The Portland daily press., 1899-01-13
COUNTRY HOTELS.
In this Country aud in Another Coun-
try.
Brooklyn Eagle. }

There Is no lack Of country hotels-call
them taverns. III you like-in this land
that are clean, well kept, comfortable and
gen erous as to the table. Take the two
countries, town for town, and We doubt
II England will show much better than
America. The best hotels in England
have fieas, and ours do not. That Is one
thing In our favor. And there Is not so
poor an inn in all this land az to light u
guest to his room with candle, in the
ridiculous European fashion, nor to deny
soap to :be tourist, save at an extra ex-
pense, nor to lock him in at night and
make him call himself in the morning,
nor to keep him waiting till O'Clock for
his breakf asst, and have nothing for him
then but chop and cup of tea, and some
of that bread made In 1889. that the
British pride themselves on being able to
eat. We have lamps, and even electric
lights In dollar day houses No room
is without water, soap and towels. Elec-
trio signals commonly connect the guest
chamber with the office. In hot weather
one may ring for ice water, and 1t will
be sent to the room. In England the
best you can get to drink IN an inn is
warm ale.
Our cooking in the country tavern is
not ideal. That Is confessed frankly.
but, great SCOTT. have you tried 1t In
some of the English tavernsy In the best
hotel In London you have q choice of a
dozen dishes for din ner. In any provin-
| cial hotel In America you have twenty.
One IL as often surprised at the neatness,
lnr Sand nnp1 cnnktnn In American
| hotels in small towns as he is disappoint.
ed at the lack of comfort The bicyclers
know where to 60 and the pedestrians and
the dVummers. and the Englishman
| should have asked some OF theAe wander
ers where to put up. The average Inn In
place that the villagers went to In the
| evening in order TO get drunk. The ar
rival of q tourist was so unexpected that
| IL threw the whole place into hutter and
after keeping an applicant at the door for
| five minutes the maid who presided as
him away. alleging that the place was
full, which IL wasn't. A room was never
known to DO ready. and II 1t were the
Prince OF Walss himself who had oome,
he would have to wait in the little office.
or at the bar, or in the kicthen while the
entire household went charging up and
dowE the stairs, calling, Whispering,
I
clean sheet for the bod. We never act like
| that whom a guest, even an English one,
arrives at any of our hotels.
| That there 10 room for improvement in
the average country tavern In this coun-
try is by no means denied. 1t was posi-
bly, better in the stage coaching days,
when lawyers and judges going to court
officials travelling on public business,
merchants going down to thetports to buy
stoc ks or returning with trunks nlied
with silks and gloves, lodged over night
in these places of entertainment, or dined
| there while the horses were changed. Inc
facilities for reaching town now "a day
and the certainty Of hiding good hotels In
town have led to . comparative neglect OF
the tavern. In prohibition districts, to-,
| the tavern has become q mere bar room,
aud as the landlord Ia certain to be tpied
upon and threatened with arrest, his
| tenure IL short. Feeling that he cannot
keep the place for more than month Or
two he makes no attempt to keep u well
| or to make improvements that call FOR the
spending OF much money. he allows tne
Office and parlor to become resort Tor
idlers of the place, who smoke vile pipes
and swear in loud tones
In such villages as support this kind of
landlord 1t would sseem as II there was
room for successful rival, especially In
summer, for the country vacation habit
Is widening and the term OF the season q
outing IL growing longer. neat, quiet,
| we'll Kept house ought to be q oetainty in
every village of more than five hund req
| people. 1t would not only accommodate
and attract outsiders, but in every com
munity OF that size there are men and
women whose lack of family or whose
employ ments operate against successful
house keeping, and they could be counted
on as permanent quests. A more refined
age demands more refinement in its be-
longings, and the tobacco- chewing, pro-
fane-speaking lounger Of the tavern is
probably the greatest objection TO the
country hotel Of today. He 10 worse than
the cooking. and he keepa out not only
the wayfarer, but the resident. The
country inn of the future will be not
merely cheap and humble: 1t will be pic,
turesq ne, like the English inn; IL VIII
not be smoky or noisy; 1t will be clean,
comfortable and tasteiully furnished; 1t
will be warmed by hot air or water, not
by the roasting, cracking steam, nor the
yillainous ana gaseous furnace: there
will also be freplscss in the rooms made
to use, and there will be wholesome 1000
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