The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-03-08
ORELL ON AMERICAN HOTELS.

The Noted I"rcnchman Wonders at
tho Eating Customs os the Amcai
cans--Tbe Negro Boy and tho
Miracle.
From the New York Journal.
When Europeans travel they go tu
hotels because they cannot carry their
homes with them. They put up at
hotels because they are obliged to put
up with hotels. Americans go 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 q Euro.
pean tour which they had just con.
cluded. They were not, | must say,
refined Americans as ! 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, tho plays they had been to, but
the hotels they had stopped at, the
merits of which they discussed as they
compared them to the hotels Of Ameri.
ca. was once inside the beautiful
bapqueting hall in the Old ruined
Heidelberg castle in Germany. Some
Americans were there at the time. a
young girl detached herself from the
party, went against thc wall and meas
urcd 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 q
hotel is the size, the largo dimensions
of cverything-'large halls, large
rooms, huge menu. The American
\, hn IN
is explained by the size OF the CONT
nent he inhabits. 1t must be admitted
that fOrlcOmfOrt, case, luxury, there is
no such land OF plenty as a good
American hotel.
But the menu Oh, that American
menu. Will there be one day Il plucky
American hotel proprietor who will
dare bring 1T to q decent proportions
without running the risk OF being &C
cuscd OF meanncss, that most hated de.
feet in America? | never look at
Americans leaving the diniag room
alive after going through that menu
without thinking Of the little negro
boy who, being told at Sunday school
shat 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 dcy didn't bust"
| now understand the use Of the shcr-
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 IL dinner in philadcl-
phia. Yes, he said TO me, "it cools
You and enables you to go on That
bishop WAS congratulated by me on the
fact that he lived in times wncn cook
ing had improved since the days OF the
Lords Last Supper. ! could not hell
telling my bishop friend that, while
we took a shcrbet to "coOl ourselves
and get able to 20 on, perhaps in the
next street there WAS some poor moth
er having nothing but milllless breasts
to offer TO some starving babe. How
ever, let us not dwell on these fright
full contrasts Of life.
The most Objectionable sight that |
know Of, the one that has always
struck me as, perhaps, the most-wcll,
| was going to say revolting-is to
watch at hotels Americans order SOUP,
fish, two entrees, three kinds Of roast
meat, poultry or game. three or four
vegetables, two or three sweets, Just
take a mouthful OF each and send it all
away. This very morning at my hotel
there was at my table man who did
not look as il ut homo he could afford
two square meals day. He ordered
for breakfast oatmeal, bacon and two
eggs, lamb stew, steak, potatoes and
buckwhcat cakes. lie ate one egg,
mess Cd the fish and the bacon with his
! fork, had one bite at the steak; in fact
did not use one-twenticth Of tho
quantity Of food he had asked.
maintain, without any fear OF being
contradictcd, that there is enough
! food, good food, wasted in the hotel:
Of overy American city to feed, anl
'amply feed, all the poor people who
I dwell in it..
In the hotels OF the small towns the
menu Is not printed, and the waitress
rccites 1t to you in one long word OF
forty or fifty syllables. AS she gen
orally turns her back to you during
Of it, and you say Bring me the
lot" She brings il on a 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 trillcd with, and
| will never try it again.
And how do admire that big mus.
tached, magnificent potentate OF d
| head waiter who lies in wait for YOU at
the entrance door. How he strikes me
| with awe as he orders me to my seat
| have spent three years OF my life ir
| America. | mover once saw an Amcri
can so daring as not to accept tha,
scat. The head waiter is SO thorough
| ly persuaded that it would never enter
my hcad not to follow him that he
never looks round to see If ain there
close behind him. Why, he knows
am there. But an not. sometime:
get u little innocent amusement out 0
him. ! let him go to the end Of the
room. When he stops, moves a chair
and realizes that have taken Is sea
on my own hook and responsibility, hi:
face is study. He comes back TO me
and orders me OF. Then smile ant
says: No, thanks, don't want 1
constitutional walk just now don
trouble about me, | am all right here
He looks at mo well and goes away
absolutely satisfied am a crank. once
in St. Louis, at the Planters hotel
when | arrived near the dining room
the mead waiter came TO me and said
"Mr. Olell, where would you like g
sit :" stood aghast. " Excuse me,
| said, " let me have time TO take il
and realize it. DO you mean to tell