The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1872-08-17
2niscellameoms.
DECLINE az Summer Tire, et.


REcoIL AGAINST THE Hen PRICE system
Too MUCH OF A GRAND THlNG-KILLING THE
GodsE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS.
ASaratoga correspondent of the New York
Tribune discourses as follows on thu, Effects of
the present style of keeping hotels ut popular
places of resort, especially in the North:
At1ast the vengeance so long pred icted by
indignant and outraged tourists has N ertaken
the hotel keepers. A reaction agains5 summer
travel in this country has set in, which threat
ems to involve in ruin many enterpri~ ing land
lords, and to work complete revolu il n il the
hotel system at our fashionable res.r,s. The
present season is the poorest ever kne wn to the
hotel-keepers. is now the last WEI k of July,
and :. 10 rare to say that fashionable summer
hoteNs are not nalf full and that In many in
stances not more than quarter of be rooms
are occupied. Hotels of wide celebri y-hotels
whose advertisements read so attrac' vely that
it seems as if they must be overcrowded, are
even, with but few guests, an absol lte neces-
sity for keeping up the standard of he table.
WHAT IT COSTS.
Armies of servants have been en- ,aged for
the season, and must be paid and d Rent
must be provided for, and altogethel' unless
August changes the whole aspect of affairs,
many of our best rural hotels will chan. hands
after this season. During the war aao for the
five years following the hotel-keepers reveled
in money. Everybody went to the most ex-
pensve resorts. and paid the most extravagant
prices with only feeble murmur. The hotel
keepers, like Jeshurun of old, waxed fat and
kicked. They saw the public seized by a ma
MIA, and they took advantage fit. When their
rooms were full, and often when they were not,
they put up cots in the parlors, and crowded
their guests as in barracks, charging for this
uncomfortable and insufficient accommodation
the same rates they nominally asked for sepa-
rate rooms. Four to six dollars day were
paid for sleeping on a cot and for chance to
fee the walters at the dining table; and the pub
lic-the most egrecious and gregarious OF the
asnine kind-struggled for chance to add its
contributions to the Pactolsan stream flowing
into the capacious pockets of the all absorbing
Bonifaces. Of course, the everybody was spec
tally attached to the houses which were known
to be the most overcrowded.
HOTEL DEPoTIsM.
Landlords strutted and hotel clerks ruled
travellers with rod of iron. 1t was proposed
still further to increase the rates of board
Seven dollars a day were talked of as a rea-
sonable figure in the early future of the
irst-class hotels The masters were trium plant,
the paying slaves (the public) were humble, ST.
lent and crushed. Suddenly the "corner" in
hotels broke. The first symptom Of weakness
showed itself early last season. The papers
were filled with the complaints of grumbling
constant readers" European trips became
more popular than ever, and the patronage of
our summer hotels fell off. There were several
bad failures, and among them those Of three of
the most prominent hotel men in the country.
The idea of increasing the price of board was
then at once abandoned, and decrease was
decrced, being an average, however, of only
fifty cents day. The seven dollar chimera van
ished, and opulent landlords sighed for the gold
en- days which had passed away. The present
season was entered upon with fear and tremb-
ling, especially as the number of hotels has
greatly Increased of late, and several new and
very attractive resorts had been just opened
But repentance came too late II the goose
which laid the golden eggs was not killed, she
certainly was seriously wounded and had be-
come exceedingly shy and timid. The prma-
nv cause of all this trouble lay in the high rates
Of board. The secondary in the incivility of
landlords, or rather their subordinates, with
whom the travelling public had been brought
into contract.
"ExTRAs."
The mere nominal price of board was always
much enhanced by extraneous charGes-by the
fees to walters, bootbacks and porters, and by
the prices of carriage hire, &c. Another item
was the absurd rate of omnibus fare. For ten
cents man may ride in New York omnibus
quarter-one-eighth-o that distance, from
the steamboat landing or the railroad depot to
the fashionable hotel he would be charged half
dollar, and this, too, in places where horses
and their feed were much cheaper than in the
city. This item, perhaps, looks rather too trl-
fling TO deserve mention, but when Mr.. Smith
was on his summer tour with Mrs. Smith and
the two Misses Smith and Master Smith, and
Mrs. Smiths unmarried sister, it counted up
RAPIDLY. Then the nominal board price included
sleeping accommodations, and the price OF
private sitting-room was always made dlspro-
portionately high.
THE MODEL CLERK.
A goodly part, not by any means the largest,
but still noteworthy portion of the patronage
of the summer hotels comes from gentlemen
travelling alone, or in parties of two or three
The indignities heaped upon this class of the
community form a fearful record and this
brings into prominence that wonderful being,
the hotel clerk OF the period Young handsome
and supercilious, with his hair dressed in the
most killing style, with plump red cheeks,
with elegant garments of the most fashionable
cut, with a diamond pin, with large-linked
watchguard, with superb cutf-buttons, with an
Indifferent haughtiness of demeanor wonderful
to behold, with a sovereign contempt for the
sovereign people, with all the attributes of
power, with an utter disregard of vcracity, with
all the overbearing qualities which come from
irresponsible sway-this is that marvellous and
magnificent mixture of Jove and Apollo
And this is what he did with the gentleman
travelling alone or in parties of two or three;
He would deliberately Danish them to the hot
rooms in the attic, or to the inferior apartments
looking upon dismal court-yards or exposed to
the edors Of the kitchen. Ne would calmly