inten- tion was to see, after further trial, whether he should be apprenticed to the trade. At Derby he was worked as hard or unmercifully as at Leicester. He left his grandmother's at six in the morning, walking a mile to the print- ing-office, and carrying his breakfast with him. At mid-day he returned to dinner, and went back to work till eight in the evening. He was employed in setting books printed by the firm, and earned at least half the wages of a man. The firm was satisfied that he should continue to give his services on these terms, and when he pressed for a more satisfactory arrangement it was agreed that he should become an apprentice. As such he was not to receive anything the first year. In the second year he was to be paid Is. 6d. a week, 224 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. with an advance of Is. a week in the following years till the expiry of his apprenticeship. He would not accept such conditions, and at the end of his six months' trial he returned to Leicester without having been paid a penny for his labour. Being placed in his father's printing-office, he preferred to work at the press rather than the case. He had great muscular strength. One or two printers survive who remember that when Mr. J. M. Cook was in the office he could work off at the press a larger number of posters within a given time than any journeyman printer. The steam printing press has superseded the press which had to be worked by the form of manual labour in which he excelled. It was considered the severest kind of physical exercise then practised indoors. The lad did not spare him- self, and he performed some wonderful feats of endurance. He would sometimes begin work at six or seven o'clock on a summer's even- ing, with a double-royal Columbian press, and throw off as many as 2,000 double-royal posters before breakfast-time the next morning, when he would leave the office, and take the train to some of the large towns in the Midlands with these posters, and see them exhibited on the walls before he left. This was not an exceptional performance ■ LIFE AND LABOURS OF ME. J. M. COOK. 225 on the contrary, it was frequently repeated night after night and day after day during the busy season. Mr. J. M. Cook is able to boast that, when excursions by rail were novelties, there was not a market town of any consequence between Eugby in the south, Bristol in the west, Bradford in the north, and Lowestoft in the east in which he had not distributed his own handbills and announce- ments of excursion trains, while the bill-poster was simultaneously covering the walls with notices. It was his rule, moreover, to accompany the trains carrying excursionists. When a little boy he went with his father in the excursion train which ran in 1841 from Leicester to Loughborough. He was a passenger in the subsequent trains which conveyed school children to various places in the Midland Counties, and then he carried a wand with which he gravely indicated to his fellow-passengers — most of whom were neither older nor bigger than himself — where they were to go, while he also told them what they were to do. His father took him on most of the more extended excursions, but not in the first to Liver- pool in 1844. However, the boy followed in the second. An incident already recorded in con- nexion with the trip from Liverpool to Carnarvon 226 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. is fresh in his remembrance. This was that, among the natives of Carnarvon, one man only could speak enough English to serve as guide to the party. He took a personal interest in the ex- cursion system, and soon mastered all its details. Though it was no part of Mr. Thomas Cook's duty to send anyone to act as a travelling inspect- ing guard or conductor of the train, yet his son voluntarily undertook the task, travelling with every train which ran over more than one com- pany's line of railway. He had acquired such a thorough knowledge of the various routes and junctions that he was regarded as an authority for information as to the places where changes had to be made. At these places he was able to decide where the passengers' luggage was to be stowed, and he made a point of seeing it put in the proper van, or on the roof of the carriage bound for the same place as the passengers in it. Thus his services were invaluable on the excursion trains running from the Eastern and Midland Counties to the Yorkshire watering places, to Scotland and North "Wales, to the West of England and the Land's End. Mr. J. M. Cook accompanied his father in 1845, when the latter visited Scotland on a tour of in- vestigation. The York, Newcastle, and Berwick LIFE AND LABOURS OP ME. J. M. COOK. 227 route was opened in- 1847, and then, though only fourteen, he was sent to Newcastle from Leicester a day in advance of the party, in order to con- duct the first excursion train from Newcastle to Scotland. -When Mr. J. M. Cook was fifteen he was sent to London by Mr. Charles Mills, then superintend- ent of the Midland Eailway, with a letter to the superintendent of the Eastern Counties Eailway, informing him that the bearer had been de- spatched to supervise the arrangement of the train and the luggage which was to leave the old Bishopsgate Station on the following morning for Scotland, by way of Peterborough and Syston on the Midland Eailway to Leicester and Derby, and thence by the North Midland to York, Newcastle, and Berwick. Mr. ]\Iills stated in his letter that, though the bearer was young, yet he was the only person known to him who was acquainted with all the junctions, and who could tell the guards how to arrange for the passengers and their luggage being put down at the proper places. In 1849 the first excursion train from the Pottery districts ran to North "Wales and Ireland ; the pas- sengers in it were under his charge, and he reached Dublin a day before his father, who followed in p 2 228 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. the first excursion train from the Midland Eail- way district to the same destination. At this youthful age, his time in the summer months was occupied in conducting excursions by coach, steamer, or rail to Irish lakes, or the Scottish Highlands. His father entrusted him with the responsible duty in 1850 of conducting the first large party that ever attempted to go from Stirling to Glasgow in one day by way of the Trossachs and Loch Lomond. This party num- bered 100, and its members had to be conveyed in special coaches from Stirling, through Callander and the Trossachs, to the head of Loch Katrine. On the night before the party started, young Mr. Cook had a conversation with Mr. Campbell, the landlord of the Golden Lion Hotel, as to the time at which to start from Stirling in the morn- ing so as to meet the steamer which crossed Loch Katrine, the regular coach leaving at eight o'clock. Mr. Campbell's opinion was that, if the members of the party were to start at seven o'clock, the special conveyances which carried them would arrive in good time. Mr. Cook then decided that six o'clock should be the hour of departure, his rule being to make ample allowance of time ; be- sides, he knew that all the members of a large party cannot be counted upoii leaving their beds LI^E AND LABOUBS OP ME. J. M. COOK. 229 and being ready at the same hour. On this occa- sion, some of the party were too late in starting, and they missed the steamer. They wished to be at Glasgow that night to join Mr. Thomas Cook, who was to start next morning for the Hebrides in the lona. The steamer having left, and six or eight of the party having tickets for the Hebrides, it was imperative that they should push on. Mr. J. M. Cook then resolved to take a boat and try to persuade the captain of the steamer to return, and the passengers for the Hebrides deter- mined to accompany him. They were rowed across Loch Katrine, and to their dismay they learned at Stronachlachar that no vehicle could be hired there to carry them to Loch Lomond. Accord- ingly they set out on foot. On the way they met passengers who told them that the Loch Lomond steamer had met with an accident, and could not come below Tarbet. When the party reached Inversnaid, Mr. J. M. Cook followed the advice of Mr. Blair, the land- lord of the hotel there, and bargained with a local boatman to row the party to BaUoch, and the party embarked after having rested an hour. The Loch was like a mirror when the party left Inversnaid ; the sun shone brightly and the heat was stifling. Soon after passing Tarbet a scjuall 230 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. arose, such as is not infrequent there, while the sky was overcast and the darkness made it difficult for the boatmen to keep the course. Two men managed the boat ; the elder of the two broke down, and the younger was not strong enough to keep her bow to the wind. Besides, as it was difficult to bale out the water which the boat shipped, the boat was allowed to drift. When the wind fell and the moon rose, the weary passengers saw that the boat had drifted below Inversnaid. The boatmen assured them that the squall was over, and that they could still row them to Balloch. After taking a short rest at Tarbet, the members of the party resolved to proceed, and they reached Balloch early in the morning, tired, drenched, and chilled. As the landlord of the small hotel at Balloch could not supply the whole of the new arrivals with dry clothes, a large fire had to be lit to warm them. After breakfast they were driven to Dumbarton, and on arriving there they saw the lona steaming down the Clyde. They all went on board, and Mr. J. M. Cook re- mained with his father till the steamer reached Ardrishaig, where he landed, whence he returned to Glasgow by steamer, leaving Glasgow by the night mail, and reaching Leicester on Saturday morning. Despite all he had gone through, he LIFE AND LABOURS OF MR. J. M. COOK. 231 was prepared to start on the morning of Monday with an excursion party from the Midland Counties, first to North Wales, and next to the Lakes of Killarney. The foregoing account is given to show the nature of Mr. J. M. Cook's labours and ex- periences, and also to demonstrate how resolute was his determination to fulfil his task and keep faith with the tourists who had trusted to the promises made by his father or himself. In 1851, though he was but a lad of seven- teen, yet he was hrs father's chief assistant in the business of conveying 165,000 persons to the Great Exhibition and back. He then frequently travelled for five consecutive nights and days, either in an excursion train filled with passengers or in the train returning empty. Not seldom did he travel three or four times a week in each direc- tion between Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and Derby. When the Great Northern route was opened the competition grew keen between the Great Northern and the Midland Companies. Mr. J. M. Cook left Derby several times on a Friday night with trains of empty carriages destined for Leeds and Bradford, and he went round these towns in a van with a band of music, meeting the operatives coming from the milk.- taking them 232 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. direct to the train, and accompanying them to London. At the time this was done, the fare to London and back was five shiUings. The desire to take advantage of the cheap fare, as well as the longing to see the Great Exhibition, led to thou- sands of workers in factories and mills pledging their silver watches to obtain the necessary sum. The pavpnbrokers at Leeds and Bradford then received silver watches by the bushel on several Saturday nights. While the Great Exhibition was open he drove about London in the night from the establishment of one coach or omnibus proprietor to another, his purpose being to provide for the arrival in the morning of excursionists who had to be conveyed to hotels or boarding houses, or else direct to the Exhibition, where, after spending the day, they were driven to the railway station at night, where they entered the railway carriage which took them home. His labours in connexion with excursion parties, which he found interesting and exciting, but which were exhausting also, continued at in- tervals till 1856. In that year, when he was twenty-two, Mr. John Ellis, the Chairman of the Midland Eailway, asked him to enter the company's service as acting superintendent of LIFE AND LABOUES OF MR. J. M. COOK. 233 their excursion traf&c. He was not inclined to become the servant of a railway company, yet he thought fit to accept the appointment, which he held for three years. His duties were onerous. They consisted in planning and supervising aU the excursion trains run over the Midland Eail- way. This implied ascertaining at all points of the line what might occur of general interest which would justify running excursion trains ; then he had to submit his scheme of such trains to his chief for approval, and to work out statements concerning the fiares to be charged, and setting forth the hours of departure and arrival. Moreover, he had to draft the bills, posters, and advertisements for insertion in news- papers, and afterwards he had to write to the audit department to prepare the required number of tickets. He had also to write to the Govern- ment, asking for the remission of duty on excur- sion trains, and this involved copying the time- table and bill of fares of every such train in order that it might be seen from the mileage to be run and the fares to be charged that the rate was under a penny a mile. In addition he had to write the notices to the locomotive and engineers' department, and to -pen the instructions for mar- shalling the trains and providing the guards to 234 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVEL. accompany them. A fm:ther duty consisted in filling up the printed forms, to be sent to every signalman and gatekeeper on the line, advising them as to the time at which the train would pass their signal-box or gate. This work often compelled his attendance at the office day and night during the summer season. Yet, while executing this office work, he was frequently to be seen at the stations where traffic was greatest, giviiig personal super- intendence to the movements of the trains and the passengers. His Diary shows that, during the three years he filled this position in the Midland Company, the average number of his hours of labour during the summer months was eighteen out of the twenty-four ! His time was occupied during the winter months in preparing statistics and checking retm-ns from the Clearing House of the traffic by excursion trains, and in assisting generally in the work of the superintendent's department. A large part of it during those months was passed out of doors, travelling from station to station, investi- gating questions arising as to claims, or making inquiries as to irregularities concerning the staff. His opportunities during this engagement with the Midland Eailway Company gave him an insight LIFE AND LABOURS OF ME. J. M. COOK. 235 into the business transacted, with the result that he mastered all the details of how an English railway was managed. This experience was bought at a price which he could not afford to pay. His whole energies were devoted to the company's service for an annual salary of £75 ! He had accepted this with a view to educate him- self while giving his services in return ; but he did not consider it an adequate recompense for continued service. It must be added, in fairness to the company, that he was not an exception, the scale of salaries when the Midland Eailway was struggling with difficulties being a very low one. Moreover, he had the exceptional advantage of having been allowed to accept the position which he occupied subject to remaining free to help his father when he could do so without detriment to discharging his duty to the Eailway Company. As a result he was able to keep in association with his father when his father planned and carried out tours and excursions. At the close of his three years' connexion with the Midland Eailway Company, he resolved to begin business in Leicester on his own account, yet to remain free for helping his father during the busy season of tourist traffic. This arrange- ment continued in force till 1864, when his father's 236 THE BUSINESS OP TBAVBL. business had increased, and promised to do so at a still more rapid rate, and then his father felt the need for someone in whom he reposed implicit confidence bearing a part of the burden. His fatlier has expressed in print the gratification with which he was able to secure the whole time of his only son as manager of the business. In order to do so, the son gave up the business which he had conducted on his own account. At first, as has been stated in a previous chap- ter, the temporary office of Mr. Thomas Cook in London was in a room in Great EusseU-street. Even there the amount of business transacted was very large, yet the increase soon warranted an arrangement for permanently conducting it in another and more central part of London. The father and son agreed that an office should be opened in Fleet-street, but in the winter of 1864, and before that office was opened, he accompanied his father in a trip through France, Switzerland, and Italy. Their object was to obtain a settlement of accounts for the year which was past, and to conclude fresh arrangements for the following season. This journey was no pleasure trip. Heavy falls of snow in the St. Gothard pass had made travel difficult, while the return journey over Mont LIFE AND LABOUBS OP MB. J. M. COOK. 237 Cenis was rendered most trying by wind-storms. At one point on Mont Cenis the sleigh in which they travelled was overturned by the force of the wind, and it had to be dug out of the deep snow by a party of men that went to the spot owing to the barking of the mountain dogs. In the narrative preceding this chapter it was stated how small the staff was when an office was opened in Fleet-street for the transaction of Mr. Thomas Cook's business, Mr. J. M. Cook being then put in charge of the office with an assistant and an errand boy. The whole of the serious work devolved upon him, and he had to prepare much of the matter which was put in type at the printing office in Leicester. As this has been mentioned before, with the addition of some accompanying incidents, it is unnecessary now to do more than add that Mr. J. M. Cook was soon provided by his father with assistants who enabled him to give up much of the clerical work in the office which he had undertaken, and which he now found to be more than he could execute. In 1866 he visited America for the first time. When there he exerted himself to complete arrangements with the railway com- panies concerned in an excursion through the United States, of which he took charge. He 238 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVBL. returned to America in November of the same year, and had a very stormy passage, arriving at an exceptionally bad season. He had to travel every night but two from the beginning of Decem- ber to the first week in January, in order to keep the appointments which he had made with railway managers. His return voyage on the mail steamer lasted twenty-one days, owing to a terrific gale ; however, he had the satisfaction of feeling that he had attained his end, having agreed with the principal railways in the United States and Canada for a system of through booking to the Exhibition at Paris in the following year. The Midland Eailway Company opened a new line for passenger traffic between Manchester and London in 1867, and as this increased the compe- tition for passenger traffic to Paris, Mr. J. M. Cook had to travel once or twice weekly between London and Manchester and the Lancashire dis- tricts for the purpose of organising excursion trains. His Diary shows that he was more than 100 nights out of his bed in 1867, and, notwith- standing that he had then several assistants in the London office, the average of nights in each year, from 1865 to 1873, which he spent out of bed did not fall much short of 100, while he had to journey from 42,000 to 53,000 miles annually. LIFE AND LABOUBS OF ME. J. M. COOK. 239 All this had to be done without neglecting the business which he managed at the Head Office in Fleet-street. In 1868 he was appointed by the board of the Great Eastern Eailway Company to superintend the company's passenger traffic to the Continent by way of Harwich, and he succeeded in entering into the arrangements referred to in a previous chapter with the railway companies of Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. This obliged him to negotiate with the managers of the rail- way companies in these countries, and it was not till after much persuasion on his part, as has been stated in a previous chapter, that he obtained their sanction to the introduction of the international system of tickets which he had devised. Between the years 1868 and 1872 he conducted many parties of tourists through the continent of Europe, through Palestine and a part of Egypt. In 1870, he personally laid the foundation in Egypt of the tourist business, which has developed since then into one of great magnitude. After the outbreak of hostilities between France and Germany a new labour was imposed upon him. The system which he had put into opera- tion for the conveyance of passengers from England to the Continent, and through the Con- 240 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. tinent to the East, had to be remodelled owing to the exigencies of war. As the routes through France had been closed to travellers, a new one had to be found through Germany, and this was done by Mr. J. M. Cook, who travelled night and day for many months superintending the new ar- rangements for the conveyance of passengers from England via. Germany to Switzerland, Italy, &c. The arrangements for the Exhibition at Vienna in 1873, which have been described among the events of that year, occupied much of his time in the year 1872. From the 1st of January, 1872, the title of the firm became Thomas Cook and Son, this change being made because it was considered desirable that Mr. J. M. Cook's legal position as a member of the firm should correspond with the duty which he actually discharged. It was on his own responsibility, however, as well as in accordance with his own views, that the premises in Ludgate Circus were erected in 1872, to serve as a Central Office. The building was considered to be on a very large scale for such a business, and it was planned so that the staff of all the departments would be comfortably housed, and that the work of each should be conveniently performed. Yet the business soon outgrew the LIFE AND LABOURS OF MR. J. M. COOK;. 241 accommodation at the Central Office, and branches had to be opened in different parts of London. He was travelling with little intermission from the year 1873 to 1880, with the view of carrying out his plans for excursions abroad as well as at home, and for tours in various parts of the world. He had many personal inter- views with the managers of railways and steamboat companies before he could bring their views into accord with his own, his object being to convince them that it was for their interest, and that of those whom they represented, to encourage people to travel by offering them every possible facility. Even in America he had some difficulty in getting his views adopted, yet he succeeded there also, with the result of a large increase in the tourist busi- ness in America, and between America and Europe, and between Europe and America. While engaged in these negotiations, and travelling about from place to place on land or by water, he continued to superintend all the details of his extending business, to compile and dictate hun- dreds of documents which had to be printed, and to edit The Excursionist, a monthly publication issued by his firm for the information of intend- ing travellers. 242 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. The work which he had continued till 1880 then became too engrossing and exhausting. Though blessed with a strong constitution, the incessant and severe strain told upon it, and he was obliged to spare himself. Constant railway travelling by night, before the introduction of sleeping cars, was a form of exertion which could not be indulged in with impunity. He resolved, then, to make as few journeys by rail as he could, and to journey by sea as often as possible. He devolved negotiations with foreign companies upon a member of his staff who was thoroughly qualified for the duty, confining himself to suggesting what to do, and approving of what was done if it accorded with his opinions. Since 1880 he has devoted much of his time to developing and completing his plans for tourist traffic in Egypt and the East. At the outset he was impressed with the advantages which Egypt held out to visitors from Europe, and of the benefit which would accrue to the Egyptians from the money which wealthy travellers would circulate among them. In this he met with opposition from his father and personal friends, who accounted him either too sanguine, or else mistaken in his views. They had not realised, as he did, the vastness and importance of the valley LIFE AND LABOURS OF MR. J. M. COOK. 243 of the Nile as a place of resort during winter to those who could not endure the cold of Europe, and that a trip up the Nile was as well calculated to benefit the ailing as to afford pleasure to the robust. However, he persevered in his plans, and has lived to see them approved by those who once doubted their practicability. His firm has now a flotilla on the Nile, consisting of steamers and sailing vessels, which represents an invested capital of a quarter of a million sterling. ' A complete system of tickets over all the rail- ways in India was arranged by him in 1881, when he visited India, and travelled over it for the purpose. The political and military affairs in Egypt became matters of trouble and concern in 1882, and from that year till 1885 he spent much time in Egypt in connexion with the business of his firm, while he played a principal part, as has been shown in a previous chapter, in the expedition sent to rescue General Gordon. Quite as important was the part which he played when visiting India in 1886, and arranging in concert with the Government, and with its sanc- tion, for the removal of abuses which had long prevailed in connexion with the pilgrimage to Mecca of Indian Mohammedans. What he Q 2 244 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. effected in this matter has been explained already. A long journey was undertaken by him in 1888 through Austria and Hungary, at the suggestion of the administrators of the State railways in both countries, and with a view to see what might be done to increase the international traffic on the lines with which they were connected. He arrived at conclusions, based upon his observa- tion and experience in other countries, which, when formulated, were readily adopted. At that time a new route was opened between Constan- tinople and Vienna, and he journeyed over it by one of the first trains. Since then he has effected arrangements which meet the necessities of the case, and which have been appreciated by a large number of travellers. From the year 1888 down to the present he has given special attention to the development of tourist traffic in Egypt. His time during the winter has been chiefly occupied in superin- tending it, while he has had full emplojTnent during the summer months in dealing with reports and statistics. His attention has been given to all questions of finance, and to keeping his extensive staff in efficient working order. The general conduct of the business has remained LIFE AND LABOURS OF MR. J. M. COOK. 245 solely subject to his direction, while the execution of his orders has been left to his staff and to his sons, to whom he has entrusted certain duties in connexion with the business of the firm. The months of winter during 1890 and 1891 constitute the eleventh consecutive season that he has passed in Egypt, India, and Palestine. Though far from home, he has always remained in touch with his business. Being in tele- graphic communication with his Head OflSce, he is kept informed from day to day of the progress of affairs, and nothing of moment is transacted without his knowledge and sanc- tion. Indeed, the firm of Thomas Cook and Son not only embraces the globe in its operations, but the managing and only responsible partner can conduct its affairs from any part of the earth's surface in which he may have made his home for the time being. 246 CHAPTEE XIX. PROGRESS IN THE. UNITED KINGDOM. The narrative of the beginning and growth of the business of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son may be fittingly supplemented by general statements of the position occupied by the firm now in the four quarters of the globe. The first seed was sown at home, and the cheap excursion train from Leicester to Loughborough in 1841 was the germ of the vast growth which has made the firm famous throughout the British Isles. To nothing can the development of the business be more aptly compared than to that of the wonderful banyan tree on the bank of the Nerbudda, which covers thirteen acres, and provides shelter for seven thousand men. At first the tree was a slender shoot with spreading branches, from which filaments descended to the earth, took root there, and began to grow upwards, thus forming other trees like the parent stem, the process being PROGRESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 247 continued, until a single tree presented the appearance and subserved the part of a small forest. ' The first excursion train which Mr. Thomas Cook organised has been the parent of the thou- sands which have been run since, and of the system which renders excursions and tours by rail one of the departments in every railway company. On the other hand, the tourist traffic over the globe originated in the personally con- ducted parties which Mr. Thomas Cook took to the Continent. The first excursion to which reference has been made above was run over the Midland Counties line, which is now merged in the Midland Eail- way Company, a company with which Mr. Thomas Cook and the firm bearing his name have always been closely alHed. The company and the firm worked in common to develop excursion trains and tourist trips, expending much money in advertising them, and thus inviting the public to avail themselves of the opportunities provided for their pleasure. In the position of general ex- cursion and tourist agents for the Midland Com- pany, the firm has been able to provide for the transport of passengers not only over the Midland line, but over others also in connexion with it, 248 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVBL. thus enabling those who held their tickets to go to any point of note in Great Britain and Ireland. Where, however, the Midland line runs in com- petition with others, then all the responsibility and risk connected with advertising competitive ex- cursions between the chief places served by the Midland Eailway, and in which the firm have their own offices and staff, devolves upon the firm. The extent to which this branch of the business has increased may be understood when it is stated that during 1890 advertisements appeared in every leading newspaper in each town on the Midland system, and that 10,746,950 handbills and 704,700 large posters were printed and cir- culated. In addition there were many notices in The Excursionist, and in other pamphlets published by Messrs. Cook. As a consequence of these appeals to the public, the returns show that hundreds of thousands of passengers were carried by the Midland Eailway under arrangement with the firm. The excursion trains provided for these passengers did not run over a limited part of the line or through a narrow district of country ; on the contrary, they ran to all points of interest from London in the South, to Aberdeen and Inverness in the North, Lowestoft and Yar- PBOGEBSS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 249 mouth in the East, Penzance and the Land's End in the West. Indeed, passengers were booked from London to the Isles of Scilly, to the Islands and Highlands of Scotland, and to the Lakes of Ireland. Besides arranging and advertising special excursions as agents for the Midland Eailway, Messrs. Cook and Son issue tourist tickets at all their offices, enabling travellers to visit every part of the United Kingdom, and to proceed from any part of the kingdom to any part of the habitable and civilised globe where railways are in operation, and to which lines of steamships run. The first excursion train over the Midland E lilway carried 570 passengers at one shilling a head, the sum realised being twenty-eight pounds ten shillings, whereas the business now carried on by the firm in concert with the company repre- sents many thousands of pounds, while the company and its competitors recognise in the firm of Messrs. Cook and Son a most powerful agency for the development of passenger traffic. It is gratifying to note, what is most creditable to all concerned, that from the year 1841 down to the present day there has not been any formal and legal agreement between the company and the 250 THE BUSINESS OP TEAVBL. firm other than leases or agreements for the joint occupation of a few of the branch offices. It is true that an agreement was executed in 1850 between Mr. Thomas Cook and the company, but it may be treated as non-existing for practical purposes. The terms of it related to the working of the traffic during the Great Exhibition in the following year, and they provided that he should receive several shillings for every passenger carried. When Mr. Cook felt convinced that the competi- tion for this traffic would be severe owing to the opening of the Great Northern Railway, he sought an interview with the directors of the Midland. After explaining to them in the board room what his expectations were, and saying that it would probably be necessary to carry passengers from the Midland districts to London for two or three shillings each, the chairman remarked to him : " But, Mr. Cook, your agreement will prevent us from doing that." Mr. Cook replied : " I have foreseen what you mention ; there is my agreement," tearing it in pieces and throwing them into the waste-paper basket. Without any other understanding than that the best was to be done in the circumstances, Mr. Cook began the struggle, leaving it to the directors to remunerate him as they deemed fit ; and it is in such a spirit, PROGEESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 251 and on terms of mutual consideration, that the firm and the company have continued to transact business with each Ocher. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son subsequently entered into business relations with other railway companies, an agreement with the North British following that with the Midland. In 1847, the first excursion train to Scotland along the east coast ran over the North British Eailway, from Berwick to Edinburgh. From the outset to the present time the North British Eailway Company has been on harmonious terms with Messrs. Cook and Son, and all the traf&c to the North which was within the sphere of the firm's influence went over the company's line till 1876, when a railway was opened from Settle to Carlisle, and the Midland Company entered Carlisle. Even then, however, the firm remained in alliance with the Midland, the North British, and the Glasgow and South Western. It was the opening of the North British which first enabled Messrs. Cook to open out every tourist route in Scotland as quickly as steamboats and coaches were provided to supplement the railway. Though the firm was deprived for a time of the Scottish excursion business, this was due to the jealousy of rival companies, and not to any misunderstanding 252 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. with the North British. It was in order that the business of the firm should be adequately carried on in Scotland in conjunction with the North British Company that an office was established in Edinburgh. It was not till 1876 that Messrs. Cook and Son entered into intimate relations with the Glasgow and South Western Company. So far back, however, as 1846, when the first excursion from England to Scotland was advertised, and when the party under the charge of Mr. Thomas Cook landed at Ardrossan, the journey was continued thence to Glasgow over what was the Ayrshire Railway then, and is a part of the Glasgow and South Western now. From the opening of the Settle and Carlisle Eailway Messrs. Cook and Son have acted as agents for excursion and tourist traffic over the Glasgow and South Western and its connexions, issuing tickets to all parts of Scotland over that company's line, and for this purpose an office has been opened in Glasgow. Among Mr. Thomas Cook's earliest arrange- ments with a railway company was one made with the Eastern Counties Eailway, and this provided for excursion trains being run from Bishopsgate Street Station by way of Peterborough and the PEOGRESS IN THE UNITED KINGBOM. 258 Midland Counties system to Scotland, the English Lakes, North Wales, and by steamer to Ireland. When the various sections of railway which now constitute the Great Eastern were opened or consolidated, Mr. Thomas Cook and his son planned excursion trains to the Eastern Counties from all parts of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midland district. One of the earliest tours to the Continent was arranged and conducted by Mr. Thomas Cook in 1856 over the Great Eastern Company's line, by way of Harwich. It was natural, then, that when the company began to cultivate Continental traffic Mr. J. M. Cook should have been chosen to give practical effect to the company's plans, and to do so as superintendent of this department. Though the official position to which he was appointed was resigned by him in 1873, still the relations between the company and Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have remained close and mutually advantageous. Tickets are issued by the firm at the head and branch offices for journeys from London to all parts of the Continent over the- Great Eastern, and by way of Harwich, and also for excursions from the Lancashire and Yorkshire districts to all the watering-places on the sea which are reached by the Great Eastern Railway. 254 THE BUSINESS OF TEAYEL. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son chiefly act for the London, Brighton, and South Coast Eailway as agents for Continental passenger traffic, yet they also issue tourist tickets over that company's line to such health resorts and places of interest as Brighton, Hastings, St. Leonards, Portsmouth, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight. In 1862 Mr. Thomas Cook persuaded the manager, Mr. George Hawkins, to allow him to develop, if possible, the passenger traffic to the Continent by way of Newhaven and Dieppe. The manager of the Western of France concurred in what was pro- posed, and a return ticket to Paris was issued for one pound sterling, the result of this great reduction in the cost of travel between London and Paris being to render the Newhaven and Dieppe route popular on both sides of the Channel. Its popu- larity was most marked when the Great Exhibi- tion of 1867 was held at Paris, a large proportion of the excursion traffic between the United Engdom and France being diverted over that route. The Channel steamers plying between Newhaven and Dieppe at that time were of an inferior class ; since then their places have been taken by others which are equal in comfort and speed to any which make the passage between the two countries. Owing to the cheapness of PEOGEESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 255 the tickets by this route and the excellence of the new steamers, a large amount of passenger traffic passes over it, and the association of Messrs. Cook and Son with the London, Brighton, and South Coast Eailway is understood to be serviceable and remunerative to the company. It was shown in a previous chapter how hard it was to convince the manager of the London, Chatham, and Dover Eailway Company that the aid of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son could be invoked with advantage. That company rejoiced in possessing a short sea route, and it was sup- posed that this route would advertise itself, so to speak. However, when they lent their aid to make the merits of that route known, the passengers who availed themselves of it increased in number, and the company profited beyond what had been thought possible when the scheme of a joint working was first mooted. Since 1873 they have acted as sole passenger agents of the Chatham and Dover Eailway for the route by way of Dover and Calais, and since the Queen- borough and Flushing route was opened they have acted in the like capacity for that route also. Occupying such positions, they are able to issue tickets from all their offices throughout the globe for passengers to travel over the mail routes of the 256 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. London, Chatham, and Dover Eailway. More- over, they also issue tourist and excursion tickets from their offices in the United Kingdom to all the seaside places of resort to which trains are run over this company's lines. Subsequently to Messrs. Cook and Son carrying their excursion and tourist system into effect over the Midland Eailway, they were able to extend it over the Great Western, booking passengers from the Midlands to the South and West of England. During many years they had their own sets of tickets, enabling the holder to visit all the points of interest in the West of England which could be reached by rail, coach, or steamer. In 1871 they entered into an agreement appointing them agents of the Great Western Company for the issue of tickets over its lines to all places upon them, and the firm can now supply tickets avail- able by train and steamer for the parts worth visiting in Southern Devon and Cornwall, and across St. George's Channel from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly. They also issue tickets over the Great Western to those who travel between England and America and desire to pass through the picturesque part of the island which may be styled Shakespeare's country. The London and South Western Eailway is one PEOGEESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 257 of the few with which Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have no official connexion, yet their position in relation to the Midland enables them to issue tickets of all kinds from their offices in Ireland, Scotland, and England for tours and excursions over the South Western Eailway to the watering places on the South Coast, to the Channel Islands, and to the Continent by way of Southampton and Havre. The first excursion from Leicester to Liverpool, in 1844, and the first to Scotland, in 1846, passed over the lines of rail which now form parts of the Lancashire and Yorkshire system. Mr. Thomas Cook effected arrangements, during several years, with the East Lancashire and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways for running excursion trains over their lines, until these companies appointed an agent of their own. Then the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company gave up having an agent for excursion and tourist traffic. However, in 1887 his son succeeded in coming to terms with that company, and his firm now acts as agents for excursions to the chief health resorts on the Lancashire coast, while enabling excur- sionists to travel to Scotland, the East and West Coast of England, and to London from the crowded districts in which Bolton, Blackburn, E 258 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. Oldham, Burnley, and Manchester stand. This business is carried on at the offices of the firm in Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and also at the firm's agencies in Halifax,' Huddersfield, Hull, Southport, and Stockport, A network of lines, connecting the Midland, the Great Northern, and the Manchester, Shef- field, and Lincolnshire Eailways, and belonging to these companies jointly, is known as the Cheshire Lines. These lines give the Midland access to Manchester, Liverpool, Southport, and Chester. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son act as excursion and tourist agents over the Cheshire Lines, issuing tickets to and from Liverpool by this route, and do so chiefly in connexion with passenger traffic between America and Europe, this business being conducted at their office in Liverpool. The foregoing particulars exhibit the extent and completeness of the firm's relations with the leading railways in Great Britain ; these relations are quite as comprehensive in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland. They are able to issue tickets which serve the holder over every Irish railway, and these tickets are supplied at reduced rates when PEOGBESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 259 they relate to international traffic between America and Europe. The tourist who desires to land at Queenstown and see what is best worthy of a visit in Ireland before crossing to England or Scotland, can obtain a ticket from Messrs. Cook enabling him to visit the most notable places from the Lakes of Killarney to the Giant's Cause- way. The firm has agencies at Queenstown and Cork, where these tickets are issued, and their own offices, where all branches of their business are conducted, are in Dublin and in Belfast. Besides the travel by rail for which Messrs. Cook and Son can make provision at their offices in the United Kingdom, they can also book passengers by every leading line of steameirs running from the ports of Ireland, Scotland, and England to any part of the globe. B 2 260 CHAPTEE XX. A SUMMAEY OF THE BUSINESS IN EUROPE. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have formed alliances with the principal lines of railway on the Continent of Europe, and, as France is the country nearest to their base of operations, the arrangements in that country may be first stated. These refer specially to the Western Eailway, which is in direct connexion with the route from England by way of Newhaven and Dieppe. It was over this route that the firm first diverted the traffic of passengers between the two countries on a large scale, and that it became easy as well as cheap to reach France from England and England from France. At a later date the firm was enabled to issue tickets to their customers by way of Dover and Calais. At present the passenger who desires to travel by either route has the option of doing so, the inducement to choose that by way of Newhaven and Dieppe A SUMMARY OF BUSINESS IN EUBOPB. 261 being that the fare is much lower, while many passengers may have personal reasons for pre- ferring the shortest possible sea passage. Whichever route to and through France may be selected, the holders of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's tickets may use them to continue their journey to Belgium, Germany, or Italy. If any Frenchman or an Englishman who is in Paris should desire to start from it to the watering places in Normandy and Brittany, he can do so by obtaining tickets at the office in that city. At the same of&ce in Paris, as at any in the United Kingdom, the tourist can obtain tickets to places in Italy by the Paris, Lyons, and Mediter- ranean Eailway, and to points in the far East which are reached by beginning the journey over that line of rail. The firm issues its own tickets over every branch of that company's lines to Switzerland, the South of France, and the Eiviera. In 1862, when Mr. Thomas Cook first began extending his operations beyond Paris over the European continent, he found the Manager of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Eailway dis- posed to second him in carrying out his projects. From that time to the present the company has worked cordially with the firm of Messrs. Thomas 262 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Cook and Son, and been ready to lend their aid in developing international traf&c. When Mr. Thomas Cook applied to the Eastern of France Railway Company to further his plans, he was received with an avowed desire to carry out his wishes with regard to international passenger traf&c. An arrangement was made by him in concert with the respective companies for combining circular tickets to Switzerland over the Eastern of France with tickets over the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Railway, and these tourist tickets were issued at a reduced rate. At present the firm issues tourist tickets at their Paris office over the Eastern of France Railway to all parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Turkey. The Midi Railway of France connects with the Orleans Company in the direct route between France and Spain, and the firm issues tickets in conjunction with it to Spain and Portugal. Besides offering these facilities to travellers from or through Paris to distant parts of France, or through France to Europe and the East, Messrs. Cook have arrangements with the French railway companies for conducting excursionists during the summer months to the chief places of interest in the suburbs or within a short distanc A SUMMABY OF BUSINESS IN BUEOPE. 263 of Paris. The firm employs carriages for these excursions, and it often happens that as many as 100 horses have to be employed in a day for the purpose. In addition to the offices of the firm in Paris, there are others in different parts of France : in Nice, Cannes, Mentone, and Mar- seilles. In Switzerland Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son have made provision for every want of the tom-ist. Wherever a railway is in operation or a coach or steamboat runs in that country, the tourist can avail himself of the tickets issued by them. During thirty years the firm has had ample opportunities of learning what is required by the visitor to Switzerland ; the result has been that his every want is provided for. The tourist who takes the firm's tickets can break his journey whenever it suits him, and resume it vdthout inconvenience. The tourist traffic through Switzerland is now very important, and arrangements to provide for it have been made by the firm on a suitable scale. It has offices in Geneva, Lausanne, and Lucerne, where its own tickets are supplied, and where the tourist obtains all the information that he can reasonably desire. As the official agents of the Italian Bailway Administrations, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son 2G4 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. issue direct and circular tickets to all places of note in Italy, while these tickets can also be ob- tained from them in combination with others for use all over the globe. The firm can also supply tickets for the steamers on all the Italian lakes, and for passages by all the Italian sea-going lines of steamers. Since Mr. J. M. Cook purchased the funicular railway up Vesuvius, the line and the rolling stock have been renewed, and the railway is now in a much better condition for carrying passengers than it has ever been. Greater confidence being felt in it, the number of passengers has increased and is increasing. The firm's business in Italy is conducted with a special view to afford the assistance there which English and American and Colonial travel- lers stand in need of. At the principal railway stations and seaports are stationed the firm's interpreters, who can be easily recognised by their uniform, and whose duty it is to render what help the holders of Messrs. Cook's tickets may require. The services of these interpreters are in chief request, and meet with full appreciation at such seaports as Genoa, Venice, Naples, and Brindisi. There are six offices of the firm in Italy ; there A SUMMARY OF BUSINESS IN BUBOPB. 265 is an agency in Turin, and offices are to be found in Milan, in Florence, in Venice, in Eome, in Naples, and in Brindisi. The traveller through Holland, Belgium, and Germany can avail himself of the tickets issued by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, which are serviceable on all the railways, and which can be obtained in combination with tickets for other countries. They have no office in Holland. Their Belgian office is in Brussels, and their German one in Cologne. It is as far back as 1865 that Mr. Thomas Cook conducted his first party of tourists through Austria, yet his firm did not obtain a footing in Austria or Hungary for the conduct of their busi- ness till the Exhibition at Vienna in 1873. From that date the travellers in Austria and Hungary holding the firm's tickets continually increased in number; nevertheless, as has been said already, it was not till 1888 that the firm felt justified in incurring the outlay necessary for opening an office in Vienna. The Viennese' themselves were most desirous of the office being established, and the Burgomaster had more than one meeting with influential citizens to consider the advisability of making a direct appeal to Messrs. Cook. Since the office has been opened 266 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. the business transacted continues to grow. Members of the Imperial family, as well as of the Austrian aristocracy, are among Messrs. Cook and Son's patrons. The Hungarians being as anxious as their Austrian brethren to have an office of Messrs. Cook's in their capital, one was opened in Budapest in 1888. Before this time Mr. J. M. Cook had made an extended tour thi\^agh Hungary, at the request of the managers of the State railways, with a view to see how tourist traffic could best be developed. The result was the completion of arrangements for the issue of tickets by his firm which were available both for railways in Hungary and Austria, and for all railways in communication with them, as well as for others throughout the world. In 1875 the first party of tourists under the auspices of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son visited the North Cape, and other parties made trips through Scandinavia in succeeding years. Till then Scandinavia was not a tourist field for the American or Englishman. The arrangements for the accommodation of travellers were imperfect ; moreover, the character of the country was Httle known, and the places of chief interest had not been ascertained, or, if their names were familiar, A SUMMARY OP BUSINESS IN EUROPE. 267 the best way of reaching them was an unsolved problem. Before organising travel throughout the country and undertaking to conduct tourists, Messrs. Cook sent qualified persons to explore and report, and two of their representatives were employed for upwards of twelve months before terms were made with the railway and steamboat companies. However, arrangements were effected in 1875 for the issue of tickets for travel through Scandinavia, and these arrangements were widely advertised. At first the steamers were so few and so bad that the firm had to charter a suitable steamer for the earhest personally conducted tour to the North Cape. All this is changed now, as excellent boats built for the con- veyance of tourists run regularly. During the busy part of the season special steamers are despatched from Great Britain by the firm for the convenience of the tourists round Sweden, Norway, and to the Arctic regions. For those who traverse the country Messrs. Cook provide landaus and carrioles, which have been constructed for them. They also issue tickets available through Scandinavia to Eussia, including trips on the Volga. In order that their customers may be well cared for in Scandinavia 268 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. they have an office in Bergen, and an agency in Christiania. Some time elapsed after the firm had entered upon negotiations with the managers of Spanish railways before they were brought to a satisfactory issue. These began in 1872, and for a year the firm was represented in the country by a gentle- man well capable of conducting them. At last, however, a contract was drawn up and executed under which the firm was authorised to prepare and introduce a system of international tourist tickets resembling that in use in Italy. When tickets had been printed, maps engraved, and all the preliminaries at an end, the Carlist insurrection broke out, and it seemed undesirable for several years after to endeavour to increase international travel through Spain. However, on the country becoming peaceful again, the firm recurred to the original design, and proposed to carry out its part of the contract. Meantime the political changes in the country had affected the administration of the railways, and the new managers repudiated the engagements into which their predecessors had entered. In the autumn of 1877 Mr. J. M. Cook attended a conference at Madrid of the managers of the Spanish and Portuguese railways. He made it A SUMMARY OF BUSINESS IN BUEOPE. 269 clear to them that they had begun putting into operation the system of tours embodied in the agreement between him and them, and that, in their correspondence with each other, it was referred to as the "systeme Cook," yet this did not disconcert them ; on the contrary, they main- tained that they might adopt Mr. Cook's ideas, and repudiate their contract with him at their pleasure. Thereupon Mr. J. M. Cook informed the conference that if his firm were treated in such a way it would take no further interest in Spain or Portugal. The managers then admitted they had gone too far, and they proposed to renew negotiations. Nothing was done in that direction for a time, yet, at the request of some of its chents, the firm planned one or two personally conducted parties through Spain ; but it was not till 1888 that the Spanish managers again invited the firm to co- operate in extending tourist traffic. The result was satisfactory, and the firm opened an office in Madrid, where a large number of international tickets has been issued. 270 CHAPTEE XXI. THE BUSINESS IN BASTBEN COUNTEIBS. In 1868 Mr. Thomas Cook made his first explora- tory journey to the East, and after he had done so he conducted parties of tourists to Constanti- nople and Athens. His son, or a representative of his firm, did so also, and many friends after- wards requested him to engage in further developing tourist traffic in the East. But it was not till 1883 that it was decided to op»n the offices, at Constantinople and Athens, in which arrangements can now be made for travel to all parts of Turkey and Greece. Messrs. Cook and Son do not confine themselves to supplying tickets there ; on the contrary, they furnish dragomans and tents, and the entire equipment necessary for travel over any of the routes laid down in their programmes. Since the direct line of railway to Constan- tinople by way of Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, THE BUSINESS IN EASTEKN COUNTRIES. 271 Sofia, and Philippopolis was opened, the mode of travelling betwean Europe and the Bast has been revolutionised. From the outset Messrs. Cook made their arrangements in view of the change, and now they are able to issue tickets by the new routes in combination with the lines of steamers plying in the Levant and the Mediter- ranean. Most of the notable travellers in the East, the ambassadors and Government officials, have availed themselves of the advantages held out. At times of poUtical excitement and disturb- ance travelling in that part of the world is attended with special inconvenience. Happily, Messrs. Cook have been able, through the medium of trustworthy representatives, to give efficient aid in time of trouble to the distinguished persons who have put themselves under their care. They have an office in Athens, and one in Constantinople, with a branch office in Galata. The extension of the firm's business to Pales- tine was noted in a previous chapter as a great advance in the direction which coincided with the ideas and desires of Mr. Thomas Cook. When he was but a novice in the business which after- wards owed its growth to his experience, he longed to conduct a party of tourists to Egypt 272 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. and Palestine. This was in the year 1844. At the present day the majority of those who make a tour in the Holy Land do so on the lines laid down by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Indeed, all persons who now wish to travel through Palestine can easily avail themselves of their services. The firm has its own offices and salaried representatives in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Beyrout. Those who hold the firm's tickets and land at Jaffa may do so with a tranquil mind. They have nothing to do but to point out their luggage to Messrs. Cook's boatmen, and wait till their representative tells them to enter the boat. When they are landed, their luggage is passed through the Custom House without trouble to them, and they leave Jaffa for Jerusalem or elsewhere either in a carriage or on horseback, according to the arrangement they made when taking their tickets. I In order that the visitors to Palestine and Syria might be conveyed through the country in comfort, the firm caused nine landaus to be built in Switzerland and forwarded to Jaffa, the landaus being on the model of those which are in use over the Alpine roads. The firm has a stock of tents and camp equipment sufficient to enable 1,000 persons to be accommodated under THE BUSINESS IN EASTERN COUNTRIES. 273 canvas at the same time. During the busy part of the season it is not uncommon for the firm to have 700 to 1,000 animals employed in the work of transporting tourists. From the year 1868, when the firm began the tourist business in Palestine, to the present day, as many as 12,000 persons have visited that country and Syria under arrangements made by it. Many of these travellers held high social position — His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Prince George of. Wales, their Imperial High- nesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Sergius, the Grand Duke Paul of Kussia, the King of Servia, and other travellers of distinction being among them. The founder of the business, Mr. Thomas Cook, occupied himself during several winters in con- ducting parties of totirists through Palestine and Syria. Mr. J. M. Cook began to do likewise in 1870, and from that year to the present scarcely one has passed in which he has not visited some part of the Holy Land. The first party which he led at the beginning of 1870 was composed of English and Americans, who also visited Egypt, and it was the largest of- the kind which, till then, had voyaged to the First s 274 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Cataract and back. The steamer Beherah was chartered from the Khedive's Government for the use of the party, and the Government made Mr. J. M. Cook pay the large sum of £1,848 for the hire of the steamer, insisting upon the payment being made in Bnghsh or French gold before the steamer left Boulac. His eldest son, Mr. F. H. Cook, spent three seasons in Palestine, and he accompanied Canon Tristram to the farthest point of Moab which has yet been visited by Europeans. He also travelled over the Sinaitic desert and the more familiar parts of Syria and Palestine. During his presence in the country he was requested by the British Consul to travel with their Eoyal Highnesses the Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Prince George of Wales. He also superintended the arrange- ments for conducting a large party of French pilgrims in 1881. Two younger sons of Mr. J. M. Cook have also had experience in travel in the Holy Land, Mr. E. E. Cook having visited all the points of interest, and Mr. T. A. Cook having spent parts of several seasons in the country. In 1888 the latter was entrusted with the duty of conducting the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Sergius and the Grand Duke Paul through Palestine. Many THE BUSINESS IN EASTERN COUNTRIES. 275 of the firm's chief representatives have conducted persons of note through the Holy Land, and parties have regularly gone there year after year, so that the way through the country has now become a beaten track for Messrs. Cook. The firm are now able to arrange for conducting parties of any size and at any time through the country. Though the business in Palestine and Syria is very extensive, yet that in Egypt is the most important which the firm carries on beyond the limits of Europe. It has been shown in a previous chapter how that business began and expanded; how the office in Cairo had to be enlarged several times and finally rebuilt over a greatly increased area; how, from having to hire two steamers when Mr. Thomas Cook con- ducted a party up the Nile in 1869, Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son now possess a fleet of steamers and sailing boats representing the in- vestment of a quarter of a million sterling, and how the passenger traffic on the river is now virtually in the hands of the firm. As was there pointed out, this marvellous change was effected by Mr. J. M. Cook. In his opinion the further development of the Nile traffic would be of immense benefit . , to s 2 276 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Egypt. While much of the prosperity of the country now is attributable to the wise system of government which has existed since the British Protectorate began, not a small share of the money which has flowed into the country, which circulates among the people and enriches them, is directly due to the development of the traffic through Egypt and on the Nile, for which Mr. J. M. Cook deserves the credit. Before he took charge of the steamers which ran in the service of the Khedive, these steamers were a cause of loss to the Egyptian Government ; after they passed under his direction they became a source of profit. It required foresight as well as boldness to begin what he performed. He had to expend a large sum upon the old steamers in order to render them comfortable, and unless this cost had been incurred, first-class passengers would have declined to travel in them. In view of what he did, and the risk which he ran, the ex-Khedive, Ismail, ordered his Ministers to enter into an agreement with Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, under which that firm acquired the exclusive right during a term of years of running steamers on the Nile for the convey- ance of passengers. THE BUSINESS IN EASTEEN COUNTRIES. 277 When the expedition for the relief of Grordon was in preparation, the representatives of the Admiralty asked Mr. J. M. Cook whether he was prepared to part with his rights under that con- cession to the Government. His reply was in the affirmative. He was then asked whether, in the event of the Government acquiring the steamers, he was further prepared to work them on Government account, and to this he replied in the affirmative also. In these circumstances the Government had the option of purchasing the firm's interest in the steamers, which Messrs. Cook would continue to work as Government servants, or of entering into a contract with them to do the work on the Nile which was necessary. The Government chose to enter into. a contract. How faithfully and successfully it was carried out by the firm has been set forth in a previous chapter. As soon as the expedition was decided upon, a question arose as to how the troops and stores of the Egyptian Government were to be carried. Thereupon Mr. J. M. Cook informed that Govern- ment that, partly out of consideration for the con- cession which he held from it with regard to steamers on the Nile, he would undertake the transport of men, munitions, and stores at the 278 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. cost of SO doing. The Government of Egypt accepted the offer, and, though the task proved to be far more laborious than was anticipated, it vpas treated by the Government as having been performed gratuitously. Before the expedition was well under way, Colonel Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff conceived the notion that, if the navigation of the Nile were thrown open, the traffic on the river would be greatly increased. Before submitting his views to the Khedive, in the hope of the Khedive issuing a Decree to carry them into effect, he had an interview with Mr. J. M. Cook and informed him of what was in contemplation. Mr. Cook ex- pressed himself ready to further Colonel Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff's views, yet he suggested that special consideration should be shown to his firm for the risk run and the money expended in con- nexion with the Nile steamers. What Mr. J. M. Cook asked and deemed fair was that it should be clearly stated in the Decree that it did not affect the concession granted to his firm for the convey- ance of tourists, but that for all other purposes the Nile was to be declared free. It was found at the close of the expedition that the old steamers belonging to the Egyptian Government were in such a state that they could THE BUSINESS IN EASTERN COUNTRIES. 279 not be employed again for the conveyance of first- class passengers. On ascertaining this Mr. J. M. Cook voluntarily surrendered whatever rights his firm had acquired under the concession from the Egyptian Government, and returned the steamers. After doing so he took upon himself the sole responsibility of building steamers of a kind and class which he considered suitable for the passen- ger and other traffic on the Nile which his firm had developed. The Egyptian Government found after the close of the expedition that their own steamers by which the postal service was carried on between Assiout and Assouan were not fitted for the work, and the Ministers of the Khedive appealed to Mr. J. M. Cook to take into consideration whether he would enter into a contract with the Govern- ment to take over the old boats and build new ones at their own charge adapted in all respects for the business to be done, and also conduct the service on a fixed scale of rates. Mr. Cook formulated the conditions under which he would do what was asked. Nothing was settled, how- ever, at the time. Egypt was then in a disturbed state, and it was not till 1889, after the proposed contract had been repeatedly considered and some- what modified, that it was signed and acted upon. 280 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. Under this agreement Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son enjoy the exclusive right, during a term of years, of carrying the mails, specie, and the civil and mihtary servants of the Egyptian Government between Assiout and Assouan. The Government is the larger gainer by this contract, inasmuch as it did not find the capital for the construction and service of the fleet, while the mails and specie are carried free, and the civil and military servants at reduced rates. It is obvious, then, that the firm has rendered an adequate return for the contract which it holds for traffic on the Nile; moreover, the dwellers upon its banks have ample cause for gratitude. Whatever services they render, and whatever provisions they supply to the Nile steamers of Messrs. Cook, are immediately and amply paid for. They are not mulcted of their just profit as in bygone days. In 1870, when Mr. J. M. Cook first led a party up the Nile, he was shocked to see the system which then prevailed and which he was powerless to check. When the steward of the steamer required a stock of provisions, he in- formed the captain, who would stop the steamer near to a productive village. The whistle was blown or a messenger was sent to summon the village sheikh, in whose hand a list was placed of THE BUSINESS IN EASTEBN COUNTRIES. 281 the things which were wanted. The articles were speedily brought, the steward paid for them what he pleased, while the sheikh handed to the vil- lagers what he considered to be their proportion, which was usually smaller than that which he kept to himself. At present fixed and fair prices are paid for every article supplied. A large amount of money is circulated in Upper Egypt in con- sequence of the tourist traffic there, and the natives of the country gladly recognise the source to which they owe this. Besides having a contract with the Egyptian Government, the firm has one with the English Government for a term of years, under which it has the sole right to carry troops and material for military purposes between Cairo and the First Cataract. The tourist and other traffic on the Nile is so well served by this firm that there is virtually no competition for any business which may be obtainable outside of the firm's contracts. No one cares to risk money in constructing new steamers; one steamer alone keeps up a semblance of competition, and this was built for the so-called Egyptian Company. The mail service conducted by the new boats of Messrs. Cook gives greater comfort to native passengers than they ever enjoyed before, and as 282 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. these boats are run with the regularity which is the rule in Europe, the natives are rapidly learn- ing how much superior steamers are to sailing- boats ; they are arriving at the conviction that time has a value, and that it is cheaper for them in the long run to pay more for a passage in a swift and sure steamer than less for a slow and uncertain passage in a sailing-boat. The operations of the firm in Egypt spread over so wide an area, and embraced so many spheres of exertion, that it became necessary to provide for the repairing and fitting together of steamships as well as to pay for their building. Hence Mr. J. M. Cook recently bought a valuable property on the banks of the Nile at Boulac, from a member of the Khedival family, whereon the ex-Khedive, Ismail, had erected blocks of buildings at a great cost, the total area being upwards of 20,000 square yards. There are sufficient facilities and space here for constructing the largest steamer which is likely to be required for service on the Nile. The establishment at Boulac contains shops for casting iron, brass, &c., for every purpose, as well as engineers' and carpenters' shops, and a dwelling for the storekeeper. In this estabhshment the splendid steamer called Barneses the Great was put together. She THE BUSINESS IN BASTBEN COUNTEIES. 283 was constructed at the Fairfield Works on the Clyde, was taken to pieces, and forwarded to Egypt in 3,760 cases. The first part of the ironwork arrived at the establishment on the 11th of November, 1889 ; a fortnight later the steamer was ready for launching on the Nile. Before starting on her first voyage on the 4th of February, 1890, an entertainment was given on board, at which many notable persons were present. To- wards the close of it Major-General Sir Francis G-renfell proposed the health of Mr. J. M. Cook, and wished prosperity to his firm, and Mr. Cook, when replying, stated in the course of his speech that it was twenty years before, on the 28th of January in that year, that he started on his first voyage up the Nile, and then he had to pay for himself as well as all his passengers. When he made that voyage there were 136 daha- beahs and one steamer carrying passengers on the river, while at the time he spoke there were fifteen steamers and not thirty dahabeahs. He added that, in the course of the following week, as many as six steamers would leave Cairo and proceed up the Nile. If the regular postal steamers to Assiout and two extra steamers were added, the large number of 19 steamers would be at work on the same date. After 284 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. stating how the hull of the Barneses the Great had been put together in a fortnight and launched the fifteenth day after the first truck had arrived with the cases containing a portion of it, and that 70,000 rivets had been driven during the fortnight, he pointed out that the days occupied in fitting up the steamers had been 30,291, and that, out of the number, 6,150 days were spent by Europeans at the work and 24,141 by Egyptians. He had been assured by the superintending engineer who came from Fairfield that the steamer Barneses the Great could not have been put together on the Clyde in the same number of days as on the Nile. Towards the close of his speech Mr. Cook remarked that, during the twenty years his firm had con- ducted passenger traffic on the Nile, from three to four millions sterling had been circulated in Egypt by travellers. The business of the firm in Egypt is under the personal supervision of Mr. J. M. Cook and his son, Mr. T. A. Cook, with the assistance of com- petent Europeans. It is Mr. Cook's rule, however, to employ a native whenever he is fitted for the work, and, provided the natives display the re- quisite capacity, they are preferred to fill vacancies in all the departments. In consequence of this there are many natives in the firm's employment, THE BUSINESS IN EASTEBN COUNTRIES. 285 some having occupied that position since 1869, when the firm began business in Egypt, while others have been trained to discharge their duties. Both the Government and the natives have good reason to regard this firm with favour and to treat it with confidence. The Central Office in Cairo is the place whence the orders emanate for the general control of the business in Lower Egypt, while there are offices at the Arsenal for the work necessary to be done there. As regards Upper Egypt, the chief office is at Assiout, there being branches at Keneh, Luxor, and Assouan. In consequence of arrange- ments with the Government, all the postmasters in Upper Egypt act as agents for the issue of tickets to natives who use the mail steamers. His Highness Tewfik Pacha, the present Khe- dive, has taken the greatest interest, ever since his accession, in the doings of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. "When the fine steamer Barneses the Great was ready. His Highness wished to be the first to inspect it, and expressed his opinion that the comfort of its arrangements was equal to that of the best steamer in the fleet of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. In conversation with distinguished visitors, the Khedive frequently enlarges upon the advantages 286 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. which have accrued to Egypt owing to the efforts made by Messrs. Cook to promote travel there, and he has shown his personal appreciation of this by conferring the orders of the Osmanieh ■and the Medjidieh on Mr. P. H. Cook for his special services to Mohammedans in connexion with arrangements for the Mecca pilgrimage, and also on Messrs. E. E. and T. A. Cook, in recogni- tion of the work done by them in Egypt, while he has decorated their father, Mr. J. M. Cook, with the order of the Medjidieh of two different grades, and His Highness has marked the fiftieth anniversary of the firm's origin by bestowing upon him the order of the Osmanieh, through a special representative sent to England. 287 CHAPTBE XXII. INDIA, AUSTEALIA, AND AMERICA. The summary of the business in the East, which was given in the last chapter, is continued in the present, with the intention of concluding the subject on arriving at America, and thus re- turning to the West after making a circuit of the globe on paper. Since 1880, when Mr. J. M. Cook first visited India on a tour of inspection, the business carried on by his firm there continued to grow without ceasing. It is true that the support which he received from the authorities at home was of great service to him in India, and led to his entering into pleasant relations with the managers of the Indian railways. What Messrs. Cook are chiefly called upon to do in India now is to supply tickets available by the best lines of steamships and over the Indian railways to the many English travellers who journey to and from and 288 THK BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. through that country, and also to supply them to those who occupy a military or civilian position there in the Government service when proceed- ing to their stations or returning home. Many of the Indian princes and wealthy natives desire to visit Europe, and, as has been pointed out in a previous chapter, they can do so most comfortably under the guidance of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Moreover, the poorer natives of India who profess the faith of Islam, and who wish to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of their prophet, are now able to benefit by the firm's arrangements, as has also been set forth. It was long before the firm could deal with the pilgrims satisfactorily. From Mr. J. M. Cook's visit to India till 1886 the matter was under discussion, and he was fully occupied for a time in becoming thoroughly conversant with India, and in completing his ar- rangements there for the convenience of others than Mohammedan pilgrims. In the year 1886 the pilgrimage was deprived of many of its horrors, the pilgrims being then effectively protected fi:om crimps, low lodging-house keepers, and sharpers, who preyed upon them, and who, after plundering them, sometimes left them to die. In the firm's history many strange burdens were laid upon the INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND AMERICA. 289 shoulders of the partners. Thus it was an unex- pected request to provide for the safe transit of the valuable animals belonging to the Queen and others to the Cattle Show at Vienna in 1873. Scarcely less novel was a request on the part of the English Government to aid the expedition for the rescue of Gordon in its course up the Nile. Yet quite as curious as either was the call made by the Indian Government to enable Indian Mohammedans to go on pilgrimage to Mecca and Medineh, and return home under the care of Messrs. Cook. They relieved pilgrimages of their dangers, after removing discomforts out of the paths of tourists. The business in India and Burmah is carried on at offices in Bombay, Calcutta, and Eangoon, where tickets can be procured for all lines of railways and steamers. An addition has recently been made to the business in India by the estab- lishment of a banking and agency department for the convenience of their patrons. An office was opened in Melbourne in 1879 ; but, before that year, an endeavour had been made by Messrs. Cook to establish an excursion and tourist business throughout Australia on the home model. The railway companies in the several colonies were averse to making the T 290 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. necessary arrangements. Mr. Byron Moore, a respected citizen of Melbourne, conducted the affairs of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son till the opening of their own of&ce. The firm has now four other offices, situated at Sydney, at Auck- land, at Adelaide, and Brisbane, and sixteen agencies in addition. Moreover, Messrs. Cook edit and publish a monthly containing fall information about tours in Australia and New Zealand, and in other parts of the world, under the title of the Australasian Travellers' Gazette and Tourist Advertiser. The existing arrangements for tourist traf&c in the Southern Hemisphere are due to Mr. F. H. Cook, who visited the colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia in 1887, and entered into negotiations with the railway com- panies, which ended in a result that has been satisfactory to both parties. What he then saw and what he saw on a second visit in the following year impressed him with the value of the country as a resort for tourists. All the places of interest both in Australasia and New Zealand were visited by him, so that his personal know- ledge of the attractions in them is minute and extensive. Messrs. Cook have agreements not only with all INDIA, AUSTEALIA, AND AMERICA. 291 the railway administrations in Australia and New Zealand, but also with the coaching and steam- shipping companies, and they are able to run excursion trains on the same conditions as in England. In Australia, as in India, special advantages are held out to visitors from other countries. The Commissioners of Railways in Australia have sanctioned the issue by the firm of a series of tickets at reduced rates, these tickets being designed for the use of foreign visitors and to attract tourist travel. The business has grown so much, especially in Victoria, that the firm has recently been obhged to take more extensive offices in Melbourne. New Zealand has even greater attractions for the sightseer than any other colony. Tourist travel is increasing there, and Messrs. Cook have their chief office at Auckland, and branch offices at Dunedin and Eotorua, the latter place being the centre of the wonderful Hot Lake district. Mr. F. H. Cook was greatly im- pressed with New Zealand, where more in- teresting sights are to be found within a limited area than in any other country, and he considers that in the future it will be a great place of resort. To quote his own words : " In the South Islands there are fjords rivalling those T 2 292 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. of Norway in solitary grandeur, waterfalls higher than those of the Yosemite, and lakes that will bear comparison with those of Switzerland or North Italy, with mountain ranges and peaks which test the powers of the best Alpine climbers. In the North Island is the wonderful Hot Lake district, as interesting as the far-famed Yellowstone Park, though the geysers are not so fine or so numerous. It is commonly thought that since the frightful eruption of Tarawera, which destroyed the pink and white terraces, there is nothing of interest in the district, whereas nothing can be farther from the truth. The awful scene of desolation caused by the eruption is quite as interesting in its way, if not more so, than the terraces can ever have been, and the hot springs and geysers and the extra- ordinary mud volcanoes still remain uninjured. Then, again, beyond the region of Tarawera is the ' bush ' or forest-land, which never ceases to charm with its endless variety of trees and ferns. The Maoris, too, though almost as degenerated as the Eed Indians, maintain their old habits and habitations, and are worth the journey from England to see." The business of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son has grown so rapidly in America as to be in INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND AMERICA. 293 close rivalry with that conducted by them in Europe. An American edition of their monthly, The Excursionist and Tourist Advertiser, is pub- Hshed in New York for the benefit of the public in the United States and Canada. A great part of the work done relates to tours from America to Egypt, the Holy Land, and Europe, yet a part of it is specially designed for Americans who desire to visit Mexico, Japan, or the West Indian Islands. Moreover, excursion parties to some parts of the United States, such as California and Florida, are planned and conducted by Messrs. Cook, and tourist tickets are issued to all parts of America. A very useful and important part of the American business is that which is connected with the exchange and banking department. The American who purposes visiting some foreign country not only can obtain tickets from Messrs. Cook, but they can also furnish him with circular notes or letters of credit, and with foreign money in exchange for his own. The firm has nineteen agencies on the North American continent, the cities in the United States in which they are to be found being Balti- more, Detroit, New Haven, Portland, Niagara Falls, Hartford, New London, St. Augustine, 294 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. ProTidence, Worcester, Washington, and St. Louis. In Canada there is an agency at Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Hamilton, Kingston, St. John, and Ottawa. The Head Office in the United States is in New York, and there is also a branch in that city. There are branches in Boston, Chicago, Philadel- phia, Jacksonville (Florida), and in San Francisco. 295 CHAPTEE XXIII. HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. The growth of the business which Mr. Thomas Cook originated in 1841 resembles a fairy tale. Its existing magnitude is in such contrast to its small beginnings that it is difficult to believe that so much has been accomplished during the life- time of the two partners, and as the result of their personal exertions. Mr. Thomas Cook began hfe with more enthusiasm and energy than capital, and he inspired his only son with the feelings which influenced him, the father and son rapidly transmuting their enthusiasm and energy into capital, and being able, after the lapse of a few years, to give effect to their wishes on a scale which is truly gigantic. Much that was set forth in the small pamphlet produced for private circulation only, on the completion of the fortieth year of the firm's business, might be repeated without much varia- 296 THE BUSINESS 05* TfiAVEL. tion now that the Jubilee is celebrated. Ten years ago it was written that the firm had often been startled by statements to the effect that " Cook's are American speculators," or that " there are no Cooks in the business," and that men have waited upon railway and steamboat managers representing themselves as "of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son," or as sons or brothers of its members. The views of these persons were probably as dishonest as their re- presentations were untrue. In America the delusion prevails that Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son is the title of a very large Joint Stock Com- pany, and many Americans display a trace of scepticism, and express intense surprise when they are introduced to Mr. J. M. Cook and in- formed that he is the sole responsible partner in a firm which really exists, and which is a purely private body. Ten years ago it was said — and the words are happily applicable still — that the firm consists of two members only, the one being the senior, who had retired from active business, and who was its founder ; and his only son, who has been the sole managing partner for many years. It was then said — what may now be repeated with equal truth — that the capital embarked in the HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 297 business has been provided exclusively by the partners, and that the exclusive responsibility for the financial as for the other matters connected with it is borne by Mr. J. M. Cook. It was sup- posed at the time to which reference has been made that the managing partner had but a sHght experience; but those who said this little knew that the managing partner was, so to say, brought up to the business from boyhood, and that his earliest experience as a youngster was to act as the conductor of an excursion party of boys and girls, many of whom were his seniors. In the sketch given of Mr. J. M. Cook's "Life and Labours," in the eighteenth chapter, nothing must impress the reader more than the thoroughness with which he qualified himself for the duties that he has discharged with a conscientiousness and skill to which the existing condition of his firm's business bears irrefragable testimony. The manner in which the business began, almost by accident, and expanded as if by magic, has been shown in the earlier chapters of this book. At present it is but necessary to repeat the facts that, in 1841, Mr. Thomas Cook was the founder of the business ; that from 1864 his only son, who is at present the sole managing partner, joined him ; and that the senior partner retired in 298 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. 1878, leaving his son in the position which he now occupies. Three generations are now represented in this business. The first originated it, and his name appears in the title of the firm ; the second per- fected it, and he is in supreme command. These two, father and son, were only sons of their parents ; while the third generation consists of the three sons of Mr. J. M. Cook, and they have been carefully trained to carry it on in the future. Each of these sons has been engaged in some department of the business for many years. Mr. F. H. Cook, the eldest, has personally taken part in conducting tourist traffic in America, India, and Egypt ; he has travelled through the Caucasus and Persia (being accompanied through Persia by his brother Mr. E. E. Cook), Austraha, and New Zealand, and parts of the world little known, to see how far the ground could be smoothed for tourists. His brothers, Messrs. E. E. and T. A. Cook, have also been initiated into the practical ■working of the business, more particularly in Palestine and Egypt ; they have been taught how each department is managed, and they are now entrusted with the supervision of important de- partments. The whole three have been trained to be travellers ; they have seen more of the world HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 299 than many men who are famed as explorers ; and they have learned what those persons require who journey to foreign regions either for amusement or in quest of health. "While the sons of Mr. J. M. Cook are entrusted with the management of the details, he exercises exclusive supervision over the business as a whole. The financial questions which arise, the new agreements which have to be made, and the changes which may be needful in the staff, are considered and determined by him alone. He can do so whether in his chair at the Head Of&ce in London, on the Nile, on the Continent, or in any part of the globe which is in telegraphic communication with London. He has but to re- turn "yes" or "no" to the message which he receives. Wherever he may be sojourning a com- parative statement of receipts is sent to him weekly fi:om the Head Of&ce, while fuller par- ticulars are forwarded monthly, including a synopsis of the firm's account with every bank where one is kept. Thus he is always as well in- formed as to the condition of each 'department as the general of an army is as to the condition of each regiment, and he has all the data before him, as a competent general always has, for issuing orders that are prudent and effectual. 300 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. Yet a head cannot do its work unless it be properly served by all the members of the body. The greatest general who ever commanded the finest army must rely upon his subordinates, and while he trusts his brigadiers, the brigadiers in turn have to trust the colonels, and the colonels have to trust the officers and non-commissioned officers in a regiment, down to the corporals, for the maintenance of discipline and the punctual execution of orders. So it is in the present case, and Mr. J. M. Cook has to devolve the working of the business upon the manager, the accountant, and the various heads of depart- ments in the Head Office, and to the agents and booking clerks in the branch offices. He is firmly convinced, and gratefully acknowledges, that much of the success with which his business has been conducted, and of the fame which his firm enjoys, are due to the fidelity which' his assist- ants and his subordinates have displayed, and to their unremitting personal interest in the dis- charge of their duties. Many members of the staff receive, in addition to their salaries, a per- centage on the business they transact and its nett results. The leading principle which Mr. J. M. Cook has inculcated upon his subordinates is that their sole HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 301 aim should be to make the arrangements which will best conduce to the comfort and conveni- ence of the travelling public, and to subserve the interests of all the companies which carry pas- sengers. He is quite as emphatic in assuring his subordinates that they must advertise and bring conspicuously before the public the railway, steam- boat, and other companies with which the firm is associated, the interests of the firm and these companies being treated as identical. His desire and his commands are that all receipts and expenditures should be accurately set forth, and that settlements should be punctually made with each of the companies concerned. The first part of the work connected with the business of travel in which Mr. J. M. Cook took the deepest interest was negotiating and effecting arrangements with foreign railway com- panies. Indeed, he appears to have had a special aptitude as well as a great liking for this branch of the business. He felt delight rather than weariness in arguing with the managers of foreign railways, meeting their reiterated and fanciful objections with fresh and practical views of the point at issue, and in putting his case in such a conclusive fashion as to finally bring them to adopt his proposals. The difficulty which he had 302 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. to overcome in most instances was to make the nature and extent of his proposals quite clear. These managers could not realise at first that what Mr. J. M. Cook urged them to adopt was really feasible, and he had to meet them repeatedly and put the matter in new lights, the negotiations often extending over several years, and involving thousands of miles travelling by steamer or rail, till at length he enjoyed the triumph of attaining the desired result. What gratified him the most was to learn, as he frequently did, from the mouths of the men who had scouted his proposals and treated him as a visionary, that his proposals were as practical as they were simple, and that they were found in practice to be both feasible and remunerative. He has given up this form of diplomacy, having no longer the time, though still possessing the inclination to pursue it. One of the leading members of his staff, who is well adapted for undertaking it, has performed it for several years, and on him rests the responsibility of making or revising the arrangements with the railway com- panies on the European continent. The great spending department is that which has control of the advertising and printing. This department is one of the most important, and HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 303 requires very skilful management. The amomit and the character of the work performed may be estimated from the fact that, in 1890, the firm issued no less than 13,948,158 announcements, and succeeded in issuing a travelling ticket for every four announcements. Nearly every newspaper of note and influence contains the advertisements of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. The difficulty consists in selecting the daily, weekly, or monthly publications in which to advertise. There are papers in which certain advertisements produce no impression, though the papers themselves may enjoy a high reputation. Moreover, it is an art in itself to frame an advertisement in such a way as to captivate readers. For these and other reasons the manager of the firm's advertising department should be a man of exceptional knowledge and abihty. The firm has been well served in this branch of their business, the gentleman who presides over their advertising and printing department having done so to their entire satis- faction for twenty years. In addition to the above-mentioned means of publicity, the monthly issue of Cook's Excur- sionist, with a circulation of 120,000, conveys useful and concise information respecting hun- dreds of tours in various parts of the world. 304 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. Publications similar to the London Excursionist are also issued monthly. In Paris, L'Excur- sionniste Cook, and in Vienna, Cook's Welt-Beise- Zeitung appear every month. In Bombay, Cook's Oriental Travellers' Gazette; in Mel- bourne, Cook's Australasian Travellers' Gazette ; and in America, Cook's Excursionist appear in like manner. None of these publications has a circulation of less than sixty thousand copies. Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son's Cartoon Maps and thrir Continental Time Tables, which are published monthly, being arranged upon an entirely new plan, and containing much informa- tion required by travellers, have a very large sale. Pamphlets with programmes of personally-con- ducted and independent tours are issued almost daily; and, in addition, they publish their own Guide Books to the various countries wherein their travelling and hotel tickets are available, and of these between twenty and thirty thousand copies were sold in 1890. A department is set apart for correspondence, and its work is very laborious. Those who write to it for information often give more trouble than is necessary, their letters being confused in form and puzzling as to meaning, and the task of replying to them is consequently very onerous. HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 305 Thousands of letters are delivered daily at the Head Office and the branch offices, every one requiring and receiving careful consideration. Some of these letters contain pages filled with questions, none of which can be answered with- out reference to maps, and the study of time-tables and lists of fares. The head of this department has been in the service of the firm since 1868. He has a large number of assistants, who have sometimes to remain on duty till a very late hour, while it sometimes happens that the work entails working all the night as well as all the day, the rule being that no letter is to remain unanswered for twenty-four hours. The business of replying to some letters is not finished in the Correspondence Department. When prices have to be quoted in answer to inquiries, and when the tour about which par- ticulars are sought is a long and complicated one, the reply is sent to the Accountant's Depart- ment, in order that the figures may be checked and perfect accuracy of statement ensured. There has been a marked increase of late in the applications by post for tickets, and there are many reasons in favour of this being done in pre- ference to making a personal application. Those who apply personally have to wait their turn to u 306 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVBL. be served, and they have also to wait some time before the tickets they require are selected and arranged so as to form a series ; hence, to save the time unavoidably spent in waiting, it is becoming common to make an application by letter. The extent to which this is done has rendered it necessary to establish a department for the pur- pose, the chief of it having several assistants, who have to work long hours in the busy summer months, the rule being rigidly enforced that every letter containing an order which is received before six o'clock in the evening is to be answered by return of post. From the outset of the Continental branch of the firm's business, the transmission of money in payment of its own accounts and the supply- ing of small amounts to travellers have formed a part of it. As has been stated already, this branch of the business was separated from the others in 1878. The growth of the Banking and Exchange Department has been so great since that year that the firm now acts as foreign bankers at all its important offices. The firm now issues its own circular notes and letters of credit, which are payable at its branch offices and by its banking correspondents in all parts of the world. The payment of all HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 307 reasonable sums can be effected by telegraph in every city and country in which the firm has an office. Indeed, every form of foreign banking is undertaken by Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son. Moreover, the firm is registered and acts as London bankers, receiving deposits and opening current accounts. The firm has recently ex- tended its banking department to India, and undertaken to act there as general agents for the military and civil services. The Banking and Exchange Department is entrusted to the care of Mr. E. E. Cook, the second son of the managing partner, who has a large and competent staff wherewith to con- duct the extensive business which he superin- tends. No department at the Head Office is higher or more comprehensive in its jurisdiction than that over which the Chief Accountant presides. The chief of this department has been in the firm's service for nearly twenty years, and his authority extends over the accountants and their assistants who exercise control in the offices and agencies of the firm, not only on the Continent of Europe, but also in Egypt, India, Australasia, New Zealand, and America. The reports of monthly sales of tickets and cash statements, and copies u 2 308 THE BUSINESS OP TRAVEL. of the ledger balances of every transaction, with full explanatory details, are forwarded to the Accountant's Department at the Head Office, where they are scrutinised and where the figures are audited. The amount of clerical work is very great, seeing that as many as twenty-three entries have to be made for every coupon issued at one of Messrs. Cook's branch offices. In illustration of the enormous amount of clerical work that has to be performed, suffice it to say that the account rendered by Messrs. Cook to a single European railway for the sale of tickets, during a month, involved the writing of 44,568 separate figures, which represented the numbers of the series and the class, the numbers of the tickets, the rates, and the gross value. Though the narrative in the preceding chapters chiefly deals with the firm's relation to railway companies, and of the growth of travel by rail, yet the amount of business transacted with steam- shipping companies has been important since the opening of an office in London. The firm then acted as agents for the leading lines of steamers, and the calls upon it in that capacity gradually became more absorbing. Indeed, this branch ot the business became so large that, in 1882, it was resolved to detach it from the others, and then HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 309 a separate department was constituted for the business of shipping and emigration. A gentle- man of large experience in a steam-shipping company was placed at its head. This department has an increasing volume of business to transact year after year, the advance since its establishment having been continuous. At the present time an intending passenger can obtain from it all available information respecting any notable line of steamers or sailing-ships throughout the world. He can secure a passage in any of these vessels, and, what may prove of especial service, he will obtain from the depart- ment perfectly disinterested advice respecting all lines and their boats. While the passenger who crosses the sea for business or pleasure can do so with the tickets provided by Messrs. Cook, the emigrant who expatriates himself can obtain from them the help which he greatly needs at the start. The citizen of the United Kingdom who thinks that he can better his condition by finding a new home in another land, over which the old Union Jack of his forefathers waves, or in one over which the modern Stars and Stripes are proudly upheld by an offshoot from the parent stem, has to determine how he can be carried across the 310 THE BUSINESS OF TEAATBL. ocean with the smallest demand upon his purse, and the least discomfort to his family and himself. On applying at one of Messrs. Cook's offices he can obtain all needful particulars. If he takes one ticket or more from them, he will not only be provided with the best available accommodation on board ship, but he will also be carried to the seaport at the cheapest rate, and shown where he can pass the. night, if necessary, in lodgings where he will be neither plundered nor ill-treated. Should he land at a foreign part where the language spoken is not his own, he will be met on landing by one of Messrs. Cook's interpreters, and receive as much attention as if he were a first-class passenger. ' The Shipping and Emigration Department is at the Head Of&ce in London, and is conducted by a staff specially selected for the purpose, yet business relating to it can be transacted at any of the firm's branch offices throughout the world. All the information collected at the Head Office is transmitted to the branches. It has been said that this branch is comparatively young and that it has expanded rapidly. How wide an area is covered by its operations is shown by the fact that tickets are issued by this department for steamers which run over 1,479,220 miles of water. HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 311 Owing to the firm's comprehensive arrange- ments for the conveyance of passengers by land or water over the globe, the variety of possible combinations as regards routes is as great and wonderful as that of the best permutation lock. In the case of the lock the opportunities of change amount to many thousands, and this gives security against the lock being opened by those who are not in the secret. The- combinations which can be made with Messrs. Cook's tickets represent a total of 170,000,000 miles, and thus the traveller who avails himself of them has infinite scope and variety for arranging his tour. The number of miles of railway in operation throughout the world is 360,496, and Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son supply tickets which are available over 344,739. When the first excursion train was run at the instance of Mr. Thomas Cook from Leicester to Loughborough, the distance traversed was twelve miles. The number of passengers then carried was 570. This was on the 5th of July, 1841. Fifty years have elapsed since that day of small things. The number of tickets issued during the year 1890 was 3,262,159, and to show the liberality with which travellers are dealt with it may be proper to mention 312 THE BUSINESS OF TBAVEL. the fact that holders of tickets to the value of £44,644, who from various causes, such as illness or other exceptional circumstances, could not employ such tickets, were reimbursed the full sum originally paid for them, although the conditions of the advertised announcements would have justified Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son in deducting ten per cent. To conduct their vast business in 1890, a salaried staff of 1,714 assistants was required, and 978 were employed in Egypt and Palestine during the winter months only, making a total of 2,692. The story of the rise of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, and of its progress during half a century, has now been told. A hypercri- tical reader may find it monotonous, inasmuch as it is a record of uninterrupted and ever increasing success. No narrative, however minute, can set forth the feelings which have animated the actors in great events. While the members of this firm have had many triumphs from the outset, they have won them by intense and unremitting toil. Their work has been hard to an extent which cannot be expressed in words, and if the reward be splendid, it has been dearly bought. It is a happy circumstance that the founder of HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 313 the firm has lived till its Jubilee. Though afflicted with blindness, yet in other respects he enjoys a hale old age. The retrospect of fifty years cannot be other than most gratifying to him, while the prospect of the future may well brighten his thoughts during his declining years. In looking back he can repeat, as he wrote in 1878, that the system of travel which is now so popular was originated by him, and that, to use his own words, " It was mine to lay the foundations of a system on which others, both individuals and companies, have builded, and there is not a phase of the tourist plans of Europe and America that has not been embodied in my plans or foreshadowed in my ideas." He has had many opponents and rivals ; but, when they pay him the compliment of imitating his methods, which has been pronounced the sincerest form of flattery, he has no reason to complain. Injustice would be done to him and the firm which he has founded if it were not emphatically declared that something more than the mere desire for gain has contributed to the success which has been achieved. "When he started in life he was full of what is termed the enthusiasm of humanity. He desired to be one of the world batterers at whom it is common to sneer, but who are not 314 THE BUSINESS OF TRAVEL. turned aside from their purpose by uncompli- mentary remarks. It was his beUef that the world would be a pleasanter place of habitation if all the dwellers on its surface were brought closer to- gether, and that international travel was one of the best preservatives against international wars. In his early days the mass of the people in the United Kingdom knew that part of their common country in which they were born, while the rest was as strange to them as the heart of Africa, and they knew their fellow-countrymen by hearsay rather than personal intercourse. Thus absurd notions and dangerous prejudices prevailed. These may not be extinct now, yet they have been modified by fuller know- ledge, and some of that knowledge was gained by the excursions which Mr. Thomas Cook instituted to all parts of the. British Isles and of Ireland. The children of those who journeyed with him to the English Lakes or the Highlands, to the Hebrides or the Lakes of Killarney, to the Land's End or John o' Groat's house, and were struck with the novelties which they beheld, may have travelled over the greater part of the earth's surface with tickets issued by the firm which he founded, and may have done so in as great com- fort as his excursion parties did' owing to the HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 315 system which he established and which the firm carries out. If his reflections should take the form suggested above, he could dictate many pages illustra- tive of the changes which he has witnessed since he arranged for the first excursion train in England, and first conducted a party of tourists in Egypt. One of the instances which he might cite would be from the late Laurence Oliphant's Episodes in a Life of Adventure, where he writes that, when a lad in 1841, he journeyed from England to the East by the overland route, embarked at London Bridge for Boulogne, and was driven in .a diligence from Boulogne to Mar- seilles, the time spent in the diligence being eight days and five nights. At present a passenger can leave Boulogne in the evening of one day and reach Marseilles on that of the next. Writing forty-six years after this journey, Laurence Oliphant exclaims with regard to a Nile trip: — "The morning of 'Cook' had not yet dawned, and we were stiU in a sort of twilight of ignorance and dragomans." A subsidiary part of his efforts to facilitate travel has not received the attention and recog- nition which it deserves. A holiday spent in journeying about is something more than 316 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. a pleasure trip to those whose lives are chiefly spent in a factory or at a desk. The relaxation which they enjoy may be delightful, while the gain to their health is quite as noteworthy, though less apparent at the moment. For others who are aiUng, and to whom change of air is a medi- cine far pleasanter and more effectual than any which can be bought from a chemist, the oppor- tunity of 'leaving their homes and spending a short time at a watering place or at the seaside was afforded for the first time by the system of cheap tickets which Mr. Thomas Cook devised. In the Nineteenth Century for January, 1887, in an article on Lord Tennyson's second part of Lochsley Hall, Mr. Gladstone said that in the establishment of cheap communications "Eng- land has led the World," adding in a note : — " Among the humanising contrivances of the age I think notice is due ' to the system founded by Mr. Cook, and now largely in use, under which numbers of persons, and indeed whole classes, have for the first time found easy access to foreign countries, and have acquired some of that familiarity with them, which breeds not contempt but kindness." Charles Kingsley wrote in Alton Locke that " the day will come when society will find it HOW THE BUSINESS IS MANAGED. 317 profitable, as well as just, to put the means of preserving life by travel within the reach of the poorest." Individual members of society have done what Kingsley thought that society at large might do ; the poorest can now enjoy a holiday at the seaside owing to arrange- ments made by benevolent societies or private persons ; yet, if the system of excursion trains had not been introduced by Mr. Cook, these philanthropic measures might have remained mere projects. The average duration of human life in the United Kingdom has been increased during the latter part of the present century. How much of this may have been due to the excursions and tours which were unknown before 1841 ? It has often been said, and it may often be re- peated by the unthinking, that travel serves no good purpose. It may be affirmed with equal truth that reading does not always make men happier or better. Milton wrote some beautiful lines to show that those readers of books derive the most profit who are the equals or superiors of the authors. The traveller who knows the most at starting brings back the most on returning. A man may travel round the world and be as great a fool as he was when he set out. These things are truisms. It does not follow, however, that 318 THE BUSINESS OF TEAVEL. because a man may read many books and remain a dunce, or make a long tour and remain a simpleton, that libraries are to be destroyed and travelling forbidden. For one who acquires nothing, thousands may learn much from the book or the tour. The opportunity in either case has been offered, and none can tell beforehand how great may be the benefit. It is quite possible, if not highly probable, to quote Laurence Oliphant again, that if politicians were " sent rolling about the world for a few years, they would get rid of a good deal of the dirt of party, and gather a little of the moss of patriotism." Mr. Thomas Cook can console himself for any disappointments which he has had with the thought that, on the. whole, he will leave the world a pleasanter place to travel as well as to live in. The result is largely due to him, and for this he has laid his fellow-men under a debt of gratitude. The firm which he founded, and which his son directs, has carried out his ideas. It is no exaggeration to say that the Jubilee of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son is an event of note as well as interest in the social history of the nineteenth century. THE END.