The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-11-07
ANoLo.MANIAos I'M LONDON,
The Queer Things They DO and the Qucei
Treatment They Get

old-fashioned hotels conducted upon the
English plan. And not only do they
select those which are merely different
in their style Of general management
from American hotels, but eagerly seek
admittGnce to those whose ways and
customs would have been antiquated in
the reign of Queen Apne and are re-
nowned for their observance of all
those petty rules which make the livtr
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
/ English which is the controlling prin-
! ciple of the Anglo-maniac'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 understand
! it. If American ladies and gentlemen
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 go 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 motive controls the
whole business. All l can say is it is
pitiful and enough to bring 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 Hurry"
there were nothing but dark and dingy
little English hotels to 20 to- But there
are dozens of hotels such as are the
rule in America, and under the roofs
of which you would be justified in sup
posing an American lady or gentleman
would feel thoroughly at home. At any
one of the modern hotels any American,
with an American love of comfort might
be contented. There they can have hot
and cold water, bath rooms, a bar room,
a billiard room, an elevator and table
d hote. Everything with perhaps u
slight English Jingel which they are ac-
customed to in America they can have
at these hotels. Yet Americans seem
to prefer the opposite. Instead of GO
ing 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 open-minded 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 and Morlcy's where
they are no more really at home than a
bird would be in a cage.
AS a rule the better classes in En-
gland do not stay at hotels in London.
Some do, of course, but the majority
have town residences of their own, and
when in London during the season they
live in them. But sometimes when
obliged to be in town when the season
is over, they may go for night or two
to hotel-and to hotels such as Long's S
and Claridge's. But they go to hotels
of this kind simply because they prefer
them, and they prefer them because
they have always been accustomed to
them. They would sooner walk up,
stairs than be carried up by lift;
they would rather have their bath in a
, portable tub by their bedside than in
the most elaborately appointed bath
selves than go down to the hotel barbe,
shop, and are decidedly happier with q
small can of hot water, brought up 10y
the chambermaid, than they would be
if drawing it themselves from Il silver
, plated tap. The very things they dc
not like in hotel, Americans do (ol
) ought toy; the very things they do like
Americans do not Tor ought not toy.
Yet is all reversed directly Americans
come to London.
Another thing: 1t costs lot more
money to stay at Longs or Claridges
than at the American hotels-or rather
those EnglisI' hotels which are kept on
, the American plan. Besides which all
and every of the great swells of high
life, whenever they may be compelled
to go to the London hotel always go to
Longs or Claridge's, or one of the other
leading West End family" hotels. II
, which case their arrivals and depar
lures are carefully chronicled and pub
lished in the Questionable Intelli
gence" column of the Morning Post
, The American-plan hotels do not soal
to this height. Tee great puzzle to En-
glishmen in this respect is why Ameri
cans want to show off in England
They can understand their liking tc
live well and have nice things, and tC
live in good houses as they themselve:
do; but what they do not comprehend
is why they do not prefer America t.
swagger in. English 'swagger," il
it's truest sense and meaning is in
dulged only in England ] allude, o
course, to the best people. They swag
ger at home because it is perfectly
> legitimate that they should, L
is their right and privilege anc
habit to do swagger things anC
to be thought very swagger BY
people beneath them. 1t is the snob
who swagger when they go abroad ol
the stonish-the-natives principle. They
can not swagger at home and so the,
go abroad. On the other hand, thu
really swagger people in England ar
l quiet, unobtrusive and simple whel
they travel or go to stay anywhere ou
of England. If you see a man travel
ing with half dozen servants show
ing up at every station and u great row
and noise going on whenever he makes
his appearance be sure he is retired
tailor or butter-malIer The dukes ant
| earls go about like other people. The!
keep their swagger for their own coun
: try and do not assert themselves abroad
Therefore, they can not imagine wh,
| A vuhO baua a OF Dd n r at hOni