San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-27
LONDON HOTEL CUSTOMS.
ITEMS OF INTEREST CLEANED FROM
A TOURISTS NOTE BOOK.

Special Features of the London Hotel.
a Type-The Proprietor.
Ring your bell in an American hotel atany
time and up comes a pitcher of iced water;
ring your bell of a 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
mcdiately on your arrival at an English
hotel; and this is very grateful if you have
Just come, tired and dusty, from q 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 it's glitter Of glass and brass
and its questionable II not Objectionable
works Of art. Nor ON strangers enter the
smoking and reading rooms TO lounge and
loaf OF viii. 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 sation-
cry Is furnished free to the privileged occu-
pants. This remark aIPfies only 10 hotels of
the very nrst class-the Langham, for ex-
ample You never bear the ery of front"
nor do you see half a sore Of bell boys
playing pranks in halls and entrances, The
Office is place Heted up for the clerks and
bookkeepes, and s not used by outsiders
and the public IN general for a noisy renie2-
vOls.
BONE LIKE AND COMFORTABLE
To one accustomed 30 the immense parlors
and public rooms 6 an American hotel the
drawing room and other apartments Of an
English hotel seem small, but there rs home
like and comfortable cir about the English
house which American hotels seldom or
never possess. Even the public rooms Of the
Metropoie, house which cost several millions
of dollars, which covers an acre of ground
and entertains 800 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 1.-TWO bottle
men" may have departed, not 50 the love
that Englishmen bear for good wine The
Metropols is owned by company which has
it's own vineyards in the champagne districts
of France, and the "Mstropole extra dry" is
wine that will rank with the choicest
wines In the market. One can readily i'm
agine that vino Is feature in London hotels
when it is understood that the stock of wines
in tho Aetropole cellars is valued at e25, 900
sterling, or $4,000
While most of the hotels In London are
kept on the European plan, making sep
arate charge for each meal, there is notable
exception In tho Windsor, a new hotel in
Victoria street, Westminster, which is
kept after the American method. You pay
here from 50 to 81 per day, according to size
and location of room. This sum entities you
to bedroom, light, bath, breakfast, and din
ner at table d'hote The Windsor has a
handsome exterior; 1t Is well fitted up, and
has electric light, elevator, besides swim
ming, douche, needle and other baths The
hotel is conveniently situated, being within
few minutes walk of the Victoria station,
the underground railway, the houses of par
lament, government Offices, Horse Guards,
clubs, theatres, etc. 1t contains a well
planned coffee room and private dining sa-
looms which overlook the gardens of Christ
church.
TYPICAL FIRST CLASS HOTEL.
There are many larger hotels in London
than Longs, in New Bond street, but none
with snch en- old established reputation, none
which attract a better ciaSs of custom, nor
any one which Is, as whole, more richly ap-
pointed The present structure is new, hav-
ing only been finished during the past sum-
mer, but the former Longs hotel stood on
the same site for two hundred years. Its pa
tronags is drawn from the English nobility
and from Americans of good taste who pre-
fer a comparatively small home like mansion
>,l.&
only 100 guests. The walls of the dining
room are wholly covered with Gobelin tapes
try. each panel containing a skillfully exc
cuted picture-a sporting scene, duck shoot
ing, fshing and the hike, appe6zingiy sugges-
tive. But ss for pictares the walls of every
room in the house, even the bed rooms on the
top story, are hung with choice engravings
and paintings In oil by modern artists of &C
knowledged merit
You rarely see the proprietor of a leading
hotel in any large European city-the pro-
prietor and manager are both hard to find.
In London all tho Leading hotels are owned
by companies and managed by men; the sec
ond rate hotels have women for managers
and clerks, and these are usually cross, maiden
ladies of an uncertain age. They still keep
up the old and bad habit of charging for
attendance" in English hotels, and the price
is usually one and sixpence each person. In
arranging for rooms at the Adeiphi Hotel In
Liverpool, the writer was told that the price
for two rooms was eight and sixpence"
Forgetting for the nonce about the charge
for attendance, he rendered this agreed upon
amount in settling his bill, but was at once
reminded that for each night four and six
pence more E1.la must be paid, there being
three persons.-"M. Pm In Home Journal
How Macaroni Was Named.
L. fax,o 70 Afcb with