The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-17
WOEs OF 4 REsORTER.
Periandsr's Cheeriess Room at NaTraEan-
 sett Pier Hotel.

sett Pier Hotel.
 Narragansett Pier. July IA.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
 Room, not over fifteen feet square. One window. with old-fashioned sashes which 1t requires the strength of Her eules combined with the persuasion Of Socrates to budge. Outside blinds, but no shade or curtain. On the floor an old mating patched in places. For furni- ture. everything of the plainest and cheapest. Fair enough bed. but only two diminutive. substanceless pillows. The bureau drawers are worse than the window shades. They come out. when they come at all. by jerks, first one side and then the other. till you are mad enough to kick the whole thing into kindling wood. Two chairs. of so small a pattern that you think they must have been taken from the nursery. You can't help sitting well over both sides of them at once. Finally the creaslng Of your superfuity becomes so uncomfort- able that you prefer to stand. The fur nishing Is completed by a wash-stand. Wood, of course; about two feet long by one foot wide. On top Is backed a piece of we'll used oil-cloth. On the oil cloth are bowl, pitcher. soap-dish; noth- ing else. white, opaque. solid. small. You will have to wash in very small sections. On one side of the wash- stand are two projecting prongs nov ing on hinges. On each prong Is thin, used up rag. You can insult the poor old things by calling them towels. A narrow shelf runs from the door to one of the corners of the room at about height of five feet from the floor. From the shelf hangs a dingy, faded curtain. Behind the curtain a row of hooks. This arrangement takes the place of a closet. A card tackled to the | door informs. you that the price of the palatial apartment you are about to l occupy is forty-two dollars a week, l that the room Is double room and | that there is no reduction when occu- pied by 8 single person. The idea be- ing that no reasonable American sum- | mer-resorter could possibly wish to ap- l propriate so very much valuable space | to his individual solitary and selfish | self. If you go about among the other hotels you will find just about the same l state of things in them all; the same ideas of space, size, comfort, price. Not all of them stand up to the forty-two dollar figure; but they come close to 1t, ! and all aim at 1t. Space is moreover l too valuable to devote but the smallest | possible portion to parlors, or to pulp lie purposes, of any kind. No writing rooms, smoking rooms, billiard or bar rooms. There is 8 narrow piazza down upon which the sun pours it's blister ing rays all the morning; there is a patch of bald, bare, bleak stubble be- tween the piazza and the street, and that is the whole of 1t; all the hotel does for your comfort and your entertain ment. Yet the hotels are filling up rap idly, and in ten days will be crowded. At all these hotels the table ranges from good, to.very bad. At this partic- ular hotel the table, from the American hotel point of view, is very good: You can gather about you at dinner the regulation number of small dishes, each containing something that has been cooked from ten minutes to two hours. From the messes you may be able to select a few which are edible. At other hotels on the Pier you won't.
 If you ask your host Thy are your prices so high, he will undoubtedly re- ply, in the way of retort, because the season is short. Then is good time to tell him, what is absolutely true, that a first-class hotel makes it's own seasons; that the American people are so fond of being we'll fed and comfortably housed at reasonable expense that they will go anywhere where these attrac- tions are offered, and stay as long as they last. The hotel question is a large factor in foreign travel. To under stand the factor, fly with me on the wings of memory to the Schweitzer- hoff, in Lucerne, and see what may be had there for the money. For one dol lar, a room containing everything ne cessary to comfort; for two, room with luxurious appointments. When you descend in the morning you find many rooms where you may sit, write, read, smoke, drink &sc., Sc. In one very large room is the last edition of every important newspaper published in civilization, The regulation break fast costs fifty cents, and consists of coffee, eggs, honey and rolls. If you need more you can order it; and 1t will be ordered for you, served piping hot from the fire and charged at 8 most moderate rate. There's a table d'hote at one and another at six. The first costs one dollar; the second one dollar and twenty cents-at least they did two
 years ago. The table d'hote is a com. plete meal, but with only one thing tc each course; one soup, one fish, one en-
 tre, one roast, Sc. It Is cooked so as tc
 be served on the minute. It is served
 on the minute, and If you are not ready
 on the particular minute you can't par
 take. But you will be sure to be ready
 When the table d'hote is established
 then, and not till then, will the era O
 good cooking be inaugurated R. thi . 1 country. If you. talk table d'hote tt an American hotel proprietor he will
 tell you that the ordinary American pa triot would not put up with it; that tn exigencies of patriotism demand tha , | meals he cooked and ready at all time