New York and Mediterranean Steamship Line. Editorial [pp. 447-450]

STEAMSHIP COMMUNICATION.
Then we have first-class travel, an increasing source of revenue
and profit every year. So wonderful have been the improvements
in the speed and comfort of modern travel, that the desire to visit
foreign lands is encouraged by the facilities offered, and it is esti mated that twenty thousand pleasure-seekers annually leave our
shores for the gay capitals of Europe, besides the vast number
whose business connections call them repeatedly to every part of
the Continent and the East. Of late years, too, the stereotpyed
tour of London, Paris, the Rhine, the beauties of Swiss and
Italian scenery, the art of Florence, the massive grandeur of St.
Peter's anid the treasures of the Vatican, have ceased to satisfy;
and the wonderful associations of the far East, with all its wealth
of biblical, historical, and legendary lore, have attracted hundreds
of curious and intelligent travellers. That this desire to visit
scenes and places connected with the indelible lessons of earliest
childhood, is a growing one in the American mind, is demonstrated
by the late mad attempt to plant a colony in the Holy Land, and,
more reasonably, by the excursion of the "Quaker City," not
yet terminated. For this excursion it is understood each pas sengTer has paid $1,200, showing how attractive the trip must
have been considered. A fare of $150, in gold, to Malta, would
place the trip within the means of thousands who are now deterred
firom attempting it on account of the outlay; and, in view of the
low price of provisions and wines in the Mediterranean, this fare
would leave a large margin of profit to the company. Experimnents now in progress warrant the belief that petroleum will soon
be successfully. applied for the generation of steam, without
danger, and the economy of space thus assured, will add largely
to the profits of the company.
Besides first-class travel-to which the option of going out one
wray and returning another, escaping, once at least, the vexations
of English and French custom-houtses, would be a boonl —a large
immigration can certainly be relied upon. Southern Europe and
Turkey might be tapped for the benefit of the suffering South, as
Ireland and Germany have been for the benefit of the prosperous
North and West. In Spain the Bourbon yoke is borne with inmpatience; in Sicily and Calabria but few will recognize in their
rnew Savoyard sovereign a national leader, and from the industrious
peasantry of these countries, as well as from the Cretan refugees,
residing now among the penurious Greeks, large numbers might
be enlisted for the ranks of our all-absorbing Democracy.
To the South the immigration from these latitudes will have
especial value, as it will naturally seek the climate to which it
has been accustomed, and as the immigrant can at once, if he
prefers it, find profitable employment in the culture of the same
products to which he has been habituated. That part of Florida
stretching along the southern boundaries of Georgia and Alabama,
together with a large portion of the State of Louisiana, will produce figs in greater profusion than, and of superior quality to, tlhe
VOL. IV.-NO. V. 29
449