The American patriot., 1855-04-28
Rudeness in Hotels, on Railroads and
Steamboats,, ".i" -

N |
The following pungent truthful portraiture
of the rudeness and i'll manners of thousands
Of persons on our public conveyances and in
hotels are extracted from the pages Of Harper's
Magazine, for February, 1866, and we hope the
perusal Of the same may be serviceable to those
who are culpable: s F.rye s f
IT like to hear the American citizen arriving
in public hotel after midnight. Ding-dong,
ting-ling, 60 all the bells, and his tongue wags
in loud talk. He stamps along the corridor to
his room. Bang goes the democratic door. 1t
opens again, and slam 60 the free and indee
pendent boots of the American citizen, thun-
dering through the corridor, and bang goes
the door again. OF course he has perfect
right It is his hircd room. He pays two dol
lars, or two and half dollars day for it, and
being his room for the time, where can a man
slam his door and whang his boots down, if
not in his own house? It is part Of the inal-
ienable rights Of man to make noise in a
hotel. OF course other men have no inaliena-
BILE right. Because you have arrived late, and
I am to leave early, have no inalienable right
to my quiet sleep. The truth is, that man
who thunders along hall, and slams boots
and doors after midnight, is an unmannerly,
indiscreet fellow, who never should be admit
ted into hotels at all. ..H D.. .Ho.
And if it is not democratic to lay your boots
out softly, and to steal silently by the doors Of
sleeping. men then let it be aristocratic, or
despotic, or whatever you please, but let us
have that, and omit the rights of man till morn
ing. Good manners, thoughtfulness, and con-
sideration Of others, are manly and Christian,
whatever they are not, and the brawling noise
of an American is a constant reproach upon
American manners" .-
In another place he speaks Of. persons in rail
cars in the following strain:
~ like to hear the democratic American,
with his legs over as many seats as he can sub
ject to chem, with his underwriting hands and
loud. wagging tongue, declaim through his nose
at the despotic governments which pretend to
be paternal, and in the pauses of his splitting
and snatches Of negro songs, reviling state
of society of which he has never had any ex-
pericnce. .--.-
"Suppose you are an American citizen, and
belong to the biggest and most braggadocio
country in the world, does that give you any
right to assail my boots with your saliva, my
ears with your bowling Of vile songs or Of OBJ
scene oaths, and my sense Of decency with
general disgust? Because you are an Ameri-
can citizen, must you cease to be gentleman
Because you are an American citizen, must
you fling apple-parings against hot iron stove
and fill small, close car with horrid odors !?
Because you are an American citizen must you
laugh and whistle and sing as if you were in a
desert? Can't American citizens sit up straight
and talk without slang or swearing? Can't
an American citizen cat the peel of his apple
or, if he doesn't like it, throw it out Of win
dow? Must an American citizen when he has
throw it under the stove or on the floor and
make very loud and very poor jokes at the. ex-
pense Of the boy who sold it? Above ALL can
not an American citizen refrain from eating
rank cheese in hot cars dropping the crumbs
to be smashed and slipped over, until, with
cheese and apple parings and peanuts and bad
pies wasting under the stove, and a copious IL
baton of tobacco juice such fetid steam
possesses the car, that he is brave man who
reaches the next inviting station without an
oath or a headache?"
The REIGN OF ART.-In this wonderful age,
art lays her master touches on almost every
thing The ceilings over us and the carpets
we tread on, are hallowed by art. Art winds
the railway through the mountains and the
mud; makes her machines of wood and iron,