The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-13
WOMEN'S HOTELS
 ARE BADLY NEEDED Says English Traveller in the
 United States SURPRISING EXPERIENC CE In Land of Good Camaraderie--Mnny HosteIries Refuse the UnescOrted. Hotel Managers Blame the
 Fair Sex
SURPRISING EXPERIENCE

Mary Mortimer Maxwell in the London
 Express.
 We all know that America is the land of good camaraderie between men and women--or, rather, is it not well known that. according to the hackneyed form ula, it is the country where woman is queen and man her humble subject?'
 Just so! Therefore, 1t will come as a surprise, if not as a positive shock to many English women to learn that in some respects a lone woman travelling about In the United States has much more difficulty in finding hotel and res taurant accommodation than she has in England that, despite what we have long been accustomed to think of as the American mans chivalry to women, the American woman, travelling unescorted by member of the male sex. has often a great deal of trouble in inducing hotel managers to take her in. Indeed, there are numberless cases in which she can not get these accommodations in what are known as 'frst-class hotels, no mat ter how hard she may try.
 This Is the reason why we so often read In the American papers that an other new hotel for women is to be started in such and such a. city. This is one of the reasons why certain American women scattered all over the United States have begun to camor In more than usually loud tones for the vote. Whether the vote will do them any good is a question, for the hotel managers declare that when they refuse to accommodate lone women it Is because the other wom- en in the hotel who do not happen to be lone ones object!
 q Cannot Serve You-
 This subject of the lone woman travel ing in America happens to interest me at the present moment because of infor- nation have just received from an Eng lishwoman friend who left England a few weeks ago for a trip in the United States. She is not young and flighty' looking woman. She is a grandmother. with hair bit tinged with gray She dresses quietly in black and the tones that middle aged women of good taste usually affect She went to Boston, and this is what happened to her:
 Accompanied by another woman, who, by the way, is also a grandmother, she went into well known hotel early one evening, and, calling a waiter, gave an order for some light refreshments and a pot of tea, and the waiter. lowing low, said: Ladies. I cannot serve you
 Now, naturally the ladies asked the reason why, because this hotel (the name of which I can give If necessary is al ways known to be well supplied with cold chicken, cold ham, salads and the best of tea
 "Then the waiter informed the ladies that, having no gentlemen as escorts, he was not allowed to serve them. It fol. lowed. as a matter of course, that my friend and her companion were indignant and they again demanded to know il this refusal to serve them was meant as an imputation on their characters whereupon the waiter blandly denied this saying, Ladies, 1t is for your own pro- tection!
 Personally, I was not surprised when I learned of the refusal of the Boston hotel to serve my Englshwoman friend with cup of tea and a sandwich be- cause she was unaccompanied by a man
 eve Have No Rooms"
 During my recent visit to New York became intensely interested in the lone woman traveller because of the experience had on the very night of my arrival there from England. The ship which took me there did not land it's passengers until late in the evening, and 1t was 10 o'clock before I was able to gather my belong ings from the floor of the dock, pack them again in my boxes, and drive away in a cab to a hotel noted for its excellence and quiet elegance. The hotel was ir Fifth avenue, near Central park.
 'I modest looking woman, clad in my long. gray. pepper-and-salt English trav- cling ulster and a quiet gray hat, got out of the cab In pouring rain went into the hotel with my small bag in my hand and asked for single room for the night
 "'We have nonev said the clerk
 "'Then I shall be obliged to take a large one for the night I said.
 "'We have no rooms at all.' said the clerk.
 1T have had my luggage sent here, l said, and 1t is raining so hard. Surely you can put me up for the night-one room of a suite, any room at any price you can let me have
 Sorry said the clerk. laconically, but we have no rooms at all. and can't accommodate you
 'I returned to my cab, and finally I found shelter in another hotel merely be- cause they remembered that some years before I had stopped there for several weeks when I did not happen to be alone so they took me for granted. And the next day I learned that the hotel which refused me had plenty of vacant rooms and that l must have been mad to have thought that respectable hotel would receive a woman travelling alone al night