Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-03-23
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

however, there are for the most part bat two
classes of hotels-those for the entertainment
Of folks with pockets full of money, and those
for the entertainment of tho GLASS who care
fully stow away in their pockets the odd lump
of sugar left of the quantity regularly sirved
With the cup of coffee they have paid for.
They are all alike there. That is, each one,
in the habits and appearance of its hsbituss
and employees, and in what trsnspires under
Its roof. is precisely like every other enc Of its
class
Untr svelled Americans will realize this fact,
on turning over in their minds the habits
and customs Of houses of entertainment around
them patronised exclusively by tho foreign
born, of which there are now more or less in
every American city. New York, however,
is really the city of hotels. Though it's popu-
latioA Is so much less than that of London,
We fancy that at all times more persons sleep
nightly under hotel roofs in New York than
in the mammoth transatlantic metropolis
There can hardly be less than 100000 strsr-
gers (nOn- residents Of the city, always in New
York, as nearly every body who goes away
iron home for business or pleasure takes New
York in the way.
In tie st. Nicholas and Metropolitan from
500 to 900 guests are always to be found,
changing, every man and woman of them, on an
average as often az once week. To an out
slider like ourself, the scene therein present
Cd Of noise and confusion and variety, which
il so beWilderiDg to stranger, is momentarily
anausing, next suggestive Of reflections upon
the vastness of our country's present and the
still greater promise of its future; next again
Of the vanity of all things Of this lifs-fOr
hat is no less displayed in the piteous de.
rleanor of the mendicants lettering around
he portals of these HOUSES, than in the seedy
habiliments Of tho class of decsying gentle
men who frequent sll American hotel sales
and in the buoyant countenancss of the re
Gently arrived strangers, as they emerge from
the barber-shop Of the house, after getting of
tGsir travelling boards and coats of rail-car
git and dust-taking on instead an allowance
u Phslon's last lotions. We can stand every
thing in these immense carsvansaries but their
tables; not believing in the possibility of
cooking well for half a hundred people in the
same kitchen for ten successive days. They
all do as we'll as can be dono in that line, but
an accession of one hundred guests more than
are e:.pected at the moment, " scants" every
one in some favorite dish, insures the giving
ont of cold victuals elsewhere than at the back
door, and brings down any quantity of ansth-
emas from that hardest worked class in the
world-hotel servants.
To our taste, the best hotel In New York is
the Union Place Hotel, kept by John ard
John Il. Wheeler-the later being no oth,r
than the member Of Congress of that name.
1t is of a class which is fast becoming popular
with Americans who have realized the solid
comforts of the FIRST clsEs hotels on the OH er
side OF the Atlentic-a house to accommodate
| not over two hundred guests, half of who NJ
| have private tables, wherein money can pro-
cure any and every thing that good taste, re.
| hnement and we lth combined, may desire
| The . Clarendon is another such house, fire..
| quented, however, principally by Englishmen
In such establishments everything is as quie-
1T all times as In the private residence of any
gentleman in the country. They are escbered
By the noisy, boisterces, and the splurging, 81
being wholly unsuited to their tastes and
habits. Such tables as are found there az
70 be enjoyed in no other class Of publ,
houses in northern American cities; for tb,
class Of people frequent them principally ar,
IN New York, not bent on making money, but OF
spending it. They think moro of good eati az
and drinking than any others on this side o.
the Atlantic, and to achieve their patron age
1t necessarily becomes the chief care of th,
proprietors that their appointments for theil
comfort shall be unexcep,ionable. The UDio1
| Place Hotel is, to our taste, tie model Ameri
can house. The effects of the energy and en-
phasis Of character on the part of the father
| and son, which sent the latter, hardly more
than youth in age, to the Congress of the
United States, is visible in all the appointments
aud arrangements CT the estabIishment-sys
tenn, order and exactitude being at hand, turn
which way the guest may.
When Jno. II. Wheeler was frst elected to
Congress many Of the newspapers sneered a,
the idea Of placing in such position, verJ
young man, whose previous training had beer
behind the counter Of fashionable hotel
lie proved, however, to bs a remarkably in
dustrious and attentive member, and soon 40
quired knowledge Of the details of tho real
duties required of him in his Low position, su.
perior to that of most of his fellos members
as the records of the last sessions transact on
Of bona fds Business show. One has but
to quietly observe for an hour the multfariou.
requirements made on the patience, the brain
and the decision Of character of manager Of
first class hotel in this country, to appreciate
the fact, that to be successful in that calling,
one must possess facultie, and habits of busi
ness fitting him to discharge we'll, almost any
line of duty to which buiness man may be
called in this country.
The Overland Mail to the Pacific mis-.
apprehension exists in the public mind on ibis
suh vsS