Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-06-03
EVENING STAR,
THACKERAY UPON AMERICAN HOTEL
LIFE
The following is the description of the st.
Nicholas Hotel, New York, furnished by
Thackeray for Dickens Household Words.

The following is the description of the st
Nicholas Hotel, New York, furnished By
Thackeray for Dickens Household Words:
The Saint Boblink House is o mighty edi
| fee Of pure white marble. Saint Boblink i,
much too noble a saint to be canonized in
compo. The windows sparkle like gems in q
queens diadem, and seem as numerous as the
facets in crystal. Wide yswning is the door
way countless are the columns; lofty and
aerial the balconies; vividly verdant the veran-
dahs; and high above the topmost balustrade q
| floats, self assentingly In the air, the great
| banner of the stars and stripes. This is q hotel
| with vengeance; but run not away with the
| impression that it is unique-a solitary mon
| ster, like the Sphinx, the Grand Hotel du
Louvre, or the Great Western Hotel, Padding
ton. 1t has brothers and cousins and children
as capacious, if not more so than itself on
| either side, and up and down, as far as the
| eye can reach in the great transatlantic Boule-
vard-the Parvarer House, the ST. Hominy
House, the Golden Gate House, the AmaIga-
| mated Squash Hotel, and other big sounding
| hostelries. The st. Boblink is vast eating
end drinking factory an eastern caravanse-
raj opened by American enterprise an Em-
peror's palace let out in room lots at three
dollars day; Vatican for voyagers
People say that there are above two thou
sand rooms in that same Vatican. 1 should
not like to bet; but, to guess from the aordes
Of travellers that the st. Boblink gives shelter
to, it would really seem as though his holiness
the Pope had the smaller house of the two.
The ear of man has not heard how many the
st. BOblink would accommodate at a pinch
and no one Is In position to dispute the boast
of Washington Mush, its landlord, now tray-
cling in Europe with a secretary, a courier, a
tutor, governess, and two ladies' maids for
his family,) that he could take the whole of
in 10 kno d LnI. =
for the British House of Lords, if they felt in
clinsd to come over and see the workings of
the American Constitution, and find, without
much trouble, shake downs into the bargain
for the House Of Commons.
You may have rooms, and suites Of rooms,
at the st. Boblink at sliding scale of prices.
If you are inclined to do the SardanapaIus,
you can revel In splendor, and ruin yourself
II you like; but if you are but a simple, SEN
sible, single traveller, who has travelled per-
haps twelve hundred miles with no more lug
gage than valise or a scanty carpet bag you
may board and lodge and enjoy your thou
sandth share of all the luxuries in this hotel
palace for the moderate sum Of three dollars,
or twelve shilling and sixpence per diem.
There are even cheaper and not much less
splendid hotels-but the ST. BOblink is a first
chop-sn A One house.
For your three dollars day you have the
run Of all the public apartments, a noble bill
lard room, where you may win or lose dollar
bills OF or to exoitabls Southerners and Sena-
tors in want Of excitement, to your hearts
content; reading rooms, where the ten thou
sand newspapers of the Union, all printed on
the largest paper in the smallest possible type,
are spread on the green baixe tables; smoking
rooms, where you may taste the flavor of real
Havanas, or luxuriate in the mastifcstion of
the fragrant cloak rooms; lavatories, CONVEX
sation parlors and lOunging balconies don't
know whether they have fitted up a whiting
room at the Saint Boblink yet, but dare saw
that convenience will be added to the estab-
lishment on the return of Washington Mush,
Esquire, from Europe. At the same time,
perhaps, it would be as well to erect an apart
ment devoted to the national pastime of ex-
pectOratlon. At present, for want of special
location, the whole palace is one huge spit
tOOn, which is incOnvenient to foreigners
The bar room of the Saint Boblink may be |
initiated, but it can never be equalled in Eu- |
rope. No efforts of plastic art, of upholstery |
ingenuity, Of architectural cunning, of IL |
censed victualling cunning could produce such |
a result as is here apparent. The green vel |
vet spring couches, with carved oak arm rests, |
that ardully invite you to lounge; the mar
BILE mantelpieces and stove tops that seem to |
say, seductiyely, Come raise your heels
above the level of your head, and show the
European stranger a row of chevaux de frisc |
ty marble and bronze tables transatlantic re-
miniscences of Partisan cafes); arabesaued |
gas burners; the cut glass looking glasses, |
gilt frames and Venitian blinds the splendid
crous commercial advertisements that so wor-
thily usurp the place of stupid high art pic !
lures and engravings-fOrw who would not rather |
see " Fits, hts, fits, in chrome Hthography,
or "D Doctor Turnipseed's medicated mangel-
wurzel," or the Patent Heracleidan De- |
tective Padlocks,'' sumptuously framed and |
glazed, than Sir Edward Landseer's Deer |
stalking" or the Queen after Winterhalter?
But do the bar of the st. Boblink injustice
There are some engravings. The massive
head of Daniel Webster frowns upon the sher-
ry cobler drinkers; proudly lin a print in
the muddy Mississippi, defiant of snags and
sawyers, steams along the Peleg Potter steam
er, huge, hurricane decked, many portholed,
high pressured and hideous-her engines work. |
ing in sight, as if her boilers were impatient
to burst, and had come up from the engine |
room to see how many passengers there were |
before bursting
Then there is grand view of the palace it. |
self-the st. BOblink-as large as life lat least |
on the scale of half an inch to the foot lith-
ographed by Messrs SaxOny and Mayor. The |
bar-roOm has almost made me forget the bar |
itself; though surely one visit to it is sufficient
to stamp it on our remembrance forever
There. on that great marble field of Bacchus,
are sold the most delicious thirst quenchers in |
the two hemispheres. 1t is not necessary that |
should enumerate them. The names at least |
of egg noggs, juleps, brandy smashes, timber |
doodlss, and stone fences are known in Eu- |
rope. There are already several buffets in |
Paris where you can be supplied with the cool |
and cunning drink known-whereof / am ig- |
fiscal agent The bar keeper is
a scholar and gentleman, as well as an ac-
complished artist, captain Of a fire company,
and, believe, a man of considerable prop
erty, and has unapproachable skill in COM
pounding and arranging these beverages, and
making them not only exquisite to the taste,
but delightful to the view. His drinks are
pictures. See that tall tumbler, gracefully
proportioned and elegantly chased. See |
through its pellucid walls and artfully chis- |
sled blocks Of purest ice, the frozen powder |
at the top; the crispinches, spear, arrow, hal |
bert headed, that cling about the rim like |
bronze scrolls on a bulb cabinet. See the |
blessed liquor within, ruddy, golden, or orange |
tawny, dancing in the sunlight, sparkling In |
the CLASSY depths, purling through assures. |
ripIino fhr0nOh the int af fha nj