The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-02-10

~ 1876
a rcu Extracts rreraa John Faui's Lass
London Letter.
rr ENDORSES L. q WIS OPINION OF
BLARsrED BRITISH goTEL.
LONDON HOTELS.
As with cabs so with hotels. Every friend
YOU may have at home who has ever been
abroad, every acquaintance made on the
steamer, will hsve told you what hotel you
should 60 TO 90 getting into London. Try
auy one Of them ard you'll wish you has
gone to another. So do not bui!d upon
finding perfect inn. with hoSpitao'e 0eors
flung wide, standing ready to welcome you
settle nowhere, even In Imagination. Ior
permauercy, till you know the mas ana ou's
by experience. Expect on starting our 70
find but a cross ct the Golden cross,
20 take an nothing less common and
uncomfortable at the Charins. Bear IN
mind frcn, the first that all London
hotels are bad. the only difference being that
some arc worse than others, and ii you ar.
rive in london at pigb,--as you probably
w;ll-drlpc to the nearest one, taking literally
no heed of the morrow. Before breakfast
next morning you'll be sorry you've come,
and viii want to change. But don't be i'm
pulsive about it. Should you order yourself
and your luggage driven 10 any other, the
chances are that you'll want to move again
about the time that lunch comes on. Set out
cooly Instead, immediately after breakfast
ere woelly mutton-chop won't Kill you
and inspect all the hotels to which Amer'-
cans do not so as rule, iLquirlhg
nrices. looking at rooms, and inter.
hn, hoy RaEnrp
get through you will be sorry that ever you
lett your native land. The proprietor
shields himself behind the petticoats of this
depu,,- YOU ask TO see him in vain. And to
quarrel with woman is thing you are so
little accustomed to-unless indeed you hap
Den to have been married as long as THAT
YOU pay the bill, and bow, and back out.
Knowing you're right and yet ready to &C.
knowledge that you're wrong.
FINISHED CITY.
One thing that impresscs mc about Lon
don is the soidity Of everything. 1t mas
more the look Of finished city than any
that | have ever before seen-lt except
some ruined cities Of South America. The
houses seem, in the first place, to have been
built "to STAY" So little Of pulling down
and reconstruction is going on rs to be almost
upnoljceabe. You can walk the streets
without stumbling over scalloldlngs or START
ing into sudden CONSCIOUSNESS tnat DITCH
from some four.story wall has just Ill on ne
ton OF your lead. Lime dust does not choke
you-as for the fog, you can spit that out.
The Englishman is content to live IN the
house that his father built for him-what
was good enough for the sire is quite good
enough for the son. This explains, too, why
no modern improvements are put in.
Another thing that impresscs me IS The
politenesses of EDglishmen 10 stranger.
Impresses me, say, because had imagined
quite the contrary. II put to your wits emo
nv some unexpected turn in crooked street,
ask your way of the first Londoner you meet,
and if he clnnot direct you clearly he IS
yery likely to walk on with you few blocks
and point out the way upmistakaby. Only
once have been treated unciVilly IN TINS
respect. Then asked my way OF fellow,
and instead Of answering or stopping to
answer be walked on as though be had an
engagement with royalty. But when l
called him TO account-caled him deteslable
donkey, in fact-he came back, ana salo he
would punch my bead. SO got some atten'
ton even from him, you see.
Furnaces are of the future as yet. lnsteao
of burning their coal in tie cellar and keep
ing dust and ashes below while the heat is
convened through the house and to the top
by pipes they carry "coals" around in
scuttles. The consequence is that one lives
in crime and sits in SCOT, if not in state, day
in and day out. There would be conpen.
sation for this in the purer air and better
ventilation which open fires give as opposed
to radiators and registers were it not that
besides compelling one to breathe lamp.
black the system adopted makes no pro-
vision for beating the halls, and the
small fire places do not sufficiently dry
the bedrooms In winter. This you md
when you get in between sheets with chill
on them that out West would suggest con-
tipuous morasses. In winter the sun does
not shine into London rooms for the very
good reason that there. is no sun to shine !;
so "rooms with southern exposure are
neither sought for nor quoted at premium
Notwithstanding, however, as EDgllsnmen
live to tolerably good old ages, and seem
rather rosy and happy, 1 do not know that II
is exactly right for me to let In upon tneal
this flood of light; without it they couidn't
see and wouldn't know how many good
things they haven't got.
You notice that said "coals" minute
ago. We do not ask for coal here; the dealer
is told to send ton of tgem instead OF ton
Of it, and the waiter says: " Goals certainty
sir.~ when YOU tell him to fill the scuttle
afresb. This is done, l believe, with view
of putting stop to that silly conundrum
about the marks of punctuation, the colon
and semi.colon, in connection with putting
coal 10 the CRATE, which has so long disgraced
q the Kings English. Even that other
amusement 10 which weak minds have in
dulged since the first discovery OF America
viz, asking if you could command waiter,
whose nickname was "kit," to mend the fire
by simply speaking the name Of great dis
coverer, and then bursting in on your stupe'
fed senses with, "Why, by saying, Chris
TOPPER Colon. the Great" becomes imposs
BILE under this order of speech.
The true Brtoo bates pun. tits opposed
to the very spirit of all his institutions.