=LADIES TRAVELING ALONE IN EUROPE=

Europeans can not possibly understand how any lady of social position can be without a maid.  A lady traveling alone, therefore, has this trifling handicap to start with.  It is a very snobbish opinion, and one who has the temerity to attempt traveling all by herself has undoubtedly the ability to see it through.  She need after all merely behave with extreme quietness and dignity and she can go from one end of the world to the other without molestation or even difficulty—­especially if she is anything of a linguist.

In going from one place to another, it is wiser to write as long as possible ahead for accommodations—­possibly giving the name of the one (if any) who recommended the hotel.  But in going far off into Asia or other “difficult” countries, she would better join friends or at least a personally conducted tour, unless she has the mettle of a Burton or a Stanley.

=MOTORING IN EUROPE=

Motoring in Europe is perfectly feasible and easy.  A car has to be put in a crate to cross the ocean, but in crossing the channel between England and France, no difficulty whatever is experienced.  All information necessary can be had at any of the automobile clubs, and in going from one country to another, you have merely to show your passports at the border properly vised and pay a deposit to insure your not selling the car out of the country, which is refunded when you come back.

Garage charges are reasonable, but gasoline is high.  Roads are beautiful, and traveling—­once you have your car—­is much cheaper than by train.

Once off the beaten track, a tourist who has not a working knowledge of the language of the country he is driving through, is at a disadvantage, but plenty of people constantly do it, so it is at least not insurmountable.  With English you can go to most places—­with English and French nearly everywhere.  The Michelin guide shows you in a little drawing, exactly the type of hotels you will find in each approaching town and the price of accommodation, so that you can choose your own stopping places accordingly.

“And etiquette?” you ask.  There is no etiquette of motoring that differs from all other etiquette.  Except of course not to be a road hog—­or a road pig!  People who take up the entire road are not half the offenders that others are who picnic along the side of it and leave their old papers and food all over everywhere.  For that matter, any one who shoves himself forward in any situation in life, he who pushes past, bumping into you, walking over you, in order to get a first seat on a train, or to be the first off a boat, any one who pushes himself out of his turn, or takes more than his share, anywhere or of anything—­is precisely that sort of an animal.

=ON A CONTINENTAL TRAIN=

Europeans usually prefer to ride backwards, and as an American prefers to face the engine, it works out beautifully.  It is not etiquette to talk with fellow passengers, in fact it is very middle-class.  If you are in a smoking carriage (all European carriages are smoking unless marked “Ladies alone” or “No smoking”) and ladies are present, it is polite to ask if you may smoke.  Language is not necessary, as you need merely to look at your cigar and bow with an interrogatory expression, whereupon your fellow passengers bow assent and you smoke.