"CHAMPION STEAMER, UP THE ST. LAWRENCE,
"Thursday, September 4, 1851.
"Owing to the locomotive habits of the people, the hotels of America
are more extensive and more systematized than ours. One of their
features is the system of charging a fixed sum per day, which covers
all the annoying extras of English hotel bills. On entering an hotel,
you write your name and address in a book, have the number of your
bedroom placed opposite your name, and receive a key, which, when you
go out you leave in the office. The breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea,
take place at stated hours, and are managed with great precision and
discipline.
"At the 'United States Hotel,' Saratoga, the waiters are blacks, and
are commanded by a black maitre d'hotel. On dinner being served, the
gong is sounded, and each guest takes his appointed place. All being
seated, the maitre d'hotel claps his hands, and in an instant, at one
coup, the covers are nipped away, as if with the same hand, by
waiters stationed at regular distances around the tables. Then the
serious work of eating commences. If any embarrassment arises, a clap
of the hand calls attention to it, and a sign directs its immediate
remedy. Then, as each course is finished, another clap stations the
waiters again at their old places, and at a wave of the hand all the
dishes skip off the table.
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