Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-13
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.

Inc NTeat Dluerence bct"cen A-ABhSn
Hotels and Those of the United States.
Special Features of the London Hotel
Type-The Proprietor.
Ring your bell in an American hotel at any
time and up comes pitcher of iced water; |
ring your bell of a morning in an English |
hotel aud up comes pitcher Of boiling |
water, it being presumed that you desire to |
shave. Instead of iced water 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 a railway
journey.
There are 10 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
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 sex
ample. You never hear the cry of front"
nor do vou see half a score of ''bell boys"
playing pranks in halls and entrances. The
'ofiice" is place fitted up for the clerks and
bookkeepers, and is not used by outsiders
and the public IN general for a 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 home
| like and comfortable air about the English
house which American hsels seldom or
never possess. Even the public rooms of the
| Metropole, 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 first class house over here is the
Wine cellars, The days of your Two bottle
mem may have departed, not so the love
that Englishmen bear for good wine. The
Metropole is owned by company which has
OWL 4losi ENN1
of France, and the ''Metropole extra dry is
wine that will rank with the choicest
wines in the market One can readily i'm
agine that wine is a feature in London hotel:
when 1t is understood that the stock Of wine:
in the Metropole cellars is valued at e25 00t
sterling, or Sl25G00
While most of the hotels in London arr
kept on the European plan, making sep
arate charge for each meal, there is a notable
exception in the Windsor, a new hotel il
Victoria street, Westminster, which il
kept after rhe American method. You pay
here from IS to 81 per day, according to siZ
, and location of room. This sum entities yoI
l to bedroom, light, bath, breakfast, and din
ner at table d'hote. The Windsor has
handsome exterior; it is well fitted up, an'
, has electric light elevator, besides swim
: ming, douche, needle and other baths Th
hotel is conveniently situated, being within
d few minutes walk of the Victoria station
the underground railway, the houses of par
lament, government Offices, Horse Guard:
clubs, theatres, etc 1t contains a we
| planned coffee room and private dining So
| looms which overlook the gardens of Chri:
church.
A TYPICAL FIRST CLASS HOTEL.
There are many larger hotels in Londo
than Longs, in New Bond street. but non
with snch an old established reputation, non
which attract better class of custom, nc
any one which is, as a whole, more richly al
pointed. The present structure is new, hay
ing only been finished during the past sun
1. mer, but the former Longs hotel stood q
the same site for two hundred years. Its p
tronage is drawn from the English nobilit,
and from Americans of good taste who pr
fer comparatively small home like mansic
toa great caravansary. Longs accommodate
only lG0 guests. The walls of the dinir
room are wholly covered with Gobelin tape
try, each panel containing skillfully ex
cuted picture-a sporting scene duck shoe
ing, fishing and the like, appetizingly sugge
tive But as for pictures, the walls of evel
room in the house, even the bed rooms on d
" top story, are hung with choice engravin
and paintings in oil by modern artists of a
knowledged merit.
You rarely see the proprietor Of leadil
hotel in any large European city-the pr
prietor and manager are both hard to fin
In London all the leading hotels are own
by companies and managed by men; the Sc
ond rate hotels have women for manage
and clerks, and these are usually cross, maid
ladies of an uncertain age. They still Ike
up the old and bad habit of charging
attendance" in English hotels, and the pri
is usually one and sixpence each person.
arranging for rooms at the Adelphi Hotel
Liverpool, the writer was told that the pr
for two rooms was EIGHT and sixpenc'
Forgetting for the nonce about the char
for attendance, he rendered this agreed up
J amount in settling his bill, but was at OIL
reminded that for each night four and s
pence more (S1.l2 must be paid, there bel
three persons.-"M p" in Home Journal