National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1870-11-18
Feeling Hotel Walters.

Ee'iHs hutNi NHi'iN'
A New York paper takes up the matter
of fleeing walters of watering place
hotels, and discusses it at length. He
says -
Is your breakfast served to you
promptly, your steak tenderloin and
brought in hot, and your egg exactly TO
your taste Then it is very stingy Of
you not to be willing to reward the hand
which has thus provided for your wants.
Surely you cannot leave the table with
out offering vour attentive waiter some
thing. But how much is the question,
and you wish as many have done before
you that some specific charge were made
in your bill for such favors. Your waiter
smirks and bows, pulls out your chair
with lofty grace inclines his ear benignly
as you give your orders, and is off in
stantly to execute your behests. Snail
you not show your appreciation OF his
willingness to serve or shall You think,
" am paying here FIVE dollars per day
for my board and lodging ought not
that to include after dance Of every kind
and the best the bill of fare offers at
table ? Do hotel-keepers underpay their
servants, expecting the guests to make
up the deficit or do they pay full price,
and will they insist, if complaint is made,
on proper attention being paid every
guest, with or without fees ?" Suppose
you try living in a hotel on that principl
Suppose you make up your mind not to
pay anything beyond the stated price
asked for board, and see how you fare.
You will find your smiling waiter has
the most extraordinary delays in the
kitchen, your favorite articles of diet
will be /" all ont before you come to the
table, even if you are on time, and after
waiting from half to three quarters of an
hour for meal, you will have your po-
tatoes served cold, coffee an undrinkahle
wash, and meat stringy.
In every frst-class hotel kitchen you
may take it for granted poor food is to
/ be found by an enterprising waiter for the
subiugation of a refractory guest, Depend
upon it an educated waiter knows how
to bring his man to bay. Moreover, he
does not scruple to discuss with othe,
walters in your hearing at the back OF
your chair the harvest he expects to reap
or insinuate if you have not come t.
terms of what he is being defrauded
He will say aloud that he would like t,
go to another table, "there's not none,
enough at this" You feel absolutely a
if you were maltreating the man, and h
ga poor servant too" How can you ?
The head waiter has his mode of re
senting neglect. If you are new to hote
life. and are not informed as to the pre-
else right head waiter has to expec
anything of you, he will soon make yo,
aware of his official existence. He vii
come to you and tell you he must chang
your seat, that "a party" engaged you
place week before you came, and ha
now arrived and must have it. If yo1
submit, you are moved to a less comfort
able part of the room. The head waite
has been studying you for some time
that's part of his business-and he know
you suffer with neuralgia, and can
stand draught. so straight into one yol
go, until such time rs discipline has per
fected YOU in the grace of giving. If yol
understand him at first, and slip some
thing in his ever-open palm, the party
will inevitably find convenient accommo
dations elsewhere.
The chambermaid, too, has her method
She knows you like your room to b.
cleaned early, and she puts it off ever.
day until the last. In vain you remon
strate words without money are waste'
breath, and if you wish to use your room
you must do so with an unmade bed ant
untidy washstand confronting you. Pay
ing every one who comes near you, unde
whatever pretence of service, becomes
necessity, and the uninitiated often wisl
n standard scale of fees could be estab
lished, because without it one often find
ones self insulting some dignitary