Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-04-20

hotels in the city, could but con-
trast the manners of our colored
walters with the too frequent i'm
/ pertinence Of the ordinary foreign
walters who bring us our meals and
hang round listening to the CONVEX
sation of guests in hotel dining
rooms and restaurants. Our col
ored walters don't do that in the
Women's Hotel.
At breakfast we sat at the tables
in the center of the dining-room.
At luncheon we we're removed to
those by the windows overlooking
the court. At dinner we found that
our twenty colored walters drew out
the chairs for us around the tables
in the center again. They were a
little more animated in serving our
seven courses at the last meal, but
not whit less polite or ceremonious
than for breakfast or dinner. Don't
imagine that we have the ordinary
downtown restaurant colored wal
ter for our dining-room in the
Women's Hotel. These walters are
from the Grand Union Hotel in
Saratoga, the Gregory House at
Lake Mahopac, and the Newport
hotels; and they have the quiet,
orderly manners that we used to
teach our house-servants under the
old regime in the South in the best
private houses and hotels the
same style Of waiting that we used
to see twenty or thirty years ago in
the Revere House in Boston.
l was SO very busy during the
whole four days that l stayed in
the Woman's Hotel that l did not
walk around the house a single
time until the third day. Then
| explored only the library and
grand parlor. Two more charming
rooms for the purposes to which
they are applied cannot be con-
ceived. The parlor furniture is
upholstered in lichen colored silk
plush the curtains are of the same
material faced with crimson reps or
terry cloth-I forget which. The
library glows with rich dark Grim
son upholstery and curtains. Be
tween the windows along the court
side of the long apartment are cosy
| little desks covered with crimson
velvet and well supplied with writ
ing materials. The paper and en-.
veIopes are stamped with the name
of the house. The library is more
resorted to by the inmates in the
evening than the grand parlor
But on one evening | heard some
fine music there, the performer be.
ing one of our guests. The piano.
forte in thatroom is a grand cycloid
Lindeman. A parlor Lindeman is
in one of six reception rooms where
men callers are admitted. Every
evening while | was in the hotel
saw men visitors in one or another
of these little parlors.
Passing along the halls, where
no masculine football is ever heard,
.. except, perhaps, that of the engi
necr, or one of the little fellows
who take the place of hall boys, we
frequently see in the evening,
through the open doors of the
rooms which have been taken,
groups Of two or three women sit
ting around ths tables, sewing OF
reading or knitting or cFocAetipg
and chatting. They need the drop
lights, but ! know they have been
too sensitive to ask for them-for,
if tho truth must be told, I am
certain that some feel, just as | felt
that the possession OF enjoyment Of
so much more luxury than we pay
for, precludes the possibility Of ask
ing ioF some triaeS that we need or
want so much that we can hardly
do without them. 1t Is touching
to see how women's ingenuity has
oyercome the want of hooks and
buttons on the walls by hanging
+ pictures and pockets on the pro-
ectiug parts Of the furniture and
from the chandeliers and gas fix
? lures. Tiny vases of flowers are
placed on the ends Of the bureau
and the washstand, and projecting
parts of the window,sjlls do duty
as book shelves, brackets and eta
ceres.
The quickness with which the
bells are answered, the thoughtful
politeness of the chambermaids and
the bathroom attendant, a mother
ly, elderly Irish woman, the COM
fort of the bathrooms, the ready
and rapid flow of the hot and warm
water all over the house, the gener-
GUS use of gas until 1880, and the
gentle manners prevailing through
out the house, taken with the ap'
pointments and furniture, the mar
BILE floors, the warm, summer-like at
mosphere made by the steam pipes
in the halls, make an ensemble that
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