The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-02-28
o'RELL ON AMERICAN HOTELS.
The Noted Frenchmsr Wonders at
the Eating Customs OF tho Amcri-
cause.-The Negro Boy and the
Miracle.

cans--Thc Negro Boy and the
Miracle.
From the New York Journal.
When Europeans travel they 90 to |
hotels because they cannot carry their /
homes with them. They put up at |
hotels because they are Obliged to put |
up with hotels. Americans 90 to no. |
tells because they like hotel life. |
once heard party OF ten or twelve |
Americans, men and women, give one
another their impressions OF d Euro
pean tour which they had just con
cluded They were not, | must say,
ref iued Americans rs / know SO many,
but, no doubt, well-tO-do people. We'll,
SO far as | could Judge, their reminis-
cenCes were not Of the old castles and
cathedrals, the landscapes they had
seen, the plays they had been to, but
the hotels they had stopped at, the
merits Of which they discussed az they
compared them to the hotels OF Ameri.
ca. was once inside the beautiful
banqueting hall in the Old ruined
Heidelberg castle in Germany. SCme
Americans were there at the time. ~
young girl detached herself from the
party, went against the wall and meas
ured it's length with her feet. When
she returned she said; % knew ! was
right it's three feet longer than the
dining room at the Grand Pacific hotel
in Chicago" And Chicago feet, too
What appeals to an. American in a
hotel Is the size, the large dimensions
OF everything--large halls, largo
rooms, huge menu. The American
has bignes5 on the brain; this, think,
Is explained by the sHe of the CONT
nent he iphabits. 1t must be admitted
that forlcomfort, ease, luxury, there is
no such land OF pIenty as good
American hotel.
But the menu Oh, that American
menu. VIII there be one day plucky
American hotel proprietor who will
dare bring 1T to decent proportions
without running the risk OF being &C.
cused of meanness, that most hated de-
lect in America? | never look at
Americans leaving the di1iag room
alive after going through that menu
without thinking of the little negro
boy who, being told at Sunday school
that it Is related in the gospel that
five people were once fed with fifteen
Thousand loaves and fishes, and, asked
where the miracle was, answered
" De miracle was dat dey didn't bust. y
now understand the use of the sher.
bet to be found in the middle OF an
American menu. 1t was explained to
me by bishop at whose side / was
once sitting at u dinner in Philadel.
phla. es, he said to me, sit cools
you and enables you to 60 on" Tha,
bishop was congratulated by me on the
iact that he lived in times wnen cook.
ing had improved since the days Of the
Lords Last supper. | could not hell
telling my bishop friend that, while
we took sherbet to "cool ourselves
and get able to go on, perhaps in the
next street there was some poor moth.
er having nothing but milkless breast;
TO oiier TO some starving babe. How
ever, let us not dwell on these fright
lul contrasts OF life.
The most Objectionable sight that
know Of, the one that has always
struck me as, perhaps, the most-well
was going to say revolting-is t
watch at hotels Americans order soup
fish, two entrees, three kinds OF roas,
meat, poultry or game. three or fou
vegetables, two or three sweets, jus
take mouthlul OF each and send it al
away. This very morning at my bote
there was at my table man who die
not look as If at home he could AFFORD
Two square meals day. He ordered
Tor breakfast oatmeal, bacon and two
eggs, lamb stew, steak, potatoes anC
buckwheat cakes. He ate one egg
messed the fish and the bacon with hi:
fork, had one bite at the steak; in fact
quantity Of food he hs asked.
maintain, without any fear Of being
contradicted, that there is enough
food, good food, wasted In the hotel.
OF every American city to feed and
amply feed, all the poor people who
dwell in it.
In the hotels OF the small towns the
menu is not printed, and the waitress
recltes 1t to you in one long word OF
forty or fifty syllables. AS she gen
orally turns her back to you during
the recital, you don't catch one word
OF 1t, and you say: Bring me the
lot" She brings II on q big tray and
places, or rather deals, fifteen or more
little oval dishes around your plate.
When that deal was done to me for
the first time | remember | exclaimed:
Hello, what's trump" But that
waitress was not to be tritied with, and
will never try it again.
AID how do admire that big mus
tached, magnificent p0tentate of q
mead walter who lies in wait for you at
the entrance door. How he strikes me
With awe as he orders me to my seat /!
nave spent three years of my life in
America. J never once saw an Ameri-
can SO daring as not to accept that
seat. The head waiter is 80 thorough
~ persuaded that IL would never enter
my head not to follow him that be
never looks round to see If am there
close behind him. Why, he knows
am there. But am not. | sometimes
get little innocent amusement out of
him. let him go to the end OF the
room. When he stops, moves q chair,
and realizes that have taken seat
on my own hook and responsibility, his
face is study. He comes back to me
and orders me of. Then | smile and
says: mo, thanks, | don't want a
constitutional walk just now don't
trouble about me, | am all right here"
lie looks at me well and goes away,
absolutely satisfied am crank. Once
In st. Louie, at the Planters hotel,
when | arrived near the dining room,
the head waiter came to me and said
Mr.. ORell, where would you like to
sit :" | stood aghast. Excuse me-"
said, let me have time to take it
and realize 1T. Do you mean To tell
that In this hotel | am going to choose
my seat" Certainly" he replied.
pointed to table near the window
and he took me there. When | left
the dining room | met some newspaper
nfep-,ia the hall and | told them my
new Experience. The next day the
papersduly reported the incident, with
delicious heading, I" Max Sits Where
He Likes"
The American is the prince of good
fpllnwn He npssnseao In u snn,n,,,,