Morning journal and courier., 1891-08-26
ANGLoMANIAos IN LONDON.


 lish.
 London Letter to the San Francisco Argonautl
 One of the glaring anomalies observable in the action 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 in their style of general managementf from American hotels, but eagerly seek admittance to those whose ways and customs would have been anti quated 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 with out which there are some English people who frequently 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 iufatuation for everything Eng fish which is the controlling principle of the anglomaniac's existence. It cannot be because they like it-reslly 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 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. l am afraid the latter motive controls the whole bust ness. All I can say is, it is pitiful and enough to bring blush of shame to the face of real Americans. It 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 8 Hurry" there were nothing but dark and dingy little English hotels to go 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 supposing an American lady or gentleman would feel throughly at home. At any one of the modern hotels any American with an American love of comfort, might be con- tented. There they can have hot and cold water, bathrooms, barroom, billiardroom, an elevator and table d'hote. Every thing )with perhaps a slight English tinge) which they are accustomed to in America they can have at these hotels. Yet Ameri- | cans 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 hotel | which even some open-minded English peo pie are generous enough to admit are the | best hotels in the world-they turn their backs upon them and rush to Long's, | Cartridges and Morley's, where they are nc | more really at home than bird would be | in cage.
 AS a rule, the better classes in Eng. land 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 to hotel-and to hotels such as Longs 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 upstairs than be carried | their bath in @ portable tub by their
 bedside than in the most elaborately | appointed bathroom; they would sooner
 shave themselves than go down to the hotel barbor shop, and are decidedly happier with a small can of hot | water, brought up by the chambermaid
 than they would be if drawing it them.
 selves from silver-plated tap. The very | things they do not like in hotel, Amen
 cans do (or ought to); the very things they do like, Americans do not Cor ought not to-. come to London.
 Another thing: It costs a lot more
 money to stay at Long's or Cartridges than at the American hotels-or rather those
 English 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 tc
 London hotel, always go to Long's ol
 Claridge's; or one of the other leading
 West End family" hotels. In which cas,
 their arrivals and departures are carefully
 able Intelligence" column of "The Morning
 Post" The American-plan hotels do no
 soar to this height. The great puzzle t
 Englishmen in this respect is why Ameri
 cans want to show off in England. The,
 can understand their liking to live wei
 and have nice things and to live in gooC
 houses as they themselves do; but wha
 they do not comprehend is why they d. not prefer America to swsgger in
 English '' 'swagger," in its truest sense ant
 and meaning, is indulged in only in Eng
 land I allude, of course, to the best pee
 pie. They swagger at home, because it . perfectly legitimate that they should.
 is their right and privilege and habit to d swagger things and to be thought yer swagger by people beneath them. It the snobs who swagger when they g
 abroad on the astonish- the natives prime pie. They cannot swagger at home an , so they go abroad. On the other hand ,tt
 really swagger people in England are quie unobtrusive, and simple when they tray B or go to stay anywhere out of England. 8 you see 8 man travelling with half doze a servants, showing up at every station, an . @ great row and noise going on whenev' he makes his appearance, be sure he is D retired tailor or butter maker. IT I dukes and earls go about like other rpeopl
 They keep their swagger for their ow = country and do not assert themselv I abroad. Therefore, they cannot imagiI | why Americans who have @ standing @ home are not content with it. suppo l. you might talk and write till doomsds l. but you could not hope to impress the American swsggerers abroad with the ut o "bad form," in English eyes, of the thin, they do. Of course they have a right 2 do what they like-if they can pay f e it. But because 8 man is able to pay for l. thing is not justification for his doing V or having it.
 l. once met a great, big, burly, overbea s ing man, crossing over from Boulogne
 to Folkestone. will not say what natiol l. ality his was, but will remark that he mat d himself both detestable and rediculous : the other passengers by his self-sssertir manners. When we got to the train f, 7 London he was occupying irst-class con d partment all to himself, and it SO happene v that the train was so crowded that sever 9 ladies were forced to wait for the next on @ Still this creature peered out of the vii l. dow, and, in reply to some of the plaii 1t spoken comments which filled the air, [ B marked complacently: "Well, I can pc d for it, can't Ii"
 l. Whenever I have since heard people ju @ tifed for what they do, by being told tn they can pay for it, always think of tn IT man. Oh, no, it isn't matter of abilit F, but good taste. And that money will n t- carry it off has been shown in the baccar 1t case, where the Wilson's got such a scorir @ from the solicitor general
 l. A Swedish Boys Idea of Columbus l. In Swedish school recently the class ls composition was ordered to give an a
 count of Columbus and his life wor g This is what one of the pupils wroi