Wichita eagle., 1888-11-16
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@ai1u Eagle
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
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 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 a 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
barrooIn, 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 seq is not admitted. The
rooms are richly appointed, each desk having
q 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-
ample. You never hear the cry of 'front.'"
nor 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 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 hotels seldom or
never possess Even the public rooms of the
Metropole a house which cost several millions
of dollars, which covers Gn 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 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 Ia tho 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 feature in London hotels
when it is understood that the stock of wines
in the Metropole cellars is valued at e225, coo
sterling, or S125000
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 the Windsor, a new hotel in
Victoria street, Westminster, which is
kept after the American method. You pay
here from So 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
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
q 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
A TYPICAL FIRST CLASS HOTEL
There are many larger hotels in London
than Longs, in New Bond street, but none
with such an old established reputation, none
which attract better class of custom, nor
any one which is, as a whole. more richly ap-
pointed. The present structure is now, hav
ing only been finished during the past sum
mer, but the former Longs hotel stood on
the sane site for two hundred years. Its pa
tropage is drawn from the English nobility,
and from Americans of good taste who pre-
fer q comparatively small home like mansion
toa great caravansary. Longs accommodates
only 100 guests. Tho 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, appeti8ingly sugges-
tive. But as for pictures, 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 ac-
knowleaGed 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 the leading hotels are owned
by companies and managed by men; the sec
ond rate hotels have women for managers
and clerks, and these IRE 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 Adelphi Hotel in
Liverpool, the writer WIS told that the price
for two rooms was eight and Sixpence"
Forgetting for the nonce about the charge
for attendance, be rendered this agreed upon
amount in settling his bill, but was at once
reminded that for each night four and six
pence more (sLl9 must be paid, there being
three persons -"M Pr in Home Journal
How 1Iacaroni Was Named.
Macaroni is a favorite dish with many
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