“There’s Thomas Cook’s firm overseas…” By the moment Russian poet Samuel Marshak wrote his Mister Twister, Cook’s firm had been sending bored people to travel for about a century. God willing, this extremely lucrative business was invented by Thomas Cook, a poor Baptist missionary from England. This business idea visited the worst enemy of drunkards when a railroad was built near the small town where he lived. He decided to use progress for promoting healthy lifestyle: he rent a train and organized an excursion of the members of a local temperance association to a demonstration in a neighboring town. The world tourism was born on Monday, the 5th of July 1841, to the sound of a wind orchestra, when 570 temperance adepts boarded open wagons and headed with flags in their hands to fight against the demon drink. All was included, food and an entertainment program.
