Arizona republican., 1904-07-03
PHOENIX. ARIZONA, JULY 3. 1904
Women in Hotel Lobbies.

W MOneu m T1OIel LODDleS.
 The vacation season being at hand, women who. travel will be glad to know that this year, more than ever before. the entrance for ladies" at hotels is feature which is chiefly found at old and backwoods houses. The modern hotel is for the comfort Of women quite as much as men, and women are thoroughly at home in ho- tel Hobbies. Formerly, and not very long ago. in fact, it was the general scheme in hotel construction and man. agement to exclude women from the Hobbies. There was the entrance" which led into a gloomy hall, ard thence up dark stairs into a stuffy "parlor." This was the concentration of hotel cheerlessness. Into that par lor'' and nowhere else could a woman go when she left her room. She would meet her callers" there, and there would be a prim visit with depressing surroundings. Otherwise, people did not go into the cave of gloom called
 
 the spare bedrooms" of our 0oyhood days. The women guests of the hotel gllded sadly from their rooms to the "parlor" and back again. They never saw the life and light of the Hobbies. The latter was for the men. and it was not proper" for women to be seen there.
 How different is their position aobut hotels now Women are almost as nu- merous in the Hobbies as the men, and they attract no more attention than they do in stores or on the street. Modern hotels no longer have ladies parlors." although they have ladies' waiting rooms and club rooms. Not only do the female guests of the ho- tels cone and go as they please, but women's clubs and organizations of all kinds meet in the hotels. Women go with as much unconceIn to the cash ier's office to settle their bills as do the men. A few years ago a woman walk Ing through the lobby and up to the hotel counter would have been the sub ject of numerous stares. The proper thing for her was to remain in her room or in the atrocious "parlor'' and have her bill brought to her. The pleasing innovation was seen in Phoe- nix as early, perhaps, as anywhere else. At any rate, gentlemen from the waybaok districts of the east still ex- press surprise, occasionally, to see women making free use of the com fortable seats and Iounging places in Phoenix hotel Hobbies.
 Just what influences have wrought most toward the happy change it would not be easy to specify. Some of them readily suggest themselves. however. The general emancipation of women accounts for much Of this freedom, of course. American women have thoroughly demonstrated their ability to take care of themselves any where, and one of their notices is, If visit any place I make it respect, able" GOlfng and all the outdoor sports have had their influence. More and more. women travel alone, and with practical common sense they have de- cIded that they are entitled to hotel comforts when they pay for them. contributing influence. too, in making women at hone in the hotel. Hobbies has been the presence there of women em- ployees - stenographers, telephone girls. and girls behind the cigar coun- ters and news stands. Enterprising hotel managers have been quick to see the importance of yielding to this new invasion" and now there is nobody more welcome or more carefully pro- lected in hotel Hobbies than the woman guest.
 It is only the old-fashioned and the "jimcrow'' hotels that cling to the the cry that women must stay in cages on the upper floors. and it is suCh hotels that give women horror of travelling