The Business of Travel; A Fifty Years' Record of Progress (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 Excerpt: ...Cook penned by the way. He made his countrymen understand 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 conclusion at which he arrived was that he had learnt with perfect accuracy the best way round the globe, had familiarised himself with what was to be met with on the road, and had ascertained the most convenient means of transport, and the fitting 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 educate those who took part in it. His hope was that a tour round the world would prove an educational 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 i...