It Arises, I Believe, Entirely From
That Want Of Courtesy Which Democratic Institutions Create.
The man
whom you address has to make a battle against the state of
subservience presumed to be indicated by his position, and he does
so by declaring his indifference to the person on whose wants he is
paid to attend.
I have been honored on one or two occasions by the
subsequent intimacy of these great men at the hotel offices, and
have then found them ready enough at conversation.
That necessity of making your request for room before a public
audience is not in itself agreeable, and sometimes entails a
conversation which might be more comfortably made in private. "What
do you mean by a dressing-room, and why do you want one?" Now that
is a question which an Englishman feels awkward at answering before
five and twenty Americans, with open mouths and eager eyes; but it
has to be answered. When I left England, I was assured that I
should not find any need for a separate sitting-room, seeing that
drawing-rooms more or less sumptuous were prepared for the
accommodation of "ladies." At first we attempted to follow the
advice given to us, but we broke down. A man and his wife traveling
from town to town, and making no sojourn on his way, may eat and
sleep at a hotel without a private parlor. But an English woman
cannot live in comfort for a week, or even in comfort for a day, at
any of these houses, without a sitting-room for herself. The
ladies' drawing-room is a desolate wilderness. The American women
themselves do not use it. It is generally empty, or occupied by
some forlorn spinster, eliciting harsh sounds from the wretched
piano which it contains.
The price at these hotels throughout the union is nearly always the
same, viz., two and a half dollars a day, for which a bed-room is
given and as many meals as the guest can contrive to eat. This is
the price for chance guests. The cost to monthly boarders is, I
believe, not more than the half of this. Ten shillings a day,
therefore, covers everything that is absolutely necessary, servants
included; and this must be said in praise of these inns - that the
traveler can compute his expenses accurately, and can absolutely
bring them within that daily sum of ten shillings. This includes a
great deal of eating, a great deal of attendance, the use of
reading-room and smoking-room - which, however, always seem to be
open to the public as well as to the guests - and a bed-room, with
accommodation which is at any rate as good as the average
accommodation of hotels in Europe. In the large Eastern towns baths
are attached to many of the rooms. I always carry my own, and have
never failed in getting water. It must be acknowledged that the
price is very cheap. It is so cheap that I believe it affords, as a
rule, no profit whatsoever. The profit is made upon extra charges,
and they are higher than in any other country that I have visited.
They are so high that I consider traveling in America, for an
Englishman with his wife or family, to be more expensive than
traveling in any part of Europe. First in the list of extras comes
that matter of the sitting-room, and by that for a man and his wife
the whole first expense is at once doubled. The ordinary charge is
five dollars, or one pound a day! A guest intending to stay for two
or three weeks at a hotel, or perhaps for one week, may, by
agreement, have this charge reduced. At one inn I stayed a
fortnight, and having made no such agreement, was charged the full
sum. I felt myself stirred up to complain, and did in that case
remonstrate. I was asked how much I wished to have returned - for
the bill had been paid - and the sum I suggested was at once handed
to me. But even with such reduction, the price is very high, and at
once makes the American hotel expensive. Wine also at these houses
is very costly, and very bad. The usual price is two dollars (or
eight shillings) a bottle. The people of the country rarely drink
wine at dinner in the hotels. When they do so, they drink
champagne; but their normal drinking is done separately, at the bar,
chiefly before dinner, and at a cheap rate. "A drink," let it be
what it may, invariably costs a dime, or five pence. But if you
must have a glass of sherry with your dinner, it costs two dollars;
for sherry does not grow into pint bottles in the States. But the
guest who remains for two days can have his wine kept for him.
Washing also is an expensive luxury. The price of this is
invariable, being always four pence for everything washed. A
cambric handkerchief or muslin dress all come out at the same price.
For those who are cunning in the matter this may do very well; but
for men and women whose cuffs and collars are numerous it becomes
expensive. The craft of those who are cunning is shown, I think, in
little internal washings, by which the cambric handkerchiefs are
kept out of the list, while the muslin dresses are placed upon it.
I am led to this surmise by the energetic measures taken by the
hotelkeepers to prevent such domestic washings, and by the
denunciations which in every hotel are pasted up in every room
against the practice. I could not at first understand why I was
always warned against washing my own clothes in my own bed-room, and
told that no foreign laundress could on any account be admitted into
the house. The injunctions given on this head are almost frantic in
their energy, and therefore I conceive that hotel-keepers find
themselves exposed to much suffering in the matter.
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