Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-28
IN LONDON HOTELS.
NO GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN THE
SYSTEM FOR YEARS

A Place Where You Cannot Hurry Any.
Habitual Carelessness of the Scullion
At the Seaside.
The hotel system in this country is very
solemn. You cannot hurry anybody. If
you drop your key at the hotel it may be an
hour before you will recover it. 1t is like
the diving bell operation. The more you
enjoin these solemn personages the more
they lose either their presence Of mind or
their method As to the method, they have
but little. In the first place, they do not
rise till about or after 9 o'clock in the morn
ing, although nature shines upon their island
about o'clock. Active minded Yankees,
who feel the morning shine, rise and expect
to get even with the country They find that
they cannot buy pill or seidlitz powder or
an oyster. The Briton rises as becomes him
about 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock-and is then
somewhat unrested if call is made upon his
avarice.
am stopping here in a hotel which is sup
posed to be the perfection of recent civiliza-
tion. 1t is built of white bricks on the in
side and stone exteriorly. There is more
style and method about it than is required OF
a country house. You come in at the front
door and observe man covered over with
gilded uniform. You advance toward two
or three offices near the front door. If you
strike the wrong Office they march you to
and fro. You are requested to register.
About six of these minor offices are kept up
toward the front In the course of time you
learn the regimen, but if you are blunt or
dull you may be for week kept sailing be
tween Office number one and Office number
seven. When you come down from your
room you drop your key through a hole into
a sort of vat. If they neglect, as they often
do, to fish your KEY out of the vat you may
be ten or fifteen minutes recovering your way
into your room.
AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE.
When you go to breakfast you are required
to give your number, which has been previ-
ously cOnfided to You on little round ticket
or check. You present yourself, and in about
three minutes are required to sign schedule
as to your place Of abode. They bring you
a little piece of fish about two inches by
three inches. When you have done with this
they possibly bring you a second piece. |
calculate during the present week that every
meal which cost me from four shillings to
seven shillinGs cost the house about one-haf
shilling at the very highest. The hotel sys-
tenn here has changed, as they suppose, for
the better. and yet we would think in Amer
lea that it had hardly changed at all Let
me give you an example of the contrast.
Fifteen or twenty years ago the Langham
hotel was supposed TO be the finest in London:
it was placed near the American minister's
residence; it was built OF brick, and was a
very large and extensive building They
made il state and offensive and exclusive. II
you 60 to the hotel you sec q man in uniform
parading before it: his business Is TO observe
whether you are fit to come into the holy OF
holes. You pass through the portal, and
there is perhaps second sergeant at arms
there TO look out for your character. When
Won get within the hotel becomes very ex-
pensive. containing several kinds of bureaus
containing railroad tickets, newspapers and
what not.
You finally go up to a little office, which is
perhaps supported by a boy. He assigns YOU
to room. Most of the chsmbermaids re-
ceive about els year. or s75. They are
obliged 10 enter into articles of contract 70
stay out their year. II mead not be limited a.
that portion of them are oblivious of the
seventh commandment, When you 90 down
TO the breakfast or dining room YOU find that
almost every one there is a German he
knows about enough English to give YOU
what you have TO eat, and if you have re-
quest to make pertaining to your room or
your friend he shrugs his shoulders and in
sists upon feeding you. He is as Sioux In
dian in Great Britain These Germans 10 the
number of hundreds of thousands are over
running England, and though the English