Year: 1873




There is a certain class of citizens of


the United States who have been good


enough TO take up their permanent resi-


dence in the hotels of Europe. A bar


barian who has adopted civilized ways


VIGOROUSLY loses the virtues of savage


life, without acquiring those of civiliZa-
ton. So it is with these Americans.


All that is bad in Europe they have


grated upon all that is bad in America.


Thy have acquired the folies, the vani-


ties and the silly conceits of the two


continents. They seem to have natu-
raj aversion to privacy, and live year
after year in hotels, gregariously. No
one has a more sincere admiration for
the sterling qualities Of the true Ameri-
can than have, but the hotel Ameri-
can" is, assuredly, one of the most often
sive products of modern civilization. In
his manners there is sort of exagger-
ated, stilted civility. From always
wanting to do exactly the right thing,
and not exactly knowing what the right
thing is, he is awkward. His French is
bad, but the shrug of his shoulders is
purely Partisan. His conversation is a
sad and dreary attempt to initiate that
nil adnairari style which is supposed in
novels to characterize the English gen.
tleman. For the same cause he is slow
and solemn in his actions. If one speaks
to him of any eminent man of his own
country, he smiles superciliously, and
says that he is in quite another set. Be-
cause he resides in Europe he is under
the impression that he is mixing in
European society. But society does not
care for him, and he therefore mixes
with others of his kind. Vevay has be-
come of late years a great resort of our
transatlantic cousins, and is infested
with these "hotel Americans" Each
hotel has its gang. The ladies of the
gang get up late and do not make their
appearance until dinner time. They
come to the table d'hote gorgeously, if
not tastefully, dressed. The gentlemen
pass the day in playing at billiards and
smoking. They neither read, nor walk,
nor talk have watched them sitting
together, and they seem never to get
beyond asking each other where some
one else is, or some other person is
going. After dinner, ladies and gentle
men, the latter scrupulously arrayed in
evening dress, with beautiful flowers on
each side of their coats, dance until a
late hour. and when they are not dane
ing they walk up and down the passages,
serious, stupid and precise, like num-
Der of pupils who are cultivatlng de-
pertinent under the eye of the dancing
master. The ladies appear to be greatly
superior to the men. American women
have a natural pre-dispositiOn to enjoy
themselves, and they are not inclined to
sacrifice their nature on the altar OF de-
pertinent. But even their love of fun
and flirting is damped by the dreary but
comic dignity of their admirers. The
gang occasionally picks up and adopts
one of those third-rate counts or barons,
who are plentiful abroad, but as rule
it keeps to itself, except when it visits
the gang of another hotel. How any
human beings can manage to lead this
existence, even for months, it is not easy
to conceive. One would suppose that
they would long, after a short appren-
tice-ship to get somewhere beyoni
walters, gas and bands. But they live
on the same life, happy and contented,
for wears, and become something be-
tween a French petit cTeVe and English
heavy dragoon and an American bar
maid. Vevay is a favorite summer
quarters of the hotel Americans. Nice
is infested with them in winter. In the
latter place they have literally driven
away other nationalities, and il the
nuisance does not abate here they will
have this place all to themselves, for
they are simply unbearable. They must
be aware that, in their own country,
where every man who has no occupation
is despised, they would not be tolerated.
It is somewhat hard, therefore, that they
should have taken possession of two of
the most exquisite spots in Europe.