Due West; Or, Round the World in Ten Months
Public-domain ebook
Due West; Or, Round the World in Ten Months
Language: en4,634 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Travel Writing
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #28222.
About this book
The work is a nineteenth‑century travelogue that chronicles a ten‑month circumnavigation undertaken in 1882 by a small party of American and British tourists, organized through Thomas Cook & Son. The opening pages set out the author’s purpose, to convey the “great and varied pleasure” of seeing the world firsthand, while contrasting the “clear, direct vision” of practical travelers with the more poetic, imaginative observer. From the outset the narrative offers a systematic itinerary, beginning with a transcontinental train journey across the United States, a detailed description of Niagara Falls, and a series of observations on the landscapes, towns and customs encountered along the way. The table of contents maps the route through Japan, China, Ceylon, India, Egypt and the Mediterranean, promising a series of “pen‑and‑ink sketches” of many lands.
Written in a formal, descriptive prose typical of Victorian travel literature, the voice combines factual reportage with occasional lyrical asides, reflecting the era’s belief that travel both educates and refines the mind. The style is earnest, occasionally opinionated, and rich in geographic and cultural detail, making it appealing to readers who enjoy immersive historical voyages, scholars of 19th‑century exploration, and anyone fascinated by the way early tourists interpreted distant cultures before the age of mass tourism.
Who appears in Due West
- Maturin M. BallouMiddle‑aged Victorian gentleman, dark hair, trimmed moustache, frock coat, bowler hat, leather travel boots
- Thomas CookElderly Victorian businessman, silver‑threaded waistcoat, pocket watch, spectacles, neatly groomed beard, top‑hat
The opening · free to read
PREFACE.
To circumnavigate the globe in our day is only a question of time and money, the facilities being ample, and the inducements abundant. Intelligently and successfully to consummate such a purpose is an education in itself. The tourist will find all previous study enhanced in value by ocular demonstration, which imparts life and warmth to the cold facts of the chroniclers, besides which a vast store-house of positive information is created which time cannot exhaust. Perhaps the majority of travelers see only that which comes clearly before them; but this they do most faithfully, being possessed of a stronger sense of duty than of imagination. The clear, direct vision of such people has its merit. There are others who both see and feel, to whom the simplest object in its suggestiveness may be full of beauty. It is the latter who pluck delightful mysteries out of travel; and who, after viewing nature, it may be in her calmest moods, bring away with them upon the tablets of memory a Claude Lorraine. The eyes will operate automatically, but it is of little avail unless one exercises the observing power; then they become luminous. You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you, says Joubert. If the author succeeds in imparting to the reader but a share of the great and varied pleasure he realized in the ten months of travel herein recorded, his object in transcribing these experiences will have been fully consummated.
M. M. B.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE Synopsis of the Journey.--Crossing the Continent.--A Great Midland City.--Utah and the Mormons.--The Sierra Nevada.--San Francisco.--A Herd of Sea-Lions.--Possibilities of California.--The Love of Flowers.--Public School System.--Excursion to the Yosemite.--An Indian Stronghold.--Description of the Valley.--Passage of the Mountains.--Caught in a Snow-Storm.--A Forest of Feathers.--The Mammoth Trees of California.--Passing the Golden Gate.--Voyage across the Pacific.--A Lost Day 1
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