25 AUGUST 1900, Page 23

EUROPEAN TRAVEL FOR WOMEN.

European Travel for Women. By Mary Cadwalader Jones. (Macmillan and Co. 4s. 6d.)—Reading this book makes one long to set out on a journey. It is not a guide-book in the ordinary sense of the word, but it is full of practical advice intended for women travailing alone, and even the stay-at-home reader will get a good deal of pleasure out of it. In the chapter about England it is curious to see how things that seem to us as a matter of course strike an American. For instance, there is a paragraph on our way of taking luggage by train, which the author thinks has some advantages over the "check system." The facility of getting about London in cabs and omnibuses is also pointed out as one of the advantages of England. This chapter is summed up in the following words :—" If you love the old country—which you will find out after you have been there a few days—in every corner there will be something to attract you, and you will feel that nowhere else do sea and sky 'so enclose infinite riches in a little room.'" The chapters on France, Germany, and Italy are full of practical advice, and given in such a pleasant and interesting way that the reader is sure to remember it. There are lists of books relating to each country, which should be of great use in helping people to choose appropriate literature for their travels, and at the end of the book there are " some useful phrases " in English, French, Italian, and German, and also a list of " some terms used differently in America and in England." We will finish the notice of Miss Jones's pleasant book by quoting her advice to travellers :—"Remember, when you go to a strange country, that its inhabitants have not sent for you ; you go among them presumably of your own accord, and their manners and customs cannot possibly seem stranger to you than yours do to them.

Differences of usage often seem much greater than they really are ; what strikes you as wrong or uncommon is in reality, for that particular place, correct and normal; therefore, you should try to compel yourself to look at things, in so far as you can, from the point of view of the average citizen of the place where you may happen to be."