The Washington bee. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1884-1922, 1893-04-08
A woman's Impression of London,

The busy woman who earns her own
dollars, and who is obliged to save
them carefully for long time in order
that she may make trip to the old
world, is very much interested in find
ing out how these carefully saved dol
lars may be made to do the best SER
vice. Somebody has told her that she
can get luxurious apartments in Lon
don for about 81 a week. And she
figures upon this basis how far she can
go with her money. Her first days
hunt for apartments will, I fancy, sur
prise her. Of course she viii begin as
all Americans do-to look through the
aristocratic precincts of South Kensing-
ton and Mayfair
These houses, where lodgings are let,
have been rented usually by the upper
servants in some great family, who
have carefully saved enough from their
wages year by year to go into the bust
ness. The cook has married the but
Ter they have taken a house, usually
furnished house; between them they
dispense entirely with servants, and
their main dependence for the year is
what they get from the American tour
lists during the summer season.
They know full well that European
travellers would not think for moment
of paying the prices which they ask
Americans. So, when our friend, the
woman of small resources, rings the
bell at one of these hostelries, she is
surprised to find that the apartments,
which do not strike her as being par
ticularly luxurious, are all the way
from five to nine guineas per week.
There is no English coin which repre-
sents the guinea, but it is thought more
elegant in London to use "guinea" than
pound" And the guinea contains an
extra shilling
Our weary friend goes on and on in
search of cheap apartments. but she
must give up the West Side and come
down to the vicinity of Bedford Square
and the British Museum, where she
will find quite colony of American
tourists of small means, and possibly
she will be able to live for three
guineas a week. Never less than this.
And she is obliged to put up with a
stufy little room on the third or fourth
floor, without fire. Very few rooms in
London have appliances for warming.
and the climate is cold and damp al
ways. The little fourth floor room will
be lighted by one candle, and for the
privilege of having this candle the &C.
cupant pays sixpence per week extra.
Everything is extra. You are charged
for the washing of your bed linen and
towels; you are charged for attendance.
and if it should happen that there is a
CRATE in your room, and you indulge in
the luxury of fire, you are charged
sixpence scuttle for s'coals. There is
nothing clean in London.
I think the American woman on her
first visit is always somewhat appalled,
by the dinginess of the beds. Indeed,
I am sure there is no appliance of mol
ern civilization quite as awful as the
English bed. 1t is composed of an in.
Vulnerable number of mattresses piled
one on top of the other. Heaven
knows what they are filled with, but
they are hard and lumpy and bumpy
to degree. Springs are an unknown
quantity. If they exist at all they have
long since grown weary of performing
any Office.
There is no such thing as hot water
in London. You ask for it and you are
brought some that is possibly blood
warm. They call it hot. Possibly
from their standpoint it is, for every
thing In England is cold, cold, cold
n. 7. Herald.