, 1872-10-30
Eighty Years Of Lodging---Re-
opening of Willards'
Hotel.
Old Taverms OF Washington
r..TaIk With H1Ine
Host.
Profits Of Eastern lnns---A
Room-Clerk's Mar
ratiVe.

From Our 0tcn Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Oct. %, 1872.
mr. Godfrey Chaucer wrote one line which
always admired:
In Southwark at the Tabard as lay
That is about all know Of Chaucer, and think
,Artemus Ward had more sense than be knew
when he said that Chaucer couldnt spell, and
therefore couldn't be great poet.
On account Of my respect for that particular
dine, went to see the Tabard ten years ago. It
was an old tavern, with wagon-yard at the
side, benches at the door, and the old sign OF its
SUCCESSOR, the Talbot inn, lying back against the
stables. think railroad company had leased
the inn-yard. And ont Of this old place the
Canterbury Pilgrims had proceeded, telling their
tales.
Rise OF THE LN-EEEPEH.
AL immortal literature is in some way, indis-
solubly associated With taverns The New Tes-
lament begins in one. Don Qui1ote
and Sancho never seem truly themselves
till they reach inn Engliah
literature proceeds out Of the Tabard-yard with
Chaucer. The shaksperean age and the John
sonian age are demonstrations that, at the close
OF life, We must admit our truest welcome to
have been an inn. In our age, the innkeeper is
q blending Of both. His house is as big as the
great 1odging-convents Of the Middle Ages and
rs dear as the toll Of q Rheniah robber-Knight.
The Republican innkeeper of Switzerland is gen
e1allly Magistrate; in Republican America, he
is at the head Of the second or great average
rank Of citizens, and sometimes we'll over in the
First rank. The religious sensibiities OF clergy
men against men who sell liquor necessarily
while keeping hotels, appear to have been ap-
peased for several years; for nowadays there is
not " Conference" annual or general, but the
taverns are besought to take a. certain number
OF preachers as free guests. The landlord
always does it, having secret affinity for
preachers anyway; they make the house re-
spectacle, and pray with the family, which Is
good for the children there. and they, at the
same time, satisfy the landlords own qualms
shout the iquor-question. I may say they are
mutually proud of each others society. Besides,
the preacher is an innkeeper. No class Of poor
men is as much prosecuted for food ralment,
medicine, and money. as country clergy. The
beggars coloniZe On them like gadfies on lean
cattle. Inpostors, whose chief piety consists in
saying Amen " instead Of ''That's what's the
matter" are always lurking around to make q
: boozing- ken Of the country parsonage. II they
= can't find bed in the house, they take it in the
STABLE and secretly eat the oats of the travelling
preachers horse. There ought to be perpetual
sympathy between landlord and Clergyman.
II that little bar did not stand between them,
their theologies would not differ hair.
DUB REHABuITATED EXCHANGE.
These remarks am led to make because Will
ards Hotel, the chief inn Of Washington, is
about to be reopened after more than years
oblivion, and yesterday walked through the
wly-furnished place with gentleman who
knew some OF the older "reminiscences OF the
establishment. This might be called an almost
immemoria hotel site, and there we're some IN
tentions entertained Of tearing it down and con-
structing another house upon the vast plan Of
your new Chicago hotels, Or the Gait House at
the property did not agree with each
other, and could not confer, and the
new hotel has been postponed, and q
lease concluded with J. F. Cake, of Cape May,
3or ten years, which III earIy thls house over re
vember, 1889. For at least half of this prospec-
tive time, Williards will be the main establish
ment here; for it will require from three to four
years to build new hotel, and this is the Iarg-
est property Of the kind at the National Capital.
It contains 375 rooms, and stands upon the most
central and general ground OF rendezvous. It
covers one-haf city BLOCK, and is valued, when
900. 1t least this would be the inference from
the fact that Henry Willard offered to purchase
his brothers half, one year ago, for $3.50 900, or
to sell his Own to Joseph Willard for $500, 900.
To 1efu1nish this house required s2o, 600 worth Fl
pf gas fixtures, $1,000 yards Of carpet, 500
spring mattresses, window curtains to the
amount of S15, 900, and $4,000 worth Of stand
ing furniture. Had the house been q new mod
ern structure, it would have required no more
elaborate ga1niture. Bathrooms, the want Of
which made great complaint before, have been
added, and an elevator introduced
TAVERN TALK.
For Willards' Hotel, Mr Theodore Roessel,
proprietor Of the Arlington, offered 915, 900 more
than Mr. Coke pays per annum but he wished
to take the hotel for only three years. The pro-
prietors preferred to have man who would not
run their louse as . succursale to smaller one,
and, as the politicians have it, Wizards will
turn" the Arlington this year. The Inter
house is well described in q recent conversation
"Mr. Roessel, the colored Congressman Of
South Carolina, will come to the Senate, and
come right here for parlor and bedroom, with
his wife"
Roessel: ssNot for three dollars and half
day; He pays bis five aollars!"
"That's the lowest ?"
Roessel: "Yes, sir1"
"What's the hiGhest?"
Roessel: "That'a what no fellow can find
nut"
OLD DAYS AT wnLARDs'.
The story Of inns in Washington is the story
OF social aud political intrigue here. A very
Email proportion of Congressman attempt to
..keep house" either renting or buying. 1g
como housekeepers in IN irregular way. A Cabinet
Minister generally tries to have either dwell
ing, or series Of apartments comprehensive OF
homestead. But the inn is the real life OF
Washington, and whoever could have kept q
diary Of Willard's since it opened, peeping in as
il the hostel we're unroofed would have possessed
the materials for a history Of human motives
and weaknesses during more than twenty event.
The room No. 13, which stands at the corner
Of this house over the side-portal YVES the place
OF meeting OF the Rebel Commissioners, in 1861,
who came with impudent propositions to treat
coin Was taken by Waahburn, when he arrived
unannounced in the Capital; and thence Bu-
ohanan, Lincoln, James Alfred Pearce, of the
Eastern Shore Of Maryland, and Senator Baker,
.to1 +N% 4t,-