Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-07-28
Copyright by Edgar W. Nye,l


1t is an English hotel with French
accent 1t is under the keen eye of R.
D'Oyly Carte, who takes his meals there
also. A great many eminent people stop
there while in London buying their fall
groceries. The Right Honorable the
Earl of Latham is a director of the
hotel, as is also Sir Arthur Sullivan. 1t
is no uncommon thing to see Sir Arthur
at the depot when the club train from
Paris gets in, calling out the Savoy hotel
in rich, rotund voice. The earl stays
about the house more and helps D'Oyly
wait on the table.
The Marquis of Granbury is on the
restaurant committee, and gets many a
bright new shilling for his brisk and
prompt attention to guests. Everything
is French at the Savoy except the prices
They are tropical and grow to great
height. The price at the cafe complet
servi dams 10 restaurant ct sale man
ger is one-and-six. If you have not ct
any sale manger it does not make any
difference.
The general manager and travelling
auditor of the hotel is Monsieur c. Ritz,
who used to run the Grand hotel at
Monte Carlo; also the Bald Eagle house
at Cannes and the Ding Dong house at
Baden Baden. The acting manager and
haut tong singer is Monsieur Echenard,
of the Tooleries, in Paris. Monsieur is
not u part of his name, but is used to
give him an air of deieuner, l presume.
You can souper dams le restaurant a Ia
carte, and you can breakfast prix fixe
in the sale a manager for four shillin',
and / claim that this is cheap enough.
Smoking is allowed in the sale man.
ger between 3 and o'clock and after
$50 p. m, but you must not leave your
dog in the manger. 1t is not posseeble,
as we say at la Morgue.
There is fine hair dresser's saloon at
the Savoy under the charge of the Messrs
Hill d Co., of Old Bond street. | got
my hair dressed there every morning
before went down to play long terrace
with the Guelphs. Hill does the shay
ing and Messrs. scrambles the hair.
The Savoy, it is claimed, is incombus-
tible; so are the cigars you get in the
manager also. A pleasing and very thrifty
lavatory, with hot and cold water, is run
in connection with the hotel at mod
crate price per Law.
In the manager one day l pointed out
on the bill of fare breakfast that came
to four shillin', and told the garcon to
give it TO me. | spoke in English, such
as we use on Staten Island, for knew /
was in London, place which gets its
style and pronunciation largely from
Staten Island anyway, so l spoke it
slowly and distinctly, with that rich
tonsilitis flavor which is supposed to go
with the London pronunciation, but he
did not understand me, for he was
French. Had he been otherwise he
would have been discharged. He was
not en- rapport with me at all. He said
something about "companee, and 1 told
him l did not expect company at all,
though of course folks might drop in at
any time My latch string, as well as
my hired girl, was generally out, so they
would be welcome.
He shook his head and went away
Then he came back and lowered around
me, like hornet on hot day around a
full blooded and juicy little primary
school. | thought he doubted my
financial powers, SO l showed him
how l was rated by R. G. Dun &
Co., and also planted down consid-
cradle means on the table in pale Bank
of England "fi' pun" notes, which al
ways looked to me like specimens Of
Spencerian penmanship of the full arm
movement variety, and which never
seemed to Inc like money at all.
He went into brief catalepsy and
then started after Sir Arthur Sullivan,
who asked me in English, with great
difficulty, however, what the trouble
was. l told him that l had ordered
from the bill of fare for breakfast and
offered to pay for it, but / could not
seem to get on. | had never gone hun
cry in Paris or Ireland; but here, where
the English language was supposed to
be about the only thing that led a per-
fectly pure life, could not be under
stood sufficiently to keep the wolf from
the door.
Sir Arthur asked me to point out what
had ordered. remembered the price,
and so put my finger on the style Of
breakfast that four shillin' would buy.
1t was as follows: "Idem servi dams les
appartements." did not know what it
was, of course, but l knew that / had
roughed it and eaten salt pork and ante
lope straight for two weeks, till got
SO that if you shook a red rag at me /
would bleat and run four miles, and SO
I thought that a little idem with servia
on it, and then dance to my apparte-
ments, would just hit my rather delicate
taste.
Sir Arthur then told me that was
erroneous. The order l had given, he
said, was for 'ditto served in the pri-
vate rooms" Ditto, of course, meant
that could get the same breakfast as
the one described just above it for four
shillin'. This was so clear that thank
ed Sir Arthur and he went away. Look
ing at the item above it l found that it
read, "Dejeuner a la Franchise la carte
servi dams lie Grand restaurant (voyez lie
menu de jour- de 10 80 heures.
told Sir Arthur as passed out that l
was not well at all, and that the ride
Il .I~r..X