SWITZERLAND ON FIFTY DOLLARS
By Sidney A. Clark 'l2. Robert M. McBride and Company, New York.
Mr. Clark has made what seems to be a discovery. He has traveled widely in Switzerland and has noticed that the tourist resorts and hotels are, or were, filled with travelers from many countries, but that only a small fraction were Swiss. He may have asked himself, "Do the Swiss, who have done everything in their power to make available in a splendid way the beauties of their own country, find themselves forced to forego the pleasures of visiting their own lakes, climbing their own mountains, enjoying their own scenery, so expensively displayed to others?" The answer to this question he gives us in his book, Switzerland on Fifty Dollars. The Swiss, he finds, like clean rooms, when traveling as well as when at home, they enjoy good food, and they appreciate beautiful scenery. They do not care to pay high prices for these things and they do not, as a rule, frequent the hostleries that have all too often made their country an impossibility for visiting Americans, who have thought themselves obliged to forego the expensive joys of Switzerland. Mr. Clark has learned that the Swiss does tour about his own country economically and he tells us the secret.
I only wish for my own selfish reasons that this book had appeared at an earlier date for it is full of information as to how one can travel and live in Switzerland at prices that are at least comparable with those of some other European countries in which many of us in times past have felt obliged to limit our wanderings. There are places, wherever one wishes to go, which are clean and comfortable, which offer good food, and which are available at a very reasonable price—such places as it is hard to find for example in the United States. Railway tickets, properly planned, in combination with steam and bus trips, can be bought at astonishing rates, and one can get his own information very readily from the proper sources prepared by the Swiss government. This welcome news needs broadcasting to Americans, to show many of them how they can save considerable money on their next visit, and others that they can afford to make a first visit to this country which perhaps attracts more strongly than any other European region those' who are lured more by the masterpieces of Nature than of man.
The convincing statement of this opportunity seems to me the most valuable feature of Mr. Clarks book. Besides his information as to materially cheapened means of travel, he gives us much of his own valuable experience in finding the most desirable places to visit, which tempts one to weigh carefully his recommendations, for he is "choosy," and notoriety, alone, does not make him scorn or "fall for" the most popular resorts. He certainly does not give us a guide-book for the museums to be "done" or even for the mountains to be climbed, but he speaks of a country in terms of those who made it and live in it, and the pages of his very readable book show how sympathetic and observing he is of an industrious, capable and interesting people.
Armed with this book—unless I were heavily endowed and desirous of flocking with others, similarly blessed, in a fashionable round of dinners, dances and arranged tours—l should feel that I had an excellent start towards seeing a country which offers more glorious scenery in a small compass that any other European traveling ground.
For one, I am hoping that Mr. Clark will soon find the secret for giving us a book, "Norway on Fifty Dollars."
