The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-02-17
An English Waiter.

In London there is a kind of hotel
OF which we have no counterpart in the
United States. This hotel is usually To-
Gated in some semi-aristocratic side
street, and wears no badge of its servl-
tude beyond a large, well-kept brass
door-plate. bearing the legend ''Jones's
Hotel or s'Brown's Hotel,' as the case
may be; but be it Brown or Jones, he
has been dead at least fifty years, and
the establishment is conducted by Rob
inson. There is no coffee-room or public
dining-room, or even Office, in this ho-
tel; the commercial traveller is an un-
known quantity there; your meals are
served in your apartments; the furni-
ture is solid and comfortable, the at
tendance admirable, the cuisine uneX-
ceptionable and the bill abominable.
But for ease, quietness, and a sort OF
1912 odor of responsibility, this hotel
has nothing to compare with 1t in the
wide world 1t is here that the inter-
mittent homesickness you contracted on
the Continent will be lifted ont of your
| bosom; il is Le.e 49, - ;..-totlod IL
you alluring vistas of the substantial
comforts that surround the private lives
| of prosperous Britons; it is here, above
all, that you will be brought in contact
with Smith.
1t was on our arrival in London, one
April afternoon, that the door of what
looked like private mansion, in D.
street, was thrown open to US by boy
broken out all over with buttons. Be-
hind this boy stood Smith. l call him
simply Smith for two reasons; in the
first place because it is convenient to do
so, and in the second place because that
| L. loI I oh
as facile a matter to explain how this
seemingly unobtrusive person instantly
took possession of us, bullied us with his
his urbanity. From the moment he
stepped forward to relieve us of our
hand-luggage, we were his-and re-
mained his until that other moment,
some weeks later, when he handed us
our parcels again, and stood statuesque
on the doorstep. with one finger lifted
to his forehead in decorous salute, as we
drove away. All, what soft despotism
was that which was exercised for nc
other end than to anticipate our require.
ments-to invent new wants for US only
to satisfy them! Ii I anywhere speaf
; lightly of Smith, if take exception t6
! his preternatural gravity (of which
would not have him molt a feather)
if allude invidiously to his his lifelong
struggle with certain rebellious letters
/ of the alphabet, it is out of sheer envy
, and regret that we have nothing
like him in America. We hav'
Niagara, and the Yosemite, and Edi
sons Electric Light Cor shall have it
/ when we get it), but we have no trainet
serving-men like Smith. He is the re
, suit of older and vastly more compile,
/ social conditions than ours. His train
5 ing began in the feudal ages. An at
i. mosphere charged with machicolatet
battlements and cathedral spires wa
= necessary to his perfect development :
/ that, and generation after generation Q
lords and princes and wealthy country
, gentlemen for him to practice on. H
< IS not possible in New England. TIL
8 very cut of his features is unknow
. among us. 1t has been remarked tina
f each trade and profession has its phys
e ognomy, its own proper face. If 20
!, look closely you will detect famil
4 likeness running through the portrait
: of Garrick and Kean and Booth and Ir,
ing. There's the self-same saber-ik
flash in the eye of Marlborough an
Y Bonaparte-the same resolute labial e1
n preston. Every lackey in Londo
= might be the son or brother of any Othe
e lackey. Smiths father, and his father
e father, and so on back to the gray daw
l. of England, were serying-men, and eac
l. in turn has been stamped with the in
1t mutable trademark of his class. Wal
e ers Qike poets) are born, not made
k and they have not had time to be boz
in America.-T. B. Aldrieh, in the 4
| Zn72t3c