Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-11-13
AMERICANS In LONDON.
AN ENGLISH VIEW OF THEIR AC-
TONS AND MANNERS.
There Is No Need of Travellers from
America stopping at English Hotels,
because Houses Run Upon the Ameri-
can Plan Are Numerous and Good.

can Plan Are Numerous and Good.
One of the glaring anomalies observable
in the actions of wealthy Americans who
come to London in these days is that they
almost invariably stay at the old fashioned
hotels conducted upon the English plan.
And not only do they select those which
are merely different iii their style of gen.
eral management from American hotels,
but eagerly seek admittance TO those whose
ways and customs would have been an
tiquated in the reign of Queen Anne and
are renowned for the observance of all
those petty rules which make the lives of
the English upper classes ridiculous in the
eyes of the rest of the world, but without
which there are some people who fervently
believe the nation would not be safe nor
the crown secure.
Why Americans should do this is past
comprehension, unless it be the result of
that blind infatuation for everything Eng
lish which is the controlling principle of
the Anglomaniac's existence. 1t can not
be because they like it--really like it, If
it be done for the qualification of curiosity
purely and only we might be able to under
stand it, If American ladies and gentle
men of large and unlimited means want to
see what a characteristic English hotel is
like, and go to it so to see, it is one thing
But if they 20 because English people go
to it, and that, therefore, it must be 'the
correct thing to do, don't you know" it is
quite another. | am afraid the latter mo-
tive controls the whole business
AMERICAN HOTELS IN LONDON.
All can say is it is pitiful and enough
to bring a blush of shame to the faces of
real Americans. 1t is not as If there were
no hotels in London conducted on the
American plan, and, as in the days when
George Wilkes wrote " Europe in "A Hurry"
there were nothing but dark and dingy
little English hotels to 90 to. But there
are dozens of hotels such as are the rule in
America and under the roofs of which you
would he justified in supposnS an Ameri-
can lady or gentleman would feel thor
| oughly at home.
At any one of the modern hotels any
American, with an American love of com
fort, might he coutented There they can
have hot aud cold water, bathrooms, n
billiard room, an elevator and table
d'hote. Everything with perhaps slight
| English tinge) which they are accustomed
| to in America they can have at these hotels
| Yet Americans seem to prefer the opposite
| Instead of going TO the sort of hotels they
| have been used TO all their lives, and their
| fathers before them-the sort of hotels
which even some openminded English
| people are generous enough to admit are
| the best hotels in the world-they turn
| their backs upon them and rush to Longs,
| Claridge's ana Morley's, where they are no
| more really at home than a bird would be
| in a cage.
| As rule, the better classes in England
| do not stay at hotels in London. Some do,
| of course, but the majority have town
! residences OF their own, and when in Lon
! don during the season they live in them.
| But sometimes, when Obliged to be in town
| when the season is over, they may go for a
| night or two TO a hutel-and to hotels such
as Longs and Claridge's.
| HOTELS ENGLIsHAIEN PREFER.
But they 20 to hotels of this kind simp-
| ly because they prefer them, and they pre-
fer them because they have always been
accustomed to them. They would sooner
walk up stairs than be carried up by a
lift" they would rather have their bath
in a portable tub ny their bedside than in
the most deliberately appointed bathroom;
| they would sooner shave themselves than
! go down to the hotel barber shop, and are
| decidedly happier with small can of hot
| water, brought up by the chambermaid,
| than they would be if drawing it them
| selves from a silver plated tap. The very
| things they do not like in a hotel Ameri-
cans do Tor ought to-; the very things they
do like Americans do not (or ought not to-
| Yet is all reversed directly Americans
| come TO London.
Another thing: 1t costs lot more
money to stay at Longs or Clardge's than
at the American hotels-or rather those
English hotels which are kept on the
American plan. Besides which, all and
| t,..t IL.
ever they may I've compelled to go to Lon
don hotel, always 90 To Longs or Clar-
idge's, or one of the other leading West
End family" hotels. In which case their
arrivals and departures are carefully
chronicled and published in the Fashion
able Intelligence" column of The Morning
Post. The American plan hotels do not
soar to this height
''swAGGER'' PEOPLE ABROAD
The great puzzle to Englishmen in this
respect is why Americans want to show off
in England. They can understand their
liking to live well and have nice things
and to live in good houses as they them
selves do; but what they do not compre.
bend is why they do nos prefer America to
to swagger in. English ''swagger,' in its
truest sense and meaning, is INDUCED in
only in England. | allude, of course, to
|
because it j perfectly legitimate that they
should. 1t is their right and privilege and
habit to do swagger things aud 20 be
thought very swagger by people beneath
them. II is the suobs who swagger when
they go abroad on the astonisll-the-native
principle. They cannot swagger at home
and so they go abroad.
On the other hand, the really swaggeI
people in England are quiet, unobtrusiye
and simple when they travel, or 20 to stay
anywhere out of England. If you see q
man travelling with iIalf a dozen servants
showing up at every station and a great
row and noise going on whenever he make
his appearance, be sure he is retired
tailor or butter maker The dukes ano
earls go about like other people. They
keep their swagger for their own country
and do not assert themselves abroad
Therefore, they cannot imagine why Ameri
cans who have a standing at home are not
content with it.
| suppose Won might talk and write fill