The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-19
AMERFCAN HOTELS
Defended Against the Cynical Aspersions
Of Colonel TOdy Hamilton.

i sunday Q Sun Dy ColOnBl louy tthhuiNoh' WV
can now live at home and have thing TO suit
him, is hardly fair. in my opinion. There are
bad hotels, lots Of them; e~xecrable. some OF
them, but there are many good ones, and
those that are not in the inexousable class
have pretty good reasonsior not being fully
up to the Coionel's ideas. ! know people
who have fallen into the habit OF scoring
hotels on general principles. and possibly the
Colonel, after twenty-five years on the ROAD.
has got the habit. But some who have not
been through them all. as he has. jump on
all kinds: even the very best in New YORK
city. where the best In the world may De
found, not escaping their unreasonable as
PENSIONS. There are men who quarrel WIN
the breakfasts their wives cook Tor them out
they are different.
Our cheaper hotels do not compare with
those Of the same grade abroad. because con-
ditions are not the same. our women as a
rule lea wing the work 10 be done by husbands
and servants, and our servants are not high
class. | have noticed, though. that wheh
a thrifty American woman. North or South,
takes hold Of a hotel she can beat the world
at II. ! can remember for twenty years very
pleasa ntly q truly luxurious dinner for a
quarter that | had at a small tavern in
Tennessee. with a woman bossing the COOK
stove and the whole encourage. Since that
time ! have sampled hotels from Alaska
TO Florida and ! did not find them nearly,
as black as Colonel Tody has painted them.
Possibly my digestion is better than his.
and | am not such a stickler for elaborate
service. with a ma rble topped piano on the
side. Last summe far out on the plains OF
Wyoming We stopped for dinner from a de-
layed train. and what we got for fifty oents-a
woman on deck-was good and plenty enough
for anybody. In Montana we stopped a day
and night In a four house city at a railway
junction and the hotel was a dream at 81
a day: brass bedsteads. downy mattresses.
fine feed and a lady boss. Again far out In
the mountains of Washington ten years ago
/ stopped one night on the Snohomish River
at a shsck tavern. and the corn bread and ham
and things we're gorgeous. ! remarked that
1t tasted just like Kentucky. and the lady
said she came from that State and cooked
the ~victuals then before me. She ran the
tavern and her husband. He wasn't from
Kentucky. But 1t would have been just the
same. Several years ago | made a six hun
dred mile trip by auto, occupying two weeks
Of time and stopping at hotels In New jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware. Maryland and the
District Of Columbia. and we got into only
one really bad one. and that was in a town
where there we're two good ones. but we
we're misdirected. What | call a good
hotel is a place where the traveller may
get edible food. Il clean bed. a fairly well
furnished room and polite attention with
ice water. The rate is usually two dollars
Il day. and he should not expect gilt edged
napkins and silver mounted finger bowls.
Nor should the Colonel class as
Objectionable features Of hotels he has known.
He is probably not aware that the drummers
are worth approximately a million dollar rs
a day TO the hotel men Of this country. II
they are a favored class they pay for it.
l visited a lot OF towns In Kentucky once
upon a time to write them up for a news
paper. and | made a special feature Of hotels
with the object OF getting the people to under
stand that a good hotel was the very best
advertisement a town could have for attract
ing strangers TO 1t. Some OF them, ! must
admit. needed IL badly. Most Of them were
circus towns, about the size the Colonel would
have to tackle in the line OF his missionary
labors. But the hotels weren't all 10 the
bad. Some OF them we're very decent. con-
sidering their limitations. and the Colonel
should not have eKcoristed and swstted
everything In sight.
In my experience. cot equal by any means
TO the Colonel's. the worst hotels In America
are to be found in towns OF from 5000. say,
to "a. 900. In these places the hotel PROPOSE
ton 10 too much for a woman TO undertake
and not enough to justify a really first class
hotel mans time and attention. There are
some, but they are very few. and still fewer
who are not called to the larger cities, where,
despite the Colonels opinion, American hotels
are quite good enough for the average mortal.
even though they are not perfect. The most
unsatisfactory hotel We have, and one to
which objection may be righteously made,
is the hotel claiming to be first class with
fret class prices. yet giving second or lower
class accommod ations in bed and board.
We have plenty Of that kind. But they are
not really bad hotels. On the contrary they
would be good enough IL they put q fair price
on what they supplied. When the traveller
knows what he can get and ought to get for
sS to IS a day IL gravels him TO be asked TO
pay that amount for what would he reasona-
bly, worth half as much. Even the very best
hotels can't, or don't. always keep strictly
10 the highest standard. and the patron who
pays their price has a right to demand his
moneys worth. And there is where the
really first class hotel shows itself to be what
e claims-it gives him his moneys worth
or makes good In the bill. II the Colonel
could take several reams OF paper of and put
in all his time IsEsSsstiHs the hotels that are
first class only in their charges he would be
doing yeoman service and might work some
reform.
However. hotels have greatly improved
within the last quarter OF a century, and
they are still progressing. When we are as
old as Europe now Is, our small hotels will
be far ahead OF what they have over there.
The newspapers are a potent factor In the
Improvement. for nowadays when a hotel
gets too bad somebody gives it a roast in
the paper. and no hotel man can stand for
that. He must have praise in print. or moth
ing, and II he can furnish the goods TO war
rant praise he quits the business. Between
The woman and the newspapers lies the re-
generation OF the ma iority Of our bad hotels.
Women are ever seeking a field for the devel-
opment Of their especial strength and ftngss
In the worlds work, and they cannot find
a more appropriate calling than that Of con-
Quoting small hotels as they should be con-
Quoted. The work is peculiarly woman 8
work, and il she will take 1t up and do Il as
she can do 1t she will be proving herself to
be what the poet has said she is: Heaven
best gift 10 man-traveling man, including
Colonel Tody Hamilton. W. J. l..
Nav YORK, june is.