Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1892-02-16
AMERICANS IN LONDON,
AN rsetlsH VIEW or THEIR &C
TONS AND MANNERS.


There Is No Need Of Traveller. from
A"er'e" stepping IT Eaxil.h no,.i.
"eeauss Houses Ron Upon the Ame,f-
can Plan Are humorous ana t;o.a
one Of the gisFing anomalies otserval,le
~ tbe Hctionsof wealthy Americans ) t,o
e,nie 70 London in these days Is that fl,ev
almost invariably stay ut the old fashlfned
s"oeis conducted upon the English DIan
Ana not only do they select those which
are merely different In their style of GER
erai management from American botess
ont eagerly geek admittance To those whose
ways ana customs would have been an
tiquated IN the reign Of Queen Anne ard
re renowned for the Observance OF ali
tDose petty rules which make the Ewes az
the English upper classes ridiculous In the
eyes o. the rest OF the world, but without
when mere are some people who feryentlv
peheve the nation would not be safe nor
the crown secure.
WY Americans should do this in mast
comprehension, unless it be the resuIt az
that Dino infatsiation for everything Eng
iisn which Is the controlling principle e,g
.ne Ahgionaniac's existence. IL can not
De because they like it--reaily like il. III
u he Done for the qualification Of curiosity
purely and only We might be eble to under.
stand IT, II American ladies and gentle
men OF large and unlimited means want Il,
zee what a characteristic English hotel L
IKE, ana 90 to it SO TO see, it Is one thing.
But y they go because English people 20
10 ~ and that, therefore, it mast he 'iths
correct thing to do. don't you know, % il is
quite another ! am afraid the latter mo-
tive controls the whole Business.
AMERICAN HOTELS Is LONDON.
All can say Is it i pitifuI and enough
TO bring a blush Of shame 70 the saces a
real Americans IL is rot MS ii there were
no hotels in London conducted on tine
American plan, and, as in the days when
George Wilkes wrote Europe In a Hurry y
there were nothing but dark and dfu1v
little English hotels 70 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 sHpposing an Ameri-
can lady or gentleman would feel thor
onghly at home.
At any one of the modern hotels any
American, with an American love of com
tort. might be contented. There they can
have hot and cold water, bathrooms. a
d'hote. Everything with perhaps slight
English tIngeJ which they are accustomed
to in America they can have at these hotels.
Yet Americans seem 10 prefer the opposite.
Instead Of going TO the sort of hotels they
have been used to all their lives, aud their
fathers before then--the sort of hotels
which even sone openminded English
people are generous enough to admit are
fIsk 81 ~ - -
their backs npon them and rush to Longs.
Clarldge's and Morleys, where they are no
more really At hone than 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 90 for a
night or two to a hOteI-and to hotels such
AS Longs ami Claridge's.
HOTELS ENGLIsHMES 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
lift" they would rather have their bath
in a portable tuD by their bedside than in
the most deliberately appointed bathroom,
they would sooner shave themselves than
go down TO the hotel barrier shop, and are
decidedly happier with q 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 hotel Ameri-
cans DO (or ought to-. the very things they
do like Americans do not TOR ought not tot.
Yet is all reversed directly Americans
come TO London.
Another thing: 1t costs lot more
money 10 stay 1t 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 swelIs Of high life, when
ever they may be compelled to go to Lon
don hotel, always 20 to Longs or Ciar-
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 20 this height.
"swAGoER PEOPLE ABROAD.
The great puzzle to Engli,hmen in this
respect is why Americans want 10 snow on
in England. They can understand their
liking to I'VE Wen aud nave nice Things
and 10 live in good houses as they them
selves do; bat what they do nos compre-
bend is why they do not prefer America to
to swagger in. English ''swagger," in its
trueSt sense and meaning, is INDUCED in
only in England. | allude, of course, to
the best people Ihe{ swagSer az nome
because 1t i perfectly ie@itlIiaee that they
should. 1t Is their right and privilege and