Log, fail to
impart to you the heat which the freezing cold of a Paris winter
demands. They used to make good coffee in Paris, but even that is a
thing of the past. I fancy that they import their brandy from
England and manufacture their own cigars. French wines you may get
good at a Paris hotel; but you would drink them as good and much
cheaper if you bought them in London and took them with you.
The worst hotels I know are in the Havana. Of course I do not speak
here of chance mountain huts, or small, far-off roadside hostels, in
which the traveler may find himself from time to time. All such are
to be counted apart, and must be judged on their merits by the
circumstances which surround them. But with reference to places of
wide resort, nothing can beat the hotels of the Havana in filth,
discomfort, habits of abomination, and absence of everything which
the traveler desires. All the world does not go to the Havana, and
the subject is not therefore one of general interest. But in
speaking of hotels at large, so much I find myself bound to say.
In all the countries to which I have alluded the guests of the house
are expected to sit down together at one table.
