Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-05
MEXICAN HOTELS.
Homes without Common Comforts
English as She is Writ.


To return to the Iturbide. There is no
elevator. One bound for the third floor.
or the fourth, must climb the stairs-no
small task in this light air. where oxygen
is scarce and one is easily ''winded,v The
stairway is on the left, at the end of the
partition between the two courts. con-
Meeting with both of them. At the foot of
the stars there is little box of an office.
where sits a clerk who speaks English.
(The more aristocratic San Carlos, next
door, apparently cannot afford an Eng
lish or even a French-speaking attend
ant. And yet a majority of its GUS
toners seem to be Americans, Some
of them encounter difficulties which
may perhaps be imagined, though hardly
described). Ascending to the first land
ing, the key of your room is found at a
second office, the custodian of the kew
board having no other duty. This is an
excellent idea. There is no paper-and-ink
hotel register. The register is a black
board on the wall in the lower office, upon
which your name and number are in
scribed. You will be told that this ar
rangement was adopted for the accOmmo-
datiOn of your possible guests, who. in
stead of asking questions or porting over a
big book, will have only to look at the
board to find at glance whether such a
person as yourself has lodging in the inn,
and if you are there, where you NAV be
found. But l suspect the clerk finds the
device more convenient than any callers.
1t doubtless had police origin, for l find
on the hotel regulations, printed in Span
ish, French and English, this interesting,
as well as remarkable and Spanishy, an
nOuncement:
"ln conformity with an order from the
police, people coming to take lodgings into
this hotel are obliged to let know their
names, trades and countries, as well as
the places whence they do come and those
which they are bound to, so that the whole
be inscribed in a book which is kept for
that purpose at the hotel office"
AT times in Mexican history doubtless
this information has been demanded zeal
ously. The regulation is now dead let
ter.
Turning a creaking lock with rusty
key-the key, like all door KEYS in this
country. not much less than six inches
long, of solid iron and stout enough for a
sledge-hammer-you enter the room. The
eye, perhaps, overlooking the scanty fur
niture, falls on the rules just referred to.
The suggestive specimens Of choice Eng
lish will attract attention:
"Should 1t happen that the ledger pay
ing by the fortnight would leave his room
or apartment before the first anticipately
paid fortnight had elapsed, the manager
in this case will liquidate his account and
oGbUlC IL hOCOlOIuS 10 Tie TALLY rate print
ed on the tariff standing in the hotel
office"
SIN the amount of the room rent, the
inward room service and the candle for
enlightening it at night are only in
cluded."
Here is something worth looking att A
"candle" for ''enlightening' a room in a
first-class hotel in a great city must be a
curiosity. There is certainly no other
m n hi
in the otice-perhaps-bu none in the
rooms. Nor are lamps to be had. If one
gets more than 'the candle" he is fOrtu-
nate. My room at the San Carlos enjoyed
the luxury of two candles-possibly be-
cause two persons occupied it--but in the
lturbide there was only one. You can
get an oil lamp only as special favor, or
as an extra to be paid for. They say that
the little gas burned in this city costs SIS
a thousand. This is even more than the
ST. Louis Gas Light Company charges.
But baVe seen nobody here who uses gas.
Another glance about the apartment
will show that the water stands in a
cheap earthen pitcher, and that there is
neither stove nor fireplace. Nobody in
Mexico has ever seen a fireplace or a
stove for heating purposes. There is in
this city absolutely no provision for
warming apartments artifcially. Houses
and hotels are alike. Summer and Win
ter people live in rooms of the natural
temperature. The natives never suffer.
Foreigners long for a. little fire during
the coolest weather. The thermometer
often gets down to 40 degrees; the mean
annual temperature is about go degrees.
Every day in the year is warm, but in
winter strangers often suffer some dis
comforts morning and evening for
the lack of little fire-''just to take off
the chill" From an aesthetic standpoint,
however, the absence of stoves, freplaces
and chimneys is not to be regretted.
L have seen only one hotel in the repub-
lie provided with public parlor or sitting
room. That one is this same Iturbide,
Whlcn has long narrow parlOr on the
ground, on one side of the patio, with
billiard room vis-a-vis. One must receive
caller in his chamber, the bare corridor,
or out of doors. The cities are all alike in
this respect.