Washington sentinel., 1856-05-24
HOTEL LIFE.

The subjoEed description of hotel life is
| truthful it shadows, however, but dimly the
many evils inseparable from hotel residence
Few ladies, very few, can long reside in hotel
without disadvantage Wecommend to fathers
and husbands what the Writer Of the suboined
letter says Of this life in hotels:
N. York Hotels Bad "Homes" for Women.
| From the New York Correspondence of the
Boston Transcript
| There is one feature of Gotham life which
| quite astonshes foreigners, and leads to much
critical remark-the gregarious, extravagant
and cosmopolitan existence which so many
families lead in hotels. The convenience of
such establishments in a city overstocked with
floating population, is indsputable. To the
| casual visitor and the man of business, who
desires merely food, lodging, and place to
hail from, the better class Of New York hotels
afford more luxury and comfort than it is prac-
ticable to obtain at the same expenditure of
| time and money in the European capitals. But
! these legitimate uses of hotels have been
| trenched upon here by the increasing custom
of families to make them permanent abodes;
and the effect upon manners, social life, and
| individual character, are too remarkable to
escape observation.
The Ango-Saxon mind instinctivey appre-
ciates the value Of home, a doncil, place
of retirement That "every mans house is
| his castle and that "there's no place like
home" are formulas of proverbal philosophy,
which, under the hotel regime of America, are
likely 10 lose all significance. 1t is quite true
that lady or gentleman, in the conservative
and English sense of the term, maintain in a
public house the same rigorous selErespect, the
same dignihed yet urbane isolation, which en-
virons them in private life To the high toned,
the refined, and the intelligent. "a promiscuous
crowd affords no scope for undue familiarity,
nor interferes with good manners or individual
propriety; but there is an immense class of
hali-formed, partially people among
us, with no fixed principles of conduct, yet with
many good qualities and latent aspirations, to
whom the fashionable hotel is the worst posi-
| BILE school.
lake, for instance, a woman brought up in
one of our New England or Western towns of
| good parentage, some culture, and decided at
fractions; you have the germs of superior
character. Choice society, retirement, life
of tranquil Improvement would develop the bud
into consummate flower. Perhaps such
| girl marries business man, who brings her to
a New York hotel of the first class For the
first time she is exposed to an eptome of the
| great world daily she is seated beside foreign
adventurer or an old coquette. The rude aud
the gentle, the pleasur-seeker and the specua-
tor, the politician and the trader the vulgar
and the cultivated-al mingle in the sphere of
| her daily life. Having no housekeeping TO
| attend to, time hangs heavily on her hands;
she loiters in the drawing-room, and chats on
the staircase; she dresses elaborately for stran-
gers eyes; partly from curiosity and partly
| from ennui she meets halfway advances to an
| acquaintance, and before the winter is over is
on familiar terms with scores of people of
whose antecedents she knows nothing, and
whose companionship fritters away her time,
and begets love Of admiration which finally
becomes as requisite an excitement as alcohol
TO the inebriate. This feeling grows less and
less fastidious; and exacts more in quantity
than quality; emulation feeds it; to ou,do the
others of her sex in the house, and collect the
largest circle retain the greatest beau, is the
goal of her ambition she soon forgsts how to
blush, and learns to talk loud, loses all charm
for the refined and intelligent, and prides her
self upon being fast. When some country
cousin or early friend meets her unexpectedly,
it is difficult to believe she is the same person
known of yore-so completely is the down rub.
bed off the peach, so wholly is the original in.
terest of character evaporated. To unsex
sweet ard modest girl, there is no quicker pro-
cess than unmodi6ed hotel life in Gotham.