The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-24

handed to him. Il is given simply in the
round sum, with no items, and he is expected
to pay it, asking no questions. The charge
is SO much per diem for board and lodging,
without wine (Which is not much used at an
American hotel table,, and there are no
extras. And here comes in o popularity of
the system. The days charged begin with
, the first dinner or supper eaten after arrival,
and the departing guest who rises from his
dinner at o'clock, and leaves the hotel soon
after z, must pay for the tea which was served
at the last-named hour, he being then still in
the house.
''For the traveller who is blessed with a
good appetite the system of paying fixed
price per diem has its advantages; he can
have five substantial meals day, the hghtest
of which would more than satisfy hungry
laborer. But the more delicate eater; the
man who has hosts of friends desirous of
showing him true American hospitality; the
rich man, whose physician has forbidden
him any but the simplest food; all these suffer
the disadvantage of being obliged to pay for
just so much whether they have had it or not,
since they might have had it if they had
chosen. The rough farmer who comes to the
city once year, and takes his fill of luxuri-
GUS fare for a twelvemonth at that time, and
the ethereal young lady who scarcely touches
what is set before her, pay the same price for
their dinner.
Gas long as money is so easily made and SO
lavishly spent in America, the present hetel
system will hardly change, especially as the
fundamental principle of true republicanism
is that every one must be on an equal footing
with the best in the land. The genuine
American must have plenty of money when
he travels, and for this money he wishes to
tread upon the softest of carpets, to be sur
rounded by mirrors and costly furniture, to
sit down to table loaded with the delicacies
of the season. At home he is quite content
with pork and beans, or cabbage and pota-
toes, and is accustomed to eat in his shirt
sleeves. No sooner does he go upon jour-
ney, however, than he arrays himself in what
he considers the attire of q gentleman, and is
far more particular as to his food and drink,
and more imperious in his tone to the walters
at the hotel, than his digni6ed neighbor who
comes from his country seat on the Hudson
or his sugar plantation on the Mississippi.
cit must be confessed that according to
American ideas their hotels are models of
perfection. Built of white marble, with
lavish interior adornment, the wide halls and
staircases leading to a succession of richly
furnished apartments, these hotels astonish
even the hdbStue of Fenton's or Mivart's in
London or the Grand Hotel in Paris. The
luxury of the table exceeds all European ideas
of such matters, yet the preparation of single
| dishes is often unsatisfactory, which can
| hardly be wondered at when the number of
| guests served at once is considered. But
what strikes the stranger as most remarkable
is the variety and richness of the desserts,
consisting of every kind of pastry and pud-
ding and an abundance of the best fruits of
| the season.
"Another noticeable feature of the Ameri-
can hotel is the manner in which every pos
sible want of the traveller is provided for.
! The elegantly furnished room usually con-
tains sideboard where a number of expert
enced men deal out an endless variety of
simple and compound drinks-of which even
the names are unknown in Europe Reading
rooms and smoking rooms are always to be
found in the hotel, and writing materials are
freely supplied to any one wanting them. A
special post and telegraph Office is in the
house. and plentiful assortment of papers,
magazines, and books for those wishing to
buy such. There is besides, an Office where
travellers can obtain tickets for any point,
whether it be for neighboring city or for a
trip on the Pacific Railroad to California. Clerks
are constantly employed in receiving letters
and packages arriving for guests, while q
troop of servants wait in the vestibule to an
swer the incessant calls of the bells from
different rooms. Does the traveller need the
services of barber? He has only to step
down to luxurious room on the ground-hoo
of the hotel Does he want tailor, halter,
shoemaker, or dealer in fancy articles of
wear? He will find all these generally under
the roof of the hotel. In short, there is
scarcely anything which man would require
in the ordinary course of life that he could
not find without going beyond the limits of
| the house. 1t will be seen from all this that
keeping hotel in America is no light bust
ness, and requires no small amount of ad-
ministrative capacity.
I'm Europe most hotels have their regular
class of guests; in America with a few excep-
tions in New York; this is not the case. Here
every man chooses his hotel according to his
own pleasure, usually with preference for
the most fashionable, which generally means
the last one built. Thither the multitude
flock, to gaze on its magnifcence, and to go
home and boast of having been at the finest
hotel yet seen. In America housekeeping
seems to present SO many difficulties, and to
be SO expensive mode of living that it is
not uncommon for families, as we'll as single
men, to live at hotel. They avoid by this
means what appears to be their principal
trouble in housekeeping, viz: the almost i'm
possibility of finding good servants, or, if
found, their extravagant and unreasonable
demands in the matter of wages. 1t is not
necessary to speak to our German wives and
mothers of the destructive influence of this
manner of living upon all healthy family life
''The similarity which is apparent in the
arrangements of society all through the
American Republic is seen also in the hotels.
From east to west, from north to south, the
''good hotel is everywhere the same-in its
high prices, without regard to the require
ments of the guest, in the tyranny exercised
by the proprietor over the traveller, and in
the crowd of people always to be found
within its walls. THE American seems to
have a special fondness and special aptitude
for bookkeeping and whatever other inn