The Portland daily press., 1864-08-17

TO secure any room which, though pre- en-
gaged, may De unclaimed. They know tha
this pre-engaging business Is mere pretence
and that there are generally vacant rooms af
Ter the demands OF the car passengers are
satisfied. Such transactions occur particular
~ when there Is great crowd on the boats.
THE DINNER NUISANCE.
Not only on the Hudson River boats, but
on other lines, such as the Bridgeport, the
New Haven-indeed on all the lines where
meals are given-occur such scenes as this:
Gong sounds. Great rush. Modest man
the subscriber, for iustanee-flnds no seat.
"Room at next table, sah,' says our colored
master, the waiter. You wait an hour, hang
ing miserably around the door, and looked
upon by che walters very much as the attend
ants of Dives must have looked upon Laza-
rus.
After long fast you are allowed to come to
the table aud eat from halfwashed plates on a
soiled table-cloth.
"Water, let me have some chicken"
Chicken, sab! all gone, sab! Fust table"
7 "Well. then, beef"
"Beef! none left, sab ~
"Give me an omelette."
mo omelette, sab! Only enough for fust
table"
Have you -any blackberries ?" This as
last resort.
"Blackberries, sab No, all out"
DID the iust table leave anything at all?p
"oh yes, sab Coffee, tea, bread, butter and
smoked beef"
So you make meal off of these miserable
wrecks oil matter, paying therefor full price.
This experience turns you into rude, greedy
savage, and when on the next boat the first
tap OF the dinner gong is heard you rush
down stairs like half starved madman de-
termlned to be at the "iust table,
CARPING ABOUT CARS.
Ihe steamboats, are by no means alone gull
ty. The railroad cars have also their obnox-
ious features.
One of the most prominent is the keeping a
car locked when crowd Of passengers get ON
at way station. You rush 10 the spot, but
cannot open the door, and are forced into a
hot, sitting car already well filed, and with
only few vacant seats, invariably on the
sunny side. Often a wretch of a Cerberus in
heshape oil brakeman triumphs in your dis
eomhture, or with yindictive insolence grabs
hold OF you while trying TO open the door
with mingled menace and boast:
Look out what you're about there Come,
now. go in the other car! You can't come
that, you know" ending probably with an
indignant oath; the while small boys gaze up-
on you as on a criminal in chains.
OF other minor unpleasant car features are
the Windows that won't slide up; the women
that want two or three seats to themselves,
and are very scowlng when you suggest that
their bandboxes can better sit on the floor
than you can yourself; the windings of the
road which ever render .'the shady side"
matter of doubt; the dark rumbling covered
bridges to which an allusion was made some
weeks ago.
THE HOTELS.
Hotels are not above the petty meannesses
and extortions of the boats and cars. At the
leading hotel at Springfield, Massachusetts,, a /
man may go-it is my own experience-aud
take room; hotel rates. SO day; room fifth /
story; walls adorned with cobwebs, and varie-
gated with tobacco juice. Expostula,ioa with
clerk-regrets that 1--WE are so full.' Indig-
nant traveller takes his valise and will 1eave. 4
Clerk reients, and now remembers that there 1
's a room occupied by a gentleman who may
not return tonight. You may take that.
Now, it is fact, that in the principal hotels
on our routes of travels the meanest rooms are
the first offered to early guests. Then come
.he second-rate rooms, while the best ones are
kept ior noted characters, prominent poliii- /
Clans, or friends of the landlord. This 4 no 4
conjecture, but the truth, as confessed by a I
gushing employee OF one ofthese hotels. OfLen /
the best rooms are not used at all, while trav-
eilers who at home are accustomed to cleanli- i
ness and comfort are thrust into dirty, cob Z
for such accommodations the full prices os,en-
slbly asked for the good rooms. Let the trsv-
eiler, then, who is offered these wretched rooms
make fuss" and he will find that a change
will be made; aud let him never be anxious
about "the gentleman who is away tonight"
Such creatures are myths.
THE REASON WHY.
IL is notorious that hotel clerks, steamboat
clerks, railroad employees, and the forbiddng
females who attend refreshment stands-all l
persons who have the public In their power
are curt, insolent, disagreeable. Like the peo-
pie Ia the circumlocution office, they view the I
public as Mighty Beast OF burden 10 be con-
stantly repressed, beaten back and snubbed. 4
This appears to be the inevitable result OF 4
welding little brief authority. Tyranny is /
inheren: in human nature. The same spirit is /
peculiarly exemplifed in the present military
age, when, for instance, a crop of ignoranuy I
despotic provost-marshals and smilarc creatures
OF the day is sprlnging up like weeds.
To these petty despotisms the Public, which
in the main is a sort ofbig. mild. modest, blum
dering, cumbersome, soft hearted, broken
down, well-ta old Elephant, submits with
the most lazy indifference. 1t eats refuse food
II fees walters for bringing it, il is snubbed and
lied to by officials; il sleeps wherever IL may
be ordered; it pays literally, and when the /
yoke chafes little too much, il grumbles for
ten minutes-perhaps swears-and again sub.
mlts to its tyrants, the eolored walters, the
brakemen, the hotel folks, and any one else /
who chooses TO abuse 1t.
Under such a state of things, there is but /
one fact TO be remembered by such individual 1
members of the travelling public as may de- /
sire decent treatment. Be mild, modest and 4
retiring, and you will be snubbed. aud swind- I
led and cheated. BE nrm and dsagreeable, /
and you will be treated with respect and enjoy /
comfort. Show bold face to the tyrants of 1
the travelling routes, and, like all their race, |
they will prove TO be towards. "Resst the |
devil, and he will flee from you.-[N. Y. Eve.
Post.