Back in his day, or in Mark Twain's, who's similar quote is being ripped off here, traveling meant seeing different types of White people, with unique White cultures. If you had the funds to go somewhere really exotic, you could also see colonial browns being propped up and forced to act civilized by their White rulers, or sometimes even see the smarter nons doing their best to imitate Whites, like the nips did. The reality of the lesser races wasn't as in your face back then.