The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-01-07
An English View Of their Actions
and Manners.
THINGS THAT ARE BAD FORM.
There is No Need OF Travellers From
America stopping Mt English Aotels,
because Houses Run Upon the Ameri-
can Plan are Numerous and Good.


And not only do they select those which
are merely different In 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 th
eyes Of the rest of the world, but withoui
which there are some people who SsrveDtly
believe the nation would not be safe nor
the crown secure.
Why Americans should do this is past
Comprehensive, unless it be the result OF
that blind infatuation for everything Eng
lish which is the controlling principle OF
the Anglomaniac's existence. IL can not
be because they like it-really like it. II
it be done for the qualification of curiosity
purely and only we might be able to under
stand IL. IL American ladies and gentle
men Of large and unlimited means want 70
see what a characteristic English hotel is
ike, aud go to it SO TO see, IL Is one thing.
But il they go because English people &c
TO It, and that, therefore, il must be "the
correct thing TO do, don't you know" it is
quite another am afraid the latter mo
tive co ntrols the whole business.
AMERICAN HOTELS IN LONDON.
All can say is it is pitiful and enough
20 bring a blush of shame to the faces OF
real Americans. IL 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
here were nothing but dark and ding,
title English hotels to go to. But theft
ire dozens Of hotels such as are the rule In
America and under the roofs of which you
would be justified in supposing an Amer
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 be contented There they can
have hot and cold water, bathrooms, p
billiard room, an elevator and tabli
d'hote. Everything with perhaps sligh
English tinge) which they are accustomet
to in America they can have at these hotels
Yet Americans seem TO prefer the opposite
Instead of going to the sort of hotels the
have been used to all their lives, and thei
fathers before them-the sort of hotel
which even some openminded Englisl
people are generous enough to admit art
the best hotels in the world-they turn
their backs upon them and rush to Longs
Claridge's and Morley's, where they are Nc
more really at home than bird would b,
in cage.
As rule, the better classes in England
10 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
night or two to a hotel-and to hotels such
as Longs and Claridge's.
HOTELS ENGLIsHMEN PREFER.
But they go 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 wSuld rather have 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 barber shop, and are
decidedly happier with a small can of hot
water, brought up by the chambermaid,
than they would be il drawing It them
selves from a silver plated tap. The very
things they do not like in a hotel Ameri-
cans do Tor ought toy; the very things they
do like Americans do not Tor ought not to).
Yet is all reversed directly Americans
come to London.
Another thing: II costs lot more
money to stay at Longs or Claridge'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, when
ever they may be compelled to go to a Lon
don hotel, always go 10 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 of
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-
hend is why they do not prefer America to
to swagger in. English "swagger," in its
truest sense and meanipS-sss INDUCED in
only in England. ] allude, of course, to
the best people. They swagger at home
because it is perfectly legitimate that they
should. Ii Is their right aud privilege and
habit 10 do swagger things and 20 be
Thought very swagger by people beneath
them. 1t is the snobs who swagger when
they go abroad on the astonish-the-nativ
principle. They cannot swagger at home
and so they go abroad.
On the other hand, the really syagger
people in England are quiet, unobtrusive
and simple when they travel, or 20 To stay
anywhere out OF England. IL you see
man travelling with half dozen servants,
showing up at every station and great
row and noise going on whenever he makes
his appearance, be sure he Is retired
tailor or butter maker The dukes and
earls 20 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 standing at home are not
content with IL.
suppose you might talk and write till
doomsday, but you could not hope TO i'm.
press these American swaggerers abroad
with the utter "bad FORM" in English
eyes, Of the things they do. or course,
they have right 10 do what they like, II
n Il.