The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-05 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING; JANUARY 5, 1858,

TIEAST INDIA HOUSE. , 857.
HE COURT of DIRECTORS28xn
OCTOBER E
ND of the AST
lIA do give Notice, the Transfer
Hooks of the saidCONIPANY Company's Stockhereby will be shut onthat TUt, SDAY, the
13th of I ,ecember, at Three o'clock, and opened again on TUESDAY,
the 12th January, ISSB.
1 hat the Warrants for the Dividends on the said Stock, payable on
Ithe 6th January. 1858, under the 11th section of the Act 3d aud 4th
Win. IV , cap. 85, will be ready to be delivered on that day.

JAMES C. MELVILL, Secretary.

/FONT BLANC IS OPEN TO-NIGHT.

CIFIRISTY'A MINSTRELS, Polygraphic Hall.
ONE BIINDREO AND SIXTIETH ENTF.RTA IN-
MENT.—Nfore Novelties—Revival of the Burlesque Itallien Opera,
received. when first produced, with screams Sr laughter—New
Songs and New Puns—" Hoop de-do >den Do," nigh ly.—Evening at
8, and on Saturday morning, commencing at 3. Prices—boxes,
It. Is.; Stalls, 3s. ; Area, 25.; Back, Is.

PROFESSOR WILJALBA FMK-ELL,
hysician to their Majesties he Emperor and Empress of
Russia.— PST. JAMES'S THEATRE.— the Emperor and Empress of
Rssia.—T. JAMJS' TFIEATRE._PLIYSIC AT, and NATURAL
MAMC, without the aid of any Apparatus.—TWO HOURS OF
ILLUSlONS.—Wednesday and Saturday Afternoons at 3, and
Every Evening at 8. Stalls, is.: lalcony Stills, 45.; Boxes, 35.;
Pit, 25.; Gallery, Is ; Private Boxes, twe guineas: one guinea
and a•half; and one guinea.—Places to be secured at Mr. Mitchell's,
Royal Library, 33, Old Bond-street.

DELAIDE GALLERY, Lowther Arcade,
Strand.—Great success of M. Lamotte's Havelock Schottische,
and Grand Fantasia from "II Trovatore," ani the Nrew Caledonian
Quadrille by Charles Hill. Principal cornet-A-piston, M. Bonlcourt.
Open every evening at half-past 8. Dancing commences at 9. The
Argyll Band is to be engaged for private Balls. B. R. BRINELL, Ma-
nager.

TIR KAHN'S MUSEUM AND GALLERY
OF SCIENCE, 3, Tichborne street, facing the Haymarket ,
Programme for the Christmas Holidats : —Guenal's APP4REIL
UR NOGRAPHIQUE constantly in motion; LIVING OBJECTS
lin the large Oxv-Hydrogen ‘licroscope ; Hundreds of new Ana-
tomical models of ,a most interesting character. Lectures by Dr.
KAHN, at 3 o'clock, on the Physlol gv of Dizeation, and at 5, on the
Physiology of Reproduction; and by Dr. SEXTON, at past I, on
" the Air we Breathe ;" at 4, on the Mysteries of De Littman II AIR
rod BEARD ; and at 9, on the Wonders of Electricity ; all the Lec-
tures illustrated by' Brilliant Experiments, Dissolving Views of an
entirely new character, &c. open (for Gentlemen only) from 12 till
5 and from 7 till 10. Illustrated Hand-hook, Sixpence. Programme
Gratis. Dr. Kahn's Nine Lectures and a Programme seat post
free on the receipt of twelve stamps.

DRESS AND FROCK COATS of Superfine
Black Cloth, 21. Iss. Od. to Three Guineas. Dress Black
Trowsers, 11. ss. Od. A choice Selection in Dress Waistroatings.
Excellence with Economy.
GEORGE HOBSON, Fashionable Tailor,
57 Lombani-street.

' EDITERRANEAN EXTENSION TELE-
GRAPH COMPANY (Limited), Gresham-house, Old
Brond-street, E.C.

ag11857.
Notice is Hereby Given that the Submarine Line between3l ;`iari,
malts, or Corfu, is now open to the public for the transtni,sion ol
Messages. HENRY C . ORTON, Secretary.

THE RHINE AND GERMANY.—The
Shortest and Cheapest Route, via Rotterdam, to the Rhine
and Germany, is by THE DUTCH RHENISH RAILWAY.
Through Trains, In conjunction with these of the Cologne-Minden
Company, start three times a day.
Fifty pounds of Luggage allowed free for each passenger.
Further particulars forwarded, post ftee, on application to the
Company's London Agent, Mr. Joins C. JAtisorr, 61. Gracechurch-
street.

JIQTEL LIFE IN AMERICA.

(From the Illustrated London News.)
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 1857. —Praise the cities of
America, admire the greatness and wealth of the
country, extol the enterprise and "go-aheadativeness"
of the people, or expatiate on the glorious future before
the Republic, and there is a class of persons who reply
to your enthusiasm with a sneer, and assert that they
have " heard all that sort of thing before," and " can
stand a great deal of it" without evil consequences to
their health or indigestion. But if, on the other hand,
the stranger, in the exercise of his independent judgment,
presume to disapprove or condemn anything in the man-
ners of the people, or hint a doubt as to the perfect wis-
dom of any one of their social or political institutions,
these porcupines raise their quills, and grow exceedingly
angry. To them optimism or pessimism, or the medium
between the two, is equally listasteful. No matter how
honest may be the praise or how gentle the expression
of disapproval, they do not like it. They seem to sus
peat all praise to be a sham or a mockery, and to feel
all dispraise to be an insult and an outrage. In these
respects they differ from an Englishman, all of whom
can bear with the most patient equanimity the rubs
that would almost drive such sensitive Americans out
of their wits. It must be confessed, ho waver, that more
reflective Americans, who have seen the world and are
more assured of the strength and position in the world
3f their mighty Republic, take things more easily ;

- -
accept praise as their due, in the same generous spirit
in which it is offered ; and endealronr to learn wisdom
from the critioietn of people,tpho cross the Atlantic to
see, bear and judge for them selves. Even if they do
not agree with these critics, they have philosophy and
common sense enough to be undisturbed by it, even
when it seems to be hostile.
In describing the aspects of hotel life in New York
and in the other great cities of America, as they have
impressed me, it is possible that I may incur the dis-
pleasure of those who hold that the "thing of America"
should, like the " cosas de Espana," be kept sacred
from all foreigners, as things which they cannot under-
stand, and which they must not touch upon except
under the penalty of ridicule or misrepresentation of
motives. Nevertheless, if my judgment be imperfect,
it shall at all events be honest ; and, as regards this
particular question of hotel life, there are many thou-
sands of estimable and reflecting men and women in
America who, I feel confident, will agree with me in
the estimate I form of it.

The hotels in the great, cities of America—in New
York, Philadelphia Baltimore, Wa-hington, New
Orleans, Chicago, Boston, &c.—are conducted on a
peculiar system, and in a style of much magnificence.
The British isles possess no good caravanserais. Even
the monster Hotel de Louvre it: Paris is not to be
compared with such establishments as the St. Nicholas,
the Metropolitan, the Laffarge House, the Astor House,
and many others in New York. Some of them make
up a thousand beds ; and others from five to six and
seven hundred. The country is so immense, the
distances from point to point are so great—such as
from New Orleans to Buten, or from New York to
Chicago and the Far West ; the activity of commerce is
so incessant, and its ramifications so extensive, that a
much larger class of people than with us is compelled
by business, public and private, to be continually upon
the move. Large hotels are, therefore, of positive
necessity ; and, were they solely confined to travellers,
would deserve the praise of being, what they really are,
the finest, most convenient, and best administered hotels
in the world. It is riot their fault, that they have, in
the course of time, and by the force of circumstances,
been devoted to other uses, and that they have become
the permanent homes of families, instead of remaining
the temporary residence of strangers.
For a fixed charge of two dollars and a half a day
(about ten shillings and sixpence Euglisb) the traveller
has a comfortable bed-room, the use of a drawing-room,
dining-room, reading-room and smoking-roam, and the
full enjoyment of a liberal tariff, or bill of fare, for
breakfast, luncheon, dinner, tea, and ',upper. Two
dollars and a halt include ail charges for s-rvants and
every charge whatever that can be lively included under
the head of board and lodging, except wins, beer, and
spirits. Being well lightee with gas, there is no charge
for wax lights—that flaring pretext for extortion in
England. The cookery is in gerieral excellent. The
breakfast is bounteous, and is spread from eight o'clock
till twelve, between which hours fish, flesb, and fowl,
fresh meat and salt meat, eggs, omelettes, wheaten
bread, rye bread, corn bread,corn cakes, rice cakes and
buckwheat cakes (the last a far greater delicacy than
England can show) are liberally distributed. From
twelve o'clock to two the luncheon is spread with equal
profusion; and from two to six there is a succession of
dinners, the getting up of which, at such hotels as the
St. Nicholas, the Metropolitan, or the Astor House, would
do credit to Mr. Francatelli of the Reform Club.
As soon as dinner is over, tea commences, and as soon '
as tea is cleared away, the cloths are cleared for supper,
so that from eight in the morning till midnight there is
one continual successions !if feasts, at which Governors of
States, members of Congress, Judges, Generale, ex-
Pre-idents of the Republic, the magnates of commerce
and the law, and all the miscellaneous and lees died°.
guished public, male and female, sit down to partake.
Whether the traveller do ordo not partake is the same to
the landlord. He may eat once, twice, thrice, or all day I
long, if he please,. The price is two dollars and a half,
even if he should take all his meals abroad. If ladies and
families prefer to have apartments of their own, the
price for lodgings varies from three to five or ten dol.
tars a day, according to the extent or elegance of accom-
modation required. In like manner the board of each
individual,
supplied in a private apartment, is raised
from two and a half to four dollars per diem. The con-
sequence is that very few people board in their private
rooms, and that nearly all breakfast, dine, and sup in
public, except the very young childrer, for whose con-
venience there is a separate table d'hote.
It will thus be seen that for the travelling community
these hotels are very comfortable, very luxurious, very
cheap, and very lively. In consequence
of the great
difficuly that private families experience in procuring
cooks and housemaids in a country where menial service
is considered somewhat beeeath the digni of a native-
born America!), where service is called "help," to avoid
woubding the susceptibility of free citizens, and left 1
almost exclusively t
negroes and the newly-imported
Irish, who too commonly, more especially
the female
portion of them, know nothing whatever, or exceedingly
little of any household duties, and whose skill in cookery ,
scarcely extends to the boiling of a potato, the mistresses
of families keeping house on their own account lead but
an uncomfortable life. In England the newly-married
couple take a house, furnish it, and live quietly at home.
In the cities of America—tor the rule does not apply
to the rural districts—they take apartments at the hotel,
and live in public, too glad to take advantage of the
ready means which it affords of escape from the nuisances
attendant upon inefficient, incomplete, and insolent ser-
vice. The youn4 wife finds herself relieved from ail the
cares and miseries and responsibilities of housekeeping,
and has nothing to think of but dress,
visiting, reading,
and amusement. Brides who begin married life in
hotels often continue in them from youth to maturity
and age, without possessing the inestimable advan.
tags', and
privilege of any more secluded home. To
those who know nothing of domestic affairs, and
to those who are willing to attend to them, but cannot
procure proper leer
in their household, the hotel
system is equally well adapted. It saves trouble,
annoyance, and expense ;—but at what a cost of the
domestic amenitie- 1 Perhaps not above one-halt of the
people who daily sit down to dinner in these superb
establishments are travellers. The remainder are
permanent residents—husbands, wives, and children.
To eat in public now and then may be desirable; but
for ladies to take all their meals every day, and all the
year round, in the full glare of publicity ; to be always
full dressed ; to associate daily almost hourly—with
strangers from every part of America and of the world ;
to be, if young and handsome, the cynosure of all idle
tahtestehearteableeerdt'ehiontley or in
th
the
Englishman's mind are conducive
to the true happiness and charm of wedded life. And
apnudbl vagranti C
conditions dra VC
whichi eyes,n g-r 00 O either
a room
it is not only the influence of this slate of things upon
the husband and wife to which an Englishman objects,
but its influence upon the young children, who play
about the corridors and halls of such mansions, and
become prematurely old for want of fresh air and exercise,
and overknoeirg from the experiences they acquire and
the acquai aances which they c ntract. Perhaps fast
people may consider such objections to savour of "old
l°AmgY,isr-inc'a,;" epnedr,hatphserenfoot. T
re, strhiekessysttheemaitstepneteiounliamrotroe
forcibly than if it were common to the civilised world.
It is, doubtless, more the misfortune than the fault
of Americitn families that they live so much in this style;
for, without good servants, who know their duty, and
are not too supercilious and saucy to perform it, it is
impossible for a lady, without shortening her life and
making herself worse than a slave, to have a comfortable
and happy home, or to govern it with pleasure or advan-
tage either to herself or her family. Recently the New
the details of two scandalous caseti—one ending in a
tragedy—of New York and a Philadelphia
hotel were awned Philadelphia
th wh c
ec h newspapers have beea filled with
e s
;—and in both of which the fair
fame of ladies was sacrificed. To these painful exposures
it is not necessary to make further allusion ; but they
are so fresh in the public recollection that they cannot
be passed over, even in this cursory glance at some of
the evils attendant upon the undue publicity of female
life in such monster hotels as I have endeavoured to

describe.
To all the hotels is attached an establishment known
as the "bar," where spirituous liquors are retailed under
a nomenclature that puzzles the stranger, and takes a
long acquaintanceship with American life and manners
to become familiar with. Gin-sling, brandy-smash,
whisky-skin, streak of lightning, cock-tail, and rum
salad are but a few of the names of the drinks which are
consumed at the bar, morning, noon, and night, by
persons who in a similar rank of life in England would
no more think of going into a gin-shop than of robbing

the Bank. Fancy a gin.palace under the roof of, and
attached to, the Reform Club, and free not only to the
members but to the world without, and both classes
largely availing themselves of it to drink and smoke,
both by day and by night, and you will be able to form
some conception of the " bar" of an American hotel,
and of the class of people who frequent it. But ca►,
such a syrtem conduce to any virtuous development of
young men in this Republic ! I will not answer the
question, but leave it, and all the other questions
mooted in this letter, for the consideration of those
who desire that America should be as wise and happy
in the private relations of her citizens as she is free and
independent in her relations to the great somity of the
world. C. M.