The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-08
ANoLo-MANtAos lNLoNDoN.
Tho 0ueor Things They DO and tho Quoer
Treatment Thcy Get.

Tho Oueor Things They DO and tho Ouoer
Treatment Thoy Get.
One of the glaring anomalies obscrv-
nble in the action of wealthy Americans
who come to London in these DAYS is
that they almost invariably stay Mt the
old-fashioncd 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
admittance to those whose ways and
customs would have been Anticipated in
the reign of Queen Anne and are re-
nowned for their 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
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 n 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. I 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 werc 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 go to. But there
are dozens of hotels such us 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 contentcd. There they can have hot
and cold water bath rooms, Il bar room,
n billiard room, an elevator and n table
d. hotc. Everything with perhaps 4
slight English tinge) which they are ac-
customed to in America they can have
at these hotels. Yet Americans seem
to prefer the opposite. Instead of 60
ing to the sort of hotels they have been
used to all their lives. and their fathers
before thcm--thc sort of hotels which
even some opcn-minded English people
are generous enough to admit are the
best hotels i'll the world-they turn
their backs upon them and rush to
Longs, Clardge's and Morleys, where
they are no more really ut home than
bird would be in cage.
AS 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 a night or two
to n hotcl--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 up
stairs than be carried up by n lift"
they would rather have their bath in a.
portable tub by their bedside than I'M
the most deliberately appointed bath
room; they would sooner shave them
selves than go down to the hotel barber
shop, and are decidedly happier with a
small can OF hot water, brought ND nv
the chambermaid, than they would be
if drawing it themselves from silver
plated tap. The very things they do
not like in a hotel, Americans do for
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 Claridgc's
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 to the London hotel, always go to
Longs or Claridge's, or one of the other
leading West End ''family" hotels. In
which case their arrivals and dcpar-
lures are carefully chroniclcd and pub
lished in the Questionable Intclli.
gencc" column of the Morning Post.
The Americanplan hotels do not soar
to this height Tae great puzzle to En-
glishmen in this respect is why Ameri-
cans 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 themselves
do; but what they do not comprehend
is whV theV do not nrp for A n,nr;o, 10
swagger in English ''swagger," in
its truest sense and meaning is in
dulgcd only i'll England. | allude, of