The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-03-27
IN LONDON HOTELS.
NO GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN THE
SYSTEM FOR YEARS.

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
] our before you will recover it. 1t is like
ihe diving bell operation. The more you
1join these solemn persOnages the more
1 icy lose either their presence Of mind or
ieir method. As to the method, they have
I 1t little. In the first place, they do not
Sc till about or after 9 o'clock in the morn
4 g, although nature shines upon their island
)out 4 o'clock. Active minded Yankees,
no feel the morning shine, rise and expect
& get even with the country. They find that
& ey cannot buy pill or seidlitz powder or
O. oyster. The Briton rises as becomes him
about 9 o'clock or 10 oclock-and is then
BC newhat unrested if a call is made upon bis
q arice.
| am stopping here in hotel which is sup
. sed to be the perfection of recent tiviliza-
& IN. 1t is built of white bricks on the in
G le and stone eXtefiOrly. There is more
81 lie and method about it than is required of
q country house. You come in at the front
door and observe q man covered over with
e lded uniform. You advance toward two
O. three offices near the front door. If you
Et like the wrong office they march you to
6rd fro. You are requested to register.
a oout six of these minor offices are kept up
y
learn the regimen, but if you are blunt or
dali you may be for week kept sailing be-
tween Office number one and Office number
sven. When you come down from your
room you drop your key through hole into
q sort of a vat. If they neglect, as they often
do, to fish your key out of the vat you may
b. ten or fifteen minutes recovering your way
IA to your room.
AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE.
When you go to breakfast you are required
% give your number, which has been previ-
oIsly confided to you on little round ticket
Or check. You present yourself and in about
three minutes are required to sign a schedule
G to your place of abode. They bring you
q little piece of fish about two inches by
three inches. When you have done with this
{ icy possibly bring you second piece. l
calculate during the present week that every
4 zeal which cost me from four shilIings to
wen shillings cost the house about one-half
shilling at the very highest. The hotel sys-
tenn here has changed, as they suppose for
Ihe better, and yet we would think in Amer
tca that it had hardly changed at all. Let
ane give you an example of the contrast
Fifteen or twenty years ago the Langham
hotel was supposed to be the finest in London;
st was placed near the American minister's
residence; it was built of brick, and was a
very large and extensive building. They
4 lade it state and offensive and exclusive If
III go to the hotel you see man in uniform
p trading before it; his business is to observe
Z neither you are fit to come into the holy of
b 0les. You pass through the portal, and
lere is perhaps a second sergeant at arms
there to look out for your character. When
You 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
t. a room. Most of the chambermaids re-
ceive about Els year, or $75. They are
obliged to enter into articles of contract to
stay out their year. 1t need not be limited at
flat portion of them are oblivious of the
seventh commandment When you go 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
= hat you have to eat and if you have a re-
Quest to make pertaining to your room or
our friend he shrugs his shoulders and in
jts upon feeding you. He is as Sioux In
a an in Great Britain. These Germans to the
u lmber of hundreds of thousands are over
ginning England, and though the English
dislike the juxtaposition they seem to be en-
rely incapable of changing their methods.
The solemnity of the British hotel is equiva-
ASuL 10 Cn0 VI a
CARELESS sCULLION.
This morning / went to the Office and
o ,ked for my key. The scullion there said
that it was not on its hook, and would look
n it. He then began to fish for it among
T. oout fifty keys in hole underneath the
PLACE we had dropped our keys. Having
iunted all these keys through, he said it was
got there. He had overlooked it in the null
4;plicity of keys. Had he attended to his
business, every one of those keys would have
been hung on its place the moment it was
dropped. Then their system will never stand
the pressure and criticism of modern civil
zation. You enter the huge dining room of
the Hotel Metropole and find a series of pill
lars in the middle of the reom. These pillars
are all rceless and unnecessary, and they sep
arate pc lple who eat from other people who
eat You are told that for certain amount
of money you shall have SO many dishes.
Hhey bring you the first dish, and it is about
the and half to two ounces in weight If
on submit this is all you will get of the first
64ish. II you are an independent person you
$vin demand a second portion of the dish.
They yield without remonstrance. Then
when you come for the second part of the
breakfast you get little piece about two or
three inches If you tell the man to take
that back and bring you something reason
able to eat he will obey like a calf. If you
submit you will get no more for breakfast.
At the Langham hotel you ring. bell for
something in the way of refreshments; some
times a man will come in and sometimes he
win not. You wonder where the center of
4hese houses is; who conducts them; who is
responsible for them. AS far as the chamber
maids and labor element go they are very
well attended to, but if you go to the main
office you are kept in a state of apprehension,
wondering whether you have a right to ask
Sor anything or not. On my way to London
J stopped at Brighton for almost a week
livery day took my sea bath. Every night
J slept under sheet. In the course of three
ar four days 1 afflicted with strange
Lind of diarrhea. had never felt anything
Sf the kind before; there was a slight pain in
ne middle of my stomach, attended with