Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-12-23
The Bondage Of the Mloh.

A correspondent of the New York
Ecening Post gives some choice bits
of hotel experience at fashionable
establishments in the great cities,
which show conclusively that the
rich who frequent these establish
ments are as much in bondage-in
their way-to the higher situation,
as are the poor to the lower. Al
Though we have not in this country
yet come to the direa modes of fierce
annoyance which distinguish the
fraternity of hotel servants in Eng
land, yet the methods adopted of ex-
tortlng fees are not less effective
here than abroad; and so it is that
while rates are so enormous consti-
tuting the regular fare at hotels,
that the proprietors of them come
nearer being millionaires and a mon
led aristocracy than almost any 9TH
er class of men who can be desig-
mated in that category, the cxtortion
is greatly aggravated by the supple
mentary fleeing which want of
effective service compels visitors to
those establishments to endure.
For instance, after showing that
every guest, almost, who enters the
hotel, is marked by the ''head wait
err as good for certain amount.
the writer in question shows how
the particular one whom he finds in
attendance behind his chair can
bring him to terms by serving him
up bad or poor dishes, or by pro-
voking delays in bringing up what
is ordered. Here is bit of exper-
icnce with the 'shead waiter" of one
establishment:
"a certain head waiter I wot Of.
who had eiyen lady choice seat
in the dinlng-roon, on being told it
would probably bring him in "V,' -
was wounded to the depths of his
tender soul by receiving from her,
some days after he had come to look
upon her with distrust as probable
impostor, two dollar note. lie
told the gentleman who had recon-
mendcd her to mercy with hope OF
reward for clemency understood)
that only the fact of his friendship
ship prevented the return Of
the note. Il should have told
her, otherwise, that the hotel paid
me- Five dollars, then, seems the
least one can tender a head waiter
for single offering. l have heard
of one who submitted to receive 50
a week during an entire season.
Sometimes as high as $40 is given
by gentlemen who wish a seat near
a particular lady. The office OF
head waiter is considered one Of
the most lucrative in a hotel. No
waiter who brings you your meals
expects less than one dollar every
few days. You will see it's influence
waning after the fourth day, and ut
terly gone after the sixth"
We remember (says an exchange)
another bit Of experience which will
do to add to this, given us by a
friend who was a Charge d'Affaires
abroad. At hotel in London, in
company with his wife, while on
his way to the continent and to the
Court to which he was accredited,
he, after couple of days soiourn
at Morley's, and about leaving, sum
moned that important parsonage
the "head waiter" and, to save
bothering himself about the herd of
small fry. handed him five guineas
(about twenty-five dollars) where
with to settle all demands of the
kind. But the waiter took the offer
almost as deadly insult. 1t was
too insignificant; and quite insulting
in turn, the waiter only escaped a
sound thrcshing by the irascible
guest, by the influence Of the wife
of the latter, who, interposing, sue
ceeded in convincing him that it
would never do for an American
diplomat to be heard of as in an al
tercation with a waiter.
SO We repeat it, if the poor have
their annoyances and trials. the rich
are not far behind them in these
things; and of all the annoyances of
life, there are certainly few worse
than for man to find himself in
bondage to set of people like the
hotel walters of the great cities.