While it is true that the great tide of travel, like the “star of
empire,” is ever westward, and the iron-bound highways leading toward
the setting sun are the channels through which this current surges with
ever-increasing volume, yet like those of the ocean, this tide has its
ebb as well as flow. The business relations which exist between the East
and the West render necessary a constant intercommunication, which of
itself is sufficient to account for much of the returning travel. In
addition to this, the social relations also exert their influence. The
man who “went West” to make his fortune desires to revisit the home of
his youth on the Eastern hillside. Perhaps his children, who have grown
up on the prairies, wish to see the hills and valleys so often described
by their parents, and contrast the almost boundless expanses of the
“great West” with the rugged mountain scenery and the rocky farms, where
unceasing toil, coupled, perhaps, with honest poverty, laid the
foundation for sterling integrity, which the ease and freedom of Western
life have not served to obliterate.
The attractions of the natural scenery of the East are of themselves
sufficient to call to them annually thousands of tourists, who,
independently of the causes already mentioned, occupy their “summer
vacations” with an Eastern tour simply for the enjoyment of the
attractions presented in the way of pleasant routes of travel, and the
scenery to be enjoyed on the way or at the objective point of the
journey.
With a view of meeting the wants of this great and constantly increasing
class of excursionists, this work has been written. It is designed to
point out the most desirable routes between Chicago and the Eastern
seaboard, and to serve as a book of ready reference by the way. The
lines of travel chosen are such as will give the tourist the most
favorable opportunities for visiting the celebrated summer resorts _en
route_, and secure the advantages of palace coaches, dining cars, quick
transit, and sure connections,--considerations which combine to make a
journey enjoyable, and by means of which a trip becomes a luxury as a
means as well as an end.
The descriptions are made simple and practical, and with no effort to
impart a roseate hue to the scenes described, but with a view to aid the
tourist in “seeing with his own eyes” the beauties of landscape or other
scenery from the most favorable points of observation, and discover for
himself the things too often seen only through the medium of the guide
book.