Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-16
LONDON HOTEL CUSTOMS.
ITEMS OF INTEREST CLEANED FROM
 A TOURISTS NOTE BOOK

The Great Difference Between English Hotels and Those of the United States. Special Features of the London Hotel. A Type-The Proprietor.
 Ring your bell in an American hotel atany time and up comes pitcher of iced water; ring your bell of morning in an English hotel and up comes a pitcher of boiling water, it being presumed that you desire to shave. Instead of iced water a pitcher of hot water is also brought to your room i'm mediately on your arrival at an English hotel; and this is very grateful if you have just come, tired and dusty, from railway journey.
 There are no such free and easy manners to be seen at English hotels as obtain in the States. You may look in vain for the gaudy barroom, with its glitter of glass and brass and its questionable if not objectionable works of art. Nor can strangers enter the smoking and reading rooms to lounge and loaf at will There are usually two writing rooms, in which order and quiet reign, and in one the sterner sex is not admitted. The rooms are richly appointed, each desk having a small electric lamp, and the finest station cry is furnished free to the privileged occu- pants This remark applies only to hotels of the very first class-the Langham, for ex- amplc. You never hear the cry of ''front," DOT do you see half a score of ''bell boys" playing pranks in halls and entrances The ''office" is place fitted up for the clerks and bookkeepers, and is not used by outsiders and the public ill general for noisy rendez- vouS
 HOME LIKE AND COMFORTABLE. To one accustomed to the immense parlOrs and public rooms of an American hotel the drawing room" and other apartments of an English hotel seem small, but there is a home | like and comfortable air about the English | house which American hotels seldom or i never possess. Even the public rooms of the Metropole a house which cost several millions of dollars, which covers an acre of ground and entertains 500 people at one time under its ! roof seems small compared with those of our leading hotels. The comfort of guests, rather than imposing size of public rooms, is their main consideration. Another special feature also of a first class house over here is the wine cellars. The days of your 1.-two bottle men" may have departed, not so the love that Englishmen bear for good wine. The Metropole is owned by company which has its own vineyards in the champagne districts of France, and the 'Metropole extra dry" Is a wine that will rank with the choicest wines in the market. One can readily i'm agine that wine is a feature in London hotels when 1t is understood that the stock of wines in the Metropole cellars Is valued at 225 ,00O sterling, or S125,OOO
 While most of the hotels in London are kept on the European plan, making a sep arate charge for each meal, there is a notable exception in the Windsor, new hotel in Victoria street, Westminster, which Is kept after the American method. You pay here from S3 to S4 per day, according to size and location of room. This sum entities you to bedroom, light, bath, breakfast, and din her at table d'hote. The Windsor has 6 handsome exterior; it is well fitted up, and has electric light, elevator, besides swim ming, douche, needle and other baths. The hotel is conveniently situated, being within a few minutes walk of the Victoria station the underground railway, the houses of par lament, government offices, Horse Guards clubs, theatres, etc. It contains a wei planned coffee room and private dining sa looms which overlook the gardens of Chris church.
 A TYPICAL FIRST CLASS HOTEL.
 There are many larger hotels in Londo1 than Longs, in New Bond street, but non, with snch an old established reputation, non which attract better class of custom, no any one which is, as a whole, more richly ap pointed. The present structure is new, hay ing only been finished during the past sum mer, but the former Long's hotel stood ol the same site for two hundred years. Its pa tronage is drawn from the English nobility and from Americans of good taste who pre- fer a comparatively small home like mansion to a great caravansary. Longs accommodate only 100 guests. The walls of the dining room arc wholly covered with Gobelin tapes try, each panel containing skillfully exc cuted picture-a sporting scene, duck shoot ing, fishing and the like, appetizingly sugges tive But as for pictures, the walls of ever, room in the house. even the bed rooms on th top story, are hung with choice engraving : and paintings in oil by modern artists of ac knowledged merit.
 You rarely see the proprietor of a leadin hotel in any large European city-the pro prietor and manager arc both hard to find In London all the leading hotels are owne by companies and managed by men; the sec ond rate hotels have women for manager and clerks, and these are usually cross, maide ladies of an uncertain age. They still kee up the old and bad habit of charging fo . 'attendance" in English hotels and the pric is usually one and sixpence each person. I arranging for rooms at the Adelphi Hotel i Liverpool, the writer was told that the pric for two rooms was "eight and sixpence. Forgetting for the nonce about the charg for attendance, he rendered this agreed upo amount in settling his bill, but was at ono , reminded that for each night four and si1 7 pence more (S1.12) must be paid, there bein three persons.-'tM P.n in Home Journal
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