St. Landry democrat., 1888-10-20
AN ENGLISH HOTEL.
How London Caraes+psaries Are Run o
the American Plan.

How London carsesnsaries Are Run on
| the American Plan.
If you have never stopped at an Eng
1ish hotel conducted on the American
plan, you should do so at the first OPP
portunity, because you will enjoy it I'M
mensely. They have American pen
| sions pronounced pon-say-ongs) in
Paris, Berlin and Vienna, which lure
many Of my countrymen and women to
destruction, and Of which | hope to be-
able to tell you something later, but
with all their faults | think they have
some claims upon our consideration ds
tourists which lay over the English
hotel conducted on the American plan.
| You are driven up to this hotel in a
carriage, md you expect to alight at
| the ladies' entrance, as you would un-
| der similar circumstances at the Palmer
| or Grand Pacific. But you dou'b do any
thing of the kind.
The driver descends, and, approach
| ing large iron gate, pulls a bell-knob,
| which pull is responded to by the ham,
mer Of a gong such as pilots signal to
the engineer with on American steam
boats The driver then resumes his
seat.
In the course of the morning, or af-
ternoon, or night, as the case may be,
the gate is opened, and the warty-faced
man with stub nose approaches the
carriage He is in no hurry whatever.
'Uo you wish to hingage apart
ments?"
"We do"
"Ave you brought your baggage!'
"We ave not. u
"Ware is it?'
at the Euston station.
Gas hit been hexamined?"
"We presume so.'
"ATe We the checksP'
eve ave"
The warty face man grInts, passes
through the gateway, locks the gate 1f=
ter him, a1sd returns in the course of an
hour This time lie swings the gate
wide open and invites the driver to
come in. We are now in the OPEN
court yard. We alight. We enter an
Office that looks like d railroad baggage
room. The s'lift" isn't running, but it
will be in d few minutes. We wait
half an hour. We climb the stairs. We
are taken to a handsome suite of rooms.
We are tired and cross.
Enter another whit6 aproned man.
Would like our names. Gets then1s Bows |
and retires. Enter another white-apron-
ed man with an nose like lobster claw. |
Hands us bill of fare. TFe order break
fast.
"When can we have it?"
"Himnejiately."
"All right" :,
'!What, sir?''
Il say, al right"
eyes, sir, twill be- all right, SIR"
1t comes in the course Of the day. We |
hint to. the waiter that we understood
that tliis hotel was conducted on the |
American plan.
$50 it is,'' he rreplies, and he says it
SO firmly and conclusively that it would !
be useless to contradict him.
We rest, take nap, read the papers
and kill time as best we can until tbe |
afternoon is well advanced. We ring /
for waiter Haiter comes This time
his nose has the color Of g blue-bottle |
fly.
"How about dinnerp'
FFabledote or served?"
sTabledote3 If eotrse:"
"Tabledote over, sir.
"Why were we not called?'
''Got no orders, sir"
"Well. then, let us have it served"
We learn later that guests are not
invited to table d'hote unless they leave
orders To that effect and it is served
only for one hour: Our dinner must
be cooked completely and the day is al
most spent before it arrives.
Papa" suggested Ned, ''let lis go
out and find an American hotel that is
conducted on the English PLAN
This seemed absurd at first, but it is
just exactly what | proceeded to do
after dinner. don't find an American
hotel exactly, but / find one that isn't
conducted upon any particular plan,
and we will have our belongings moved |
over there in the morning.-LondoD
letter in Chicago Times.