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                           _ANNOUNCEMENTS._

                           ESTABLISHED 1850.

                              INMAN LINE.

                 UNITED STATES AND ROYAL MAIL STEAMERS

                    CITY OF PARIS,     10,500 Tons.
                     CITY OF NEW YORK,  10,500  “
                    CITY OF BERLIN,     5,491 Tons.
                     CITY OF CHICAGO,    6,000  “
                    CITY OF CHESTER,    4,770 Tons.

                            [Illustration]

                  New York, Queenstown AND Liverpool.

                 FIRST CABIN PASSAGE from $60 to $650,

         ACCORDING TO STEAMER AND LOCATION OF ACCOMMODATIONS.

   NOTE.--Round Trip Tickets issued at reduced rates, and the return
  portion can, if desired, be used by =RED STAR LINE= from Antwerp to
                       New York or Philadelphia.

                     INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION CO.,

                            General Agents,

                      6 BOWLING GREEN, NEW YORK.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                               SIMPSON’S

                               (LIMITED)

                             DIVAN TAVERN,

                              103 STRAND,

                    Opposite Exeter Hall,--LONDON.

                            [Illustration]


The premier Restaurant in the Strand, established upwards of fifty
years, which still retains its supremacy for being the house to get the
best English Dinner in London at a moderate price. There is also a
magnificent Ladies’ Dining Room where ladies can dine in the same style
and cost as gentlemen do in the room down stairs. Private rooms for
large or small parties.

Noted for Soups, Fish, Entrees and Joints. Saddles of Mutton specially
cooked to perfection from 12.30 to 8.30 p.m. Originator of professed
Carvers to attend on each customer at separate tables. Matured wines and
spirits. The largest stock of any tavern in the kingdom.

E. W. CATHIE, MANAGING DIRECTOR.

       *       *       *       *       *

                    LONDON & NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY

    THE OLD ROUTE IN THE OLD COUNTRY.      THE TOURISTS’ FAVORITE.

                  IRISH AND SCOTCH ROYAL MAIL ROUTE.


                      SHORTEST AND QUICKEST FROM

     =LIVERPOOL= (Lime Street Station) to =LONDON= (Euston Station). under
     FOUR AND A-HALF HOURS =to GLASGOW= (Central Station), in FIVE AND
     THREE-QUARTER HOURS.

     =QUEENSTOWN to LONDON via Dublin and Holyhead=, in SIXTEEN HOURS AND
     TEN MINUTES.

       *       *       *       *       *

=Baggage Checked Through from New York to London.=

=At LIVERPOOL, Family Omnibuses= from Landing Stage, and =Special Trains=
from Alexandra Dock to Lime Street Station and Hotel.

=NORTH WESTERN HOTEL, Lime Street Station, Liverpool=, the best and
largest--the hotel for Americans.

=SPECIAL TRAINS from Liverpool to London= when requisite to make close
connection with steamers arriving from America.

=Elegant Vestibule Drawing-Room Cars without extra charge.= Compartments
with lavatories, and private saloon and family carriages for parties
without extra charge.

=Sleeping Cars= with Compartments and brass Beds, 5s. per berth in
addition to first-class fares.

=DINING CARS= on principal trains and “American Specials.”

=Luncheon Baskets= at the principal Stations.

=In LONDON, Family Omnibuses= can be obtained, at the =Euston Hotel= (at the
Station), noted for its =Cellar= and its French =Cuisine=, will be found
most comfortable.

=THE LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY= has =NOT= abolished Second Class
Carriages; passengers to whom economy is an object, but who do not wish
to travel Third Class, can combine comfort with economy by traveling
Second Class by this line. First and Second Class on all trains. Third
Class Carriages on all trains except the =Irish Mails= to and from Dublin.

The Company’s Agents, =Mr. W. STIRLING, at Queenstown=, and =Mr. FRED. W.
THOMPSON, at Liverpool=, meet the American Steamers on arrival, and
secure omnibuses, seats, saloon carriages, rooms at hotel, and give
general information.

=THROUGH TICKETS to London, Glasgow, Paris=, and principal stations in
=England=, =Scotland=, =Ireland=, =Wales=, and Continent of Europe.

=TICKETS=, Time Tables and information as to travel and hotels can be
obtained from the Company’s Agent, =Mr. D. BATTERSBY, 184 St. James St.,
Montreal=, and

=Mr. C. A. BARATTONI=, Gen’l Agent for the U. S. and Canada, =852 Broadway=,
near Union Square, =New York=.

       *       *       *       *       *

                            =G. P. NEELE=,
                      Superintendent of the Line.
                       =London=, Euston Station.

                             =E. MICHEL=,
                    Foreign Traffic Superintendent.

                      G. FINDLAY, Gen’l Manager.

       *       *       *       *       *

                            HOTEL WINDSOR,

                           VICTORIA STREET,

                    Westminster,      LONDON, S.W.

[Illustration:

Hotel
Windsor

VICTORIA STREET,
WESTMINSTER, S.W.

_J. R. Cleave & C^o.
Proprietors._
]

Convenient and central location; European or American system; the only
hotel in London with Turkish and other baths; elevators; electrically
lighted throughout, day and night.

                   J. R. CLEAVE & CO., PROPRIETORS.

                   [Illustration: _Morris Phillips_]




                          ABROAD AND AT HOME

                     PRACTICAL HINTS FOR TOURISTS

                                  BY

                            MORRIS PHILLIPS

                               EDITOR OF

                           THE HOME JOURNAL

                               NEW YORK

                               NEW YORK
                              BRENTANO’S
            PARIS      WASHINGTON      CHICAGO      LONDON

                            COPYRIGHT 1891,
                                  BY
                            MORRIS PHILLIPS

                            THE ART PRESS,
                          DEMPSEY & CARROLL,
                         36 EAST 14TH STREET,
                               NEW YORK.

                           TO THE MEMORY OF

                            GEORGE W. HOWS,

             MY FAITHFUL FELLOW-WORKER AND DEAR FRIEND OF
                MANY YEARS, THIS VOLUME OF SKETCHES IS
                       AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

                    “_Travel is the great
                          source of true wisdom._”
                         --BEACONSFIELD.




CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE

Preface, by the Hon. A. OAKEY HALL,                                    5


GREAT BRITAIN.

London on Wheels,                                                      9

London Hotels,                                                        24

A Few Boarding Houses,                                                47

Where to Lunch in London, and Where Not to Lunch,                     49

Railway Travelling in England,                                        59

An Hour with Spurgeon,                                                67

The Crypt of St. Paul’s,                                              71

The Queen’s Mews,                                                     74

A Question of Hats,                                                   77

London Oddities,                                                      79

Poverty and Charity in England,                                       85

Where is Charing Cross?                                               88

Margate,                                                              89

Two Brighton Hotels,                                                  97

A Visit to Bleak House,                                              100

Takin’ Notes in Edinboro’ Town,                                      105

The Burns Monument,                                                  112

Rt. Rev. the Moderator, James MacGregor, D.D.,                       116

Crossing the Channel,                                                123


PARIS.

Paris Hotels,                                                        124

Pensions of the First Class,                                         134

The Restaurants of Paris,                                            137

The Anglo-American Banking Co.,                                      146

Au Bon Marché,                                                       147


THE UNITED STATES.

GEORGIA--

The De Soto, Savannah,                                               149

Thomasville,                                                         155

A New Southern Resort,                                               165

FLORIDA--

A Cuban City (Key West),                                             171

St. Augustine,                                                       180

About Tampa,                                                         185

CALIFORNIA--

Monterey,                                                            190

San Diego and Coronado,                                              199

Santa Cruz,                                                          213

Redondo Beach,                                                       221

Pasadena,                                                            225

Los Angeles,                                                         231

The California Hotel, San Francisco,                                 235

Salt Lake City,                                                      239

The Auditorium Hotel, Chicago,                                       243

Max O’Rell on American Hotels,                                       249




PREFACE.


A continuous residence in London of eight years has satisfied me that
precisely such a book, so far as it relates to that city, which my
friend and once junior legal associate now presents is popularly needed.

That in such respect it will be vitally interesting, even to readers who
have never been tourists thither, “goes without saying.” Moreover, there
are in these pages views, comments and sights of the “abroad” and “at
home” additionally valuable; therefore I gladly accept his invitation to
prepare a short preface to this volume of an American M. P. in the
Parliament of Letters.

He first broached his idea of papers about London at a capital luncheon,
when meeting together there we discussed with palates, forks and wine
glasses a tempting _menu_ during the summer of 1890, as guests of Host
Vogel, of the new Albermarle Hotel in Piccadilly, at the top of the
historic St. James’s street.

We then and there drank success to the M. P. idea, and I doubt not, that
every reader of this volume will be disposed to heartily duplicate that
toast at his first dinner which shall follow its perusal.

When a tourist first arrives in London, beneath the inviting shadow of
the Northwestern Railway station hotel, that is flanked by two smaller
inns and its centre pierced by several taverns, or direct from
Southampton at the Waterloo station, within rifle shot of which a score
of hotels invite his luggage and his wearied frame, that tourist’s
earliest question will be, which hospitable _caravanserai_ shall I
patronize?

His second question will concern his vehicular desires for
transportation by cab, ’bus or railway. Other queries will suggest
themselves regarding the “How,” the “Where,” the “Which” and the “Why”
of his new London surroundings.

With this volume on shipboard _en route_: or in railway carriage _in
transitu_, the tourist will already possess answers in his mind to those
queries or similar ones respecting Edinburgh or Glasgow; and will not be
at the mercy of chance or of confusing porters, or of contestant
“cabbies,” or of the shady sharpers who throng railway platforms.

Once well housed in any of the places herein mentioned, and once
understanding, by the aid of the ensuing pages, how to get about in the
vast metropolis--wherein one may ride sixteen miles from extreme north
to a suburban south, and fourteen miles from west to east without
quitting paved and lighted streets, or the continuity of habitations--a
traveler’s eyes and ears will be all the Mentors he will require.

Of so-called guide books (of which class this is not), there are in
London and elsewhere abroad confusing scores, but the average tourist
ought to shun guide-books as he would a Bradshaw, unless he loves
charades, puzzles and conundrums.

Every mother knows that when her infant obtains his footing, the child
will walk confidently. This volume serves to give the person who
arrives in London or Edinburgh and kindred cities an instant footing. In
the parlance of the race course, it is the “starter.”

On arrival, the first thing to do is to demand and learn the points of
compass; because all enquiries about the “Where” in London hinge on
those.

The papers by M. P. about cabs and omnibuses will be found as valuable
as they are piquant. He tells of certain trips (and tips) on top of a
’bus; he vividly describes how the best way for exploring London is to
ride in its every direction on the tops of omnibuses--devoting days to
the task, or rather pleasure--and when, as street after street is
passed, reading their names, which are always sign-affixed to the
turn--a convenience even for residents which, in late years, is
strangely unknown in New York City. Thereby locality and prominent
buildings and often-referred-to neighborhoods become fixed in an
observer’s mind for future uses of memory.

I learned to know London “like a book”--as common phrase goes: and, I
therefore fully appreciate how much this book will serve to teach new
tourists how to begin to learn London; how much it will revive pleasant
memories in former tourists; how greatly it will instruct intending
tourists; how pleasantly it will amuse those who may not expect to
practically patronize the hotels; how well it will instruct as to
London’s vehicles and the wonders of the English city, which is
practically seventeen centuries older than New York.

But there are other sides and hues to this prismatic volume. Not
only is it inviting to Americans who wish to know about the
“across-the-ocean-ferry,” but it will be attractive to the countrymen of
the M. P. who may travel or who would like to travel Westward, “where
the star of Empire takes its way.” And also to the foreign tourist who
may for only one week reside, _in transitu_ to the States, upon the
floating greyhoundish hotels which we call steamships.

Marvelous as London is to the American tourist, the wonders, the hotels,
the coasts, and the traveling--especially toward the Pacific ocean--are
equally marvelous to English M. P.’s and foreign ladies and gentlemen of
fortune or leisure who seek transcontinental scenes and comforts.

Merely “turning the leaves,” a phrase happily used as a heading for book
notices by the author of “Kissing the Rod” in his _World_ newspaper of
London, will at once show any buyer of this volume what I have implied.

A. OAKEY HALL.

LOTOS CLUB, January 21, 1892.




LONDON ON WHEELS.

ABOVE GROUND, ON THE GROUND, AND UNDER GROUND.


THE UNDER-GROUND LINES.

How the five millions of people in London “get about” to their daily
avocations and homes is a mystery to those who have not made the subject
a study. So I have gathered some information which will throw a little
light on it.

Let me start out with the statement that besides the ten large terminal
stations, like the Euston Square and the Midland, both in Euston Road,
there are four hundred and thirty railway stations within the
metropolis, and the under-ground lines alone carry annually one hundred
and twenty-five millions of passengers. The underground roads have been
in existence for more than a quarter of a century, and are found to
answer the purpose admirably of relieving the over-ground traffic. They
are convenient, cheap and comparatively quick; but decidedly unpleasant,
if not positively unhealthy.

They now form a network of rails under the surface, and they have been a
success from the first. They are a great engineering triumph, and may be
said to have marked a new epoch in the history of London. The act
permitting the tunneling was passed in 1853. Mr. John Fowler conducted
the herculean labor, and underneath the streets of the busiest of
cities, down where the soil was honeycombed with other works--gas pipes,
water mains, drains and sewers--a railway line, costing upwards of one
hundred and fifty thousand pounds per mile, was constructed almost
without the knowledge of those above. For three years--from the spring
of 1860 to the beginning of 1863--two thousand men, two hundred horses
and fifty-eight engines were employed. When completed another difficulty
presented itself, but was overcome by Mr. Fowler, who invented a
locomotive which could be worked in the open air like an ordinary
engine, but which, while in the tunnel, emits neither steam nor smoke,
being so constructed as to be able to condense the one and consume the
other.

And yet, after a long ride in the under-ground, you always emerge with a
headache.

Of course the cars have to be lighted artificially, and they had not
learned to use the electric light in them when I last was in London in
October, 1891. Gas is a poor substitute in such a place. You are forced
to read your newspaper in a dim light, and the gas consumes much of the
oxygen which gets into the tunnel from the stations, and from openings
en route, which are made for the purpose.

Yet you do not get about as quickly in the underground as you would
imagine. To avoid obstructions, and for mechanical reasons, the road
takes a circuitous route and you frequently must ride a long way around
to go a comparatively short distance.

Millions of Londoners, who go direct from home to business, seldom get
into an under-ground train. There are many over-ground lines built on
brick arches which go to the suburbs, where rents are low; for every
Englishman must have his own house, no matter how small, which he
regards as his “castle.” These trains are quick and cheap, and you are
blessed with ample light and good air--at least as good as you can get
in foggy, smoky London.

On all roads, whether on trunk lines, on local, overground or
underground lines, there are first, second and third-class cars, or
“carriages,” as they call them. Even some omnibuses that ply from the
trunk line stations also have compartments for different classes; your
Englishman is very particular with whom he rides.

Occasionally you meet with unpleasant companions in third-class
carriages of local or suburban lines, but on through trains, say between
Liverpool and London, the third-class carriages are comfortable, and the
travelers of a respectable class.

There is a great difference in the rates, and on a long journey it is
worth consideration. First-class fare is almost double that of
third-class. Second-class is neither one thing nor the other, and on
some lines it has been abolished.

It is an old saying that only princes, Americans and fools travel
first-class. I don’t care under which head they place me, so long as
they place me in a first-class “carriage.” That it is more comfortable
is incontrovertible, if you’ll pardon such a big word. I say this in the
face of what John Stuart Mill said, that the only reason he rode
third-class was because there was no fourth.


ELECTRIC LINES UNDER GROUND.

The _Forum_ last summer printed a very good description from the pen of
Simon Sterne, of the new electric under-ground railway in London, and
the Sunday _Sun_ last autumn had an elaborate article on the subject,
which, with illustrations, occupied nearly a whole page.

It is a quick and convenient means of locomotion, and to accomplish it
was a work of wonderful engineering skill for which the inventor, Mr.
Peter Greathead, cannot be praised too highly; but the riding is by no
means pleasant.

In a lift large enough to accommodate fifty passengers, you descend a
distance of eighty feet below the surface--part of the road running
beneath the bed of the river Thames. The cars are small and fairly well
lighted, but they have an unpleasant vibration, and although the air is
not noticeably impure, there is an uncanny feeling with the knowledge
that you are burrowing, as it were, in the bowels of the earth.

The road, probably an experimental one, is only three miles long,
extending south from “the monument” in the city. It has not, thus far,
proved a success pecuniarily, the cost of construction being so great,
although no land was purchased except for the stations.


HANSOMS AND FOUR-WHEELERS.

Street cars are not needed in the city. Nearly all London streets are in
as good condition for driving as our Central Park roads. There are eight
thousand hansoms, four thousand four-wheelers, and two thousand
omnibuses, so that you are not obliged to walk on account of the absence
of cars. The four-wheeled cabs, or “growlers,” as they term them, are
dilapidated, uncomfortable vehicles, which lack new springs, and are
dirty both inside and out. The horses and the drivers are old and
superannuated; they have all seen better days in private carriages or
hansom cabs. You never take a four-wheeler if you are alone, or if the
party consists of only two persons. You must engage one if you have a
trunk, but if you are going to catch a train or boat you had better
allow a half hour’s margin.

The London cab service is the best and cheapest in the world. I say
this, notwithstanding that I remember hiring a cab in Key West, in the
Gulf of Mexico, for a dime. But such cabs and such horses! The rate in
a hansom is sixpence per mile for one or two persons, no fare less than
one shilling (twenty-five cents); by the hour, two-and-six (sixty-two
cents).


HOW THEY DRIVE.

England is the only place I know of where they drive to the left.
English drivers say that by sitting on the right and driving to the
left, they can better watch the hubs of approaching wheels, and thus
prevent collisions. A cabbie’s attention is given entirely to the
roadway; pedestrians must look out for themselves or be run over. That
is why so many of the London police are engaged solely in attending to
street traffic. Yet with all their vigilance, more accidents occur in
London, proportionately, than elsewhere. London drivers are polite and
very civil to each other. If an obstruction appears in front of a horse,
or if for any reason he is obliged suddenly to slow up, the driver will
immediately notify the driver in the rear by holding out horizontally
his left arm; and this sign is passed down from one driver to another,
until the very end of the line of blocked vehicles is reached.

People who have not visited London for several years, will find cabs
greatly improved. There is a new, patent hansom. In these you are saved
the trouble of opening and closing the doors; this is done by the driver
by touching a lever on the top of the vehicle. The new style of cab has
thick rubber tires, which add considerably to ease and comfort in
riding. So little noise does the vehicle make in going over London’s
smooth-paved streets, that these cabs are provided with bells to warn
pedestrians of their approach. The interior fittings include a holder
for lighted cigars, a box of matches, a small, bevelled mirror on
either side of the cab, and a swinging rubber bulb attached to a rubber
tube with a whistle at the end. You lightly press the bulb, and in this
way whistle to Cabbie on top, who hears the summons above the roar of
the streets, and responds by opening his trap door in the roof to
receive instructions.

The law does not permit the drivers of these well-appointed and rather
luxurious vehicles to charge more than do the drivers of the ordinary
cabs; but as the new hansoms cost the drivers more to hire, and as they
are so much superior to the old style, you do not begrudge paying a
trifle extra. The drivers pay for these improved hansoms sixteen
shillings (four dollars) per day, except during “the season,” when the
owners exact a guinea per day, about five dollars.

The speed with which the London cabs are driven is something
alarming--alarming to a stranger. In New York a cab driver has some
little regard for the lives and limbs of pedestrians; in Paris the
horses are so poor and skeleton-like, and go so slow, that pedestrians
have no fear whatever; but in London you must look out wholly for
yourself; Cabbie will certainly not look out for you. If he is engaged
by the course, he only has his destination in mind. London cab horses
are the best horses in the world used for such a purpose. With rubber
tires to the wheels, and the wheels going over clean and perfectly
smooth roadways, there is nothing to obstruct their speed, and the
animals go like the wind. They and their drivers seem to stand in fear
of nothing but a policeman, and as London has good laws for regulating
vehicles, and as these laws are strictly obeyed, the mere warning look
of a policeman is respected and obeyed.

London drivers are not so brutal nor so ill-tempered as New York
drivers. They do not, as a rule, curse or swear at each other as ours
do, who are always ready with a foul oath. If a “block” occurs they
take it good-naturedly and get out of it with the aid of the police as
quickly as possible. Our drivers are only satisfied when they can take a
mean advantage of their fellows, get in their way and put them to
inconvenience. It may be Yankee “goaheadativeness,” or the spirit of
freedom and independence which prompts this show of ill-temper, but for
my part I prefer the laughing, jocular, good-tempered London driver.

On my last visit to London, where I stayed one month, I saw a great many
“blocks,” but heard only one quarrel between drivers, and that was not
at all serious. They will, however, chaff each other, saying something
like this:--“Oh, come, pull yourself together there;” or “I say,
country, why don’t you learn to drive before you come up to London?” The
term “up to London,” by the way, is put to singular use there. Although
London is in the south of England, you always go “up to London,” if you
even go from Carlisle, which is in the extreme north, on the Scotch
border.


STREET CARS.

There are no street cars run by the trolley, storage or any other
electric system; no cable cars, no horse cars; not a track is laid for a
surface road in “the city” proper. Many Americans leave London without
ever seeing a street car of any kind, and yet in the metropolis one
thousand street cars run daily over one hundred and twenty miles of
track, but they are not permitted in crowded thoroughfares; they are
confined to the outlying districts. I have only seen them in the east
end, in the district known as “The Boro’” and near the Victoria Station.
The street cars are “double deckers,” and, like the ’buses, they carry
more outside than inside passengers, but the number of passengers is
limited. When the car has reached its limit it will take up no more
passengers. Every passenger has the right to a seat, and, to use a
paradoxical phrase, every Englishman stands up for his right to a seat.


OMNIBUSES.

The two thousand omnibuses keep employed eight or nine thousand horses.
The number of miles run annually by the omnibuses is five and a half
millions, and the number of passengers carried not less than forty-eight
millions.

Such a heavy, slow-going, cumbersome vehicle as the London omnibus could
not be used on our rough-and-tumble roads. It is poorly ventilated, if
you can call it ventilated, for the windows are closed and are
immovable. The only means of ventilation is by the door, in the rear,
near which everybody tries to get. As fast as the choice seats near the
door are vacated, they are occupied by the less fortunate passengers,
and the last comer is always obliged to take the worst place, which is
nearest the front. But in fine weather a man never gets inside while
there is a vacant seat on top, and it is no strange sight to see women
occupying outside seats to escape the stifling air inside.

Nor does wet weather deter an Englishman from taking an open air seat.
Most Englishmen wear a “mackintosh” in threatening weather and there’s a
great deal of such weather in London. To every seat on the top of a ’bus
there is attached a woolen-lined leather apron to protect the knees, and
with an umbrella, which is always part of an Englishman’s costume, they
manage to keep perfectly dry.

The omnibuses are so freely used for advertising purposes, the outside
is so nearly covered with attractive and gaudy signs of business houses
that it is exceedingly difficult to read or discover the route or
destination of the vehicle. You may be looking for Blackwall or Putney,
but you will read “Hyams’ thirteen-shilling trousers “or “Day & Martin’s
blacking is the best.”

The ’buses do not confine themselves to the middle of the roadway and
allow passengers to pick and fight their way through a crowd of
vehicles, New York-like; they pull up to the curb to allow passengers to
enter or leave without the least possibility of danger or trouble.
Conductors will also leave their perch, approach the sidewalk (Anglice,
pavement) to consult or advise with a prospective passenger who is in
doubt as to which ’bus he should take. Time seems of no importance: they
are not in such a rush or whirl of excitement as we are. Whether from
the excessive competition or from some other cause I know not: I do know
that public servants in England are much more civil and polite than they
are in this “free” country.

There are rules which control London omnibuses, and these it is the duty
of the police to strictly enforce. A ’bus is licensed and allowed to
carry only so many passengers, and this license or limit must be posted
on a conspicuous part of the vehicle. The majority are “licensed to
carry twenty-six passengers; twelve inside and fourteen outside.”

In 1890 the London police force numbered thirteen thousand eight hundred
and fifty-five men, not counting the nine hundred and two officers who
form a special organization in what is termed “the city.” A considerable
part of the time and attention of the police is devoted to governing
street traffic. Policemen will watch and follow a ’bus for several
blocks if they think it contains more passengers than the law allows.
When they are assured that this is the case they go to a magistrate and
lay a complaint, and then woe betide the poor driver or conductor who
disregarded the law.

The ’buses make special stops at certain points of their route and these
seem very long and prove tedious to one who is in a hurry; but if your
time is valuable you would never take a ’bus. They are not allowed to
stop when near or nearing these special stopping-places, not even if a
passenger expresses a desire to alight. I remember once, simply for
information, asking the driver to stop in the middle of Trafalgar
square, just as we were passing Nelson’s monument, on the way to the
Strand, cityward. “Well,” said the polite but uneducated Jehu, “you
carn’t expect me to get a four-shilling summons for a penny fare, can
you?” meaning that if he pulled up where I indicated he would be
summoned the next day on the complaint of a vigilant “bobby” and be
obliged to pay four shillings for accommodating me.

In American street cars or omnibuses--excepting, as I remember in San
José, California, a passenger who rides only a few blocks helps to pay
the fare of the man who rides the full length of the road, for the
charge to both is the same. It is not so (mis) managed in England. The
charge there is by distance, about one penny (two cents) a mile and you
pay according to the distance you ride. There are two or three lines of
omnibuses whose only fare is a half-penny (one cent). One line runs
between Westminster bridge and Trafalgar square. They pick up no
passengers between the two points. They each carry only twelve
passengers; there are no outside seats.

There is a great deal of pilfering going on among omnibus conductors,
and drivers also, for they divide the spoils; and the company winks at
it, knowing that the pay of these men is too small. The company is
satisfied if it receives a fair average return, but in this way it puts
a premium on dishonesty. There is no check against the conductors--no
mechanical contrivance to record fares. They are supposed to enter every
fare and the exact amount they receive from each passenger on a paper
slip placed in a frame, the frame being fastened to the inside of the
omnibus door, but it is only a supposition. Passengers are requested to
see that the amount paid is properly entered, but the request is wholly
unheeded. It is, to say the least, a very careless way of keeping
accounts, and invites dishonesty. On some lines they use tickets showing
the amount each passenger pays, but a conductor sometimes _forgets_ to
hand you a ticket. An Inspector will occasionally mount a ’bus to see
that all the passengers are supplied with tickets, and then the
conductor with a treacherous memory has reason to be sorry. Keep out of
a “pirate ’bus.” The rate in these ’buses is not uniform, and
overcharges are not uncommon.


ON THE TOP OF A ’BUS.

The driver is generally a jolly, red-faced fellow and very smartly
dressed, especially on Sunday. He then always wears a “top hat:” in
winter it is of black silk, in summer a pearl gray felt with a wide
mourning band to set it off. His coat is often a double-breasted drab
cassimere, and in the top buttonhole of the left lapel is a large and
loud nose-gay. A showy scarf and a pair of heavy, tan-colored driving
gloves complete his costume. He makes quite a picture as he sits on the
box, with a leather strap across his waist which holds him securely in
his seat, and a black leather apron to protect the lower part of his
body from wind and rain. He carries a showy whip with a very long and
loose thong, with the end of which he can pick off a fly from the ear of
his leader.

The ’bus driver is permitted to smoke while on duty. He comforts himself
with a briarwood pipe unless a generous passenger treats him to a cigar,
for he is not above accepting a small present.

Leopold Rothschild, who lives on a street through which omnibuses pass,
has taken a great fancy to these men and in the autumn he presents a
pair of pheasants to every omnibus driver and conductor who passes his
door.

Everybody who has visited London knows that the best way of seeing the
city is from the top of a ’bus. Get a front seat, next to the driver,
hand him a tip in the shape of a sixpence and ask him a few questions.
You will find that he is intelligent, well-informed on every-day
subjects, quick-witted and a judge of human nature.

I had a very interesting ride last summer on the top of a “Kilburn”
’bus. These ’buses start from Victoria station, and run northwest to
Kilburn, through some very beautiful thoroughfares, in which reside many
titled people and some prominent members of London society.

In Grosvenor place, soon after starting from the station, the driver
will point out, for instance, the residences of the Dukes of
Northumberland, Grafton and Portland; that of the Earl of Scarborough,
at No. 1 Grosvenor place; the Dowager Lady de Rothschild; Sir Edward
Cecil Guinness; that of the late Right Hon. William H. Smith; also the
homes of a number of members of parliament, more or less well-known.

The ’bus goes a short distance through Piccadilly and passes the
residences of Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, Lord Rothschild, the Duke of
Wellington and the Duke of Hamilton, in Hamilton place.

Then it turns into one of London’s most aristocratic streets, Park Lane
(alongside Hyde Park), where reside the Duchess of Somerset, the Marquis
of Londonderry, Lord Brassey, Alfred Rothschild, Lord Dudley, the
Countess of Dudley, Lord Grosvenor, cousin to the Duke of Westminster,
and the Duke of Westminster himself. The Duke’s wealth is untold, and he
owns miles of valuable land in this and the adjacent districts.

A ’bus marked “Hammersmith” will take you westward, through Piccadilly,
past the clubs, the parks, some stylish shops, and fashionable
residences. You will see St. James’s Palace and historic Addison Road,
_en route_, and you can ride across Hammersmith Bridge. You can also go
to Kew Gardens and to the famous “Star and Garter,” at Richmond, by
’bus.

Here’s another very interesting ride. If you are at Oxford Circus you
will see omnibuses with the horses’ heads turned eastward, and you will
hear the Cockney conductor calling out “Benk, benk, Charing Cross,
benk.” Take a ride with him. The vehicle goes through Regent street,
Trafalgar Square, the Strand, Fleet street, then down Cheapside (which
is anything but cheap), and Cornhill, where there is neither corn nor
hill. At the end of Cornhill you see the most crowded and bustling crush
of vehicles you ever saw in your life. To the right is the Mansion House
(corresponding with our City Hall); a little further on “The Monument,”
with its gold torch at top, looms up; immediately in front is The Royal
Exchange, with its Peabody statue, while to the left stands the demure
Bank of England, as solid from a financial point of view as it is
architecturally. On this route you pass and have in view The National
Gallery, Landseer’s lions, several famous hotels and theatres, the Law
Courts, Temple Bar, the principal newspaper establishments, and St.
Paul’s Church. The same ’bus, if you wish to pursue your journey
eastward, will take you through Leadenhall street and into the very
heart of Whitechapel--even to Blackwall and the docks, if your taste
lies in that direction.

There is no better way of seeing London than from the top of a ’bus if
you get a seat next to an old and wide-awake driver, and the cost is but
a few pennies. There are one hundred and forty different routes in the
whole city to choose from.


THE CITY TRAFFIC.

One of the busiest thoroughfares is that narrow street called “the
Strand,” where it is crossed by Wellington street. You drive north,
through Wellington street, past the Lyceum Theatre to get to Holborn,
Covent Garden Market and elsewhere; southward there is great traffic
over Waterloo Bridge, leading to the Surrey side of London, while from
the east and west come continuous streams of omnibuses, cabs, carriages
and heavy wagons and freight trucks. Policemen stand in the middle of
the roadway and regulate this enormous traffic by merely raising a
white-cotton-gloved hand. They are calm and immovable, and seem to pay
not the slightest heed to their own safety amid the crowded crush of
vehicles about them. All come to a standstill before the stiff and
fearless “bobby.” When by waving his hand he directs that a certain
stream of vehicles may proceed this way or that, it proceeds, but not
until he gives permission.

London Bridge is said to be the greatest thoroughfare in the world. More
vehicles and foot passengers cross it than pass through any other
street, and special provision is made for vehicular traffic. In New
York, for instance, a heavily laden four-horse truck or wagon may block
Broadway for a great distance. If you are behind it in a phaeton or
light carriage, you must wait till the driver in front of you, who may
be sullen and obstinate, leisurely moves out of the way. No matter in
how much haste you are--you may be trying to catch a train or an ocean
steamer--you must wait. Not so in London’s most crowded streets. On
London Bridge, for instance, slow-going and heavily-laden vehicles must
keep to the side near the curb and pavement, while carriages, cabs and
light vehicles are allowed the middle of the roadway for quick movement.
That part of the roadway directly next to the curb has a smooth surface,
and there is also a smooth surface about a foot wide for the outer wheel
of heavy wagons--this only on London Bridge and in a few other very busy
thoroughfares. It is a capital plan, and gives satisfaction to all
concerned.


ADVICE FROM CHARLES DICKENS.

But in such a vast city, with such enormous traffic, nothing can prevent
great loss of life and accidents innumerable from crossing the streets.
The point mentioned above is only one of the busy parts of one
street--the Strand--from another point, down by the Law Courts and
Temple Bar, it is said that two hundred more or less mangled bodies are
sent to the Charing Cross Hospital every year.

The present Charles Dickens, in his “Dictionary of London,” thinks it
worth while to suggest that the only way to go from curb to curb is to
make up your mind what course you will take, and then stick to it.
London cabbies will thus divine your intentions. To change your mind
while crossing is to confuse the cabmen, and cause you (so Dickens
suggests) to make your return journey to America in the form of freight.

As all vehicles in London are driven to the left, keep to the left curb.
I found this suggestion of Oakey Hall’s valuable: “As you leave a curb,
look to the right; as you approach a curb, look to the left.”




LONDON HOTELS.


Until the year 1880 there was only one hotel in London that came up to
the expectations of American travelers, which compared in size and
appointments with American hotels of the first-class. This was the
Langham Hotel in Portland place. When the Langham was built, nearly
thirty years ago, and for several subsequent years, as the writer can
attest, for he was a guest there in 1871, and has been a frequent
visitor there since, the Langham was large enough to accommodate all
American tourists in London.

This, however, has been greatly changed. Americans at that time merely
passed through London; they took it as a sort of stepping-stone _en
route_ for Paris. In the days of the Second Empire, when Louis Napoleon
wielded the sceptre, and Eugenie set the fashions for the civilized
world, Americans flocked to Paris like so many sheep. Then it was said:
“See Paris and die.” With the downfall of the empire and its
accompanying glories our compatriots found Paris less attractive, and
they discovered what everybody knows--that London is, in many respects,
the most interesting city in the world. A presentation to Her Majesty,
and hob-nobbing with the Prince of Wales, are the things now most
desired, and to be in the very height of fashion, one must hire a London
house for “the season,”--May, June and July.


THE LANGHAM HOTEL.

But this is a digression. The ground, the structure and the furnishing
of the Langham Hotel, which was formally opened by the Prince of Wales
in June, 1865, cost a million and a half dollars, and it was a wonder
and a revelation to the English people. Its noble granite front of two
hundred and twelve feet, its dining hall, forty-seven by one hundred and
twenty feet; its music room, drawing-room, and its public rooms
generally, were on such a grand scale that Londoners opened wide their
eyes in astonishment and admiration. The Langham, by liberal outlay of
money and constant improvement, keeps up with the times, and
notwithstanding that many splendid establishments have been erected
within the last decade, it retains its place in the very front rank.
People who have not seen the interior of the Langham Hotel, London,
since 1890, will notice some changes and marked improvements. Heretofore
the dining-room was only entered by a comparatively dark and roundabout
way, near the drawing-room; now it is approached from “the office”
direct, through a wide and handsome “vestibule,” which is flooded with
light and richly furnished, making an appropriate entrance to the
beautiful dining-room. The drawing-room, which, for its size, its
pleasing shape and rich furniture is yet one of the most attractive
salons in England, has also been greatly improved.

Colonel Sanderson, its first manager, an American, died many years ago.
He was brother to Harry Sanderson, famous in his day in New York as a
pianist. But English capitalists and business men are not given to
making changes, and so we find that Mr. Walter Gosden, who was in the
service of the Langham under Mr. Sanderson’s management, has been for
many years and is now the manager of the hotel. You can get a nice room
with beautiful outlook, and a very good breakfast here for less than
two dollars a day. This estimate includes the charge for attendance.
Address, Walter Gosden, Portland place, Regent street, W.


THE GRAND.

During the past twelve years, however, many superb buildings for hotel
purposes have been erected in the English metropolis. Among the largest
and most popular are the three grouped together, as it were, in one
short street, Northumberland avenue, which, only two blocks long,
extends in a southerly direction from Trafalgar square to the banks of
the Thames. These are the Grand, the Métropole and the Victoria, to name
them in the order they were erected. So popular has this cluster of
hotels become, and so many well-to-do Americans do they attract, that
property in the neighborhood has largely increased in value, and the
tradespeople blame the “Yankees” for the increased rents they have to
pay, never speaking of the increased patronage which they enjoy from
these same “Yankees.”

The features of the Grand Hotel, the longest established of these three,
are well-known, but former patrons will scarcely recognize the
reception-room, which, with its new, solid-looking furniture and rich,
dark decorations, is now one of the most attractive apartments of its
kind to be seen, even in these days of the upholsterer and decorator.
While artistic and costly, it has an air of utility and comfort which
you will not find very often repeated. The drawing-room of the Grand was
to be “done up” during last winter, so the secretary informed me, and
“it will be just as handsome as the reception-room.” Cable, Granotel,
London.


HÔTEL MÉTROPOLE.

To American visitors in London the Métropole is one of the most
attractive of the more recently built hotels. Situated as it is, and
being replete with all the latest conveniences and features, no hotel in
the metropolis approaches nearer to the ideal which was first evolved in
the United States of the model modern caravansary. To dwell upon the
subject of the general characteristics of the Hôtel Métropole would be
superfluous; they and it are too well known to Americans who have
visited London, but a short description of the celebrated “grand salon”
of the Métropole, as it has lately been refitted and decorated (Sept.
1891), will be read with interest.

The scheme of adornment is most tasteful, and perfectly and harmoniously
carried out in all details. Two shades of maroon in contrast with white
and gold are the leading features of the _ensemble_, and the general
effect of this combination is extremely felicitous and pleasing. The
wall space between the lofty windows and the immense mirrors is covered
with stamped Utrecht velvet of a soft, natural tint and richness of
design. The pillars are painted in maroon, with gilt capitals, an
arrangement of color which is at once novel and agreeable to the eye.
The patterns on the flutings of the beams which support the roof are
picked out in gold on a white ground.

The roof panels are covered with dull gold of a peculiarly restful tint,
and the design introduced in various portions of the general decoration
have an unusually æsthetic character. The electric lights, of which
there are a considerable number, are surrounded by cut crystal pendants
and greatly enhance the brilliancy of the illumination. In the center of
the room is a palm, the leaves of which shadow a space thirty feet in
circumference. It towers toward the ceiling, and for grace and beauty
is not easily equalled in Florida, nor greatly excelled even in
California. Tree palms are placed at intervals throughout the spacious
room, producing a pleasing effect of verdure, and each of the separate
tables is adorned with flowers; while the rich candelabra, with handsome
shades placed upon each table, afford the subdued light which is
preferable to the cruder glare of the former style of lighting. The
general _coup d’œil_ in the grand salon is singularly graceful and
attractive.

A large number of public and private banquets take place at the Hôtel
Métropole, this being one of the recognized resorts for ceremonies of
that description.

At the Métropole the “show” apartments are known as the Eugenie and
Marie Antoinette suites, and they have afforded many a descriptive
writer material for an article. Probably no hotel sleeping chambers
equal these for rich and costly decoration--for the laces, the frescoes
and luxurious furniture. The reader will know that ample means were at
command when told that in the selection of site, in constructing and
furnishing the Métropole, half a million sterling (two and a half
million dollars) were expended. And such a success has the Métropole
proved that the company were encouraged to invest further in hotel
property with the result that they now own and control three hotels of
the first class in London, also five other hotels in different parts of
Europe. Among these are the Métropole at Monte Carlo, the Métropole at
Cannes, and the Métropole at Brighton, the last named being the latest
hotel erected by this company, and one which will compare in many
respects with the most renowned hotels of the world. Rooms at the London
Métropole from five shillings to one pound per day; breakfast from
two-and-six-pence to four shillings; table d’hôte dinner, six
shillings--one dollar and a half. Manager, Wm. T. Hollands.


HOTEL VICTORIA.

The latest constructed of these three hotels is the Hotel Victoria.
Printed words cannot easily convey to the mind an adequate idea of the
magnificence of this structure. The public rooms of the Victoria are
palatial in their proportions and appointments, the grand staircase is a
marvel of beauty, and the sleeping rooms contain all the conveniences
and contrivances found in modern hotels of the highest class. Besides
the comforts characteristic of an English house, and the luxurious
cuisine of a continental hotel, the attention and the discipline which
rule at the Victoria remind one of an American hotel.

You need have no fear at the Victoria that the cards of friends calling
will not be promptly sent to you: nor is there any delay or trouble at
this house, as there is at certain hotels in the Strand, about the
delivery of telegrams, letters and packages. Each guest is known to the
officials and servants, not by name, but by number--the number of the
room he occupies. Letters are placed in your box up to a certain hour of
the evening, after that hour they are sent to your room. There is a
package-room, also a “package clerk,” who receives all bundles, signs
therefor, and enters the same in a book, so that it may be known
immediately if a package has been received for a guest.

If a telegram or a card from a caller is received and the key to your
room is not in its box, thus indicating that you are in your room, or at
least in the house, a servant is immediately dispatched to your room,
while a little page in livery is started off through all the halls and
public rooms calling out in a loud voice your room number in this
fashion, “Number 630, please.” If you are anywhere under the roof you
are sure to be found by this excellent method.

A feature of the Hotel Victoria is a corps of valets. There are seven
floors in the building, each accommodating about sixty or seventy
guests, and to each floor a valet is assigned who performs all the
ordinary duties of such a servant. Shoes are not carried down below to
be mixed and confused with hundreds of others, but are polished by the
valet on your floor. The valet also enters your room during your
absence, removes all the clothes he finds hanging or lying about,
brushes and folds the same and puts them back neatly. It is a
convenience, returning to your hotel late in the evening and in haste to
dress for dinner or the theatre, to find your evening suit nicely folded
and brushed, ready to put on. These and other provisions for the comfort
of guests indicate the general care in management and the close
attention to detail which obtain at the Victoria, and which have given
it its wide reputation. The appointments include a billiard room with
five full-sized tables. Good rooms on fifth floor, a dollar and a half a
day. This includes attendance and lights. Breakfast from two shillings
to three-and-six; table d’hôte luncheon about the same; table d’hôte
dinner, one dollar and a quarter. Manager, Henry Logan.


LONG’S HOTEL.

There is another trio of London hotels that may be grouped together, on
account of their proximity--the Hotel Albemarle (Albemarle street and
Piccadilly), Long’s hotel (Bond street), and the Hotel Bristol
(Burlington Gardens, between Bond and Regent streets). The last two are
but a few yards apart. They are all entirely new buildings, and new also
in name and history, except Long’s, which was erected on the ground
where the first Long’s stood for _two hundred years_. Long’s, though
not of great capacity, has a larger number of richly furnished bedrooms
than the Ponce de Leon, in St. Augustine, Fla. For the beauty of the
exterior and the magnificent surroundings of the Ponce de Leon, as well
as for the Oriental splendor of its public rooms, no words of praise can
be too lavish. But the two hotels, “the Ponce” and Long’s, cannot be
compared; their characteristics are so different. One is like a royal
palace in the country, the other resembles a gentleman’s quiet, city
home. Long’s differs from every other hotel I have seen in this respect,
that all of its bedrooms have rich hangings, and the walls of each are
decorated with works of art. The apartments are not cold and bare, as
are the bedrooms of most hotels; they suggest home-like comforts, and
are furnished in the best taste. The walls of the dining-room at Long’s
are hung with Gobelin tapestry, and on the whole it may be called a
beautifully appointed hotel. H. J. Herbert, manager.


THE BRISTOL.

They have some very attractive hotels in Boston; the Brunswick, for
example, and everybody has heard of the beautiful Spanish hotels in St.
Augustine, and the great Auditorium in Chicago. I have lived at all
these houses, also at the Hotel del Coronado, Coronado Beach, and at
California’s other famous house, the Hotel del Monte, at Monterey, with
its 126 acres for a garden. There are few or none that are more gorgeous
than these, and they always come to one’s memory when discussing the
best hotels, but certainly New York City cannot boast of a hotel
interior that equals in tasteful decorations those of the Bristol in
London. It is a gem in its way.

A veritable bijou of a room is the reception room of the Bristol. It is
minus the onyx tables and costly paintings you see at the Ponce de Leon
in St. Augustine, and the “gold” chairs that dazzle your eyes in so many
American hotels: everything in this room at the Bristol, from the soft
carpet on the floor to the decoration on the ceiling, is rich, but also
quiet in tone--soothing and harmonious. The Royal Academy, the
Burlington Arcade (a fashionable shopping street) and Piccadilly are all
within a few hundred feet of the Bristol. The Bristol is patronized by
such well-known New Yorkers as the Vanderbilts, the Twomblys and the
owner of the New York _World_. Telegraph or write to the Bristol Hotel,
Burlington Gardens, London, W.


THE HOTEL ALBEMARLE.

Although rebuilt and opened as recently as the beginning of 1890, the
Hotel Albemarle has already gained a position and reputation as one of
the most select and fashionable hotels in London. Its situation, to
begin with, has undoubtedly had much to do with its immediate success.
It conspicuously fronts the north end of the celebrated thoroughfare,
St. James’s street, in the centre of the court quarter of London, and
stands at the corner of Albemarle street and Piccadilly. No better
location for a hotel destined to be at once aristocratic and accessible
to the traveling public could have been selected. Towering high above
the surrounding buildings, the Albemarle, with its double façade,
seventy-five feet on Piccadilly and seventy-five feet on the street from
which it takes its name, cannot fail to attract observation. It is built
of terra cotta in the Francis I. style of architecture, and the general
effect is both graceful and imposing.

The main entrance is in Albemarle street. The interior of the hotel is
furnished and decorated in a variety of styles of the Renaissance
period. The furniture and decoration of the dining-room, ladies’
drawing-room on the ground floor, the fitting and decoration of the hall
and staircase, are treated in the style of Francis I. The style of Henri
II. has been adopted for the first and second floors; the third floor is
in the style of Louis XV., and the fourth in that of Louis XIV. Special
mention must be made of the “Rubens Room,” furnished and decorated
effectively in the Louis XV. style. This apartment derives its name from
a fine painting which adorns the ceiling, and which is believed to be
from the brush, either of Rubens himself or of one of his pupils.

The furnishing, fitting and decorating of the Hotel Albemarle were
effected by the well-known London firm of Shoolbred, after designs from
a famous French artist. The building being of such recent erection, it
is scarcely necessary to state that none of the modern improvements has
been neglected in its construction. The most careful attention has been
paid to sanitary arrangements, and the hotel is lighted throughout by
electricity. In the two years which have elapsed since it was opened, it
has quickly become renowned for the excellence of its cuisine and
service. Its wine cellar is one of the choicest in London.

Royalty, the nobility, and visitors of the highest fashion patronize the
Hotel Albemarle. During the London season, in particular, its rooms are
crowded with distinguished guests. To Americans, especially, it should
prove a most attractive resort, if only on account of the brilliant and
aristocratic neighborhood in which it is situated. St. James’s Park, St.
James’s Palace and Marlborough House are near at hand. Hyde Park, with
its “Drive” and “Row,” is within five minutes’ walk. The Art Galleries,
the theatres, the Opera House, the Houses of Parliament, the clubs,
Westminster Abbey, and several of the principal museums are within the
compass of a shilling cab fare. The best and most fashionable shops in
London are situated in the near vicinity, in Piccadilly and in Bond and
Regent streets, while Oxford street, where many of the cheaper shops are
to be found, is but a short distance off--in short, it may be said that
the Hotel Albemarle stands almost in the centre of the fashionable life
and business of London.

Interest attaches to Albemarle street itself as an historical
thoroughfare. During the last century it enjoyed peculiar reputation as
a place of residence at the west end of the metropolis, and not a little
of this old-time prestige clings to it still. The Prince of Wales,
afterwards George the Second, once lived in Albemarle street, and when
Louis the Eighteenth of France was in England in 1814 he made it his
place of stay, and held, at the now defunct “Grillon’s Hotel,” his
receptions of the leaders of the English nobility. The famous publishing
house, Murray’s, through whose doors have passed such celebrities in the
world of letters as Byron, Scott, Southey, Crabbe, Hallam, Tom Moore,
Gifford, Lockhart, Washington Irving and many others, is situated
immediately opposite the entrance to the Hotel. You would never imagine
that it was a publishing house or business house of any kind. It looks
like an ordinary private dwelling, and the only sign on the building is
one small, dull brass plate on the front wall upon which is engraved
“Mr. Murray.”

The proprietor of the Hotel Albemarle is Mr. A. L. Vogel. He is to be
congratulated on the rapid success he has met with in his efforts to
establish one of the best of London hotels. Mr. Vogel has purchased the
freehold of property adjoining the Albemarle Hotel, and a large addition
to the hotel will be erected presently, thus affording room for a new
_salle a manger_ and some thirty more bedrooms.

Mr. Vogel issues as a “Guide to London” a comprehensive and, in its way,
a complete little book of fifty pages, illustrated and prettily bound in
cloth. It is sent free to any address in the world on application.
Address The Albemarle, Albemarle street, Piccadilly, London.


THE BURLINGTON HOTEL.

The Burlington is in Cork street, a select, and fashionable business
thoroughfare between Bond street and Regent street. In this immediate
locality are also to be found Long’s Hotel, the Bristol, Almond’s Hotel,
patronized by Chauncey Depew and his family, and Brown’s Hotel in Dover
street. The last-named house affects not to desire American patronage.
The Burlington has enjoyed for over a century a truly unique reputation
and position in London. The hotel, as seen from the Burlington street
side, has a dignified exterior. It was erected in the year 1723, after
designs by Kent, by Richard, third earl of Burlington, but the Cork
street side was added to the old hotel in 1828.

It contains about one hundred and fifty rooms, and among these are as
fine apartments as may be met with in any hotel in the world. The hotel
entrance and the staircase are strikingly attractive, and the galleries,
opening from the staircase to the first floor, have a most charming
effect. Pretty alcoves occupy the ends of the gallery, and on the side
opposite to the colonnade, which looks on to the staircase, is a richly
ornamented doorway leading to the drawing-rooms. The latter possess
curiously decorated ceilings, painted in oil, with vases, birds,
foliage, etc., the work of an Italian artist of the eighteenth century.

The bedrooms are also interesting, as they retain their original carved
wood mantelpieces and doorways. There are several noble old rooms on
the ground floor with tastefully designed mantelpieces, panelling,
cornices, doorways and richly painted ceilings, which might have served
for the background of one of Hogarth’s pictures.

In the halls are fine, delicately carved benches by Grinling Gibbons. In
their time the old frescoes have been admired by many famous celebrities
who have sojourned at the Burlington. “Kitty,” the celebrated Countess
of Queensberry, friend of Gay, dispensed her well-known hospitality at
this hostelry, and Florence Nightingale occupied a suite of apartments
there for some months after the Crimean war. Here, too, Macaulay wrote a
portion of his famous history.

Coming to more recent times, there is scarcely a well-known face in
London that does not know this aristocratic hotel. Lord Beaconsfield,
when he was plain “Mr. Disraeli,” was president of a committee which met
there weekly for the purpose of erecting a statue to the memory of the
late Earl of Derby. The ex-premier, Mr. Gladstone, and his family have
patronized the Burlington for the past fifty years. The Marquis of
Salisbury may be occasionally passed in the corridors on his way to the
royal apartments of King Leopold, and the Prince of Wales arrives
unattended to visit august relatives, who patronize the Burlington.
Henry Irving gives his delightful dinner parties there, and the Royal
College of Physicians have dined there monthly since 1830. Among
distinguished Americans whose names are on the books, may be found
George Peabody, the philanthropist, who resided there for eight months,
also Jefferson Davis, John Jacob Astor, Mr. Bancroft, General Schenck
and General Sandford. Henry M. Stanley also is on the cosmopolitan list
of celebrated guests of the Burlington.

The Burlington, as well as the Buckingham Palace Hotel, opposite
Buckingham Palace, has for many years been managed by Mr. George Cooke,
who is one of the proprietors, and under whose administration both
hotels have acquired a reputation second to none in Europe. Electric
light, new sanitation and every other modern improvement have been
introduced, and both the British public, as well as American visitors to
London, have been quick to appreciate Mr. Cooke’s effort to make his
hotels real London homes for people of taste and refinement.


THE SAVOY.

A London hotel that has, so to speak, jumped into popularity is the
Savoy Hotel. It is a new house, on the Victoria embankment, with the
Strand at its back, the public gardens in front and the Thames at its
feet. It lies between Charing Cross and Waterloo Bridge, and for a
“finger post” it has Cleopatra’s needle. There is an entrance for foot
passengers from the Strand and a carriage drive from the embankment
directly into the courtyard, like that of the Palace Hotel in San
Francisco, the Grand Hotel in Paris, and the Grand in Brussels. In fact,
the Savoy is more like a continental than an English house, and the
owners call it “the Hotel de Luxe of the world.” Luxurious in site, size
and appointments, the Savoy certainly is. It is not continental,
however, in its system of charges. Nor for that matter is it like any
other London hotel, its system being American. In all Parisian hotels
candles are a separate charge: in nearly all European hotels attendance
is a separate item, and in most hotels in the civilized world you must
pay extra for baths. Not so at the Savoy. When you are told the rate for
an apartment everything is included--everything of course but
meals--bedroom, lights, attendance and baths. There are sixty-seven
bath rooms in the house, and beneath it there is an artesian well four
hundred and twenty feet deep. The boiling water, as well as the cold,
like Jacobs’s bottle, is inexhaustible, and you can bathe to your
heart’s content. You can hire a room for two persons for two dollars a
day, or you may engage a suite at twenty dollars a day.

As to table, you may live economically at the Savoy, or you may live
like a prince--a rich prince. Here are the definite and fixed rates at
the Savoy:--bedrooms for one person, from seven and sixpence (nearly two
dollars) per day; for two persons, ten-and-six; suites of apartments
containing sitting-room, bed-room, dressing-room and private bath-room,
from thirty shillings per day. Breakfast from two shillings to
three-and-six; luncheon, four shillings; dinner, seven-and-six; dinner
served in private rooms ten-and-six. Guests’ servants are boarded at six
shillings per day; price of room according to location. If you want to
live in style and enjoy, at its best, life in London, engage a suite at
the Savoy, including parlor and bath-room, with private lobby and
private balcony overlooking the Thames. It makes no difference what
floor you select: there are “lifts” in the house, so large and luxurious
as to be justly called “ascending rooms:” they run day and night. The
rooms on the top floor are equal in height of ceiling to those on the
lower floors, and the furniture is of the same quality throughout the
house. General manager, C. Ritz; acting manager, L. Echenard.


HOTEL WINDSOR.

The Hotel Windsor is in Victoria street, only five minutes’ walk from
Victoria Station, two minutes’ walk from the American Legation, a few
steps from Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, the Houses of
Parliament, St. James’s Park and the Home Office. The dining-room of the
Windsor is an especially cheerful apartment and it overlooks the pretty
garden of a church. The great plate glass windows in this dining-room
are larger than the windows in any other hotel, so large that they are
only moved up or down by ropes to which handles are attached. They let
in plenty of daylight, almost as much as streams freely into the
dining-room of the Hotel Pasaje, Havana, which opens on the street, and
which is not encumbered with windows at all.

The Hotel Windsor is not only kept by a “proprietor” in the accepted
American use of that term, but the furniture, the building and the
ground on which it stands are owned in fee (“freehold,” as English
people call it), by two men, J. R. Cleave and V. D. B. Cooper, the first
named being the actual and active manager of the house, who makes it his
home, the title of the firm being J. R. Cleave & Co. The premises
include fifteen thousand square feet of ground, which, without the
imposing ten-story stone structure upon it, is valued at forty-five
thousand pounds sterling--not far short of a quarter million dollars.

The Windsor is fortunate in its location. A shilling cab takes you to
any theatre or to the shopping centre, and ’buses pass the door every
minute for Charing Cross, Trafalgar square and the Strand. Time, ten
minutes; fare, two cents, inside or out.

There is a lift at the Windsor of modern style; the house is lighted by
electricity; there are Turkish and swimming baths on the lower floor; to
avoid disagreeable odors the kitchen is at the top of the house; the
bedrooms are scrupulously clean, the _cuisine_ and wines are of the best
quality, and the charges moderate. You can live at the Windsor, if you
prefer it, on the American plan--rate, about four dollars a day. The
European plan is also moderate in price for rooms and meals--a
delicious lunch for sixty cents: choice service.

If this is the description of a model hotel, worthy in every respect of
the best patronage, “that,” as humorist Gilbert says, “is the idea I
intended to convey.” The Windsor was built about twelve years ago.
Address, J. R. Cleave, manager, Victoria street, Westminster, S. W.


BAILEY’S HOTELS.

Americans going to London for business, intent upon shopping,
theatre-going and a round of sight-seeing, find hotels in the Strand, or
hotels near Trafalgar square, very convenient. Reference is made to the
Grand, the Métropole, the Savoy, and the Victoria, in their alphabetical
order. The Langham, in Portland place, and those select houses near
Burlington Gardens and Piccadilly--Long’s, the Bristol, the Burlington
and the Albermarle, are also central, convenient, and in a fashionable
district.

If, however, a family is going to London for a protracted stay and the
desire of their hearts is to be in an ultra-fashionable locality, where
the aristocracy reside, and where quiet and selectness reign and
salubrity is assured, then Bailey’s Hotel, on the corner of Gloucester
and Cromwell roads, is recommended and recommends itself. If you are in
haste and do not care for a cab, the “underground” will take you from
“the city” or from Charing Cross to Bailey’s Hotel in fifteen minutes,
fare five cents, third class; fifteen cents in a first-class carriage.

When you reach Gloucester Road Station you are at Bailey’s Hotel, and
within a few minutes walk of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Cromwell
Gardens, Stanhope Gardens, Queen’s Gate Gardens, etc., etc. Near at
hand are the Albert Memorial, Albert Hall, and South Kensington Museum.
Not only is Bailey’s Hotel in the heart of this fashionable locality,
surrounded by the residences of members of the nobility and others, but
the hotel itself is under royal patronage, and has entertained the
Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Connaught, the
Princess Marie, the Princess Louise, and other members of the royal
household.

The hotel, which stands on the property of Lord Harrington, who owns all
the land hereabouts, was built in 1875. It is a brick building, six
stories high--a modern hotel with modern improvements, and all possible
safeguards against annoyances and dangers. There are accommodations for
two hundred and fifty guests. In the rear of the house is a beautiful
garden.

The decorations and furnishings of the apartments are in admirable
taste, and display an individual and artistic sense of fitness. The
style is especially English, but also especially beautiful--there is no
gaudiness, but neither is there dinginess. Unlike American hotels,
little space is given to halls, bar-room, etc., but there is a cosey,
homelike atmosphere, which is enhanced by the rich and substantial
surroundings. Because the bar, with its glitter of glass and brass does
not obtrude itself, let it not be supposed that wine is eschewed. On the
contrary, the wine cellar is a feature of the house, and the stock of
wines is valued at ten thousand pounds. As to the quality of the wines,
and, by the way, that of the cuisine, they are unsurpassed in London.
The sanitary arrangements bear the closest inspection. Some of the very
old and small London hotels are not to be trusted in case of fire.
Bailey’s Hotel is American-like in the particulars of fire-escapes and
preparations for extinguishing a fire.

There is no attempt to lead people to believe that very low prices
prevail or that Bailey’s is a “cheap house” in any sense of the term.
On the contrary, you pay for the best, and you get it. You can live at
Bailey’s Hotel on the European plan at about the same rate as at an
American hotel of the first-class. Single rooms rent at about one dollar
per day; double rooms from a dollar and a half; suites from four dollars
and a half upward. These are the winter rates. They are a trifle higher
during “the season.”

As at all English hotels, breakfast varies in price from fifty cents to
seventy-five cents; luncheon from sixty cents; table d’hôte dinner, one
dollar and twenty-five cents. Of course it is English, and there are
some extras. It is a rule at every English hotel, except the Savoy in
London, to make a separate charge for “attendance,” about thirty-five
cents per day for each person, and Bailey’s conforms to the rule. No
American likes it and it seems odd, but it is the custom in England, and
when in Rome---. Four dollars per week is the charge for each member of
the canine race.

So much for Bailey’s Hotel proper, but the same proprietor, Mr. James
Bailey, is also proprietor of the South Kensington Hotel, and, strange
to say, the two hotels are distant from each other only five minutes’
walk, the South Kensington being in Queen’s Gate Terrace.

Being in the same locality, and having the same proprietor, the above
remarks and particulars will apply, almost word for word, to both
houses. Americans who prefer a quiet, aristocratic quarter, and
especially those who have children, will make no mistake in applying for
rooms at either hotel, each with its surrounding parks and gardens being
particularly adapted to families. For the South Kensington, address
Queen’s Gate Terrace, London, S. W.


IN JERMYN STREET.

A couple of small, quiet hotels in Jermyn street--a street which runs
parallel with Piccadilly--may be found pleasant by families or by ladies
without escort. They lack that bustle and noise to which some people
object, and they are not “company hotels,” that is to say the head and
front of each is always visible and approachable. Mr. Rawlings is
proprietor of the Rawlings Hotel, and Mr. Morle with his family keeps
and manages the house which bears his name.

While Jermyn street is narrow and its two hotels are quiet, plenty of
life and gayety are to be had near at hand. Bond street and Regent
street, two of the most fashionable shopping streets of London, are hard
by, and the parks and palaces are within walking distance. Rawlings’
Hotel is famous for its cuisine, and a feature at Morle’s is that you
can arrange to live on the American plan if you prefer, the charges
being “inclusive,” as they call this plan there, and very moderate
withal. Both these houses are homelike and comfortable, but they are not
strictly fashionable.

Do not confuse Morle’s in Jermyn street with Morley’s in Trafalgar
square. Morley’s has a magnificent outlook, with the noble Nelson
Monument, Landseer’s lions and the playing fountains in front, and the
dinner served at Morley’s is of the best quality, but the house is very
old and rather worn, notwithstanding its white and attractive exterior.


THE NORFOLK’S MODERATE CHARGES.

If you want to get away from the Strand, Regent street and Piccadilly;
if you are tired of the glare and blare of showy “American hotels,” and
you prefer a very quiet, but healthy locality, jot down in your
memorandum book, “Norfolk Hotel, Harrington Road, South Kensington,
S.W.” The Norfolk was built in the year 1889, not by a company, but by
Mr. A. Fatman, who himself keeps the house. It is not large, there is
room only for eighty guests, but these eighty can be made very
comfortable.

It is not like a hotel in certain respects. The rooms are not all of one
size nor of one shape. The furniture does not look as if it were turned
out by machinery in Grand Rapids and bought by the car-load. It has
character and distinction, no suites of furniture being alike. There is
nothing at the Norfolk to remind you, for instance, of a Salt Lake
hotel, with its great halls and corridors, and its cold, bare walls.
Good taste, as well as money, was used in building and furnishing the
Norfolk, and the result is an attractive, cosy, home-like house.

After entering the Norfolk and admiring its pleasant surroundings, the
tariff of charges will surprise you. Rooms are let as low as two-and-six
(about sixty cents) a night, and, wonderful to relate for a London
hotel, there is no charge for attendance. Fish breakfast, one-and-six
(thirty-five cents); afternoon tea, sixpence; the same price for hot or
cold bath.


THE FIRST AVENUE.

Don’t be prejudiced at the sound of “First Avenue Hotel.” It is in
Holborn, a bustling, busy thoroughfare, but which has nothing in common
with our First avenue in New York. The Gordon’s Hotel Company made a
mistake in naming the house; they meant to say Fifth Avenue Hotel, for
the First Avenue Hotel ranks probably with our Fifth Avenue Hotel in
New York, only the First Avenue is not an old house. Holborn is one of
London’s main arteries, a continuation, east, of Oxford street. The
First Avenue is not very far from St. Paul’s and Newgate. The former
being a noble cathedral, you will wish to get into; the latter being a
prison, you will wish to keep out of, unless for a temporary visit.


OTHER HOTELS.

Another hotel in Holborn which may be commended is the Holborn Viaduct
Hotel, near the city station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.

A pleasant house in High Holborn is the Inns of Court; neither
fashionable nor grand, but select and comfortable; largely patronized by
English people. Terms moderate. The main entrance is in Lincoln’s Inn
Fields.

There are some famous old houses farther east, in the city, in such a
bustling, busy quarter as St. Martin’s le Grand, near the General Post
Office. The Queen’s Hotel in this neighborhood is best known.

Not far from this locality is the Manchester Hotel, in Aldersgate
street. The proprietor of the Manchester Hotel especially solicits
American patronage.

Those who desire to make frequent visits to the Houses of Parliament and
that grand old pile, Westminster Abbey, will find the Westminster Palace
Hotel convenient. It has an imposing front, in Victoria street,
Westminster, almost opposite to the Abbey. Within five minutes’ walk of
this hotel are the Home Office, St. James’s Park, the Horse Guards,
Westminster Bridge, leading to the Surrey side of London, the United
States Legation, and the Victoria Station of the London, Chatham and
Dover Railway. The favorite and well kept Hotel Windsor, referred to
elsewhere, is also in Victoria street, and still nearer to the Station
and the Legation before mentioned.

Convenient to Hyde Park are the Alexandra Hotel, 16 to 21 St. George’s
Place, Hyde Park Corner, and the Hyde Park Hotel. The latter is at the
west end of Oxford street, in Hyde Park Place, near the Marble Arch.

Claridge’s Hotel used to be considered “the crack” house of London, and
it is still patronized by the nobility, members of the diplomatic corps
and by royalty. Nos. 49 to 55 Brook street, Grosvenor Square.

The Hotels connected with the railway stations are large structures,
solidly built, fire-proof, as a general rule, and fitted up with every
modern contrivance. They are desirable stopping places if you arrive
late at night or if you intend to make an early start by rail, from the
station, in the morning. They were erected for that purpose and they
serve it admirably.

There are very many reputable hotels in London which are worthy of the
best patronage, detailed reference to which, in this limited space, it
would not be possible to make.

If none of the hotels described or alluded to in the foregoing list
suits your plans and purposes, consult friends who have had experience
in such matters. But don’t go, hap-hazard, into the smallest and oldest
London hotels of whose very existence you never heard. Some of them are
unpleasant, as residences; others are unhealthy. If your stay in London
is short there is every reason why you should put up at the best houses.
If you make a protracted visit and desire to economize, go to a boarding
house or take lodgings. You will see signs in windows all over London:
hire rooms and eat where your fancy or purse directs. London
housekeepers are glad to “eke out” by letting rooms in the summer, and
with a small tip now and then to the maid, life can be made very
comfortable in London lodgings.


A FEW BOARDING HOUSES.

There are plenty of first-class boarding houses where Americans are
welcome. Five or six come to mind--Mrs. Pool’s, No. 20 Bedford place;
Mrs. Goodman’s, No. 13 Montague place; Mrs. Philp’s, No. 6 Montague
place; Mrs. Wright’s, No. 15 Upper Woburn place, and Mr. Cooper’s, No. 1
Bedford place, Russell square. Mrs. Philp is an American whose husband
keeps the Cockburn Hotel in Glasgow; and there is a Philp’s Cockburn
Hotel in Edinburgh. Mrs. Philp’s drawing-room is beautiful, the
dining-room cheerful, and there is a pretty garden which is backed by
the walls of the British Museum, so Mrs. Philp is easily found.

Those who want to live economically but comfortably are recommended to
the handsome private hotel or _pension_ of Mrs. Marcus Pool, 20 Bedford
place, Russell square. This is a pleasant and convenient quarter of the
city--quite handy for the British Museum, not far from Charing Cross,
and a shilling cab fare to railway stations and places of amusement. The
house is furnished and appointed on a liberal scale; the drawing-room is
large and cheerful; the bedrooms are luxuriously fitted up in the best
taste, and they have a pleasant outlook. There is a Broadwood piano,
also a new billiard room, with a table from the famous firm of Bennett.
The house has a refined, home-like air, well representing the character
of Mrs. Pool and her charming daughter. French and German are spoken.
The terms at the Pool pension are from two dollars a day, which include
breakfast, table d’hôte dinner and attendance--“everything inclusive.”
Those are the terms “in the season;” the winter rates are lower. The
cuisine is of the substantial English quality, but not heavy. At Pool’s
pension you are sure to meet cultivated and select people. Those who
have been Mrs. Pool’s guests appear perfectly satisfied; for they
return again and again. Mr. Cooper keeps a good house and he caters to
people accustomed to refined surroundings. He is a typical Londoner of
the middle class--honest, blunt and out-spoken. Mrs. Lucy H. Hooper,
wife of the American Vice-Consul in Paris, recommends No. 1 Bedford
place. Mrs. Hooper makes it her stopping place when she is in London.

“American Family Home.”--An establishment which meets with especial
favor among fastidious tourists is Demeter House, 13 Montague place,
Russell square, W. C. The location is select, within easy access of the
centres of shopping and amusement. The house is kept by Mrs. A. Goodman,
who aims to maintain a house replete with the comforts and freedom of a
refined home and the advantages of a hotel, but with less expense. The
house is spacious and well furnished, the table excellent and carefully
provided. Many leading American families make this their home during
their annual visits to London.

Put down “No. 15 Upper Woburn place, Tavistock square,” and note that it
is not far from Euston station. It is a quiet street. The house is kept
by an English woman of refinement, Mrs. Wright and her maiden daughters,
and it may be commended as a pleasant Christian home, where grace is
said before meals.

Of these boarding houses, like all the hotels mentioned in this article,
the writer speaks from his own knowledge and experience. But don’t count
on getting accommodation in London hotels in the season, without making
previous arrangements or giving notice in advance of your arrival, or
you may be disappointed.




WHERE TO LUNCH IN LONDON,

AND WHERE NOT TO LUNCH.


It may be set down at the outset that there are no restaurants in London
equal to Delmonico’s in Fifth avenue, or the Café Savarin in the
Equitable Building, New York, and no London restaurant serves a table
d’hôte dinner at any price equal in quality and style of service to that
furnished at the select and elegant “Cambridge,” Fifth avenue and 33d
street, New York.

Neither is there a restaurant of the third class that will compare with
Mouquin’s, in Ann street, where everything is cooked to a turn, and
where even a fastidious _gourmet_ need not find fault. There are two or
three Italian places in Regent street where they serve a
“Chateaubriand,” enough for two persons, for one dollar, but nowhere do
you get a dish of maccaroni that is more palatable than at Mouquin’s,
and neither in London nor Paris do you get as good Burgundy for the
price as Mouquin’s beaujolais--half bottle, forty cents.

The foreign halls are more richly gilded, and the furniture is of finer
texture, but if you are looking for as good food and as well served at
that at Mouquin’s, at Mouquin’s prices, you will look in vain.

In the price of wines, however, no first-class hotel or restaurant
anywhere that I know of sells wines as low as the manager of the Hotel
del Monte, Monterey, Cal. In France, on the Swiss border, I found _vin
ordinaire_ almost as cheap as water, in the small inns. The Hotel del
Monte, please bear in mind, is a superbly appointed and grand
establishment, and they serve you a half bottle of good California
Zinfandel for fifteen cents. But then this hotel company own their own
vineyards, and make no profit on wine served at table. It is a sort of
“sample” or advertisement for their wines.

“The Aerated Bread Shops,” which are as “thick as flies” in London, are
probably good enough places to drop into if you are in a great hurry,
for a cup of coffee or cocoa and a roll or piece of dry, digestible seed
cake. If you abhor marble tables, if you must have a _serviette_ and you
would avoid a crowd and mixed company, keep out of the “aerated bread
shops,” and by the same token and by all means keep out of the Lockhart
lunch shops. The “aerated bread shops” are tolerable; the others are
not.

Much more worthy of patronage than aerated bread shops or Lockhart’s
lunch shops is the confectionery and cake counter of William Buszard,
197 and 199 Oxford street, where everything is clean and inviting. A
similar place of the first-class is that in “the city” of Alfred
Purssell & Co., No. 80 Cornhill, E. C. The proprietor of this
establishment is related to the late William Purssell, founder of the
famous restaurant in Broadway which still bears his name. There are
several pleasant places in and near Piccadilly where you may obtain a
cup of tea or cocoa and a dainty sandwich, just enough to “stay the
appetite.” One of the best of these is Callard’s, 146 New Bond street,
but even in this neat and clean little shop they don’t know what a
_serviette_ is.

Romano’s, called “The Vaudeville,” 399 Strand, is recommended for its
moderate charges, but this is a place I have never tried. So much for
the confectioners and the cheap restaurants.

The Tivoli restaurant, up stairs, connected with the Tivoli Music Hall,
is in the Strand, just East of Charing Cross. “La Haute Cuisine
Française,” as they term it, is in charge of a famous _chef_, M. Gerard.
A Table d’Hôte Luncheon, at 2s. 6d., from 12 to 3; Parisian dinner, at
5s., from 6 to 9, served in the Flemish Room.

Londoners are proud of their Holborn Restaurant, 218 High Holborn, where
the glass and the brass and the marble columns are resplendent and
imposing, and where you are regaled with vocal music (English glees)
during the dinner hour, but the meals are not daintily served: the
butter is not cold, and the plates are not warm, and unless you order a
costly meal at the Holborn Restaurant, the waiter may wait on you with
condescension. Dinner, three-and-six.

If you are in “the city,” in the neighborhood of the Bank (the Bank of
England), and you have a desire to see how and where some of the brokers
and commission merchants lunch, step into the Winchester House in
Bishopgate street--a well-lighted, well-furnished restaurant, where no
charge is made to customers, strange to say, for use of water and soap.

Ladies who are in the neighborhood of Westminster Abbey or who have
business at the American Legation, are recommended to the Army and Navy
stores, in Victoria street, opposite the Windsor Hotel, where a dainty
lunch is served at a very moderate sum. You can do your shopping in the
same large establishment. They sell everything, from a poached egg to an
Axminster carpet or a wedding outfit. The Army and Navy stores is on the
coöperative plan. To gain entrance you must either use a member’s ticket
number or use good judgment.

Gatti is a well-known name in the Strand, where the Gattis have two
large, gaudily furnished restaurants, one of which extends to King
William street. The Gattis are also owners of the Adelphi Theatre, where
you may always enjoy a drama--if you enjoy melodrama. The Gattis are
Swiss, and one of the brothers is a legislator in one of the Swiss
Cantons. They commenced in a small way, in the east end of London, many
years ago and made a reputation for their ices. They long since moved to
the west end, where they increased their business and they now conduct a
thriving trade. All Gatti’s waiters are foreigners. They are a talkative
set and some people might prefer that their linen be nearer the color of
snow.


IN REGENT STREET.

If you are in the neighborhood of Piccadilly Circus, a fair place to get
luncheon at a fair price is “the Florence” in Rupert street, Regent
street. It is an Italian restaurant; the lunch is served table d’hôte
and the price is one shilling and sixpence. But there is no profit to
the restaurateur in the mere lunch: you are expected to order
wine--indeed that is the expectation in all English restaurants and
hotels--all hotels that are not temperance houses. At the Florence you
can get dinner from six to nine, for half-a-crown--sixty-two cents--and
you order wine of course.

If you are fond of high living, and you don’t mind paying for it, take a
meal in the middle of the day or _early_ in the evening at the Hotel
Continental. It is in the lower part of Regent street, on the corner of
Waterloo place, within the shadow of the Duke of York column. It was one
of the first houses in London to adopt the French style in name--Hotel
Continental in lieu of Continental Hotel--and it was one of the first to
serve a first class dinner in the French style. The reputation for its
_cuisine_ is second to none, and the hotel prides itself upon the
accuracy of the names and vintages of the wines supplied. It has the
monopoly in London of that famous brand of champagne, “_Medaille d’Or_”
which received the grand prize in the French Exhibition of 1878 over
sixty other competing wines. Cigarettes made of the finest tobacco are
manufactured expressly for the hotel in Constantinople and Salonica.

There is always a very gay scene in the Hotel Continental supper room
after the theatres close; it might become too lively in the early hours
of the morning, but the police regulations oblige such places as the
Continental to close their doors at one A.M. Dinner from seven-and-six
to twelve-and-six, without wine, of course; for although you are in the
Continental you are not on the Continent. A. Y. Wilson, who has been
connected with the house since its opening, is the manager.

More attention is given to “the inner man” in London than in any other
place I wot of. They seem to live to eat there, not eat to live, and yet
some one has noted this difference--you eat dinner in London, while in
Paris you dine. Mention the subject of restaurants in London and the
majority will ask you, “Have you dined at Verrey’s in Regent street?”
Yes, I’ve been to Verrey’s and I found it very gloomy, and very
expensive not to say oppressive. You are in the middle of the house and
the room is lighted from a skylight. It is not at all cheerful.

Blanchard’s, “The Burlington,” 169 Regent street, is patronized by the
higher classes. Dinner from five shillings to twelve-and-six. No higher
priced dinner in London.

For a healthful, nicely-served meal, whether it consist of a mutton chop
and a boiled potato or a dinner of several courses, much better than the
aforesaid establishments in Regent street is the Café Royal, at No. 68
Regent street. In the “Grand Café Restaurant Royal,” where dinner is
served, prices rule high. For luncheon go into the “Grill Room” of the
Café Royal. You will find the rates reasonable, the food of the best,
the appointments on a grand scale, and the service satisfactory. These
remarks will also apply to “The Monico,” at Piccadilly Circus and
Shaftesbury avenue.

The St. James Restaurant, which extends from Piccadilly to Regent
street, with entrances on both streets, is a large, showy place, with
plenty of glitter about it, and wearing the big-sounding title of St.
James Hall. The rates are not low, the food is not of the choicest
quality, the service is not of the best, and the waiters may over-charge
you unless you watch them closely. The charge for washing your hands at
the St. James, be you a patron or not, is two-pence. This is a regular
charge made by the proprietors, but if you don’t also fee the man who
hands you a towel or fills your basin, you might get a cold reception
down-stairs the next time you call, and you may fill your own basin.

At the Criterion, in Piccadilly Circus, you can take your choice; go up
stairs, and the charges are higher; down in the basement the same dishes
are served at a lower price. To quote their bill, “table d’hôte
three-and-six, _le diner Parisien_, five shillings.”

English people when they are thirsty drink beer, wine, or something
stronger; Americans who live in cities, American women at least, prefer
something weaker, soda water, for instance, which, charged with gas,
looks cool and inviting as it comes bubbling from a highly polished,
silver-plated fountain. Not until recently could American taste in this
matter be gratified in London. Now there are two “American
confectioneries” kept by Fuller, one, the principle establishment, at
206 Regent street; the other, at 358 Strand, both central locations. The
first is close to Oxford Circus and not far from the Langham Hotel. At
Fuller’s you can get ice-cream soda and “caramels fresh ever hour.” In
fact, on a pleasant summer day Fuller’s, in Regent street, will remind
you of Huyler’s on Broadway, and if you are a New Yorker, you will meet
many familiar faces there. If you retain a juvenile _penchant_ for
peanuts, that taste can also be gratified at Fuller’s.


THE GRILL ROOM OF THE GRAND.

So many of the transient guests at hotels in London are out shopping and
sight-seeing, that they generally take only breakfast, or, at most,
breakfast and dinner, at their hotels, always lunching wherever
convenience may permit. The meals at European hotels being usually a
separate charge, the hotel is a sufferer by this custom, so that at
some, if not most houses, it is understood that, if you take your meals
out, a higher charge will be made for your apartment. The manager of the
Grand Hotel, however, has opened a restaurant of his own, in his own
house, which is so attractive that it not only keeps together his
regular guests, but allures “the outside world,” and thus the “Grill
Room,” as it is called, of the Grand has become famous in London.

While within and a part of the Grand Hotel, it is not reached by the
main entrance in Northumberland avenue. It is at the eastern end of the
building, around the corner, in the Strand, and is in what we would call
in New York a basement, but no ordinary “basement” is this, and the
staircase leading to it is anything but ordinary. The Grill Room of the
Grand is a well-lighted, cheerful apartment, richly carpeted and finely
furnished. The chairs are comfortably upholstered, the walls are
gorgeous with polished tiles, the table furniture is dainty, the food is
of prime quality, and the tariff of charges moderate.

Don’t be surprised at the charge, two-pence, for washing your hands in
the Grill Room lavatory, and unless you occupy a room, the charge for
use of lavatory in the hotel proper is three-pence; but it is worth half
a crown merely to see the lavatory, or rather the staircase and landing
leading to it, so beautiful are the colored marble fountain, the eastern
rugs, the fernery and the Oriental lamps, with which this lower part of
the house is decorated. The view of this lower part from the marble
staircase on the main floor has been called fairy-like; it is certainly
very pleasing.

Strangers are not allowed the run and freedom of the hotels in Europe as
they are in “the States.” They can’t use the smoking-room, read the
newspapers, loiter about the halls, make a general rendezvous of the
house and help themselves to stationery in European hotels as they do on
this side. Their hotels lack some of our popular features and the
excellent service and discipline of the American hotels, but, on the
other hand, they are not so noisy, and are more private. American hotels
suit Americans, and the hotels in England satisfy the wants and desires
of English people.


SIMPSON’S DIVAN.

A Characteristic English Restaurant.--A good, plain, thoroughly
wholesome English dinner is served in an appetizing way by English
waiters at Simpson’s, in the Strand, next door to Terry’s Theatre,
opposite Exeter Hall. You get a bowl of good soup, a course of fish, a
cut from the joint, a salad, two kinds of vegetables, with bread and
butter, a biscuit and a bit of rich Gorgonzola or dry Wiltshire cheese
to wind up with, and your whole bill will be four shillings, to which
add threepence for “attendance,” which is charged in the bill, and about
threepence more which you will hand to the waiter. A feature of the
place is that the hot joint, over a chafing dish and on a small table,
is wheeled round to you, and it is there cut before your eyes and
transferred to your plate. You can get a lower-priced dinner in London,
and higher-priced dinners where you please, but none of a better quality
and none that is more satisfactory unless you demand fancy fol de rols,
indigestible entrées and French dishes made of little or nothing.

Simpson’s is justly celebrated for its “fish” dinners. Both these and
the meal above described are served in the middle of the day and in the
evening also. On Sunday the evening dinner only is served; the place is
closed until 6 P.M.

Simpson’s enjoys the patronage of Henry Irving and of other people
famous in the theatrical world, just as it did in the last century.
Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre, by the way, is in the Strand, near
Simpson’s, but on the opposite side of the street. In the summer of 1890
I saw D’Oyly Carte enjoying his dinner at Simpson’s. This is a special
compliment to the place, because that magnificent hotel, the Savoy, in
which this theatrical manager is interested, is just around the corner
from Simpson’s, on the Thames Embankment. During the summer of ’91 I met
at Simpson’s another theatrical manager, our own Augustin Daly, with his
wife. Mr. and Mrs. Daly occasionally left the Hotel Métropole, where
they had apartments, to partake of one of Simpson’s substantial,
well-cooked and appetizing meals. There’s no Simpson now, the founder
died long ago, but “Simpson’s” is there yet, as it was a hundred years
ago, although it is now a limited company. Howard Paul eulogizes this
place, and Stephen Fiske recommends it. Besides being a brilliant writer
on dramatic matters, Mr. Fiske has made a study of the gastronomic art,
and he lived in London continuously during nine years. The reading
public put faith in Stephen Fiske’s dramatic criticism; his intimates
also trust to his good taste and judgment in ordering a dinner.

It is a well-known fact that changes in the employees at this
establishment are seldom made. Some of the waiters have stood at the
tables for nearly two decades, and the head waiter has been there
(probably not always as head waiter) for more than thirty years. The
name of this head water is Charles Flowerdew, so he informed me, and I
can impart this piece of information--that this same Flowerdew is a
character worth studying. There is nothing of the “Yellowplush” type
about him, but he is such a character, courteous and civil (yes,
seemingly servile to an American’s eye), such as Dickens delighted to
draw.

Mr. Flowerdew knows all the old customers at Simpson’s, and, what is of
more consequence to a hungry man, he knows all the choice cuts. He will
suggest the best dishes, the rare bits, and he will serve you from the
joint, _ad libitum_, as he proudly remarks. When next you go to London,
go to Simpson’s, 103 Strand. You will be sure to meet a few London
notabilities, you will be sure of a good dinner, and last, but by no
means least, you will see the polite and dignified Mr. Charles
Flowerdew. Managing director, E. W. Cathie.

[Illustration]




RAILWAY TRAVELLING IN ENGLAND.


While our facilities in railway travelling have wonderfully improved in
the past ten years, it must not be supposed that in conservative England
they have stood still entirely. But the improvements in carriage
accommodation there have been so steady and gradual that passengers
hardly recognize how much more they get for their money now than they
did a generation back. For instance, the old first-class carriage of
forty years ago was fifteen feet long, six and a half feet broad, and
less than five feet high, and this was constructed to seat eighteen
passengers; in other words, each person had about twenty-six cubic feet
of space. In the carriages built to-day to accommodate ten first-class
passengers, each one has ninety cubic feet.

Nor because we in America have such luxurious Pullman and vestibuled
cars must it be imagined that the English railway carriages have not
comforts and luxuries of their own. Some of them, for example, are built
to seat only two or three persons, thus securing complete privacy to a
party of that number.

I have never occupied a more comfortable railway carriage than in going,
as I did, last September, from Edinburgh to London over the lines of the
Caledonian and London and Northwestern railways, on the world-famous
train called the “Flying Scotchman”--and a flyer it is. The distance is
four hundred miles, and it is run in eight and one-half hours. You leave
Edinburgh at 10.15 A.M. and reach Euston square before 7 P.M. As there
are several important stations between the two cities at which long
stops are made, the train must make between many of the stations much
more than fifty miles an hour. The speed was so great at times that it
caused unusual vibration, and at times it gave me a slight reminder of
sea-sickness.

The carriage was built to seat two persons only. In it there were two
large, softly-upholstered, sleep-inviting arm-chairs, one on each side
of the car. Between the two chairs at the back was a door leading to a
lavatory for the sole use of the two passengers. It was supplied with
iced water, washing water, towels, mirror and all the etceteras and
conveniences that are desirable in travelling. The car had in all six
windows--two at each side and two in front. Between the two front
windows was a handsomely-framed bevelled mirror. The floor was richly
carpeted and the carriage was supplied with a number of brass brackets
and hooks for the travellers’ impedimenta. But more than this--across
the front, breast high, was a shelf about six inches wide to hold books
and papers, and below this another shelf about the same width for a
foot-rest.

The carriage was seven feet square and seven feet high. Here a man and
wife or two friends can make themselves about as comfortable as if they
were at home in their own drawing-room. You exchange your shoes for
slippers, don your smoking jacket and if your companion does not object,
you can enjoy a fragrant Havana. To be sure this is against the rules of
the company and your indulgence in the weed would cost you forty
shillings if you were found out, but the distances are great and the
stops few on this “flying Scotchman,” so there is ample time to enjoy a
smoke undisturbed. No extra fare is demanded for this most luxurious
vehicle; it is simply ranked as a first-class carriage, but you had
better write to the station master and engage such a carriage a day or
two in advance of your intended journey, for not more than one of these
small private cars is by chance attached even to a “flying Scotchman.”
No extra charge is made for this engagement in advance.

The complaint years ago that passengers were locked in the cars can
seldom now be made. The custom is almost entirely abolished; it caused
so many accidents. The aim of each and every passenger on a British
railway is to secure a seat with his back to the engine. In this way he
avoids draughts of air: draughts from a bottle they never object to. In
fact both men and women drink often and deeply during a journey, but it
does not seem to affect them.

Time tables are not given away as with us: the charge is a penny, two
cents. You never hear “all aboard” at railway stations, but the much
pleasanter sounding words, “take your seats, please.”


LUGGAGE AND BAGGAGE.

You do occasionally get a paper check or receipt for baggage on a
continental railway, but in England seldom or never. Still a piece of
baggage is seldom lost on an English railway. It gets to its proper
destination at last, but it seems to be more by good luck than by good
management. Baggage, or “luggage,” as they term it, goes astray
sometimes, but on the other hand, the system for tracing and finding it
is excellent. They have a “lost luggage” department in the principal
stations.

They are very particular as to the quantity of baggage. Each passenger
is allowed so many pounds. At every station there is an official who
keeps a sharp eye on the porters who handle trunks, and at the slightest
suspicion of overweight the official will order a trunk on the scales
with which all stations are supplied.

There are strong racks in every car for light luggage, but a great deal
of what we should term heavy baggage finds its way on the racks and
under the seats. Englishmen travel with an extraordinary quantity of
impedimenta. They carry large satchels, also portmanteaus resembling a
good-sized trunk--all because no checks are given. Everybody wants to
keep his luggage in hand or in sight.

There is a prominent sign posted in some of the large stations to this
effect: “Any porter who is discovered accepting a fee will be instantly
dismissed.” And yet you can’t get your trunk moved an inch without
dropping a few coppers into a porter’s hand. The fee system prevails
everywhere, from the station master who furnishes information to the
uniformed porter who whistles for a “four-wheeler” or hansom. In many
cases the door of the toilet room is only unlocked by dropping a penny
in a slot. But this is a better arrangement than exists at stations on
the continent, where an old woman stands guard, whom you must fee before
you are allowed to leave.


A ROYAL RAILWAY TRIP.

When the Queen of England makes a railway journey it is an event of no
ordinary importance. With her it is not, as with the President of the
United States for example, so simple a matter as climbing up the steps
of a Pullman or getting into a Pennsylvania Florida special or Chicago
limited, and proceeding without fuss. No, when Queen Victoria is about
to travel preparations are made long beforehand and all the regular
arrangements of the road are subservient to the accommodation of the
royal train.

When Her Majesty journeyed by the Caledonian Railway from Carlisle to
Aberdeen, en route to Gosport and Ballater, many days previous there was
issued the table of instructions for working the trains over the line
on that day. They were intended for the use of the company’s employees
only, who were forbidden to make known their contents. A pilot engine
was sent over the road twenty minutes before the royal train, in charge
of the foreman of the locomotive department. This engine maintained
throughout the journey the uniform interval of twenty minutes. No other
train, engine or vehicle, except passenger trains, was permitted to
travel on the other track between the passing of the pilot and the royal
train, and even passenger trains had to slow down to ten miles per hour.

One of the orders issued was this: “Drivers of such trains as are
standing on sidings or adjoining lines, waiting for the passing of the
royal train, must prevent their engines from emitting smoke or making a
noise by blowing off steam when the royal train is passing.”

Brakesmen were enjoined to see that nothing projected from their trains.
Each foreman plate-layer, or “section-boss,” as we would say, after
examining his length of line, stationed himself at the south end and an
assistant at the north; after the pilot had passed they walked till they
met, seeing that all was right. The stations were kept clear and the
public admitted at one station only, the last. Even here, cheering or
other demonstration was forbidden, “the object being that Her Majesty
should be perfectly undisturbed during the journey.” These instructions,
signed by James Thompson, general manager, and Irvine Kempt, general
superintendent, were obeyed in their minutest detail.

It must not be supposed that the company has to pocket the loss when the
Queen travels. The royal lady not only does not travel on “passes,” but
she pays all expenses incurred. A copy of the instructions printed in
gold are presented to the Queen and she cannot fail to be gratified by
the care and thought exhibited by the company.

The entire mileage of the Caledonian Railway is one thousand miles; the
main line from Carlisle to Aberdeen, over which the queen travelled, is
about two hundred and forty miles. It traverses a beautiful country.
From this great trunk run out branches and connections by steamer in all
directions--reaching to all big towns of the country, most of the small
ones, and all the districts famed in Scottish song or history, the
highlands, the lochs, the seaboard, etc. The road is a model road and
one of the best appointed in Great Britain. The tourist, the student and
the sportsman are offered strong inducements to avail themselves of the
tours arranged by the Caledonian company.


THE NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY.

One of the largest English railway systems is that of the London &
Northwestern. The territory covered by this railway extends from London
in the south to Carlisle in the north, and from Cambridge in the east to
Holyhead in the west--an area of three hundred miles in breadth. The
main office of the government is in London, but the capital, so to
speak, is Crewe, a town of thirty-five thousand inhabitants consisting
entirely of the employees of the railway and their families. The total
number in the railway’s service does not fall far short of sixty
thousand. The annual budget amounts to ten million pounds, while the
funded debt has reached a total of one hundred million pounds sterling.

The London and Northwestern shops at Crewe have to keep in repair a
stock of engines that is worth five million pounds sterling, and while
they do not indeed put a girdle round the earth every forty minutes,
they do literally every four hours, and in doing so the engines consume
a million tons of coal per annum. On an average, it is reckoned that
every five days an old engine is withdrawn and replaced by a new one.

Of late years the company has been experimenting on an extensive scale
with a system of metallic permanent way. Steel “keys” fasten the rails
into steel “chairs,” which in their turn are riveted down to steel
sleepers. About thirty miles of line has been laid on this system, with
about sixty thousand sleepers. So far the results are understood to be
satisfactory. The question involved in the conflict between steel and
wooden sleepers is gigantic. A rough calculation shows that to replace
the wooden sleepers on existing lines in Great Britain only would
require about four million tons of steel, without reckoning the weight
of the chairs and keys. And great Britain has only one-fifteenth of the
railway mileage of the world.

In some ways the goods traffic arrangements of the road at Liverpool are
even more remarkable than those in London. At Liverpool the Northwestern
has six goods stations, two of them reached by tunnels each a mile and a
quarter in length, constructed for their use alone. One of these
stations, Edgehill, is called a goods “yard,” but this yard contains
fifty-seven and a half miles of land, covers two hundred acres of
ground, and has cost about two million pounds sterling--nearly ten
millions of dollars.

The conductors on the New York street cars, like the New York policemen,
are sullen and sour; they seem ill-tempered, if not ill-natured. You
seldom or never see a smile on their lips, and as for giving utterance
to the common and easy phrase, “thank you,” when they receive a fare,
they wouldn’t be guilty of such a piece of politeness; not they.

It is different in England, on the Continent, everywhere in Europe.
Whether on a steam road, a steamboat, a tram or an omnibus, no officer
nor conductor would think of receiving a fare without thanking a
passenger audibly, and even when an officer opens the door or looks into
the window of a carriage for the purpose of examining tickets, you will
not hear the short, sharp, curt demand, “tickets,” as in the States, but
“all tickets, please,” in a pleasant and agreeable tone.

[Illustration]




[Illustration] AN HOUR WITH SPURGEON.


LONDON, October 1, 1890.

The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon still draws crowds to his tabernacle, which is
situated in a part of London called Newington Butts. It is by no means a
fashionable district, being in the Southeast end of the city. You tell
any “cabby” to drive you to Spurgeon’s church and he will put you down
at the door. But it is only a twenty minutes’ ride on a ’bus from
Charing Cross; fare four cents.

That Mr. Spurgeon attracts great throngs of hearers, every one knows,
but here are a few figures: His tabernacle accommodates between six and
seven thousand people, and on Sunday morning, September 28, when the
writer was present, five thousand four hundred people listened to him.
This was in September, be it remembered, when everybody is out of town
and “London is empty.”

The regular members and attendants ascend the stone steps and enter the
church through the front door; strangers and visitors get in by a side
entrance, through an alleyway, and as they pass in, a tiny paper
envelope is handed to each person. You drop into the envelope as much or
as little coin as you please (for no human eye is watching you) and this
envelope you in turn drop into an open box on your left, this method
probably taking the place of a collection, which would be so difficult
to manage where five or six thousand people have to be approached.

People sometimes ask what is the secret of this preacher’s distinguished
success? The foundation of his success is his earnestness and evident
sincerity.

He impresses his hearers with the belief that he believes what he is
preaching. He does not seem to be making a profession or business of
religion. There is nothing perfunctory in his manner; he rejoices in his
calling.

Then again Spurgeon is a good and effective speaker. He talks in a slow,
deliberate way, his enunciation being clear and his pronunciation
perfect. Each word is distinct and clean cut. His accent is
cosmopolitan; there is nothing local in it. Except for the pronunciation
of a few words, such for instance, as the word “after,” to which Mr.
Spurgeon gives the broad sound heard in England, you might be puzzled to
know whether the great divine was born “within the sound of Bow Bells”
or graduated from Columbia College.

His language hypercritical people might not call choice, but I beg to
differ with them; it is exceedingly choice, being directly to the point,
and like the man himself, simple and strong. There is no searching for
fine phrases and well-rounded periods. His ideas flow freely and they
quickly find expression: there is no effect aimed at. The man trusts to
the matter of his discourse, never troubling himself about his manner.

His gesticulations are few, natural and not at all dramatic. He will
raise his right hand or occasionally take a step towards a small table
hard by: nothing more. His voice is not musical, nor is it especially
pleasing to a stranger’s ear; but it is firm, clear and penetrating,
possessing those qualities most demanded in a public speaker.

On the morning of which I write Mr. Spurgeon took his text from Psalm
63, 7th verse, and held his hearers spell-bound for about forty minutes
by his brilliant illustrations, his convincing arguments and his
earnestness, for above and beyond all he is deeply in earnest. His
prayer is beautiful; he touches a responsive chord in every heart in his
fervent appeals to God for mercy and help.

Before the sermon there was singing of psalms and hymns. Mr. Spurgeon
gave out hymn No. 916, “Going to Worship.” It was congregational
singing, without instrumental music, one man near the pulpit acting as a
sort of leader. The singing was too slow for the preacher. After the
second verse he called aloud to the congregation to sing faster, himself
beating time with his right hand. Psalm 34 was next given out, but when
the first verse had been sung Mr. Spurgeon stopped the singing abruptly
and said in a tone which was meant to be commanding: “I must beg that if
you sing at all, you sing faster: there’s more heart in it if you sing
quicker. Praise God as if you meant it; put your soul in the words: it
will be more welcome if there’s spirit in it.”

Mr. Spurgeon’s deacons, about twelve in all, are seated on two rows of
seats behind him, he and they occupying a high platform and prominent
place--probably fifteen feet above the floor of the church, where all
can get a good view of the man’s features--all except the deacons.

The great preacher is now in his fifty-sixth year. Like his character
and his language, physically he looks strong and rugged, but his health
is not good.

Mr. Spurgeon belongs to a family of gospel ministers. His grandfather
was an English divine; his father, Rev. James Archer Spurgeon, still
living, now occupies, or did occupy until very recently, a pulpit in
London; and he has two sons who follow his profession--one at Greenwich,
near London, and one at Auckland, New Zealand.

       *       *       *       *       *

P. S.--Mr. Spurgeon died at Mentone, France, on Sunday, January 21,
1892, deeply regretted by all who had ever heard him or heard of him.

[Illustration]




THE CRYPT OF ST. PAUL’S.


All Americans who go to London visit Westminster Abbey, and some of them
make more than one visit. There is a rare charm about the grand old
pile. I never go to London without visiting the Abbey, and this was also
the custom of the late Aaron J. Vanderpoel, with whom I had the honor of
crossing once or twice. On one voyage westward, a fellow passenger was
James R. Cuming, of the famous law firm of Vanderpoel, Cuming and
Goodwin. Mr. Cuming and I were fellow students in the old law firm of
Brown, Hall and Vanderpoel in the days of District Attorney Blunt,
never-mind-how-many years ago. Mr. Cuming’s hair is now tinged with
gray, but he has the same genial, agreeable qualities, and he is just as
modest, eminent and successful lawyer though he now is, as he was when
he and I were boys together in the Broadway Bank building on the corner
of Broadway and Park place. But none of this personal matter has aught
to do with the subject in hand.

I was about to say that while all Americans go to Westminster Abbey to
see the monuments and other interesting things, all of them do not know
that two of England’s greatest men, their most renowned heroes of modern
times, are buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral--Lord Nelson and the Duke of
Wellington.

One reason why American and other tourists who visit St. Paul’s seldom
see the tombs of these great men is because they do not know that the
cathedral contains them. The tombs are in the crypt, and unless you
knock on the great iron gates leading to the crypt and pay a sixpence,
you cannot obtain admission.

But besides the tombs of these two celebrities, a number of other
eminent Englishmen lie buried in the cathedral. Among the monuments
(over their tombs) may be read the names of General Gordon, Admiral
Napier, Sir Christopher Wren, the architect, and the famous artists, Sir
Joshua Reynolds and J. W. M. Turner--in fact, as there is a Poet’s
corner in Westminster Abbey, so there is a Painter’s Corner in St.
Paul’s Cathedral.

Nelson’s remains are covered by a great sarcophagus of black marble,
which was intended for the tomb of Cardinal Wolsey. The Duke of
Wellington is buried in a sarcophagus of porphyry, of which the upper
part, forming the lid, alone weighs seventeen tons.

A visit to St. Paul’s discovers many other interesting things, and it is
the opinion of the writer that it is one of the three grandest public
buildings of modern times, the other two being the Capitol in Washington
and the Palais de Justice in Brussels.

The cathedral itself has an interesting history. The first St. Paul’s
Cathedral was built by Ethelbert of Kent, in the year 610. It is said to
have been destroyed by fire in 961, rebuilt and again destroyed by fire
in 1086, rebuilt again and for the third time destroyed by fire in 1666.
The present structure was built by Sir Christopher Wren and took
thirty-five years to complete, being finished in 1710, at a cost of
something like £747,954 sterling--nearly four millions of dollars. It
covers more than two acres of ground. The height from the pavement to
the top of the cross is three hundred and sixty-four feet three inches.
You get a good view of the building from the Thames. The best view of
the building, however, is from the top of an omnibus going east down
Fleet street, but this view is now somewhat marred or obstructed by the
railway arch which crosses Ludgate Circus.

A few figures about the bell and the clock may not be without interest.
The former, called Great Paul, weighs sixteen tons, fourteen
hundredweight, two quarters, nineteen pounds; height, eight feet ten
inches; diameter at base, nine feet six and a half inches; thickness
where the clapper strikes, eighteen and three-quarter inches. The
clapper is seven feet nine inches long and weighs four hundredweight.
The note is E flat. The clock has two faces, each nearly twenty feet in
diameter. The minute hand is nine feet eight inches long and weighs
seventy-five pounds; the hour hand is five feet nine inches long and
weighs forty-four pounds. The hour figures are two feet, two and a half
inches long. The pendulum is sixteen feet long and to it is attached a
weight of one hundred and eight pounds. It beats once in two seconds.

[Illustration]




THE QUEEN’S MEWS.


Windsor, the royal residence, twenty-five miles from London, attracts of
course many American visitors, its features of interest including,
besides the castle and park, the celebrated stables. But as for stables,
the Queen’s Mews, near the centre of London, offer a much more brilliant
show. Admission is gained with little difficulty or formality--by
Americans. You simply call at the American Legation in Victoria street,
two or three blocks (as we’d say in New York), from the Victoria railway
station--a “penny ’bus” from Charing Cross passes the door. It is not
necessary to ask for Minister Lincoln; your card sent to Mr. White, the
secretary of the legation, or, in his absence, to Mr. McCormick, the
courteous assistant secretary, will secure you in return the necessary
pasteboard for yourself and party to visit the Queen’s Mews in
Buckingham Palace road--a very short walk from the legation and a
stone’s throw, so to speak, from Victoria station.

The stables cover a few acres of ground. They contain the royal harness,
the carriage of state and other carriages, and have stalls for about one
hundred horses, in the care of all of which about thirty or forty men
are employed, those longest in the service being privileged to live on
the premises. There is nothing very remarkable about the horses’
quarters; the stalls are not more luxurious nor are they kept in better
condition than many private gentlemen’s stables in New York and Newport,
nor are the horses particularly worthy of note, excepting the ten large
black stallions and eight cream-colored stallions, used in drawing the
state carriage on state occasions, as, for instance, when the Queen
opens parliament. The tails of these stallions, the blacks and
cream-colored, all reach to and almost sweep the ground, with the
exception of one big black animal, whose brevity of appendage is made up
on state occasions by the addition of a false tail.

The harness for ordinary use is of black leather with elaborate bright
brass trimmings, that for state occasions is also of black leather, the
crowns and coats-of-arms, in solid metal, being heavily and richly
gilded. The harness is kept in perfect condition, and kept on show,
protected by glass doors and windows. You may see and admire the royal
reins, but they are not to be handled by common fingers.

Among the carriages there is one kept for its past history and glory,
not for present use--a gaudy, gilded, theatrical-looking vehicle, the
weight of which is four tons, the great, heavily-tired wheels of which
measure six feet in diameter, the whole being of the respectable age of
one hundred and thirty years. The most beautiful feature of this curious
relic of by-gone days is the eight pictures set in as many panels,
painted by Cipriani, an Italian artist famous in his day.

But the carriages for Her Majesty’s ordinary use and the carriage which
is reserved for state occasions, which is drawn by the eight cream
horses, are models of comfort, luxury and beauty. They are upholstered
with dark blue cloth, the only interior ornaments being of worsted
fringe matching the cloth in color. The wheels and body are dark blue,
the panels being painted in a lighter shade, the centre of each door
panel relieved by the royal crest of arms painted in rich colors, but
not larger in size than a silver dollar. The carriages are hung on C
springs and yield from any point to the slightest touch.

I ventured the remark to one of the footmen in charge that when Her
Majesty places her foot on the step her weight must make quite a
depression of the springs. “Does it,” said the royal flunky; “you should
stand ’ere when the Duchess of Teck gets in. The Queen’s cousin is a
werry heavy woman, God bless her. If you was to see her get in you
_would_ see a depression, or whatever you call it.”

You will make a mistake if on leaving the Mews you do not drop a
shilling into the ready palm of both coachman and footman.

[Illustration]




A QUESTION OF HATS.


Americans treat women better both at home and abroad than they are
treated elsewhere, and they certainly show the sex more deference and
respect in public and private than women are accustomed to receive in
many older countries.

An American seldom addresses one of the gentler sex with his head
covered, unless it is in the open air; and while this is also the custom
in some European countries--in France and Switzerland, for instance--it
is not nearly so common in Germany or Great Britain.

Englishmen with whom I have talked do not seem to notice such things,
but I know from long and careful observation, that men in London sit
with their heads covered during the whole of a theatrical performance.
They occupy seats in “the pit,” to be sure, but “the pit” in London is
compared by some with the back rows of the parquette in American
theatres.

Should this meet the eye of a barrister, he might charge me with being
too general in my remarks. If he demands, in his “answer” to this
“complaint,” a “bill of particulars,” I will mention, among places where
I saw men sit covered during the whole evening, the Savoy Theatre, when
“The Gondoliers” was played, and the Shaftesbury Theatre, where Willard
performed in “Judah” in September, 1890.

At a Covent Garden concert in the same year, I saw four or five hundred
persons on the floor (men and women) and not more than six men carried
their hats in their hands. I remember remarking at the time that
one-third of the number of hats were of silk plush (“top hats”),
one-third were derbys of a brownish hue, the other third were mixed--all
sorts.

Even in the dress circle at a Covent Garden concert some men wear their
hats the whole evening--white hats, derbys, and heavy silk hats--and
this in warm weather, too. It no doubt is the custom; at any rate such
was the case on a certain “American night” (summer of 1890) when
American airs were played, Mrs. Alice Shaw, the beautiful whistler,
being the special attraction among the solo performers.

And when men at London theatres do remove their hats, they seem to do it
reluctantly. They will enter a theatre and enter a box, remove their
overcoat and gloves, take out opera glass, and spread the play bill
before them, and then, as a last thought, if they think about it at all,
the hat will be slowly removed; they seem to be unwilling to part with
it. How different in American theatres, where every man quickly doffs
his hat the moment he enters the door of the auditorium. It is all the
more noticeable in London theatres because the women are obliged to
remove their hats before entering, and excepting at the Lyceum, the
Savoy, and possibly one or two other houses, they are obliged to pay for
their care.

At third and second-class London restaurants, men wear their hats as do
people of the same class elsewhere, but some men in England not only
carry their hats into the dining-room of a first-class hotel, but carry
them on their heads until they take their seats; the presence of women
makes no difference.

The editor of the New York _Press_ says: “There is no surer test of a
nation’s sense of courtesy than its treatment of women. Judged by this
standard, the people of the United States stand above those of any other
nation on the face of the globe.”




LONDON ODDITIES.


It serves the purpose of correspondents as well as of the postal
authorities to add the postal district initials in addressing letters to
London--as for instance, C., indicating central, or S. W., Southwest.
There are eight of these districts, and the necessity for adding the
initials will be seen when one learns that in London there are no less
than thirty-five King streets, thirty Queen streets, eighteen York
streets, a Victoria Park in the extreme east, one Queen Victoria street,
a Victoria railway station in the Southwestern district, a Hotel
Victoria in the western central and a Victoria Hotel in quite another
district.

The postal system in London is as near perfection as it is possible to
make it. Few letters go astray, and the delivery is prompt, there being
from six to twelve deliveries daily; but by neglecting to add the
initial letter of the district a letter may be delayed several hours.
There are three thousand offices and pillar boxes in London, but in
addressing letters take care and take into consideration that there are
nearly six millions of people in London, that the streets and squares
cover eight thousand acres, and within a radius of fifteen miles of
Charing Cross seven hundred square miles are covered. Correspondence
between England and the United States also shows wonderful increase. Ten
years ago the number of letters which annually passed between the two
countries was eight millions; at present the number is twenty-four
millions. Reduction of postage rates has of course had something to do
with this great increase and it will bear further reduction.

I happened to be near Euston station and wanted to go to my hotel in
Northumberland avenue. I stepped into a hansom, and not wishing to be
taken for a stranger I simply said “Victoria Hotel.” In five minutes Mr.
Cabbie pulled up in front of what seemed to be a gin palace, bearing the
sign plain enough, “Victoria Hotel.” “I want the hotel in Northumberland
avenue,” I said to the driver. “Then why didn’t you say Hotel Victoria,”
was the sharp response, and cabbie charged me a fare and a half to
emphasize the distinction.

The growth of London is something marvelous. More than ten thousand
houses annually, or, it may be roughly stated, one thousand houses every
month, are added to London. In August of 1889, 754,464 houses were
supplied with water by the water companies, or 11,113 below the number
in the same month of 1890. In September, 1890, the companies had to
supply 10,976 houses more than in September of 1889. In August of that
year 765,577 houses were supplied with water, and in September, 1891,
that number had increased to 766,797.

The London police are a pleasant, polite set of men, and if they do not
refuse the price of a pint of beer for a slight service, neither will
they refuse to answer any question, respectfully and satisfactorily. The
contrast is very striking between these good-tempered, obliging
officers, and the sullen, saucy, sour-visaged, tobacco-chewing New York
policeman who is just as ready to answer with his club, which he carries
exposed, as he is with his uncivil tongue. London policemen are paid
from six to seven and a half dollars per week: New York policemen from
sixteen to twenty-four dollars weekly. A London police sergeant gets
only ten dollars a week.

SIXPENCE FOR A PLAY BILL.--At the Prince of Wales Theatre and at the
Shaftesbury you are charged sixpence for a bill of the play, and at the
majority of London theatres you pay for a programme. The exceptions are
Irving’s Lyceum and D’Oyly Carte’s Savoy, where no employee is allowed
to accept a fee of any kind--not if the manager knows it. That does not
say, however, that a “tip” for a programme is unexpected, even at the
two houses named.

CIVILITY AND SERVILITY.--There’s a difference between civility and
servility. You are pleased to have an omnibus conductor audibly “thank
you” when you hand him your fare, but in the London shops a saleswoman
will do the same thing even when you make no purchase. At the pleasant
Nayland Rock Hotel in Margate, on the south coast of England, a waiter
will thank you for allowing him to put a clean plate before you, or when
he hands you a glass of water--if you can get such a thing as water at
your meals in an English hotel. It is not obtainable without a little
trouble; everybody drinks wine.

SOOT, SOOT, EVERYWHERE.--Owing to the use of soft coal in London, white
buildings are soon changed into black ones, partially. This change,
especially where one side of a set of Corinthian columns, for instance,
remains the original color, and the other side has gradually turned very
dark, gives some of the churches and public buildings a picturesque and
pleasing appearance. Yellow brick is very largely used, but it soon
changes color. If you place a tumbler of water outside your window at
night with the idea of keeping it cool, for you rarely see a piece of
ice, you will find a number of tiny globules of soot floating on the
surface of the water in the morning. And it is exceedingly difficult in
London to make weather prognostications, the sun being usually hidden or
half-hidden by London smoke, if not by fog.

EXCHANGING COMPLIMENTS.--Englishmen say “as drunk as a Scotchman,” and
Scotchmen have a saying “as durr as an Englishman.” “Durr” implies
something more than quiet: it means surly, sullen. It cannot be denied
that English tourists are unusually quiet: they seldom speak without
having been formally introduced. That reminds me that two or three years
ago I was traveling on the Midland road from London to Liverpool, and I
happened to make some casual remark to a fellow traveler who was a
stranger to me. The gentleman replied very briefly but courteously, and
then added: “Beg pardon, you hail from the other side, do you not?”
“Yes, but why do you ask?” “If I didn’t detect it in your accent,” said
my neighbor, “I should know it because you addressed me. I have been
traveling between London and Liverpool now for many years, and I am
never spoken to but by an American, and I rather like it.”

There are no “cross-walks,” as we call them, in the cities of Great
Britain; none are needed. Nor does anybody cross the street at right
angles, as we do in New York. Everybody crosses diagonally, from corner
to corner, or crosses in the middle of the block. The road-ways are so
smooth and well paved that all parts are alike, and it is never
necessary to pick your way. In New York, besides exercising great
vigilance to prevent being knocked down and run over by vehicles, you
must always keep one eye on the ground while crossing. You may be upset
by a car track, or you may step between two stone blocks that are a foot
apart, more or less.

AS TO OYSTERS.--English oysters still retain their flavor, a great deal
of flavor; in fact they have entirely too much--that is to say, too much
for anybody whose palate is not accustomed to the peculiar taste. You
can get oysters as low as a shilling a dozen, but choice “Whitstables,”
that have a strong, coppery flavor, come as high as four shillings a
dozen. For the uneducated American palate, Chesapeake oysters, or the
Great South Bay blue points are good enough.

SERVANTS’ WAGES.--Servant girls’ wages in England are not nearly so high
as they are in the United States. Even hotel chambermaids, who are paid
better than family servants, only receive fourteen pounds sterling a
year--about ninety dollars, but each one is allowed a fortnight’s
holiday (with pay) at the end of the summer. And the “tips” they receive
from the guests are well worth consideration.

There are differences between the habits of London and New York women
and here is one of the minor points: New York women go “shopping,” that
is to say they go into one store after another to examine the goods, as
a diversion or pastime; English women never enter a shop without the
intention to purchase; they make a business and not a pastime of
replenishing their wardrobe. To go on a shopping tour American women
often wear fine gowns and rich jewelry; English women on the contrary,
dress very plainly when engaged in their business of purchasing. They
reserve their fine clothes for the opera or for receptions, wearing no
extra finery even for ordinary visiting. They are not seen parading the
streets in silks and satins, and that is why some American writers who
do not observe closely say that “English women in the street dress in
dowdy style.”

NO “FORELADIES” IN LONDON.--At the great dry-goods house and outfitting
establishment of Debenham & Freebody, in Wigmore street, not far from
the Langham Hotel, all the saleswomen are expected, nay, are obliged to
dress in black. They number two hundred, but not a “saleslady” nor a
“forelady” among them. They make derision of these terms, which are so
commonly heard in New York. The firm also employs six or seven hundred
young men. All the unmarried employees live on the premises, and this
plan is found to operate satisfactorily to all concerned. The young men
wear black coat, waistcoat and necktie. Many years ago salesmen in
London dry-goods houses were not allowed to wear a moustache, but there
is more liberty now and they can adorn their faces as fancy dictates.

You don’t hear the words, corsets, dresses nor pounds, in London shops
of the first class, such as Kate Reily’s, Debenham & Freebody’s or
Redfern’s. They have gone back to the old-fashioned term--stays, gowns
and guineas. English merchants favor the last term because a guinea is
worth a shilling more than a pound.

CUSTOMS IN ART GALLERIES ABROAD AND AT HOME.--The English National
Gallery, in Trafalgar square, London, like our Metropolitan Museum of
Art and like nearly all galleries in different parts of the world, is
only open free on certain days of the week, while the great French
collection at the Louvre, in Paris (probably the largest and most
valuable collection of pictures under one roof) is always free, and may
be visited without application to any circumlocution office. The Louvre
is open six days of every week in the year; only on Mondays are the
public not admitted, the officers reserving Monday for repairs and
cleaning. In nearly all of the public galleries of Europe, as in the
Corcoran gallery in Washington, you are obliged to leave your umbrella
or walking stick in charge of an official at the door and for the care
of such an article a fee is charged in some places; at the Louvre you
may carry into the galleries as many umbrellas and bundles as you
please. This is not always an advantage: for my part I am only too glad
to be relieved of my umbrella and overcoat on such occasions. It seems
strange that men while viewing pictures in the foreign galleries should
persist in wearing their hats--it seems strange to a New Yorker; the
custom being so different at our Academy of Design.




POVERTY AND CHARITY IN ENGLAND.


The drinking habit among men and among women and girls still remains the
curse of Great Britain, and its companion, poverty, is everywhere. But
if the poverty is striking and awful to behold, its next-door neighbor,
charity, God be praised, aims to keep pace with it. Hospitals and other
philanthropic institutions supported by voluntary contributions, are to
be seen almost wherever the eye turns in the United Kingdom.

The patriotic and other public funds, to meet special emergencies at
home and abroad, may well challenge the world’s admiration, not only for
the princely amounts subscribed, but also for the hearty and expeditious
way in which the funds are raised. The charitable institutions of the
city of London number upwards of one thousand, and simply of asylums for
the aged (colleges, hospitals and almshouses), there are one hundred and
twenty distinct institutions.

But to return to the drinking habit, which presents itself before you
constantly: I was riding up to London from Margate with a hotel-keeper,
at whose house, on the edge of the surf, I had been staying for a week,
and I remarked that the drinking water at Margate was of good quality.
“Is it?” said Mr. Knaggs, for this is the name of the agreeable
gentleman who presided for three years over the destinies of the Nayland
Rock Hotel. “Is it?” said mine host. “Well, you know more about it than
I do, for I’ve never tasted it.”

On Sunday, while at dinner at Philp’s Cockburn Hotel, Edinburgh, just
before dessert was served, a small box was passed around the table by a
waiter and into it people were dropping sixpences, shillings and pieces
of higher denomination. At once it occurred to me, here’s another
overcharge or extra I had not counted on, and I began inwardly to rebel.
“What’s this for?” I blurted out in a rather injured tone. “Collection
for the Orphan School, sir,” and I gladly added my mite. Afterwards I
saw money boxes in hotels and restaurants in other parts of Scotland and
in England labelled, for example, “For Charing Cross Hospital; funds
urgently needed,” etc. Little boys and young women go about the busy and
better parts of London on Sundays with boxes in their hands, begging you
to “drop a penny in” for this charity or that--and you find it very
hard, indeed, in London to keep any coppers in your pocket, so strong
are the appeals. On hospital days the number of hospital boxes is
largely increased temporarily. At this time sheets are spread in
churchyards, into which people throw their spare change liberally.

“The People’s Palace,” which was opened by the Queen in jubilee year, is
a noble illustration of the charitable English heart. The “People’s
Palace” is situated in one of the poorer quarters of London, and, as
everybody knows, is the realization of an ideal conception of Walter
Besant in his novel, “All Sorts and Conditions of Men.” The palace
includes a well-stocked library; a reading-room, supplied with papers
from all parts of the world; a large swimming bath and a hall for
musical and literary entertainments. In the basement of one of the main
buildings boys are taught trades by which they may earn their living.
That the recipients of all this good may not feel that they are objects
of cold charity, a slight charge per month is made for those who use the
reading-room, library, swimming bath, etc., and there is a nominal
charge, about four cents each person, for admission to the concerts and
lectures, which are given gratuitously by musicians and lecturers of
celebrity.

I visited that part of the Whitechapel neighborhood which “Jack the
Ripper” made infamous as the scene of his murders. It was a vile place
three years ago, but the scene has been changed as if by a fairy hand.
The Baroness Rothschild opened wide her heart and purse and erected
here, for the poor of this unfortunate quarter, blocks of modern model
tenements. These she lets at very low rents, asking only three per cent.
return for her investment. In connection with the tenements the noble
woman has built a well-appointed “Club and Library,” with billiard-room,
etc., for the amusement of her tenants. These premises are in charge of
a custodian and his wife, who are paid for their services by the
Baroness; and for the use of the “Club and Library” a merely nominal
charge is made to any of the tenants who avail themselves of the
privilege. It is not sectarian. In England they believe in “Faith, Hope
and Charity,” and of these three that “the greatest is Charity.”

[Illustration]




WHERE IS CHARING CROSS?


You hear a great deal about Charing Cross in London, but you may look in
vain for a street sign bearing that name. Very few people in London know
exactly where it is, nor does even the policeman on the “beat” know.
Strange to say, neither the Charing Cross Hospital, the Charing Cross
Station, nor the Charing Cross Hotel is in Charing Cross. Much as it is
talked about, it is a very short street, extending easterly only from
Cockspur street, then southerly, past the equestrian statue of Charles
I. to Scotland Yard or Whitehall. Low’s Exchange is in Charing Cross,
and within two or three hundred feet of that spot (No. 57), is the very
centre of the city of London. From this spot cab fares are reckoned.
Start from here and you can ride anywhere, within a radius of two miles,
for one shilling. Low’s Exchange, by the way, is a very popular
rendezvous in London for Americans. It is where they “most congregate,”
and it offers many conveniences for travellers.

If you are traveling on the other side make this your headquarters.
Telegrams, letters, and even printed matter are forwarded to you with
the utmost promptness. A special work of the house is the securing of
state rooms on board steamers. It saves you much worry and bother, and
the service of this agency costs you nothing, Mr. Low getting his pay
from the steamship companies. Edwin H. Low served his apprenticeship, as
it were, to this business, in the office of the National Steamship
Company in New York, many years ago, and since then he has had large
experience. The headquarters of the concern are at 947 Broadway, and Mr.
Low may be seen sometimes at his New York house, at other times in
London, but there is a very capable man who acts as general manager for
Mr. Low in Charing Cross--Mr. George Glanvill, who served Mr. Gillig for
many years at the American Exchange, 449 Strand. By all means register
at Low’s.




MARGATE,

AN ENGLISH WATERING PLACE.


I was ill in London, at the Windsor Hotel in the summer of 1890, and as
my friend Dr. Walter M. Fleming of New York happened to be in London at
the time, at the Savoy Hotel, I sent for him. The fact is that I had
been receiving too much “attention” from my friends--dinners, drives,
concerts, theatres, suppers, etc., all of which resulted in physical and
nervous exhaustion.

Dr. Fleming’s prescription was simple--“rest and a change of air,” but
as this was Dr. Fleming’s first visit to England, I began to question my
friends and others as to the best pharmacy at which to have the
prescription filled. The proprietor of the Windsor Hotel, Mr. J. R.
Cleave, said “Margate;” so, too, said the intelligent manager of the
house, Mr. Mann. An old and trusted friend wrote me, “Don’t go to
Margate, go to Brighton or to Hastings.” Thus opinions differed. I knew
all about Brighton and wanted to see a place new to me. I was much
inclined to go to Hastings, but a consensus of opinion prevailed in
favor of Margate.

“There’s a beautiful air at Margate,” is the response of everyone in
England to whom you speak of that place, from the boys at Low’s exchange
in Charing Cross to Mr. Richard Whiteing, editor of the London Daily
News. This remark was also made to me by Major Arthur Griffiths, an
English author and _litterateur_, who is known and esteemed on both
sides of the Atlantic. So to Margate I went.

Margate is on the south coast of England, seventy-five miles from
London, whence it is reached by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.
This is the road celebrated for the beautiful rural scenery that borders
it; it passes through the prettiest parts of Kent, “the garden of
England,” through Rochester and Canterbury, famous for their cathedrals,
and other places of historic and scenic interest. You may also reach
Margate by steamer from London Bridge. It is a pleasant sail on the
Thames of ninety-three miles.

Having arrived at Margate, you can make it the starting point for many a
delightful excursion. Boulogne on the French coast, for instance, across
the channel, is directly opposite Margate; steamer fare round trip, six
shillings--a dollar and a half.

Other pleasant excursions are made to Canterbury and to Ramsgate. To
these places run “pleasure vans” accommodating twenty persons and the
fare ranges from threepence to a shilling, according to the style of
vehicle. If you do not care to patronize the pleasure vans, you may hire
a victoria at two shillings per hour. Canterbury is the site of the
famous cathedral. At Ramsgate lived the Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses
Montefiore, for nearly the length of his long and useful life--one
hundred years.

Another interesting excursion is to the old-fashioned village of
Broadstairs, for many years the home of Charles Dickens. The house
Dickens occupied and which he called “Bleak House,” still stands on its
commanding site at the top of the cliffs directly overlooking the sea. A
description of Bleak House, with illustration, appeared in the Home
Journal in January, 1891, and has been widely copied in this country as
well as in England. Broadstairs is only a five-mile drive from Margate,
fare by victoria four shillings.

Few Americans who cross the ocean go to Margate, but they may spend a
couple of days or a couple of weeks there with advantage. Margate is a
town with a history. Its foremost historical feature is the Church of
St. John, built in 1050. It has seen the rise of Norman, Plantagenet and
Tudor dynasties and still stands, the oldest of England’s possessions.
In the time of Queen Anne, according to the chronicler, to be buried in
a sheet cost sixpence, and a shilling was the extravagant price of a
coffin, but the honor of being buried from St. John’s Church cost two
shillings more! Marriage banns were to be had at St. John’s for
three-and-six.

Modern Margate is one of England’s most popular watering-places. There
are many pleasant walks and some fine buildings. One of the pleasure
resorts is the ocean pier. Here, three times a week, a large band of
picked musicians perform a good programme giving a promenade concert
directly over the breakers.

It is the boast of the Britisher that his government is “parental;” it
not only assumes to take charge of the individual, but it does in many
particulars compel him to take care of himself. If, for instance, you
are caught boarding or leaving a moving train you are fined “forty
shillings” (ten dollars)--a favorite sum for a fine, by the way, is that
same forty shillings.

The pier at Margate would seem to be an exception to the rule of safety;
it cannot be called absolutely safe at night. The boat landing below is
reached by several flights of wide stairs, and the lowest flight is open
and unguarded, not only in daytime but also at night. In addition to
this the lower part of the pier is not lighted at all, and it would be
the easiest thing in the world on a dark night to walk off by accident
into the water. Why more accidents and loss of life do not occur is
surprising. Twopence admits you to the pier, and it is a popular
democratic resort.

At night the scene near the pier is a lively one. Street restaurateurs,
their barrows ablaze with flambeaux, line the highway and drive quite a
business selling plates of oysters, mussels, cockles and snails, which
are more or less tempting.

[Illustration: MARGATE.]

If you are fond of sea bathing by all means go to Margate. There is no
high-rolling surf, but if you are a swimmer you will be all the better
pleased. There are no ropes to lay hold of, none are necessary; you
bathe in perfect safety and comfort, and, as at all English resorts, you
bathe from a “machine.”

In America bathing facilities consist of long rows of commodious wooden
boxes placed on the beach at some distance from the surf. You purchase a
bathing ticket for twenty-five or fifty cents, the price depending on
whether you prefer a woolen to a cotton costume. You receive the suit
and the key of your box. Then you put your valuables in an envelope
sealed by yourself and hand them to the custodian, who places them in a
separate box in an enormous safe, returning you a check tied to a rubber
band, which latter you pass over your head and wear while bathing. You
proceed to your “house,” as we call it, disrobe and don your scant suit,
lock your door and walk out and down to the edge of the water, where, as
fancy dictates, you loll around on the beach, talking to your friends,
or you plunge immediately into the breakers only to come out, dry
yourself in the sun, cut up capers on the sand, chat or smoke, repeating
the process _ad libitum_. Of course men and women bathe together.

Not so in England. There you bathe from “machines,” small wooden houses,
five feet square by ten feet high, mounted on four wheels. They have
entrances back and front, each approached by a low flight of steps. You
enter by one door in street costume, and having disrobed and donned your
bathing garments, you give the signal, a horse is attached to the
“machine” which is drawn a short distance into the water. You step down
and out, disport yourself in the water as long as you please and reënter
your box, to emerge therefrom once more in everyday habiliments. No
lolling about the beach, no unseemly display of person; all is
conducted in a proper, staid and exemplary manner--on the beach.

And in sooth, why should you walk around and smoke and chat with your
friends on this occasion, in a costume, or lack of costume, which if
worn at other times or places would land you in jail for exposure of
person? This with reference to the American custom or costume.

In England it is worse in some respects, for while the women dress as
they do here, the men bathe in a nude state, so to speak. They wear
small trunks or loin cloths only, and men and women bathe together
indiscriminately. Notices are posted in prominent places near the beach,
boldly printed and bearing the English coat of arms, to the effect that
in the water men and women must remain separate, and further that you
will be fined forty shillings (of course forty shillings) if you are
found nearer to a female than one hundred yards; but it is a dead letter
law, and is entirely disregarded. I am not the most prudish man in the
world, but I confess to having been shocked. Trunks did not suit me; I
preferred and obtained a bathing costume which is to be had upon special
application.

The beach is hard and smooth, broad and gently sloping. The bluff at
Long Branch is not to be mentioned, scarcely, with the bold, beautiful
white chalk cliffs that rise abruptly and picturesquely from the beach
at Margate to a height of seventy-five feet. Along this bluff are miles
of grassy, serpentine walks, gardens prettily laid out, dotted with
summer houses and bounded by hedges and clover fields--a beautiful,
natural landscape, artificially enhanced.

The favorite bathing place on the beach is managed by Charlotte Pettman.
It is reached by a “coast guard” cutting in the cliff, an inclined
passageway sloping from the road to the beach under the bridge. It is a
sort of artificial cañon. Bathers are charged sixpence each, “six baths
for two-and-six, twelve for four-and-six.”

Mrs. Pettman advertises her baths by a circular which contains the
following touching verse, no doubt assisting trade materially.

    “I pitied the dove, for my bosom was tender,
     I pitied the sigh that she gave to the wind;
     But I ne’er shall forget the superlative splendor
     Of Charlotte’s sea baths, the pride of mankind.”

In his early days of struggle the great Charles Dickens, for a few
shillings, penned these lines as a “puff” of Day & Martin’s blacking.

So far as the waves are concerned, the cliff is as solid as it appears
to be, but it has yielded to the hand of man, and at Charlotte Pettman’s
baths there is a statue sculptured in the cliff, entitled “My first
plunge.” It is the life-size figure of a young and beautiful girl in
bathing costume, just about to take “a header” from the platform. It is
by Priestman, an English artist. The door is opened to art lovers for
twopence each, or as much more as the generously disposed may be
inclined to give, the proceeds being handed over to a local hospital.

One of Margate’s architectural features, as seen in the accompanying
illustration, is its handsome clocktower, standing in a conspicuous
position on the Marine drive. It was erected in honor of the Queen’s
Jubilee in 1887, and has a musical chime of bells.

Like Brighton and some other seaside resorts, Margate is democratic in
the height of summer, but select in the autumn. In olden times the
season commenced in June and continued until October. Margate offers
every inducement to a prolonged season. While London is miserable under
November fogs and humid atmosphere, Margate is brilliant with glorious
days and bright skies; fine weather from August until Christmas.

Americans, of course, must flock to the largest hotel. They like size,
and many of them patronize the Cliftonville Hotel, which, to be sure, is
a large establishment in the most fashionable, and certainly the most
attractive part of the town, near the grand cliffs, and overlooking the
sea--a splendid site and a beautiful house exteriorly, but not as well
kept as an American host might care for it.

The White Hart Hotel, on the principal street, is a commercial house,
and has a comfortable appearance from the outside, but the Nayland Rock
Hotel, not far from the two railway stations, yet overlooking the sea,
and from the windows of which you may toss a biscuit into the water
(provided you have the biscuit), is to my knowledge a well-appointed
hotel, with bedrooms as clean and comfortable and dining-room as
cheerful as any hotel in the world. The cuisine is of the best. If great
variety be absent, quality is present. The food is choice, and served in
a neat, tempting and scrupulously clean manner.

European hotels, as a rule, are kept on the European plan; at the
Nayland Rock you have your choice. If you choose the American plan, the
terms are very low for the accommodation afforded. Two dollars and a
half a day secures you pleasant room, three good meals, lights and
service. There are no extras. The wines are of first quality.

But I almost forgot an important item. I went to Margate for health and
rest; I found both there. After one week I returned to London “like a
lion refreshed,” and I shall always say, as everybody in London says,
“there’s a beautiful air at Margate.”




TWO BRIGHTON HOTELS.


The company that owns the Grand Hotel and the Métropole in London,
opened in March, 1890, a magnificent house at Brighton, on the English
southern sea coast. “Magnificent” is the word. It is built of stone; it
faces the sea; it has an acre or two at the back laid out in gardens,
tennis courts, and pretty walks, after the style of the United States
Hotel at Saratoga; there is a separate building on the grounds for a
ball-room, in this respect resembling the Grand Union Hotel at the same
American spa; the elegant drawing-room on the ground floor looks on the
King’s Road and the ocean; the library, which faces the garden, contains
a large and choice selection of books by leading authors, and in the
basement there are Turkish and Russian baths fitted up with a luxury and
perfection of appointment not equalled in any other hotel. The
proprietors have availed themselves of all the latest ideas in the
construction and furnishing of hotels, and nothing that money can
supply, or good taste can suggest, has been left undone to make the
Métropole at Brighton what it is--one of the most beautiful and
luxurious hotels in the world. It is said to accommodate six or seven
hundred guests.

Besides this hotel, and the Grand and Métropole hotels in London, the
same company owns another hotel in London, “The First Avenue,” in
Holborn; also the Burlington at Eastbourne; the Royal Pier Hotel at
Ryde, Isle of Wight; the Métropole at Monte Carlo; and the Métropole at
Cannes--all of them luxurious establishments.

Brighton attracts visitors the year round; in fact it is a city of no
mean size, having a permanent population numbering an eighth of a
million. It enjoys two seasons--one for the _hoi polloi_, which begins
in June and lasts three months, and another for the fashionable world,
which begins in September and continues till near Christmas. During the
second season the prices at Brighton are greatly increased.

I entered one of the leading hotels one day about lunch time, and as is
my custom before engaging rooms or partaking of a meal at an English
hotel, I asked: “What is the charge for a _table d’hôte_ lunch here?”
“Two-and-six,” replied the porter. As for seeing the lessee or manager
of an English hotel, you can almost as easily secure an audience with
the czar of all the Russias.

But to return to my muttons--or to the lunch, which, truth to tell, was
good in quality and nicely served. My daughter heard the following
conversation between the head waiter and the said porter as we were
passing in to the “coffee-room.” Quoth the former:--“How much did you
tell these people for lunch?” “Two-and-six,” replied that blue-coated,
gold-embroidered official. “That’s wrong,” remarked the head waiter, who
almost lost his head as well as his temper. “Three shillings is the
price to strangers,” and three shillings each we had to pay.

This reminds me of the old story of the Englishman who was heard to
remark about a man passing, who had a foreign look: “’Ere’s a stranger,
Bill, ’eave ’arf a brick at ’im.”

That they call these apartments in English hotels “Coffee Rooms,” when
they never serve in them a cup of coffee after dinner without a separate
and extra charge, is rather exasperating.

The porters and officials at some English hotels are not, though it
appears as if they were, in league with the cabmen. If you ask them
about rates just before taking a drive they will occasionally mislead
you and name a higher rate than the usual or legal one. For instance, I
asked the clerk at another hotel in Brighton, what was the fare by the
hour for a drive in an open cab or victoria holding two persons. “Four
shillings per hour,” quickly responded my misinformant. I knew better,
for this was not my first visit to Brighton, but said nothing. To a
cabman with a good-looking victoria who stood immediately opposite the
hotel entrance I popped this question: “What will you charge us for an
hour’s drive along the beach and about the town?” “Two-and-six,” briskly
replied cabbie and we drove about the pretty place for a whole hour for
the half crown.

[Illustration]




A VISIT TO BLEAK HOUSE.


Bleak House, the scene of the novel of that name, is near the village of
St. Albans, about twenty miles from London, and is described in the
early part of the story as an “old-fashioned house with three peaks in
the roof in front and a circular sweep leading to the porch.” That there
was more than one Bleak House in the mind of Dickens “there can be no
possible probable manner of doubt,” as Gilbert sings in “The
Gondoliers,” because at the close of the story one of the characters in
it is made to say, “Both houses are your home, my dear, but the older
Bleak House claims priority.”

But the “Bleak House” which was for many years the home of Charles
Dickens, and where he wrote many of his novels, was so named by the
author after his famous story. It is located in the old-fashioned
village of Broadstairs, on the North Sea, in the county of Kent, the
garden of England, and is seventy-two miles from London, on the London,
Chatham and Dover Railway. The population is given in the latest census
as two thousand two hundred and sixty-three.

The house was formerly called Fort House, from its proximity to the
British fortifications on the coast. It stands directly on the top of
the chalk cliffs, seventy-five feet above the water, quite alone, and so
near to the edge that from the portico a stone might be easily thrown
into the surf--what little surf there is. It

[Illustration: BLEAK HOUSE.]

commands a wide view of the ocean. In the southwest it looks toward
Ramsgate, a seaside pleasure resort, distant five miles; in the
northeast toward Kingsgate. The house is appropriately named, for it is
indeed bleak from Christmas until April, when the cold, biting northeast
winds, for which these parts are noted, blow with all their might.

It was natural for Dickens to select such a spot for a residence. If he
was not actually fond of the sea, he certainly had a great liking for
the sea-coast, with which were associated the earliest memories of his
childhood. It will be remembered that he was born at Portsmouth, a
fortified seaport town, and the principal naval station of Great
Britain, about one hundred miles southwest of London. Dickens lived at
Portsmouth until he arrived at his majority. At Portsmouth he studied
law, but he found Blackstone and Coke rather dry reading, and so went to
London where, as every body knows, he entered upon his literary career
by reporting parliamentary debates for the _Morning Chronicle_.

Bleak House is a plain, substantial, compact, three-story structure of
burnt brick. It has grounds of one and a quarter acres in extent, and
the property is what is called in England “freehold;” value, two
thousand seven hundred pounds sterling. A stone wall five feet high,
encloses the house on two sides. One side of the house is a flat, blank
wall, evidently planned so that an extension could be easily made, and
the lower part of the front is protected by plain iron railings. The
entrance is by a low flight of five steps leading up to a portico and
doorway supported by Doric columns. Next the doorway, on the first
story, a semi-circular bay window projects, and on the second story are
two deep windows which open upon a pretty ornamental iron balcony,
having a curved, sloping roof. A great deal of ivy softens the bareness
of the architecture. It climbs up the walls and around the bay windows.

Dickens was very partial to the ivy plant, as his lyric, “The Ivy
Green,” testifies. He wrote several lyrics, but “The Ivy Green” which
appeared originally in “Pickwick Papers” is the only one that has become
familiar. It was first published as a song in the United States, and
when a London publisher wished to reproduce it in England, Dickens
refused the privilege except on the condition that the publisher pay ten
guineas to the composer, Henry Russell.

Dickens was more thoughtful concerning Henry Russell’s rights than this
English composer is of the rights of others. I well remember that my
predecessor on the _Home Journal_, the much beloved poet, George P.
Morris, had a grudge against Russell, because Russell, in England,
claimed to be the author of the words, “Woodman, Spare that Tree,” as
well as the composer of the music; and it is my humble opinion that the
music in merit is far below Morris’s poetry. The sentiment is beautiful,
the words breathe a true, manly spirit and are full of deep feeling,
while the music is plaintive, weak, childish--namby-pamby expresses it.

Russell did better with the English poet Mackay’s song, “Cheer, Boys,
Cheer,” making it go with life and spirit, and he set appropriate music
to our own Epes Sargent’s song, “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” in which you
may fancy you almost see the good old sailing ship bowling along before
the wind. Henry Russell, who, by the way, is a father of Clark Russell,
the novelist, is still living in London--February, 1892.

As to the melody, “The Ivy Green,” an astute critic says: “It seems to
me the composer has failed to catch the poet’s meaning. Dickens’s words
are as sombre and tender as the vine that deepens the shadows and
softens the ruggedness of decaying grandeur; while Russell’s music is
as free and sturdy as the hardiest oak.” The song opens with this
stanza:

    A dainty plant is the ivy green
      That creepeth o’er ruins old,
    Of rich choice food are his meals, I ween,
      In his cell so lone and cold;
    The wall must be crumbled, the stones decayed,
      To pleasure his dainty whim,
    And the mould’ring dust that years have made,
      Is a merry meal for him.
    Creeping where no life is seen,
      A rare old plant is the ivy green.

The house is about fifty years old, and contains ten rooms. Dickens’s
study was on the second floor, front. It has a southeastern outlook; he
was fond of the rising sun. The furniture and appointments of the room,
which the writer saw in the autumn of 1891, remain as when Dickens left
them--table with telescope, bookcase, plain wooden armchair, etc.--a
very simply furnished study. He did not die at Bleak House, however, but
at a short distance from it, on June 9, 1870, at Gads’ Hill, “Higham by
Rochester, Kent,” as he was in the habit of dating from.

Dickens, at Bleak House, was a tenant of a Mr. Fosbury, but the house
was sold after Dickens’s death, and is at present owned in Broadstairs
by “W. S. Blackburn, house and estate agent, undertaker, builder and
decorator, and upholsterer and mover of furniture,” by which
man-of-many-trades the house was leased for a very short term to a Mrs.
Whitehead, sister of the vicar of St. Peter’s of Broadstairs, at an
annual rent of six hundred dollars. Mr. Blackburn now offers the
property for sale. It would make a cool and charming summer retreat for
some American prince. Or let some large-hearted and large-pursed man
like George W. Childs buy the precious property and present it to the
village of Broadstairs.

[Illustration: BLEAK HOUSE FROM THE NORTH SEA.]




TAKIN’ NOTES

IN EDINBORO’ TOWN.


Singular that more Americans do not “take in” Scotland when they are
making the grand tour. Its historic interest and its scenic beauty are
great. Glasgow is reached direct from New York by the fine fleet of
Anchor boats, numbered among which are the “Furnessia,” the “Devonia”
and the “City of Rome.” Excepting the last named the Scotch boats are
slow in these days of “racers” and “greyhounds,” but they are very
comfortable vessels, as I know, from experience, and I have crossed in
seven days by the “Rome”--crossed, that is, from Queenstown to New York.

If you don’t care about bustling, busy Glasgow, with its smoke and its
dirt, bonnie Edinburgh is distant only sixty-five minutes by express
trains of the Caledonian railway, one of the best built and best
equipped roads in Great Britain.

It hasn’t the commerce of Glasgow, not being a seaport, but it is the
cleanest city I ever visited, and one of the most beautiful. Many
travellers consider London the most interesting city in the world, but
to a casual observer, the four most attractive cities in Europe are
Rome, Paris, Brussels and Edinburgh.

The whole city is built of granite and freestone. You don’t see a brick
excepting in a very few and very tall factory chimneys. To some eyes
this is monotonous; to mine it is pleasing. It looks, and it is,
substantial, solid and strong.

Don’t come at any time, not even in August, without winter clothing. The
winds are keen and cutting. Umbrella and “waterproof” are
indispensable; overshoes, also, if it is your habit to wear them, for
“the rain it raineth every day”--so to speak. This is not the remark of
a hasty tourist. I have been making trips to Scotland for the past
twenty years and I have stayed there for weeks at a time.

It is cool here and rain is frequent, but everything in this life has
its compensation. This is the twentieth day of August, 1891, and we have
strawberries for breakfast every morning and fresh green peas are in
season. Large, luscious strawberries and raspberries sixpence a quart.
Edinburgh, remember, is four hundred miles north of London. The twilight
is long and late, I was reading a badly-printed Scotch newspaper this
evening by daylight at half-past eight.

Labor is cheap here, and yet boys do men’s work, such as driving carts
and sweeping the streets.

The drives in and about Edinburgh are very attractive, and there are no
better roads anywhere.

There are tram-cars in the city: fare, inside, two pence; “on top,” one
penny. There are also two lines of cable cars.

In a “distillery agent’s” window, in Princes street, I saw flasks of
wine marked “two shillings.” I stepped in and bought a flask. “One penny
more,” remarked the salesman. “For what,” said I, inquiringly. “For the
cork.” When I reached my hotel I applied a corkscrew; it wouldn’t budge.
The penny “cork” was a glass stopper with a “worm,” to screw on and off.

It strikes a stranger as rather odd to see men and boys carry so much on
their heads and to see them balance their loads with such nicety.
Instead of using small, light push carts, or delivering goods in baskets
hanging on the arm, as is done in New York, Edinburgh boys use a tray or
flat board with an edge turned up, in which they carry vegetables, meat,
poultry, fruit, etc. This tray is placed on the head and is scarcely
ever touched by the hand except to load or unload. The head in
Edinburgh is made to do good physical service.

The house still stands, and is likely to stand for centuries, in which
Walter Scott lived for years, and in which he wrote several of his
novels. It is of granite, with a rounded (swelled) front, three stories
high and about thirty feet wide. You must look it up when you go to
Edinburgh--No. 39 Castle street. It is now used for office purposes, and
is tenanted by doctors, lawyers, civil engineers and the like. In the
transom window, over the door, you will see a small marble bust of the
novelist.

Princes street, the principal street, is not very long, only about one
mile, but as far as it goes it is not easily surpassed in any city. On
one side are the principal hotels and business blocks, all of granite or
freestone; on the other side are the handsome Princes Gardens with
monuments and the magnificent Art Institute in the foreground, and in
the background such buildings as the Castle, several churches and the
Bank of Scotland.

The gardens, with their terraces, gravel walks, fountains, rustic seats,
lawns and flower-beds are uncommonly attractive. It would seem that
nowhere are the flowers brought to a higher state of cultivation than in
the Princes Gardens.

Blackwood has a large but very quiet-looking shop in George street, not
so crowded a thoroughfare as Princes street, but in which a very select
business is transacted.

Thomas Nelson & Sons have the largest book publishing establishment in
Scotland--I was going to say in Great Britain. Their business buildings
cover a vast space of ground, and Mr. Nelson’s residence, not far from
Holyrood Palace and Arthur’s Seat, is one of the most attractive private
citizens’ residences in this part of the country. It was only two or
three years ago, so a coachman informed me, that Mr. Nelson gave ten
thousand pounds to restore the front of the castle.

David Douglas, whose retail house is at No. 9 Castle street, makes a
specialty of publishing and republishing works of American authors, and
finds his profit in it. You may pick up on his counters almost anything
of Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Howells, Winter and Aldrich. Winter’s
“Shakespeare in England” and his latest work, “Gray Days and Gold,” were
both published by Douglas, duplicate plates being sent over to Macmillan
of New York.

Talk of books being expensive in England: these very books by Winter
which Macmillan sells in New York at seventy-five cents each,
Douglas publishes at two shillings; in paper covers for one
shilling--twenty-five cents.

Douglas’s people tell me that Winter’s books find a ready sale in Great
Britain. The critics and the reading public are delighted with his
sketches of English and Scotch scenery, and especially with his
scholarly and beautiful descriptions of Stratford-on-Avon and
Shakespeare’s country. They think that no author has written with more
reverence and feeling about Shakespeare. They find “his language
poetical and his style artistic, with a Meissonier-like finish.”

FRUITS AND FLOWERS.--In Scotland herrings are always sold by pairs,
haddocks by threes. In England and Scotland fruit is sold by the pound,
so are vegetables: and this fair and excellent method proves
satisfactory to buyer and seller. Flowers and fruit are sold in the same
shop: the signs read, “fruiterer and florist.” Flowers are very high in
price. They use growing flowers and living plants in pots very freely to
decorate the dinner table, but this idea, which is pretty enough in its
way, is carried too far in hotel dining-rooms. So many tall plants make
the table look dark and heavy, and the broad leaves prevent you from
seeing your neighbor or chatting with a friend on the other side of the
table, for in some hotels they still persist in using the old-fashioned
long tables which are neither home-like nor comfortable. Choice fruit,
being either imported from the warmer climates or grown under glass, is
very expensive in the British kingdom. You pay sixpence or a shilling
for a peach or nectarine; two shillings each for choice varieties. The
largest and handsomest peach ever grown, possibly, or certainly ever
shown, was exhibited last summer in a shop window in Buchanan street,
Glasgow. It weighed eighteen ounces, price three-and-sixpence.

The capital of Scotland is always spelled Edinburgh, but is always
pronounced Edinboro’.

In the stamp department of the post-office in Edinburgh there is a
shallow indentation about four inches square in the table, in which a
piece of felt is kept constantly damp. Instead of putting the stamp on
your tongue you pass it over the piece of felt before placing it on the
envelope. Small matter, but very convenient, and shows thoughtfulness on
the part of the authorities.

STREET RELIGION.--There’s a great deal of poverty and drunkenness in
Edinburgh, but there is also a great deal of religion. All the churches
are well attended on Sunday, and there are preaching, praying and
singing in the public streets. Church choirs, men and women, stand and
sing in the public highways. In the lower quarters of the city they
attract people with a harmonium, which is wheeled about from place to
place. Passers-by stop, join in the singing, and in fine weather uncover
their heads. The singers are not paid for their services.

THE DOGS.--Here’s a hint for the society which Mr. Henry Bergh
founded:--On the sidewalk in front of large shops and public buildings
in Glasgow and Edinburgh they place small earthenware or iron vessels
filled with water for passing dogs. The vessel is simply and legibly
marked “DOG.” Probably the dogs cannot read, but they seem to know or to
“nose out” the shops where such a humane practice is carried out. But a
certain Scotch editor contends that Scotch dogs can read.

INDIA RUBBER PAVEMENT.--The attention of every stranger who walks in
Princes street, Edinburgh, is immediately arrested as soon as he gets in
front of a certain shop, nearly opposite the castle, where rubber goods
are sold. His attention is arrested because he finds himself on a
yielding pavement. It is a rubber “sidewalk” (as we say in New York),
and was laid there by the enterprising shopkeeper. It is very pleasant
and comfortable to walk on, and so durable that the authorities have
talked about putting down rubber pavements on both sides of Princes
street.

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY.--There is not much for the tourist to see in Glasgow
except the university, the cathedral, founded in the fourteenth century,
and the municipal buildings. But the first-named is worth walking many
miles to visit, if one is interested in such things. I spent several
hours in the university with pleasure and profit. This university,
Glasgow people claim, is the finest in Scotland. It accommodates
twenty-three hundred students, who pay on an average of forty pounds a
year. It is generously endowed. The buildings are of granite and present
a noble appearance, standing on very high ground in their own large
park, which is beautifully laid out with terraces, flower beds and
gravel walks. There are some grand old trees in the park, and a pretty
winding lake, over which are thrown many picturesque bridges. Though it
is a seat of learning, you will not expect the services of a college
professor as a cicerone, but you might naturally expect to hear fair
English spoken. The liveried servant who guides you will tell you, with
strong aspirations, of the “helementary” classes and the “school of
harts.” In describing the _modus operandi_ of taking the gold medal, the
graduate sitting in a very high-backed chair, which is several hundred
years old, you will be told “it’s a very ’igh honor.”

In the “Edinburgh Café,” a fairish kind of restaurant in Princes
street, opposite the Scott monument, a penny is charged for the
privilege of washing your hands, and a penny for the use of a napkin.
The majority of this café’s customers, however, if the truth must be
told, make a _mouchoir_ serve for a _serviette_.

SLIPPERS SUPPLIED FREE.--If you go to Philp’s Cockburn (pronounced
Coburn) Hotel in Edinburgh, it matters not if you have forgotten to pack
your slippers in your portmanteau, for the porter will provide you with
a pair. One hundred pairs of red morocco slippers are kept at this hotel
for the use of guests. A foot of any size can be accommodated, and there
is no charge.

Smoking is not allowed in bedrooms of Scotch hotels, and a notice to
that effect is posted in each room. “Smoking rooms” are provided, and
only such apartment may be used for this purpose. They are both smoky
and dingy.

AN EDINBURGH DOLLAR DINNER.--I have dined at the leading hotels in New
York, at “The States,” in Saratoga, the Breslin, at Lake Hopatcong, and
my experience includes the leading hotels in the principal European
capitals, and the leading hotels in the Southern and far Western States,
as far as California, yet I can say that the _table d’hôte_ dinner
served at Philp’s Cockburn Hotel, Edinburgh (on Sunday, August 24,
1890), will rank with the fare at any of these houses, and it excels the
table d’hôte at some high-priced hotels in London and Paris. And the
price charged for this dinner was very moderate--only four shillings,
about one dollar. The dinner included grouse, peaches, strawberries and
nectarines, and from the hare soup down to the dessert, everything was
well cooked and nicely served. The charge is remarkably moderate when it
is understood that this is a “temperance house,” and when you know that
the choice fruit is grown under glass at high cost. The dinner would
have been perfect with _café noir_ at the close, but this is not served
in British hotels without additional charge.




THE BURNS MONUMENT.


If Baltimore is the monumental city of the United States, Edinburgh may
surely be called the monumental city of the United Kingdom. The majority
of its public buildings, of freestone or granite, are noble structures
standing on hills in the heart of the city, and for their situation
alone would command admiration--the old Castle, Nelson monument, the
city prison, the National Gallery, the Bank of Scotland, etc. No bank in
the world occupies a more commandiug site than the one just named. Owing
to the peculiar natural formation of the land upon which the city is
built, an observer may stand in one spot in Edinburgh (say the Waverly
Gardens) and see a greater number of splendid buildings at a glance than
may be seen simultaneously from the level in any other city.

Not among the largest by any means but among the most interesting must
be reckoned the Burns monument, which occupies a high position near its
still higher neighbor, the Nelson monument, on Calton Hill. The Burns
monument was built in 1830 for the purpose of containing a marble statue
of the poet by Flaxman. The building, of freestone, is a circular temple
on a quadrangular basement surrounded by a peristyle of twelve
Corinthian columns which support an entablature and cornice. Over this
is a cupola, a restoration of the monument of Lysicrates at Athens. The
whole is surmounted by a tripod supported by winged griffins. The
extreme height of the structure is fifty feet, the twelve outside
columns are fourteen feet high and the twelve inside columns are ten
feet high. The latter are of freestone painted to represent variegated
marble. The cost of the monument and statue was three thousand three
hundred pounds sterling (about sixteen thousand five hundred
dollars)--not a large sum considering the result attained.

Besides the statue of the poet, the monument holds a number of
relics--letters written by or to Burns, the worm-eaten three legged
stool upon which the poet sat in 1786 and ’87 while correcting the
proofs of his poems, and other things of interest. One of the most
interesting letters is that subjoined. As is well known, the poet
spelled his name Burness (his family name) until the publication of his
poems in 1786. The letter is thus addressed:

To

                          Mr. James Burness,

                           Writer, Montrose.

_My Dear Cousin_:

     When you offered me money assistance, little did I think I should
     want it so soon. A rascal of a haberdasher to whom I owe a
     considerable bill, taking into his head that I am dying, has
     commenced a process against me and will infallibly put my emaciated
     body into jail. Will you be so good as to accommodate me, and that
     by return of post, with ten pounds. O, James, did you know the
     pride of my heart you would feel doubly for me. Alas, I am not used
     to beg. The worse of it is my health was coming about finely, you
     know, and my physician assures me that melancholy and low spirits
     are half my disease. Guess then my horrors since this business
     began. If I had it settled I would be, I think, quite well in a
     manner. O, do not disappoint me.

Among other relics preserved in frames and hung on the walls is the
printed newspaper report of Burns’s death. This occurred at Dumfries,
July 21, 1796, and the report appeared in the London _Herald_ of July
27--nearly one week after. The London _Herald_ of that day was a very
small sheet, about fifteen inches long and only four columns wide,
price fourpence halfpenny a copy. The obituary notice is unique and is
worth reproducing to-day:

     DEATH OF MR. ROBERT BURNS,

     THE CELEBRATED POET.

     On the twenty-first instant died at Dumfries, after a lingering
     illness, the celebrated Robert Burns. His poetical compositions,
     distinguished equally by the force of native humor, by the warmth
     and tenderness of passion, and by the glowing touches of a
     descriptive pencil, will remain a lasting monument of the vigor and
     versatility of a mind, guided only by the light of nature and the
     inspirations of genius. The public, to whose amusement he so
     largely contributed, will learn with regret that the last months of
     his short life were spent in sickness and indigence, and his widow
     and five infant children, and in the hourly expectation of a sixth,
     is now left without any resource but what she may hope from the
     regard due to the memory of her husband.

Apropos to the subject come these remarks in the New York _Sun_:

     It is better to write a little book that is full of heart and
     brains than a big book that lacks both. Probably there is no writer
     but Robert Burns who has made such broad and enduring renown as his
     through a book as small as his. This thought arose while taking a
     glimpse of a new statue of the bard that is to be erected in a city
     out West. There is a statue of Burns in our Central Park; there is
     another up at Albany; there is at least one in Australia, and there
     are several statues of him in the British Isles. All that he wrote
     appears as a tiny volume in the latest edition of his works; much
     of it is in a dialect that is hard to be understood by
     English-speaking people, and he died in obscurity about one hundred
     years ago. Yet there are probably as many public statues of him in
     various parts of the globe as there are of Shakespeare, who wrote
     voluminously.

Monuments, however, are not Edinburgh’s only attractions, but do not
count on seeing the sights there on Sunday. The day is closely and
strictly observed. London is surely quiet enough on a Sunday, but it is
gayety itself when compared with the capital of Scotland. Not a shop is
open; even the drug shops are open only during two hours. Everything is
shut as tight as a drum in Edinburgh except the churches, and to these
you must either walk or hire a carriage, for not the wheel of an omnibus
or car turns on Sunday.

[Illustration: THE BURNS MONUMENT.]




[Illustration] RIGHT REVEREND THE MODERATOR,

JAMES MACGREGOR, D. D.


In September, 1890, I had the privilege of listening to England’s
foremost preacher, Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, in his Tabernacle at Newington
Butts, in London; and one year later, on Sunday, September 16, 1891,
happening to be in Edinburgh, I made it a point to hear the Rev. James
Macgregor, the leading light of the Scotch Presbyterian Church.

Americans mostly flock to St. Giles’s in Canongate, on account of its
age and historical associations. They attend divine service there early
in the morning with the soldiers from the old castle. But I wanted to
hear a great preacher, so I repaired to Synod Hall, which the members of
St. Cuthbert’s parish were using as a temporary place of worship.

The extensive alterations, internally and externally, which were then
making in St. Cuthbert’s Church, will render it, in some respects,
worthy of the site, and of its long and honorable history. The present
structure dates from the year 1775. Only the tower and spire of the old
church will be retained, and the new edifice, which will not be finished
until the autumn of 1892, will accommodate a much larger number of
people than the former building did.

It is a notable fact that on the spot where the building stands--under
the Castle Rock of Edinburgh--Christian worship has been continuously
maintained for more than a thousand years. It is, indeed, one of the
very oldest shrines in Scotland, hallowed by the prayers of the
faithful, which have arisen from it for century upon century.

Originally a mere Culdee cell, dedicated to the memory of Cuthbert, the
monk of Lindisfarne, it has passed through a variety of forms. Changing
with the revolutions of Scottish history, it has been Roman Catholic,
Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and finally Presbyterian.

The whole aspect of the place where it rose has changed. The Nor’ Loch,
which stretched away from it eastward under the Castle Rock, has
disappeared; the sweep of undulating country has been transformed into
wide streets; a great city has arisen around it; and it still remains
what it has been for ages, a centre of Christian influence to a wide
community.

It is interesting as a piece of religious history to note that within
little more than a stone’s throw of the site of the present structure is
the spot where the first General Assembly was held on the 20th of
December, 1560. It consisted of forty-two members, of whom only six were
ministers. The first name on the roll is that of “John Knox.” It was a
fully equipped Ecclesiastical Convention, and at once proceeded to
important business. There is no parallel instance of a court with such
authority springing so suddenly into being. That authority was almost
sovereign. It was based on the sanction and support of the popular will.
With a power to which the Scottish Parliament never attained, it was the
representative assembly of the Scottish people, embracing within it from
the very beginning the pith of the nation’s manhood. The General
Assembly was simply the Scotch people convened, through their natural
representatives, to settle their own religious affairs. And they did it
effectually. Never was a change so radical and so beneficial effected in
as brief a space of time as that accomplished by the Scottish
Reformation.

So much for the past. Synod Hall, which, as I have said, was temporarily
occupied by the congregation of St. Cuthbert’s, is a large freestone
building occupying a prominent site in Castle Terrace opposite the back
of the Castle. It accommodates about twenty-five hundred people. A bold
placard in the vestibule informed the hundreds of strangers in and about
the vestibule that they would be admitted into the body of the church a
few minutes before the services commenced. The “strangers” waited with
all the patience they could command, and when the sign was made by one
of the deacons, they flocked in, a large space at the back of the house
being set apart for them. Soon every seat was occupied and people were
requested to please sit closer together. Then, when there was not an
inch of room to spare on the benches, chairs were placed in the aisles.

Dr. James Macgregor, the present minister, was appointed Moderator of
the General Assembly for the current year in May, 1891. He has been
connected with St. Cuthbert’s for fourteen years, having succeeded Dr.
Barclay, now in Montreal. St. Cuthbert’s, or, as it is also called, the
“West End Church,” is not given to making changes oftener than is
necessary. Dr. Barclay is said to be the only man who ever left St.
Cuthbert’s; his predecessors all died at their posts.

In Synod Hall there is no organ; the music was supplied by the
congregation and a choir. St. Cuthbert’s usually rejoices in a large
choir, but on the occasion of my visit many of its members were “away on
their holidays,” as they call their vacation in Great Britain. The choir
on that Sunday numbered fifteen--three men and twelve of the gentler
sex.

Mr. Edie, a promising and rather brilliant man under thirty, who has a
clear voice and a Scotch accent is assistant to Dr. Macgregor. The first
selection of song which he gave out was the 129th Psalm:

    Lord of the worlds above
      How pleasant and how fair
    The dwellings of Thy love,
      The earthly temples are.

Then Mr. Edie read the 62d Chapter of Isaiah. The next selection for the
congregation was the 102d Psalm, 6th Verse: “And God in His glory shall
appear;” and then the 356th Hymn: “Te Deum Laudamus.”

Mr. Edie concluded his part of the services with a fervent and beautiful
prayer in which, after the Queen, Prince of Wales, the princess, the
judges and magistrates of great Britain were enumerated, special mention
was made of the President and people of the United States; of “our
wandering brethren, the children of Israel; of our Catholic brethren;
bless all honorable business men; bless our friends and also those who
have wronged us.”

Dr. Macgregor, who then rose from a chair, took his text from the 4th
Chapter, 1st Verse, of “Hosea:” “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children
of Israel.”

Then followed a brilliant discourse on the history of the Jewish race,
in which, incidentally, much information was conveyed, the main ideas
being: first, that the government of Great Britain should use its
influence in behalf of the Russian refugees; second that the Christian
people owe much to the Jews and should therefore be most charitable
toward them.

The minister paid a high tribute to the chosen people and their
characteristics. He said that the countries which abused them most,
Spain and Portugal, had been least prosperous, and it would be strange,
indeed, if Russia suffered not for its inhuman persecution of them;
that, in fact, it was suffering.

Notwithstanding that they had been downtrodden for centuries, the Jews
were vastly stronger in numbers to-day than ever before in the history
of the world, numbering at the present time twelve millions.

The speaker showed that the decline of Jerusalem was owing to the
comparatively small number of Jews there in later years, and he strongly
advocated their return.

To quote the doctor almost verbatim: “I may be criticised for
criticising Russia. Some may say: ‘Let each country look after its own
affairs, and it will have enough to do. It is none of England’s business
what Russia does,’ but I say it is the business of every civilized
country, of every civilized man; it is your business and my business; it
affects each and every one of us; it hurts you and me, and it is to be
hoped that Great Britain will lift up its voice and use its influence in
behalf of these much injured refugees.”

If this discourse had been especially prepared to deliver before a
strictly and exclusively Jewish assemblage, it could not have been more
complimentary to their people. One of its “points” was thus worded:
“There must be something wrong with that man’s head--with that man’s
heart who despises the Jews.”

Dr. Macgregor has the title of one of Her Majesty’s chaplains; he is a
member of the Hon. Royal Scottish Academy, and a member of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, but a self-made man withal. He is not ashamed to
acknowledge that his parents were poor and modest. He may have lacked
early advantages, but he certainly has made the best of his later
opportunities. He is a man of fine intellect; a ripe scholar, with broad
and liberal views. His language is choice, and yet the fine phrases and
well selected words seem to follow each other with great ease. His
diction is neither stilted nor is it too simple but that of an
intellectual man who is addressing intelligent people.

His voice, notwithstanding a certain and unmistakable nasal quality, is
penetrating--and his elocutionary powers are great. I was on the last
bench, with my back against the wall, and I heard almost every word. I
could not follow the speaker quickly on account of his strong Scottish
accent--“murdering” became “mu_rr_de_rr_ing,” with a most decided roll
of the _r_, and “Turks” came to me in two syllables, something like
“Turreks,” while “earth” was changed to “airth,” with the _r_ in the
middle by no means slighted.

The speaker’s facial expressions were a study, and his gesticulations at
times strikingly dramatic. He appealed in tender and pathetic tones to
the hearts of his hearers, with hands uplifted as if in supplication,
and then again he would raise his head and fold his arms across his
chest in a Napoleonic, defiant attitude when combating the arguments of
an imaginary adversary.

In fact, he does not seem to be addressing a large audience, but talking
to and debating with but one person, and each person in the congregation
might imagine that he was that one. He takes both sides in the debate,
and makes both effective, but he carries the day for his own because he
is on the side of right.

Dr. Macgregor closed the service with Hymn 117:

    Arm of the Lord, awake, awake!
    Put on Thy strength, the nations shake;
    And let the world, adoring see
    Triumphs of mercy wrought by Thee.

When the moderator is in the pulpit you do not notice that he is below
the medium height; only when he steps down, and when you stand by his
side, do you observe that he is small of stature--not much over five
feet. His eye has a most kindly expression, his voice is pleasing in
conversation, and his manner gracious and gentle. The accompanying
portrait is reproduced from a photograph made by John Moffatt, 125
Princes street, Edinburgh.

On the day I had the good fortune to be present, there were in the
congregation many prominent members of the Archæological Society of
Scotland, who were on a temporary visit to Edinburgh, including the
Bishop of Carlisle and the Earl of Percy, heir to the dukedom of
Northumberland.

After the service I had the honor of being presented to Dr. Macgregor by
a member of this society, in “The Moderator’s Room,” so inscribed on the
door. Upon hearing that I was “from the States,” he immediately
expressed his great admiration for the country and its form of
government. He seemed to be well-informed regarding our people and the
country, and said that one of his cherished hopes was to make us a
visit.

[Illustration]




CROSSING THE CHANNEL.


There are many ways of “crossing” between the Continent and the English
coast, or _vice versa_. The best steamers between England and Holland
are those which go from Rotterdam to Harwich. Harwich (Anglice,
Harridge) is about a two hours’ run up to London. I have tried the
different ways of crossing from the French coast to England--via
Newhaven and Dieppe, Folkstone and Boulogne, and Calais and Dover. The
last route is by far the best. It would be preferred over all others, if
for only one reason, because it is the shortest, the English Channel
being “disagreeable” at least one half the year. The Calais and Dover
boats are advertised to make the trip between the two points “in seventy
minutes,” and they do actually make it in one hour and a quarter. The
other routes are much longer. No small craft that ply on the English
waters are as beautiful in their appointments as our Hudson river boats,
or those for instance of the Fall River line, but they are staunch and
swift, and they are manned by as brave a set of seamen as ever trod a
deck. The English boats are proof against wind and wave, the only danger
being from fire or fog, but as they are officered by skillful and
experienced navigators, and are very carefully handled, the danger is
reduced to a minimum.




PARIS HOTELS.


Paris is not in the least behind other cities in the number of its
hotels nor in the variety of accommodations offered. Your choice must
depend first upon the length of your purse; second, upon the length of
your stay; third, the purpose of your visit. The number in the party and
their individual tastes and requirements must also be taken into
account.

I have not passed near so much time in Paris as in London. The most I
can do is to suggest a few of the choicest hotels and _pensions_ with
which I am acquainted, giving their rates and distinctive features.

For information as to Where to Dine in Paris I must refer the reader to
a chapter further on, entitled “The Restaurants of Paris,” by that
facile magazinist and connoisseur in many arts, Mr. Theodore Child. It
first appeared in a book entitled “Living Paris,” which was published in
London three years ago by Ward & Downey, and is the most complete and
comprehensive Guide to Paris I have ever seen.


THE GRAND HOTEL.

The Grand Hotel is one of the largest and most expensive. It is grand in
size; grand in appointments. It is not a cheap house in any sense of
that term, and possibly for that reason is largely patronized by
Americans. The building occupies a square block facing that magnificent
street, l’Avenue de l’Opéra, diagonally across from the Grand Opera
House. It encloses a large courtyard with fountains and parterres. The
_caves_ of the Grand are ranked as one of the sights of Paris; they are
stocked with the choicest of wines. Rooms from six francs per day: table
d’hôte dinner, seven francs.


HOTEL CONTINENTAL.

The Continental, on the corner of the rue de Rivoli and rue Castiglione,
is opposite the gardens of the Tuileries. Near by are Hotel des
Invalides, the Madeleine, the Eiffel Tower and other interesting
buildings. It is large and elegant--grander than the Grand. The grounds,
with the structure and furnishing are said to have cost a few millions
of francs, and it may be readily believed. Some of the rooms are
palatial in size, furniture and decorations.

The rates at the Continental are a little lower than at the Grand. They
range all the way from five francs to thirty-five francs per day for
room; lights and attendance extra. Breakfast of coffee, chocolate or tea
with rolls, from one to two francs; breakfast proper, or _déjeuner à la
fourchette_, five francs, wine and coffee included. Table d’hôte dinner,
seven francs. At all Paris hotels wine is included in the charge for
dinner, but at the Continental on Sundays, champagne as well as _vin
ordinaire_ is served free, but not, as in the case of the latter, in
unlimited quantity.


HOTEL MEURICE.

Smaller than these two hotels and for that reason thought by some to be
more select is the Hotel Meurice, in rue de Rivoli. It is near rue
Castiglione and opposite the Tuileries gardens, altogether a beautiful
location. Issuing from the handsome courtyard and turning to the left, a
few minutes walk brings you to the Palais Royal and the Louvre
galleries; or turning to the right a few steps bring you past the hotel
Continental, to Place de la Concorde and the Champs Élysées. It may seem
strange to those who have not lived in continental hotels, to note that
the hotel Meurice is scrupulously clean. You observe this in its
beautiful courtyard, in its handsome dining-room and in the neatly kept
bedrooms.

The hotel is patronized by leading New York families and by the best
English society, and it ranks as does the Brunswick or the Victoria in
New York. The _cuisine_ of the house is famous and its cellars contain
rare wines. Hotel Meurice was established in 1815 and its present
proprietor has kept it for more than thirty years. If your stay in Paris
is to cover a week or more, you--and especially the ladies of your
party--will find this hotel a thoroughly agreeable place of sojourn;
Baedeker counsels avoiding the largest hotels if you are accompanied by
ladies. Hotel Meurice has electric light, and new plumbing was put in a
few years ago. It accommodates two hundred guests. Single rooms from
five francs per day; apartments from fifteen to one hundred francs.
Table d’hôte dinner, at six P.M., six francs. Proprietor, H. Schëurich;
address, 228 rue de Rivoli.


HOTEL CHATHAM.

Hotel Chatham is justly famed as one of the most elegantly appointed of
Paris hotels. I have known it for twenty years, and for twenty-five
years it has been the temporary home of travellers of all
nations,--those who demand the best hotel accommodations. Hotel Chatham
occupies a central location, near the Opéra, rue de la Paix, the
theatres, and the best shopping streets. Once inside the house, however,
and an air of tranquility reigns that is in marked contrast to the busy
life of the city, in the midst of which the hotel is situated. The first
feature of the Hotel Chatham that attracts attention is the large,
light, and spacious courtyard, fifty by one hundred feet. It makes an
impression that gains in favor when you see the apartments. The grand
salon, the reading-room and café look out upon this courtyard, which is
embellished with plants and flowers.

The sleeping apartments are beautifully furnished, have plenty of light
and good ventilation. There are elegant suites, also choice single and
double rooms. The decorations are in good taste. In the best apartments
the walls are not hung with paper, but are covered with stuffs--a
mixture of worsted and soft silks. Hot and cold water on every floor.
Two features especially commend themselves to those who are acquainted
with foreign hotels; there are two Otis elevators, and the house is
lighted throughout by electricity--shedding a light in the rooms, not of
one _bougie_, but of twenty. The cuisine represents the perfection of
the culinary art, and the wine-cellars are celebrated for their famous
vintages.

The Hotel Chatham is the home of the best people and many Americans
annually seek its hospitality. The Harpers, for instance, members of the
great publishing house, are among its regular guests. The present
proprietor is M. H. Holzschuch, son of the late owner, under whom the
house acquired its wide fame. Hotel Chatham is at 17 and 19 rue Daunou,
between rue de la Paix and Boulevard des Capucines.


HOTEL BINDA.

Everybody in Paris knows the Hotel Binda, and it is known by a great
many people who have never been in Paris. With New Yorkers the house is
a favorite because it is kept by Mr. Charles Binda who for years was
manager of Delmonico’s, and this settles at once and satisfactorily the
important question of _cuisine_. The house was opened in 1878. It is
solidly built of stone, five stories high, and is an imposing structure.
It stands in rue de l’Echelle, on a corner of the avenue de l’Opéra, the
principal business street of Paris, and probably the handsomest shopping
street in the world. It is most conveniently located for the principal
places of interest--the Grand Opera, Palais Royal, the Louvre galleries,
etc. One minute’s walk brings you to the rue de Rivoli, that wide open
street, one side of which is flanked by the open and beautiful gardens
of the Tuileries.

If in the heat of a summer day in walking to Place Vendome or to the
Champs Élysées, you wish to avoid sunny rue de Rivoli, shade is at your
very door in the narrow but picturesque rue St. Honoré, which, with its
little shops, its hotels, old churches, etc., is a feature of outdoor
life in Paris.

The Grand Opera is at the other end of the Avenue de l’Opéra, a short
walk. But omnibuses pass the door, by which you can reach any part of
Paris at the expense of a few sous. And, for that matter, it is only a
thirty-cent cab fare to the Grand Opera, to the offices of the American
Minister, Whitelaw Reid, in Avenue Hoche, or to the Anglo-American Bank
on the corner of Chaussée d’Antin and rue Meyerbeer. _Cocher_ will go
fast enough if by the course and slow enough (too slow) if by the hour.

Instead of a courtyard such as many hotels in Paris have, and which in
some cases are useless, the space on the ground floor is used by the
Binda for a grand, glass-enclosed reception and reading-room,
beautifully lighted by day and by night. There is also a grand
drawing-room and a smoking-room, which unlike the dingy rooms turned
over to the use of men in some English hotels is, in the Binda, a very
bright and attractive apartment.

All the apartments are comfortably and tastefully furnished, but some of
the rooms are furnished in palatial style. There are baths on every
floor and some rooms have running water. Of course there are electric
lights and an _ascenseur_, Anglice “lift.” But for all its grandeur, one
may live at the Binda at moderate cost.

If you know about how wide you wish to open your purse in selecting
apartments you can tell as precisely as you could in an American hotel
how much your bill will amount to for a stay of five days or five weeks.
Single rooms may be had from seven to twelve francs per day; double
rooms from fourteen to thirty francs. Special rates, lower than these,
are made to guests remaining a length of time. Here is the tariff for
the dining-room: Plain breakfast (tea or chocolate) 1f. 50c., about 30
cents; table d’hôte dinner, served at separate tables, 6f., servant’s
board 6f. per day. No charge is made for attendance.

That Charles Binda is proprietor is guarantee that the table is equal to
the Cambridge in New York, or the Albemarle in London, and these satisfy
the most fastidious. Mr. Binda is famous for his _cuisine_, but he
prides himself most upon the quality of his guests. He demands that
above and beyond everything else his house shall be select, and it is so
in the fullest sense. You may meet crowned heads and princes there. Hon.
Thomas L. James, one of New York’s honored and honorable citizens, with
his charming family, stayed at the Binda while he was in Paris last
summer, and I also saw Judge Dittenhoefer, the family of Vice-Consul
Hooper, and other well-known Americans in the reading-room. Yes, the
Binda is a select family hotel. Address No. 11 rue de l’Echelle.


HOTEL ANGLO-FRANÇAIS.

There are several comparatively small but decidedly pleasant hotels in
rue Castiglione--Hotel Liverpool, Hotel Balmoral and Hotel
Anglo-Français. The last-named is especially to be commended for its
choice location, the comfort and cleanliness of its rooms, its
appetizing cuisine, and its remarkably moderate charges. It is in rue
Castiglione, directly opposite the Continental; two blocks one way from
the Column Vendome, two blocks from the Place de la Concorde, near the
Champs Élysées, and only a few hundred feet from the beautiful gardens
of the Tuileries.

Like the majority of Paris hotels, the Anglo-Français is entered by a
court-yard, but unlike some of them, the ventilation and lighting of the
house are good. It has ample room for more than one hundred guests, and
they can be made very comfortable.

The house is kept on the American as well as on the European plan. If
you adopt the system which prevails abroad, you may hire a single room
as low as four francs per day, or a double room from seven francs per
day; breakfast, three francs; luncheon, four francs; table d’hôte
dinner, six francs. This figure includes good wine in _quantum
sufficit_, as a medical man might say. As at nearly all Continental
hotels, “service” is charged. In this instance it is one franc per day;
and you pay for lights--item seventy-five centimes, about fifteen cents.

But if you wish to be relieved of all this detail and save the bother of
reckoning, you can stay at the Anglo-Français, and your whole bill per
day for board, lodging, lights, wine, etc., will be the moderate sum of
fifteen francs (three dollars), which, considering the appointments of
the house, the excellent table and the attention you receive, is an
uncommonly low rate.

The proprietor is a gentleman of decidedly pleasant and courteous
manners, who, having lived in England for twenty years, is perfectly at
home in the English language as well as his native tongue.

If you desire to mix with an ultra-fashionable set, the Bristol is your
house; if you want to see and be with Americans only, then select the
Grand. The Continental is the place for those who would feast their eyes
on palatial salons: at the Anglo-Français you will get into the company
of good people from different countries, you can be quiet and
comfortable and made to feel at home, as is to be expected in a smaller
house. Moreover, your purse will be lightly drawn upon in accordance
with the figures given above. Proprietor, Paul Vargues; address, No. 6
rue Castiglione.

HOTEL DE LILLE ET D’ALBION, in rue St. Honoré is not a very large house,
but it is ranked among the best, although its charges are quite
moderate. It has baths, lift, electric light and English billiard
tables, its modern contrivances including telephonic communication with
the leading European cities. The sanitary arrangements are said to be
perfect. The location is central for shopping, for places of amusement
and points of interest, being near Place Vendome, Tuileries Gardens and
the Opera. Mail address, 223 rue St. Honoré: telegraph address,
Lillalbion, Paris.

HOTEL BRISTOL AND HOTEL DU RHIN both front on the Place Vendome; you
can’t miss them: they are near the tall and graceful Column Vendome
which pierces the sky from the centre of the square. There is no
question as to the excellence of either of these houses. Both are
patronized by a select class of patrons; the former is the home of the
Prince of Wales when he visits Paris.

HOTEL LIVERPOOL is patronized by the Astors. To Americans this
information conveys more than could be detailed in a whole page of
description. It is situated at 11 rue Castiglione, a wide and
fashionable thoroughfare leading from Place Vendome to the Tuileries
Gardens. The house was recently newly fitted up and has a hydraulic
lift. There are large apartments for families making a more or less
prolonged stay; smaller apartments for transient guests.

HOTEL DE L’ATHÉNÉE. Of hotels just as select as any of those mentioned,
there are a score or more. Among them may be mentioned the Hotel de
l’Athénée, 15 rue Scribe. It was recently enlarged, the whole of the
Théâtre de l’Athénée having been added, and the former dining-room is
now converted into a reading room. There are two bath-rooms on each
floor. The appointments include a parlor, a reading room, a restaurant a
la carte, and two private dining-rooms. There are 180 rooms in all,
which rent from four francs to twenty francs a day, but there are not
very many rooms in the house at four francs.

DES DEUX MONDES.--A comfortable family hotel, newly and tastefully
furnished, is the Hotel des Deux Mondes, 22 Avenue de l’Opéra, facing
full south. The charges are moderate and the table d’hôte good.

PRINCE ALBERT.--If price alone is a recommendation there is the Hotel du
Prince Albert, 5 rue St. Hyacinthe, near the Tuileries. Rooms from 2
francs 50 centimes per day with even lower terms for the winter. The
house seeks American patronage.

HOTEL BRIGHTON, 218 rue de Rivoli. Rooms from 6 francs per day:
breakfast, 2 francs, dinner 7 francs. Proprietor, A. Bastianello.

HOTEL CAMPBELL.--This favorite house with an English name has changed
hands, lately. Arthur Geissler is the new proprietor. It is at 61 and
63 Avenue de Friedland, a pleasant and fashionable location, near the
grand drive of the Champs Élysées. The house is in a healthy condition
and the rates are moderate, Hotel Campbell is easy to find; it is close
to the Arc de Triomphe.

[Illustration]




PENSIONS OF THE FIRST CLASS.


But you are not forced to patronize any hotel, large or small; there are
many very delightful _pensions_ or boarding houses in Paris. These some
people prefer, if their party includes ladies, or if they intend to make
a protracted stay. A few of these _pensions_ are presided over by
American women.

THE LAFOND combines some of the best features of hotel and _pension_. It
is at 14 rue de la Tremoille, near the Champs Élysées. It is called “a
comfortable American home,” and is made all the more comfortable by
having a lift. Rates for two persons in one room, with three meals per
day, 18 to 30 francs per day; single rooms, 10 to 15 francs per day;
children and servants, half rates. These figures include all charges;
the American plan. If you prefer the European plan, these rates
prevail--breakfast, two to four francs; luncheon, three francs: dinner
at 7 P.M., five francs. Cable address, Lafhotel, Paris.

HOTEL DE DIJON is situated in rue Canmartin, between the Opéra and the
Madeleine. It is a family _pension_, and the charges range from 7 to 10
francs per day, according to rooms. Soirées are held every Friday with
music, singing and dancing. The table d’hôte is good; there are reading,
smoking and bath-rooms.

THE VAN PELT PENSION at 69 Boulevard St. Michel is kept by Mrs. E. L.
Van Pelt, a Philadelphia woman who took with her to Paris the best
American references. This place has many features which commend it to
the stranger in Paris. Its location, facing the Luxembourg Gardens, is
near the famous art schools and the Sorbonne, where free lectures are
given, thus making this a desirable residence for students. It is within
easy access by omnibus, cab or train to all parts of Paris and environs.
The house stands on a corner, and all the rooms are exposed to the sun
and air. A balcony surrounds the first floor. French is the language of
the household, and a chaperon accompanies ladies to lectures, etc. There
is a separate table for those who prefer to speak English.

AMERICAN FAMILY HOME.--This term is appropriately applied to the
_pension de famille_ presided over by a young French widow whose
personal beauty and grace of manner are more than marked. Reference is
made to Madame Veuve Léon Glatz, who is assisted in her duties by her
sister. Both of them speak English with a pretty and piquant accent. The
Glatz _pension_ is in rue de Clichy, five minutes distant from St.
Lazare Station and Park Monceau; ten minutes from la Madelaine and the
Opera. It was built in 1885 and is sanitarily correct; supplied with
pure spring water from the new water works of Paris. There is a really
grand _salon_ in which _musicales_ are given weekly. In the rear of this
is a large and handsome garden, neatly kept--a very pretty lounging
place on summer evenings. There are baths in the house, the bedrooms are
nicely furnished, the service is good, and last, and by no means least
worthy of note is the table, which is liberally supplied; the best as to
quality. But Madame Glatz at present has only room for thirty guests and
her house is in such demand that you must engage rooms months, or at
least weeks, in advance. Terms, 8 to 14 francs per day, which is the
full charge; no extras, except, possibly, for lights. This is a favorite
place with Americans of refinement: others are not admitted to Madame
Glatz’s charming family circle. Address, 45 rue de Clichy.

THE POWERS PENSION--One of the most desirable _pensions_ in Paris,
especially desirable for Americans, is kept not by a “charming
Frenchwoman,” nor by a “hearty” Britisher, but by a couple of
cultivated, good Americans, well-known in New York--Mr. and Mrs. J. G.
Powers, Jr. The house is in a high and delightful location, in the
American quarter, 69 Avenue d’Antin, near the Champs Élysées. Mrs.
Powers claims that it is “the most elegant and comfortable _pension_ in
Europe,” and I, who have had some experience in hotels and _pensions_ of
the first rank, do not contradict the statement. I am not given to using
the adjective “elegant” too freely, but elegant and tasteful are words
that come to mind without summoning, in speaking of the Powers
_pension_. The _salon_ is a beautiful apartment; yes, uncommonly
beautiful. It is on Monday evenings more particularly that this _salon_
looks its best, when the receptions, with music, are held. The Powers
_pension_ is a select family home in the strictest sense of the term,
and the rates for board are quite reasonable: pleasant rooms and three
meals from ten francs per day. A lift was put in last autumn. Make a
note of the address--69 Avenue d’Antin.

In the hotels mentioned the reader has a very wide latitude of choice
and he may be guided by the facts and the figures set forth, so far as
they go. As a last word I will add that if the reader “puts up” at the
Hotel Chatham, Hotel Binda, or the Anglo-Français, or the _pensions_ of
Mr. and Mrs. Powers, Madame Veuve Glatz, or Mrs. Van Pelt, he will
surely have no occasion to regret his choice of quarters.

[Illustration]




THE RESTAURANTS OF PARIS.

BY THEODORE CHILD.


In order to anticipate criticism, and to avoid disappointment, it may be
well to state at once that the art of cookery is in a terrible state of
decadence in Paris. The men of the present generation do not seem to
have the sentiment of the table; they know neither its varied resources
nor its infinite refinements; their palates are dull, and they are
content to eat rather than to dine. This decadence may be remarked both
in private and in public establishments. The _gourmet_ nowadays is a
rarity, and a man of thirty years of age who knows how to order a dinner
is a still greater rarity. One might discover many causes of this
decline of a delicate art. The conditions of contemporary life, the
hurry and unrest of modern Paris, doubtless do not conduce to the
appreciation of fine cooking; but the chief cause of the decline of
cookery in restaurants is the development of club life. The men of
fashion, leisure, or wealth, who formerly would have lived at the
restaurants, now dine at their clubs between two _séances_ at the
baccarat table, and the restaurants have thus lost that nucleus of
regular and fastidious customers which, by its readiness to criticise
and appreciate, obliged and encouraged the _chef_ to keep up the
traditions of the dainty palates of the past. At present the great
restaurants of Paris depend for support as much on foreigners and on
provincial people as on resident Parisians. The criticism of their
cookery is less constant and less rigorous; the bills of fare are less
varied than they were of old; the _amour propre_ of the cooks is less;
in a word, cookery has become nowadays more an industry than an art.
Even in the most famous Parisian restaurants the visitor must not expect
too much in the way either of viands or of wines.

In certain things, again, it must be remembered that the Parisian market
is inferior to the markets of almost any town in England. The English
visitor generally speaks disparagingly of the French oyster, for
instance, doubtless because he is not accustomed to its flavor, and yet
I know many connoisseurs who have travelled and dined in many lands who
maintain that of all oysters the green Marennes (_Marennes vertes_) are
the most delicate and delicious. The lovers of comparisons will ask what
equivalents the French have for real turtle-soup, ox-tail, mulligatawny,
and pea-soup with a sprinkling of dried mint and sippets. Is it their
_bisque_ or _purée_ of crayfish, their _consommé de volaille_, their
_Saint Germain_, or green pea-soup, their _Parmentier_, or thick
potato-soup? But the traveller does not go to Paris to eat the food of
his native land, but rather to enjoy the particular food of the country.
Therefore, he must not expect to get fine salmon, or cod-fish, or
turbot, or even mackerel in Paris. The city is too far away from the sea
to have good salt-water fish. Salmon in Paris is dry and of poor flavor;
fresh cod-fish is rarely seen, and the habits of the restaurants render
it impossible to eat such salmon and turbot as there is in favorable
conditions. In a London restaurant a whole salmon or a whole turbot is
served hot like the joints; in a Paris restaurant, if you order boiled
salmon or turbot, the cook cuts a slice off a parboiled fish, puts the
slice in the pot, and boils it up for you. The result is unsatisfactory.
As a rule, I should say, in a Parisian restaurant eat your salmon and
your turbot cold, and prefer to both a red mullet (_rouget_), a sole, a
trout, or some fresh-water fish. A carefully prepared _matelotte
d’anguilles_, which is not precisely the same as stewed eels, and
_friture de Seine_, which need not be compared to whitebait, are both
dishes not unworthy of the attention of the epicure.

The French are poor roasters; the roast beef and roast mutton in their
restaurants cannot for a moment be compared with the joints at Simpson’s
or Blanchard’s in London. Pies and puddings also are unknown to the
French, with the exception of _pâtés de foie gras_ and game pies. The
French, again, eat their game very fresh and less cooked than the
English. Generally, I think that the raw material of the Parisian
restaurant cuisine is inferior to that of English restaurants; on the
other hand, with the limitations referred to above, particularly as
regards roasting, the preparation of the dishes is superior, and in the
first-class restaurants unique. In the preparation and variety of
vegetables the French lead the world; in the fabrication of sauces they
are unsurpassed; in the serving and arrangement of a dinner they leave
little to be desired.

But where can one go to dine in Paris? Which restaurants are the best,
and what are the prices, and what is one to order? The subject is
delicate and even dangerous, for although the critic has the right to
declare a book or picture bad, pernicious, or abominable, and to
pronounce its author to be unworthy of public attention, he dare not be
so outspoken about the wretchedest restaurant-keeper who is licensed to
poison his customers. I cannot tell you that such and such a restaurant
in the Palais Royal is not to be frequented, or that such and such a
gilded palace on the boulevard is an expensive delusion. I may, however,
assure you that as prices run in Paris, it is impossible for a
restaurateur to serve you with a healthy and honest plate of meat for
less than one and a half francs, and you may therefore conclude that the
restaurateurs who, for a fixed price, varying from one and a quarter to
three francs, offer you a complete dinner of five courses--soup, fish,
meat, two desserts, and half a bottle of wine--are probably in league
with the honorable apothecaries, whose aid their customers must often
need.

To the traveller I say avoid _prix fixe_ dinners altogether, or, if you
will satisfy your curiosity, go to the Dîner Européen at the corner of
rue Lepelletier and the boulevard (price five francs), or to the table
d’hôte dinners of those vast caravansaries, the Hôtel du Louvre, the
Grand Hôtel, or the Hôtel Continental, where you dine for six, seven, or
eight francs, and see specimens of men, women and children of all the
countries of the world, and a profusion of linen, of silver plate, and
luxurious surroundings which, for a time, will perhaps distract your
attention from the insipidness of the roasts and the cheapness of the
sauces.

The Bouillon Duval is an establishment which generally attracts the
attention of the traveller. In every quarter of Paris you see one or two
sober and respectable-looking façades painted dark red and lettered
simply, “Établissement Duval.” The Duval restaurants are wonderfully
organized, exceedingly cheap, and all the food sold in them is good and
genuine; these establishments now serve an average of three million
meals a year. The visitor may often find it convenient in his wanderings
about Paris to lunch in one of these Duval restaurants, if he is out of
the way of any other well-known restaurant. In all of them he will find
the food of the same quality, and the prices the same. As he enters, the
doorkeeper will hand him a bulletin, on which all that he eats and
drinks will be checked off, and which bulletin, when duly paid and
stamped, will serve him as a passport when he leaves the establishment.
The prices at the Duvals are very low; no dish costs more than one
franc, and most of them only fifty or sixty centimes; wine costs twenty
centimes a carafon, which is equivalent to one glassful, or one franc a
bottle and upwards; coffee and cognac costs forty centimes. The Duval
restaurant may be frequented with impunity, for nothing poisonous or
deleterious is sold there; the only disadvantage is that the portions
being very small, a hungry man, in order to satisfy his appetite, will
need so many portions, that his bill will mount up to as much as if he
had lunched or dined in an establishment of superior standing and
comfort. The Bouillon Duval stands in the same relation to the regular
restaurant as the omnibus or tram-car stands to the victoria; as
somebody has said, _c’est l’omnibus du ventre_.

At length we come to the restaurants proper, the restaurants where one
dines in the true sense of the term. It is commonly believed that the
first-class restaurants in Paris are very dear. The Café Anglais, you
will be told, charges twelve francs for a beefsteak for two, and fifteen
francs for a Rouen duck. Yes, but the beefsteak in question is a
Chateaubriand, a kernel of delicate meat cut in the heart of the
_filet_,--meat that is sold at two and a half francs a pound by the
butcher--and the duck costs eight or nine francs at the poulterer’s.
Good provisions in Paris are dear, and when one considers the heavy
expenses of the first-class restaurants, one cannot complain of their
charges.

As regards perfection of cooking, the Café Anglais heads the list. Its
soups and sauces are exquisite; a sole “à l’Orly,” “Colbert,”
“normande,” “à la Join-ville,” or “au vin blanc,” may be eaten there in
perfection, and there is no restaurant in Paris where you can get a more
delicate “sauce diable” served to a grilled fowl. The two great tests of
a French kitchen are soups and sauces; if these are good, you may rest
assured that everything else will be good.

In the same category with the Café Anglais, both as regards quality of
food and price, may be placed Durand’s, opposite the Madeleine, and
Adolphe and Pellé behind the Opéra. Next come the Maison d’Or, the Café
de la Paix, Bignon, and the Café de Paris, in the Avenue de l’Opéra,
Voisin in the rue Cambon, the old Véfour in the Palais Royal, the Père
Lathuile, in the Avenue de Clichy, and Fayot, opposite the Luxembourg
Palace. At all these restaurants you can dine delicately and drink as
good wines as are still to be had in France. Voisin and Foyot,
especially, have choice Burgundies of incomparable fineness.

The third category of restaurants includes the Café Riche, which years
ago belonged to the first category; Brébant’s, now a general Bouillon,
at the corner of Boulevard Montmartre; Chevilliard, at the Rond-Point
des Champs Élysées; Laurent, and Ledoyen, in the Champs Élysées;
Champeaux, Place de la Bourse, where you dine in a perpetual winter
garden; Edouard, Place Boieldieu, opposite the Opéra Comique; Wepler,
Place Clichy; La Pérouse, on the Quai des Grands Augustins; Maire, at
the corner of the Boulevard de Strasbourg and the Boulevard St. Denis;
Marguery, next door to the Gymnase theatre; Perroncel, rue du Havre,
opposite the Gare Saint Lazare. In the Bois du Boulogne the restaurants
of Madrid, and of the Pavilion d’Armenonville are much frequented in the
summer by gay and smart people: the prices are about the same as at the
restaurants in town of the second category, that is to say, two can dine
there modestly with ordinary wine for a louis.

I presume that the traveller comes to Paris to taste Parisian cooking,
and therefore I shall not recommend him to try the pseudo-English
cuisine of Weber or Lucas in the rue Royale and Place de la Madeleine,
or the Russian restaurant in the rue Marivaux, or the Hungarian
restaurant in the rue Rougemont. There remain then to be mentioned only
a few special establishments, such as the Pied de Mouton near the
Central Market, and the famous tripe restaurant in the rue Montorgueil.
There are several restaurants in Paris which make a specialty of
Bouillabaisse; but I do not recommend that dish in Paris, for the simple
reason that it is not the real article. In the Parisian Bouillabaisse
several of the fish elements are wanting because they cannot bear
transportation from the seaside. The traveller _gourmet_ will prefer to
wait until chance leads him to Marseilles, where the reigning chief of
the great dynasty of Roubion will serve him this savoury dish on a
balcony overlooking the blue Mediterranean. The café concerts in the
Champs Élysées are also much frequented by open air diners in the
summer. The spectacle is curious and amusing, but the _gourmet_ will
flee the promiscuity and bustle of their dear and mediocre cuisine.

To give precise details as to price is difficult. One may say generally
that at the Café Anglais two persons can dine delicately and well
without stint as to good wines or choice of dishes, for about two louis
(forty francs). On the other hand, the single man who is prepared to
spend not less than seven francs on his dinner may enter boldly any
restaurant in Paris, from the Café Anglais downward, and dine for that
sum on soup, one dish, cheese, and half a bottle of wine. For ten or
twelve francs one may dine simply but abundantly almost anywhere, except
at the very tip-top houses, such as the Café Anglais, Durand’s, and
Adolphe and Pellé’s. By way of practical hints I will subjoin a few
observations.

Beware of _hors d’œuvres_ and baskets of fruit, for their influence
on the total of your bill is alarming. If you are alone, resolutely
refuse radishes and butter, or rather leave them untouched on the table
before you; if you have invited a friend to dinner, offer him _hors
d’œuvres_ and hope that he will refuse; if you are with a lady, both
_hors d’œuvres_ and the basket of fruit are obligatory. Eve offered
fruit to Adam; the least we sons of Adam can do is to return the
politeness.

The real _gourmet_ eats by candle-light, because, as Nestor Roqueplan
said, “rein n’est laid comme une sauce vue au soleil.”

When you enter a restaurant refuse as a rule the place that is offered
you. Choose your own table, and if it is breakfast-time secure a view
through the window and a view of the whole restaurant, and if possible
let the light strike on the table from your left hand.

Preserve your freedom of will, but do not try to impose it. You are the
master, it is true, and yet to a certain extent you must obey. Consult,
therefore, with the _maître d’hôtel_, consider what he recommends, and
accept it if it be to your taste, for in the good restaurants there is
no question of passing off stale food. The _maître d’hôtel_ is flattered
when you ask his advice, and it is his business to be acquainted with
the special and daily resources of the larder. At places like the Café
Anglais the written _menu_ mentions only a few very ordinary dishes, and
you will inspire respect by not asking for the _carte_. At Bignon’s do
not trouble yourself about the _carte_; ask advice of the portly Louis,
and do not disdain his counsel. In cookery as in love much confidence is
necessary.

Always ask for the wine list, _la carte des vins_, even if you end by
selecting _vin ordinaire_. The richest people in the land drink _vin
ordinaire_ with their dinner, and dilute it with simple water. The
traveller, therefore, need not fear to do likewise even in the most
gorgeous restaurants. Champagne is not much drunk by French _gourmets_,
and such champagnes as the Paris restaurants keep is sweeter than our
people generally like. To the connoisseur in champagne I would say, “Do
not drink champagne in France, for the best _crûs_ are to be found in
England and Russia.” If you desire fine red or white wines you will find
the nomenclature and the prices on the list; choose your Beaune, Pomard,
Volnay, Nuits, or Moulin à Vent, your Tavel, Tonnerre, or Chambertin
according to your taste and purse; consult confidentially with the
butler, and mind that you always address him as _sommelier_, and not
_garçon_. The _sommelier_ is inferior to the _garçon_ in the hierarchy
of table service, as you will see from his more humble and respectful
demeanor.

Ask for _l’addition_, and not either _la carte_ or _la note_, which
savours of provincialism. Verify your change rapidly, and see that no
pieces lurk on the plate beneath the bill. Be liberal towards the
waiter, for it is the _pourboire_ that secures you a smile when you
arrive and a smile when you leave, a helping hand when you are
struggling into your overcoat, obliging and ready service, and the
appearance, nay, even the reality of friendship. In the three categories
of restaurants mentioned above do not give the waiter less than fifty
centimes, however modest your bill, and the more delicate and
satisfactory your dinner, the more liberal let your _pourboire_ be,
ranging from one franc up to five, calculated generally at the rate of
five per cent. on the total of your bill.

[Illustration]




THE ANGLO-AMERICAN BANKING CO.


When Americans have the facilities to execute a good idea they always
possess the energy and the boldness to execute it in a fitting way. Thus
instead of going into small quarters in an out of the way location, the
Anglo-American Banking Company of Paris selected a large and imposing
building, fronting on two broad streets. Then with a liberal outlay of
money they proceeded to fit up the different floors in luxurious style.
The site, on the corner of Chaussée d’Antin and Rue Meyerbeer, half a
block from the Grand Opéera, a step from the Grand Hotel, and near some
of the leading boulevards, is at once choice, central and accessible.

The ground floor of the building, where money is exchanged and where
letters of credit are cashed, is roomy and has a solid and business-like
appearance, while the upper floors are furnished with an eye to
convenience, comfort and beauty. It is here, on this second floor, where
there are tastefully furnished rooms for ladies, where desks are at hand
for clients to conduct their correspondence, and where the leading
American, English and French papers are kept on file in charge of a
prompt-serving and careful attendant.

The bank is now established on a firm basis; it has the confidence of
the French people, and it promises to become an “institution” in Paris.
It is convenient to keep a small account at the bank, drawing checks
against it in making purchases in Paris. But the house can be used for
any and every legitimate banking purpose, and Americans find it very
useful as a place where their letters may be addressed, where their
letters of credit are cashed and where they may meet friends. It has
some of the features of a club, and although only established a few
years is now quite a popular rendezvous for Americans. The
Anglo-American bank itself issues letters of credit payable all over the
world.

The officers of the American Banking Company are S. J. Gorman, of New
York, president; J. L. Carr, vice-president; J. H. Hobson, of New York,
general manager; Edmond Huerstel, secretary. Cable address, Anabaco,
Paris.




AU BON MARCHÉ.


Everybody has heard of, and all who have been to Paris have visited Au
Bon Marché, world-renowned of dry goods establishments. This great
emporium was practically founded by Jacques-Aristide Boucicaut, who,
beginning life in a small way in the dry goods business, became partner,
and finally sole owner of the Bon Marché. Once above the rank of
ordinary employee, he undertook to improve the moral and material
condition of his fellow workmen. He inaugurated free classes in the arts
and sciences, language, music, etc., and established a provident fund
for long service in the establishment, supplied his employees with free
medical attendance, and in many other forms, in addition to large
outside charities and good works, evidenced more than enough of the
spirit to entitle him to the appellation of philanthropist. At his death
in 1877, the annual returns from his business exceeded sixteen millions
of dollars. After his death his good works were continued by his widow,
who, with an enormous fortune at her command, dispensed it in extended
and elaborate charities, establishing the system of sharing of profits
among her employees, creating a retiring pension fund, erecting and
maintaining hospitals, and at her death disposing of millions of francs
to churches, colleges, and other public institutions.

Mme. Boucicaut died ten years after her husband, but the Bon Marché
still continues under the original plan and system of its founder. There
are three thousand six hundred employees, and all the unmarried
employees of the establishment board on the premises. For the proper
conduct of such a business the system of course must be perfect, near as
may be. Rules and regulations are set forth and strictly adhered to. It
is expressly provided that the food shall be wholesome and abundant. A
doctor is attached to the establishment who may be consulted by the
employees free of charge. Any employee called for military service can,
at its expiration, resume his situation. No fines are inflicted under
any circumstances.

The Bon Marché forwards to any part of the globe all goods bought at the
establishment, and to nearly all the countries of Europe, including
Great Britain, it will forward free of charge for carriage any purchase
to the amount of twenty-five francs (five dollars). A pretty souvenir
volume is issued by the Bon Marché. It contains a useful indicator map
of Paris, and a deal of interesting information about the great
metropolis. It may be obtained free upon application by postal card.
Address simply, Au Bon Marché, Paris.

[Illustration]




[Illustration: THE DE SOTO.] SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.


The city of Savannah, with its balmy air, its far famed Bonaventure
Cemetery, its pretty parks, broad streets and many natural attractions
(acknowledged to be one of the most attractive Southern cities), was
long avoided by many pleasure tourists, because it had no hotel worthy
of a city claiming fifty thousand inhabitants and doing a business of
over one hundred and thirty millions of dollars annually.

Savannah is the greatest cotton port in the world--New Orleans excepted.
Savannah has deep water and good docks. Sometimes as many as thirty
English ships are in this port at the same time. They take cotton direct
to foreign ports. Savannah is easily approached from North and South:
presently it is to have communication with the west--direct from Kansas
City. When these and other contemplated improvements are made, Savannah
expects to experience an era of great prosperity. It is predicted that
the city will double its population in the next ten years.

Anyone who doubts that Savannah is steadily moving forward in prosperity
has only to take a glimpse at the tax returns made to the city treasurer
for 1891, to have the doubt quickly dispelled. In 1890, the returns of
personal property footed up $9,948,048, and in 1891 they were
considerably over $10,000,000, the increase being about $500,000. The
banks alone in ’91 made returns of $506,000 in excess of 1890. This
shows that there is a great demand for banking institutions. Real estate
has increased $1,300,000.

Such being the present condition and future prospects of Savannah, it
was time that some movement were made for the better entertainment of
visitors, so at last the citizens put their heads together and concluded
that no matter how rich a city is in natural attractions, the climax of
success is only capped by railway facilities and first class hotels.

Mr. H. B. Plant, head of the Plant System, furnished the railway
facilities, and now the citizens of Savannah have supplied the hotel.
They formed a stock company, subscribed a million of dollars and opened
the De Soto, two years ago, which proved to be exteriorly one of the
handsomest houses in this country, if not in the world, and interiorly
one of the best appointed--in keeping with the American idea.

Savannah never had a habit of going across the seas for hotel names. It
boasts of no Victoria, no Buckingham, no Imperial, but it has a Screven,
named after a prominent Georgia family; a Pulaski, named for a military
hero, and now a De Soto, in honor of the discoverer of the Mississippi
river. Savannah is nothing if not patriotic. It has a Monterey square, a
Forsyth park, and among its monuments are the noble columns erected to
perpetuate the memory of three revolutionary heroes--Jasper, Green and
Pulaski.

The De Soto cost a round million of dollars. It occupies, but does not
literally “cover, an entire block of ground,” as the writer of the
little descriptive pamphlet has it. The house is built in the form of a
hollow square, with entrances on three sides. This plan of construction
was adopted to leave a large open court in the centre, thus securing an
ample supply of light and air; and the plan has succeeded to perfection.

The dining-room, which seats nearly four hundred guests, has air and
light its full length, on both sides. Some of the bedroom doors, instead
of wooden panels, have panels of ground glass to let light into the
halls. The bedroom in which these lines are written is fifteen feet
square, not counting a deep recess for the windows, of which there are
two, each measuring seven feet six by four feet six. There is also a
transom over the door. To such an extent has this love of light been
carried that even the elevator, instead of being built with solid sides,
has sides of strong, open wire work, through which light and air stream
freely.

The interior, while being on a broad, liberal, yes, a luxurious scale,
has no striking novelties. It is modelled after the style of the large
modern American hotels of the first-class. There is a large and splendid
“office” with reading-room, smoking-room, writing-room, and small
parlors branching off; there are open fires and all the etceteras of
convenience and luxury; the whole ground floor is marble-tiled, the
corridors are ten feet wide and richly carpeted; they lead on each side
to an inviting veranda; there is pure water from an artesian well and
the sanitary arrangements are said to be scientifically correct.

The parlor, with its onyx tables, its gold-framed chairs, delicate
carpets, its richly-embossed furniture covering, its mirrors, electric
lights and the light-colored walls minus anything that suggests a work
of art, is, to my mind, rather cold and stiff. I prefer the home-like
drawing-room of the Imperial Hotel in Aberdeen, Scotland, with its
profusion of fresh flowers, its cabinets and pretty things, or say, the
drawing-room of the Langham Hotel, London, rich and pleasing in subdued,
dark colors; but the De Soto is an American hotel, it is kept after the
American methods, and without doubt the parlor suits to perfection those
for whom it is furnished--then why should anybody criticise its
decorations?

But the exterior with its novel and beautiful construction, a
combination of architectural styles forming a very pleasing whole,
commands instant admiration. There are towers, turrets, arched
entrances, Queen Anne windows, fountains and a number of overhanging
red-tiled roofs through which waterspouts project in picturesque
fashion. The walls are of brick in two different colors with terra cotta
trimmings, railings and ornaments of black iron. All of these materials
and colors are used with skill and the very best taste, making an
artistic combination which is remarkably pleasing. Then the graceful
palm trees here and there give the surroundings a tropical appearance
and serve to add to the beautiful picture.

The site of the De Soto was well chosen. All of the four streets on
which it is built being wide, ample opportunity is afforded to admire
from a distance its lines of beauty. Its main front is on a very wide
street, Liberty street, probably not quite so broad as Unter den Linden
in Berlin, nor has it the grand palaces of that renowned German street;
but Liberty street is neat, clean and kept in good order, which is more
than can be said of Unter den Linden. The sidewalks are of smooth-faced
red brick; between them and the roadway on either side there is a row of
trees. There is another row of trees, also a car track, in the middle of
the street, and on either side of the track again there is an asphalt
drive for carriages. There is abundant space, and although it lacks the
solid buildings of larger cities, the street itself is not lacking in
attractions.

Within five minutes’ walk of the house is Forsyth park, with its acres
of forest trees, and plenty of japonicas and roses in full bloom at this
writing, January 26. In the centre of this park there is a handsome
fountain, modeled after the grand fountain in the Place de la Concorde,
Paris. It is a mistake and a pity to half hide it behind japonica trees
and rose bushes, from six to eight feet high.

It is very enjoyable to sit in any of Savannah’s pretty parks these
days, say between noon and four o’clock. There is no danger of taking
nor of feeling cold. At night and in the early morn the air is cool (36
to 42 degrees), but in the afternoon it is soft and balmy--anywhere from
56 to 76 degrees. It is an old habit of mine to carry a thermometer in
my satchel, so I am not dependent on the hotel instrument nor on hearsay
for my facts and figures concerning the temperature. Frost is rarely
seen in Savannah, and they never get a sight of snow unless some of the
“beautiful” article should remain on the car roofs of trains coming from
the North.

The De Soto can accommodate four hundred guests, and besides, the
dining-room and the smaller “early breakfast-room” on the main floor,
there is a banqueting hall on the first floor in which two hundred
guests can sit down comfortably. A novel feature for a hotel is a
gymnasium, on the sixth floor, and above this, at the very summit, there
is a large “Solarium,” fitted up with chairs, tables and lounges. Here
you can sit, bask in the sun, and, as Walt Whitman says, “loaf and
invite your soul.” In this elevated position you get a magnificent view
of Savannah and the surrounding country--as far east as the Tybee coast,
twenty miles distant.

There are in all three hundred and thirty-eight bedrooms, forty parlors
and sixty bath-rooms in the house, affording many choice suites for
families. There are no dark rooms nor inner rooms; all have a street
view, a park view, or look out upon the court-yard. Every room has a
wardrobe built in the wall, and this is covered by a tasteful portière.
All the carpets and draperies, by the way, came from W. & J. Sloane, and
the electroliers and gasoliers were supplied by Archer, Pancoast & Co.,
both leading New York houses in their respective branches.

A band of twelve pieces (Cobb’s Savannah Band) performs excellent music
in an alcove near the dining-room during the luncheon and dinner hours.

The house has been leased for fifteen years by Watson & Powers, who have
had long experience in Charleston and other hotels. They kept the
Pulaski House here, as a colored driver told me in answer to a question,
“a right smart time,” which still leaves the number of years rather
indefinite. The same gentleman and brother, who drive carriages for the
house, and who drove me through Bonaventure Cemetery, said that the fire
of two years ago, which burned for two days, destroyed the “‘Sonic
Hall.” He also volunteered this piece of intelligence: “Der Pulaski
House is makin’ a very big condition,” which I translated to mean
addition. My esteemed friend, Mr. Marcus Wight and his charming wife, of
Lowell, Mass., were our travelling companions for that day, and their
delightful company enhanced the interest and the enjoyment of the drive.

If you desire to see a hotel which contains all the latest and best
American ideas, and, unlike the hotels of Europe, combines them into a
perfect system, telegraph for rooms to the De Soto. It is advisable to
take it in, as a resting place, between New York and Florida, or vice
versa.

       *       *       *       *       *

P. S.--This is called a cold winter in Savannah, yet at six A.M.,
Thursday, January 29, the thermometer marked sixty degrees.




THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA.


Time, eleven A.M., February 1.--Your correspondent is seated at his
bedroom window; there are two large windows in the room, and both are
wide open. The apartment is twenty feet square with a twelve-foot
ceiling; it is not heated artificially and yet the temperature in it is
seventy-two degrees. This is not said from hearsay, nor is the record
taken from a hotel thermometer, which may be unreliable, but from a
portable thermometer of my own.

WHEN THE PLACE WAS SETTLED.--People ask, “How old is Thomasville: when
was it first settled?” The writer can answer this question because he
had the good fortune to be presented to no less a personage than Mrs. M.
A. Bower, a most charming woman to look at and to converse with, who is
proud of her fifty-six years, but whom you would judge to be at least
ten years younger. Mrs. Bower was the first white child born in
Thomasville, and in the first real house erected in the place. It stood
on the present site of the Mitchell House. Mrs. Bower is the daughter of
Colonel and Mrs. Edward Remington who came here from Pawtuxet, R. I., in
the year 1828. Set it down for a fact then that Thomasville is three
score years old.

LOCATION.--Thomasville, the capital of Thomas county (this is not from a
gazetteer, please believe), stands three hundred and thirty feet above
sea level, being on the highest ground between Macon and the Gulf of
Mexico, in the Uplands of Georgia. It is two hundred miles from the
Atlantic, sixty miles from the Gulf of Mexico as the bird flies, twelve
miles from the Florida State line, a thirty-three-mile drive from
Tallahassee, and is reached from Jacksonville at the South or from
Savannah coming from the North in a few hours by way of Waycross or
Jesup, two places not particularly attractive to the tourist but quite
useful as way stations, affording junctions for several lines of
railroad.

HEALTH AND PLEASURE.--Thomasville was at one time simply a health
resort: people with consumption or other lung or throat diseases came
here for relief and they found it. They, the sickly people, still come
to get well; but beside being a health resort it is now also a place for
pleasure. Fashion has set its seal on Thomasville. New York and Boston
are well represented among the visitors, but the West especially favors
Thomasville, and St. Paul, for its size, sends more people probably than
any other city. A number of St. Paul citizens have cottages here and
have set up fine establishments. Ladies dress for the morning ride or
drive; they dress for the mid-day dinner and again for the evening
dance. Ladies at the hotels exchange visits with the cottagers, also
with the townspeople, the permanent residents giving strangers a warm,
Southern welcome.

FEATURES OF THE TOWN.--To-day Thomasville has churches of all
denominations (including a Jewish place of worship), two hotels far
superior to any between Baltimore and Jacksonville, unless exception be
made of the new Oglethorpe at Brunswick; a number of smaller hotels,
numerous boarding houses, two daily newspapers, several good private
schools, a flourishing college for girls and one for the other sex, a
railway direct to the town--and five thousand inhabitants. The boys’
college is a branch of the State University and has at present two
hundred and fifty pupils. The other institution, called “Young’s Female
College,” was endowed by a Georgian, and the charge for tuition is so
low as to be nominal, ten dollars per year to each pupil. So the
religiously inclined have ample opportunity to worship at their
particular shrine, and the educational advantages of Thomasville are
good.

NATURE’S GIFTS.--The reputation of this place was gained by its dry and
balmy atmosphere, its even temperature, its health-giving pine forests
and by its freedom from cold or sudden changes. The United States Signal
Service report shows that the average winter temperature is about
fifty-five degrees, and the average temperature last July, the hottest
month here, was eighty-two degrees. While the winter days are warm the
mornings and nights are pleasantly cool, and it never snows here. Once
during the past fourteen years they did have a flurry of snow. It
happened on a Sunday and the churches remained empty; so interested were
the inhabitants in the uncommon sight that they neglected the church and
all took to snowballing. You need no overcoats nor wraps for outdoor
wear, except, perhaps, for an evening drive, or for rainy days; but an
umbrella or parasol to protect you from the heat of the sun is
indispensable. I am speaking of needing such an article at the present
time, February 1.

THE PINEY WOODS OAK.--To those coming from the North the sight of the
trees in full leaf is as agreeable as it is strange. The pine, live-oak,
hemlock and holly all have their branches thickly covered. There is a
gorgeous live-oak on the grounds of the Piney Woods Hotel whose
spreading branches measure sixty feet across. There is still a larger
one in the town, which people travel miles to see. It spreads ninety
feet across. But beauty does not always consist in bigness. The Piney
Woods oak is both beautiful and big, but its symmetrical beauty is its
main attraction. Is it too warm on the hotel porch? Are the sun’s rays
too fierce? Cross over the road, fifty yards distant, and seek a
comfortable bench or rustic seat in the grateful shade of the pines, in
what is popularly termed “Yankee Paradise,” but known more correctly as
Paradise Park. It includes thirty acres laid out in walks and drives.
There is no ice to make your step unsteady, but the needles of the pines
render the paths rather slippery.

WHEN TO COME.--You can pick violets in the open air and pluck in the
fields a small bouquet of daisies at this writing, but to see
Thomasville at its best, I am told that you must come a little later
than this, when the grass is all green. You can then pluck wild roses to
your heart’s content. Then the pear orchards will be in full bloom, and
the dogwood blossoms are a sight to behold. I have been here only three
days and have seen no rain, but the soil is sandy and one can readily
believe what enthusiasts say, that an hour or two after a long and heavy
rain walking is again pleasant, the rain having percolated through the
ground, leaving the surface perfectly dry, if not hard. And there is
seemingly no end of lovely walks. You get out of the town in five
minutes, and if you are bent on pedestrian exercise, and have an eye for
beautiful scenes, turn your steps in any direction and you will make no
mistake.

WHAT TO BRING.--If the ladies of your party are equestriennes, by all
means let them bring their riding habits with them: everybody rides.
Driving, too, is largely indulged in, the roads being hard, smooth and
unusually wide. They extend for miles and miles through the pine woods,
and their picturesque beauty you will please imagine; it is not easy to
describe it without using more adjectives than I have at my command en
route. To sportsmen let me say, do not come without your dog and gun or
you will never forget nor forgive the error. Wild turkeys abound, there
are snipe in plenty and quail can be bagged by a novice. You see them on
the road while driving, and the crack of the rifle is heard almost
constantly. Quail on toast is a regular dish at the hotels at least once
a day.

THE NEGRO AND HIS WORKS.--Without desiring to attack political problems,
to raise dead issues or to discuss questions that have long since been
answered, one cannot resist the temptation to obtain information on the
result of the emancipation proclamation, for although it is over a
quarter of a century old the subject yet has great interest for this
country, and for other countries also, for that matter. Here is a
statement of facts and figures in condensed, nutshell form upon which
chapters and books might be written--the colored population of Georgia
pay taxes on real estate amounting to twelve millions of dollars, the
realty being estimated at about one half its actual value, and their
personal property is estimated at about six millions of dollars. There
are instances of marked faithfulness and attachment of slaves to their
former owners, some of the blacks still serving their white masters.
Among the servants of Mrs. M. A. Bower, proprietor of the Piney Woods
Hotel, are two who formerly served this same “master,” one of them being
the skilful pastry-cook of the hotel. Negroes say that the whites and
work do not agree. Possibly not; they are unaccustomed to labor hard in
this section, and on the other hand whites claim that the colored are by
nature more fitted for work in such a climate. Be that as it may, it is
certain that the colored people of the South are not over fond of work,
either: you cannot depend upon their working regularly. So soon as they
can put enough by to keep them in cracked wheat or hominy and a little
tobacco the colored laborers are likely to throw up a job, and are not
over particular if they occasionally leave an employer in the lurch. If
you are a new settler and are building a house, for instance, they will
have no compunction about leaving you some fine morning, or some wet
afternoon, before your house is roofed in. Of clothing for warmth they
need little, and the weather never being severe their log cabins or pine
huts need not be very tight: if they shed the rain that is all that is
necessary for them.

THE CHAIN GANG.--The jail at Thomasville was not near large enough until
a new plan of punishment was adopted. The colored roughs committed small
offences for the very purpose of getting into prison; in that way
obtaining food and shelter, and at the same time “doin’ nuffin.” Not so
now: the town council met and adopted the resolution that prisoners
should be made to work, and that is how the “chain gang” came into
existence. You will see gangs of colored men repairing the roads and
engaged in other public works on the highway. They wear a striped
uniform after the prevailing fashion at our State prisons. The two legs
of each man are held close enough together by iron chains to prevent the
action of running, but yet the chains afford him sufficient freedom to
move about and make himself useful with pick and shovel. It is a novel
sight for a stranger to meet one of these gangs on the road, and the
clank of the locked iron links has a strange and weird sound. To their
credit be it said, the men are ashamed of their public disgrace, and the
Thomasville prison is now large enough to hold all the applicants for
admission. Making the negro work and making him a public show have had
good effect. Such a plan is of course not feasible for cities, but it
might be adopted with a degree of success in thinly populated districts
of Northern States. Tramps give Thomasville a wide berth. If one of the
genus unwittingly wanders that way he is given his choice: he must leave
at once or join the chain gang and work for thirty days.

UPLAND PRODUCTS.--Cotton is still king in the South, and Georgia
produces its full share, but Thomas county is also noted for oats. More
oats are produced in Thomas county than in any other county in the
United States. This I have from one of the prominent citizens of the
town, whose information is as extensive as the manner of imparting his
knowledge is agreeable. If you come to Thomasville try to meet Dr.
Bower. He practices his profession no longer, being interested in many
large enterprises. He can give you more interesting information
concerning these parts than probably any other person hereabouts. But
you must allow a little for Dr. Bower’s enthusiasm. He is apt to look at
Thomasville and Thomas county through a rose-colored glass. From Dr.
Bower your correspondent learned, among other things, that the Le Conte
pear, which grows in such profusion here and in Florida, was brought to
this country from China about fifty years ago, and propagated by
Commodore Le Conte, a Georgian of French descent. It does not equal the
Bartlett in flavor, but its skin is tougher, and it bears transportation
better. You may see orchards containing thousands of trees, and the
trees average a production of twelve to fifteen bushels. Some trees are
said to yield as many as thirty-five bushels. They boast here of the
largest pear orchard in the world--two hundred and twenty-five acres.
Last year twenty-five thousand crates of pears were shipped from
Thomasville to cities in the North and West. Some found their way to the
New England summer resorts, and were received with favor. Still, from
all I can learn, while the North has its Bartlett, it need not envy the
South its Le Conte.

THE POOR KINE.--It is conceded that they raise here in abundance cotton,
oats and pears, and that pine trees, roses, magnolias, quail, figs, and
other good things grow in profusion, but, on the other hand, the live
stock is very poor indeed and meats must come all the way from New York
if people demand meat that is good and nutritious. That is where all the
meat comes from which is consumed at the hotels. It almost makes your
heart ache to see the poor, weak oxen that are forced to work, and the
thin, bony cows that must yield their milk. It may be different in
summer time, when the grass is rich, but the cattle seem to be very
poorly fed now, or not fed at all. They are allowed to roam freely about
the streets and byways of the town, and pick up, by day or night, what
they can find.

THE WINN FARM.--An exception to this rule must be made in favor of Winn
Farm, a tract of eighteen hundred acres, owned by F. J. Winn, several
hundred acres of which are under cultivation. The stock there looks
better than the animals you see in Thomasville proper, and for which you
have nothing but sympathy. They make good wine, too, at Winn Farm, and
it is offered in hospitable quantities from the hand of an attractive,
cultivated woman, the presiding genius of the place, Mrs. F. J. Winn.
The luscious, juicy oranges which are put on the tables of the Piney
Woods Hotel in such liberal measure, come from the grove on Indian
River, Florida, owned and cultivated by Dr. Bower. The grove contains
four or five thousand orange trees in bearing.

THE HOTELS.--There is a standing joke about certain Southern cities
where there are only two hotels, that, whichever one you select, you
will wish that you had chosen the other. Although the hotels south of
the line have greatly improved of late years, the old joke will still
apply in certain towns and cities. Not so, however, at Thomasville.
There are only two hotels here known to fame, and you will make no
mistake if you select either. It is a matter of surprise to find two
such hotels in such a comparatively small town. The Mitchell House and
the Piney Woods Hotel (I take them alphabetically) are both large, new,
handsomely furnished and perfectly appointed houses, containing all the
modern improvements, and erected with strict regard for the laws of
sanitation. The Mitchell House is an imposing solid brick structure,
four stories high, two hundred feet square, with a cultivated park of
two acres sweeping before its front piazza. This little park is
reserved for the hotel guests and their friends.

The Piney Woods Hotel is within gun-shot distance of the Mitchell House,
on the same street, with a front measuring three hundred and fifty feet,
the other side overlooking Paradise Park, of which I have already
spoken. The Piney Woods stands, as it were, and as its name might
indicate, on the very edge of the pine forests, and yet it is only a
five minutes’ walk from the post-office and a ten minutes’ drive from
the depot. The pamphlet issued by the proprietor tells you that “the
Piney Woods is modelled similar to the Grand Union Hotel, at Saratoga
Springs,” but this is a mistake of the compiler of the work, and is no
compliment at all to the house under consideration--which is far more
pleasing to the eye, exteriorly, than the Grand Union at Saratoga. The
Piney Woods is built after plans of J. A. Woods, a New York architect,
who planned the new Grand Hotel _in the Catskill Mountains_, and with
its wide and lofty verandas, its projecting towers, its pretty corners
here and there, is a facsimile on a somewhat smaller scale of that
favorite and beautiful house. Any one who has seen the hotel on the line
of the Ulster and Delaware Railway, can picture to himself the Piney
Woods Hotel at Thomasville. The late Captain Gillette, who kept the
Mountain Hotel, kept this one also for years. William E. Davies is now
the manager of the Piney Woods.

Each hotel, the Mitchell House and the Piney Woods, will accommodate
nearly three hundred guests.

THE BEST ROUTE.--The Atlantic Coast Line, called “the short route to
Florida,” is by all odds the best way to reach Thomasville from the
Eastern States and from New York. The vestibule train, “the Florida
special” of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which traverses this route, is
the quickest and most luxurious train, with its dining-room car, library
car, etc., but this only leaves New York on certain days of the week,
and you must apply for seats a long time ahead, and then you may not get
them. The ordinary trains, with Pullman sleepers, are good enough for
the majority of travellers, and they afford people opportunity to stop
over and see the cities en route--Washington, Richmond, Wilmington, N.
C., Charleston and Savannah. Or, if you prefer, you may come direct from
New York, in about thirty-two hours, to Waycross, Ga., where there is
connection for Thomasville, distant four hours. But if you “stop over,”
you must be prepared to travel in ordinary coaches between the Southern
cities; parlor cars are not attached to local trains. It would help
Thomasville materially if the Savannah, Western and Florida Road
(everybody in this section calls it “the S. F. & W.”) were to run a
quick train with a parlor car to meet the Florida special. The return
would not be great at first, but it would prove profitable to the road
ultimately. Washington, D. C., seems to be especially favored: the
Atlantic Coast Line runs a Pullman buffet sleeping car for Washington
passengers direct to Thomasville. Strangers and tourists make it a point
to go to the stations to see the Pennsylvania vestibule train at
different points of the road, and the colored folk stand and stare at
the beautiful appointments with eyes and mouth wide open. “Only God’s
people,” remarked one surprised darkey, “can ride in them carriages.”

[Illustration]




A NEW SOUTHERN RESORT.


If you tell people in New York that you are “going to Brunswick for the
winter,” they will probably look at you with surprise; some will say,
“Do you mean New Brunswick?” having in mind New Brunswick, N.J.; while
others will say, “Brunswick; where is Brunswick, in what State? I never
heard of it.” Well, new as Brunswick may appear to the majority, it is
an old place, having been settled and laid out in the year 1763.

WHERE IS BRUNSWICK?--Brunswick is in the Southeastern part of Georgia,
not far from the Florida border, sixty miles below Savannah, seventy
miles north of Jacksonville. The city covers an area of two miles
square, and is handsomely laid out, the whole adorned by some of the
most beautiful groves of live oaks and cedars to be found in the South.
It is situated on a small peninsula jutting out into the sea, surrounded
on three sides by salt water, but protected from the severity of the
ocean winds by outlying islands. Brunswick is only eight miles from the
sea and there are no fresh water streams or swamps within many miles to
breed malaria, the air being constantly renewed and vivified by the
health-bearing breezes of the ocean, that render it, as official
statistics show, one of the healthiest cities in the Union.

Among its natural advantages are its climate, uniform and mild in
winter, its geographical position being but little north of St.
Augustine, ice being seldom seen, and snow rarely, if ever; its forests
of pine, palm and moss-covered oak, its healthy soil, pure water,
semi-tropical foliage and plants, the magnificent drives, and last, but
by no means least, its superior water facilities, having one of the
finest harbors in the South Atlantic. As to the trees: I have stood
under the far-famed old oaks of England, I have seen the moss-covered
trees of Bonaventure, of which all Savannah proudly boasts, and admired
the great oak at Thomasville, whose branches measure ninety feet across;
but there is an oak here which belittles them all for age, strength and
size. Under the “Lovers’ Oak” at Brunswick it is said that one hundred
teams can find shelter from the sun’s rays. It is called Lovers’ Oak
because a marriage was once performed under it, several hundred
witnesses being present at the open air ceremony.

JEKYL AND OTHER ISLANDS.--There are a number of beautiful islands near
here which are fertile almost beyond one’s imagination. Everybody has
heard of Jekyl Island, and all true sportsmen know it. It is famous as
the location of one of the finest club-houses in the country, the island
being a paradise for the sportsman and fisherman. It is literally full
of game; deer, wild turkey and other fowl are so plentiful that visitors
are sure of good sport. Being a natural game preserve, upon which the
general public have not been permitted to hunt, the increase has been
rapid and the supply practically inexhaustible. The club-house, seen
from the river, is a noble structure. Then there is St. Simon’s Island,
which lies off the coast at a distance of seven miles from Brunswick,
and is noted for the wonderful fertility of its soil. It excels
especially in fruits--oranges, peaches, figs, bananas, olives, lemons,
limes and pecans, growing in great profusion. The climate is almost
perfection. Ice is seldom seen, and snow has been seen here but once
within the present century,

A DOCTOR’S CERTIFICATE.--Brunswick’s peninsular location, almost
surrounded by salt water, with immense pine forests on the north,
extending hundreds of miles into the interior, conduces to a state of
healthfulness excelled by no other place of its population in the whole
South. Dr. H. Buford, Health Officer of the City of Brunswick, makes the
following official statement: “The result of my observation and
experience as a practitioner in this city and in the country adjacent
thereto, during a residence of seven years, proves that our mortuary
statistics show a minimum death rate--Poughkeepsie, N. Y., not excepted.
During an active practice of seven years I cannot record a single case
of scarlet fever or diphtheria. Hay fever and asthma are unknown here.”

A MISTAKE OF CONGRESS.--Brunswick is a century and a quarter old, but it
went along lazily and slowly, like many other Southern towns and
villages, and the war somewhat retarded its progress. Nor was it helped
by a committee from Congress which, some years after the war, took a
cruise along the Atlantic coast to examine the facilities of our
seaports. Congress has not earned its peculiar reputation without
deserving it. This committee may have included members who were learned
in the law, or who knew how to hoe potatoes, but of harbor advantages
and the requirements of ships they must have been innocently ignorant.
They reported that “the harbor of Brunswick was twelve feet deep.” This
went abroad and ships went elsewhere. How near to the truth came this
report may be judged by one instance. On Friday, February 3, 1888, the
English steamer, the Port Augusta, cleared this port drawing twenty feet
of water and carrying 6,559 bales of cotton, weighing over three
millions of pounds and valued at $300,000. It was the largest cargo ever
cleared from a South Atlantic port, and ships drawing _twenty-four feet
of water_ enter and leave here without the slightest danger of touching
bottom. So much for the congressional report. That the shipping
facilities of Brunswick are becoming known may be judged also from the
following facts and figures: During the whole month of February, 1887,
the exports of cotton, naval stores and lumber amounted to $78,000
while for only the _first five days_ of Feb., 1888, the exports amounted
to over $300,000. These figures are given on official authority from the
collector of the port. Are more significant statements needed to show
the marvellous advance and improvement of this place? Here they are--the
exports in the year 1886 amounted to less than a million dollars; in
1887 they footed up over two and a quarter millions. The imports of 1886
were less than $5,000, the imports of 1887, $48,000.

A CITY BY THE SEA.--How has all this seeming prosperity and increase of
business on the water affected the land? Well, in 1884 the population of
Brunswick was 3,000, four years later it was 8,000; the increase of
taxable property was thirty-three per cent, greater in ’87 than ’86; the
comptroller of the State says that this county (Glynn) has made for the
last twelve months a larger pro rata increase than any other county in
the State of Georgia, for eight years ago there was not a brick building
in the place; now there are blocks and blocks of brick stores and fine
dwellings; increase in the value of the land is almost fabulous, and
there is a new brick hotel here, “the Oglethorpe,” which cost with
furniture, $160,000, the equal of which for site and style cannot be
found between Washington, D.C., and St. Augustine, Fla.

THE OGLETHORPE.--The new hotel is an evidence of and in keeping with the
new order of things. The location of the building is choice--on the
highest ground in Brunswick, affording fine views and rare sanitary
facilities. The house is not merely considered to be, but is fire-proof.
So perfect is the protection against fire that the company insuring the
property reduced the usual hotel rate one-half in consideration of the
character of the building and the excellence of the fire system adopted.
The Oglethorpe stands on the principal street, near the railway depot
and steamboat wharf, on a plot of ground about three hundred feet
square, the main building having three stories and being two hundred and
sixty-seven feet long, with wings running back one hundred and forty
feet. It is the largest building in the place, and with its graceful
round brick towers at each corner, and its turrets and spires jutting
through the roof, here and there, it is the most prominent object you
see as you approach Brunswick from any direction, either by land or
water. The Oglethorpe, being new, is the latest exponent of all that is
best and most approved in modern hotel building, and of course has all
the “modern improvements.” The drawing-room is a grand apartment,
reminding you of the parlor of the United States at Saratoga; the
dining-room is lighted from three sides, and seats three hundred
persons; the main floor, the entrance, office and lower hall are tiled
with Georgia marble in beautiful colors, and there is a covered porch
for promenading which reaches up to the second story. It is two hundred
and forty feet long, and from twenty to twenty-five feet wide.

The bedrooms of the Oglethorpe are larger, as a rule, than those of most
hotels. Even the “small rooms” connecting with the suites are twenty
feet long by eleven wide, and have two windows, each seven feet high by
three feet wide. The “tower” rooms, with their open fire-places, carved
wooden mantels, tiled hearths, rich Moquette carpets, portières of
velours, and lace curtains on brass poles are as handsome as the
bedrooms of any other hotel that the writer has seen, and if the walls
and ceilings were artistically decorated and frescoed, the “tower” rooms
of the Oglethorpe probably might compare with those palatial bedrooms of
the Hotel Métropole in London. A peculiarity of the Oglethorpe is that
there are no back rooms; each one faces the street or overlooks the bay,
but a few hundred feet distant. Between the bay and the house the
grounds of the hotel are attractively laid out. As to the table and
general management of the Oglethorpe, it is only necessary to say that
the manager is Warren Leland, Jr., a member of the celebrated Leland
family--a name long associated with some of the leading hotels in the
United States.

EN ROUTE TO AND FROM FLORIDA.--Brunswick is reached by rail from the
North by the Atlantic Coast Line and the Savannah, Florida and Western
Railroad by way of Savannah and Waycross, Ga., and from Jacksonville,
Florida, by railway to Fernandina in one hour, and thence by steamboat
in four hours. The water route is very pleasant. The boats, if not
splendid specimens of naval architecture, are at least staunch and
comfortable. You take an inside route, hug the shore, pass many
beautiful islands and get glimpses of most picturesque scenes.

Tourists contemplating a visit to Florida for health or pleasure do well
to break the journey at Waycross or Jessup, visit Brunswick and see the
charming country thereabouts. The run is made from Waycross to Brunswick
in three hours and ten minutes.

The route Southward is from New York to Quantico, Va., over the
Pennsylvania tracks; from Richmond to Charleston via Atlantic Coast
Line; from Waycross to Brunswick by the Plant system. Leave New York
(Desbrosses or Cortlandt streets) at 9 P.M. or midnight--through car to
Waycross.

[Illustration]




A CUBAN CITY IN THE UNITED STATES.


KEY WEST, February, 1891.

Key West, in Spanish Cayo Hueso (Bone Island), derived its name, so says
history, from the fact that the island was strewn with human bones. The
conquerors didn’t take time to bury the bones of the conquered. The
change, corruption Spaniards call it, from Cayo Hueso to Key West was
easy.

The United States bought the island from Spain in 1816. The formation is
coral and it contains about two thousand acres. The Hon. C. B.
Pendleton, editor and proprietor of the _Equator-Democrat_, and a man of
culture who has served in the State Senate, showed me an island, or key,
as they call it in these parts, distant from Key West five miles, and
which he believed to be the most southerly point in the United States.
Another authority informed me that Cape Sable, distant from Key West
about sixty miles, is the most southerly point.

To quote Editor Pendleton, Key West is distant from the tropical line
only thirteen miles. Doctors will differ; another authority gives it as
sixty miles. I am inclined to think that on the tropical question my
editorial brother is correct in his estimate, because Key West is only
distant from Cuba eighty or ninety miles.

The climate is about the same as that of Havana. In the Cuban capital
the mercury never goes below sixty degrees; in Key West the lowest point
recorded is fifty-one.

Key West is the ninth port of entry in the United States, collecting
more import duty than all the other ports in the States of Florida and
Georgia and one-half of Alabama combined.

In 1860 the population was about two thousand, one-quarter of whom were
colored; but in 1869, after the rebellion in Cuba, the population of the
island began to increase and now it numbers twenty-two thousand, and
they claim that it is the largest city in Florida.

The inhabitants are mixed, very much mixed--Cubans, negroes, Americans,
Chinese, etc. The negroes come from Nassau, Cuba and other places.

Key West was bought of Spain, as before remarked; the island is nearer
Cuba than any other land, it is not in any sense American except that it
flies the American flag, and it seems to be now, to all intents and
purposes, a foreign place--a Spanish colony, as it once was. Spanish is
the prevailing language, and Cubans predominate. All the public notices
and handbills are printed in two languages, several newspapers are
printed in Spanish, and only one, the _Equator-Democrat_, in English. It
is difficult to make a purchase or to transact any business unless you
speak Spanish, and there are few drivers or conductors of street cars
who can understand you if addressed in English. The car drivers swear at
their patient, sadly abused mules in hard Spanish. All the American
residents and business men speak the prevailing tongue, or are learning
it as fast as they can, for without it they cannot so readily conduct
business.

Speaking of the street cars, they are all open, of course, winter and
summer. In fact, there is never anything resembling northern winter
weather in Key West; light summer clothes and Panama hats are worn the
year round.

But you are not obliged to patronize street cars. Riding in private
conveyances is at a cheaper rate of fare than even in London, or in a
country town on the Continent. In London the smallest cab fare is one
shilling (twenty-five cents); in Key West you can ride a short distance
for a dime, and a longer distance for fifteen cents. The conveyance is a
very light and very dirty wagonette on four wheels. The driver is as
dirty as his vehicle, and his horse resembles those poor skeletons which
are blindfolded and pushed into the arena at a Cuban bull fight.

Such tropical fruits as the sugar apple, the guava, mango, the soft and
sweet sapadillo, thrive in Key West. The climate and salt atmosphere
combine to make it the home of the palm. There are many tall, slender
and beautiful cocoanut trees, some with their graceful leaves waving as
high as eighty feet in the air, making an interesting and pretty picture
against a cloudless sky.

But the cultivation of the cocoanut in Key West might be made very
profitable as well as picturesque. At present there are comparatively
few of such trees; their cultivation ought to be encouraged. The tree
has no tap root, and will thrive on a thin soil. It comes into bearing
eight or ten years from the nut; and after that the fruit grows and
increases every month in the year. Like the orange tree, the older it
gets the more it bears. A bearing cocoanut grove costs less to care for
than an orange grove, and the revenue therefrom is greater. It requires
no cultivation, and is as hardy in its section as the cabbage palmetto,
that grows everywhere in Florida. Besides, cocoanuts can be shipped in
any month of the year; they require no packing, no care in handling, and
they will bear transportation for thousands of miles. There is a good
market for green cocoanuts in these parts as well as for matured ones.
When the nut is fully grown, but green, it contains about two glasses of
clear juice, milk we call it in the North. It is considered a healthful
beverage in the tropics and sells per glass in the streets of Havana for
the equivalent of five cents.

Nature has favored Key West with a perfect climate. It is surrounded by
the Gulf of Mexico, as blue and as beautiful as the famous Danube.
Nature in fact has done everything she could to make the place desirable
as a residence for man, but man has done little or nothing for himself,
thus far, and if the truth must be told, notwithstanding its favorable
natural conditions and its lovely surroundings, Key West is not yet a
desirable place to live in. It has no sanitary laws, for nothing
whatever has been done with a view to sanitation, and yet with the salt
ocean all around the little island, how easy it would be to make it
healthy and clean, for it is neither one nor the other. There is no such
thing as system, no sewerage whatever in the town excepting one iron
pipe which leads from one hotel, the Russell House, to the sea, and even
that one pipe is allowed to clog occasionally.

A liberally illustrated and large edition of the _Equator-Democrat_ was
issued in 1889, which presents a very rose-colored view of Key West. In
that paper I find that “the pleasant streets running at right angles are
as smooth and hard as adamant.” I am not certain that I am very well
acquainted with adamant, but I know that the streets of Key West are
unpaved and that they are the roughest and the dirtiest streets I ever
saw. As I have lived in Baltimore, in New York and in New Orleans, my
testimony ought to be accepted on such a theme. I speak of Key West in
fine weather; what it must be in wet weather I don’t like to imagine. If
nothing but very deep ruts, holes and great gullies in the roadway
resemble adamant then is Key West adamantine beyond doubt.

There is not a boot-black in the town; none is needed. Nobody thinks of
blacking his shoes; it would be absurd. I spoke on this point with a
young New Yorker who hails from the fashionable precincts of Madison
avenue. He is a business man who is liberal in the matter of money,
usually dressy, and extremely neat in his person. He has been in Key
West six months, and in all that time not a brush has passed over his
shoes.

I regret to differ with my learned and courteous friend, the editor of
the _Democrat_, on the subject of hotels. Let him speak for himself. He
says that “The Russell House, the leading hotel in the city, is second
to none in the State in accommodations.” Now I had an idea that St.
Augustine and Jacksonville and Tampa were in Florida, and that there
were such hotels “in the State” as the Ponce de Leon and The Cordova at
St. Augustine, and the new Tampa Bay Hotel at Tampa Bay, not to mention
a number of other first-class houses “in the State.”

Directly opposite the Russell is the Duval House. You may never have
heard of it; it is not one-third the size of the Russell House. I know
nothing of the apartments of the Duval. for I investigated no further
than the dining-room, but that was enough to establish its good
reputation. It will be a long time before I forget how beautifully
garnished a dish they made at the Duval of a red snapper, and the
delicious flavor of their _omelette soufflée_ remains with me still. The
Duval is presided over by a Cuban lady, Mrs. Bolio, who kept for years
one of the leading hotels in Havana. She is evidently a woman who knows
what good living is.

Cigar-making is a very large and important industry in Key West. The
place was selected for cigar-making because the climate is suited to the
“curing” of tobacco in the leaf, and because it is near Havana. There is
something also in the name. Everybody does not know that this (Spanish)
island is United States territory, and some smokers if they see a “Key
West” label on a box of cigars believe, without stopping to think, that
they are smoking a foreign-made cigar. Now a Key West cigar if made from
Havana tobacco of fine quality has just as good a flavor as if it were
made in Cuba, but the Key West cigar can be sold at a lower price
because the import duty on cigars is much higher than the duty on the
raw material.

Having the same climate as Havana, the best climate in the world for
tobacco curing, and the cigars being made by Cubans, who are the best
cigar-makers in the world, Key West turns out just as good cigars as can
be produced anywhere--provided always that tobacco of the first quality
is used. And the cigar need not consist entirely of Havana tobacco. A
cigar of choice flavor is made of a mixture of tobaccos--Havana “filler”
and “binder,” with, say, a “Connecticut seed” or Sumatra wrapper.

The manufacture of cigars has without doubt aided largely in building up
the business of Key West. One authority says that there are two hundred
factories, employing five thousand operatives, and transacting a
business amounting to seven millions of dollars annually. But this
report may be exaggerated. However, here are some more figures, and if
the reader is mathematically inclined he can draw his own conclusions:
Key West during 1890 turned out one hundred and forty millions of
cigars.

There are very few Spanish or American cigarmakers in Key West; the
majority are Cubans, with a very small sprinkling of negroes. There are
so many factories and so many operatives that, although it is a
cigar-producing place, very few cigars indeed are sold at retail.
Everybody smokes, every one invites you to smoke; cigars are almost as
free as the air. It would be a paradise for a young dude who has a
slender purse and who is addicted to the weed.

Upon the courteous invitation of P. Pohalski & Co., who have a branch in
Havana, with headquarters in Warren street, New York, I paid a visit to
their factory, which is one of the largest in Key West, and I was much
interested in what I saw. Pohalski & Co. erected their own factory,
upon their own ground, and it is one of the most imposing edifices in
Key West. They also built upon their own land a number of small houses
which they rent to their workmen at a moderate figure; for its size it
is quite a respectable colony.

Although very large, employing several hundred hands, the factory is
orderly, exceedingly clean and neat, showing good government. Perfect
system reigns throughout the entire establishment. The first floor is
used for the business offices, for cases of tobacco and for the
“strippers;” the whole of the second floor is occupied by cigar makers,
and the third floor is used by the “packers,” also for curing leaf
tobacco and for storing cigars in boxes.

A “stripper” is one who, with the dexter finger and thumb of the right
hand pulls the stem from the leaf while the leaf is damp, the leaf being
held in the left hand. It is done by a dexterous and quick movement, not
a vestige of the leaf remaining on the stem. The most costly leaves, for
wrappers, are only entrusted to experienced operators. The strippers in
this factory are numbered by scores. They are all females, all Cubans,
and range in age from ten years old to women of fifty.

It is not a pleasing sight to one who associates woman with habits of
refinement, to see the older women, while at their work of stripping,
smoke long, thick cigars. They hold the cigar between their teeth and
seldom remove it, not even to talk. They are rough-looking cigars,
rolled into shape by the women themselves from the leaves they are
stripping.

A more pleasing picture is presented on the cigar-making floor, above.
You will be surprised upon entering to see a man standing erect in the
centre of the room, book in hand, reading aloud. You cannot help but
notice, although Spanish may be Greek to you, that the reader’s voice is
powerful and well trained, reaching to the extreme corners and to the
most distant ears on the vast floor. He is a professional reader. The
several hundred men club together, each paying a nominal sum for the
reader’s services. In this way, while engaged in their work, they hear
the news of the day and are regaled with the latest Spanish novel.

“Packing” cigars is a technical term. It is not simply to tie them up
with pretty silk ribbons and place them neatly in a box. A packer is one
who assorts the colors also. It is a very nice and delicate piece of
work. It demands a good eye for color and long experience, and then it
can only be done in a certain light, of course not by artificial light,
nor unless the day is bright.

An overcast, murky and heavy sky is not good for packing--assorting, it
might be called. In a few hundred loose cigars placed on a table ready
for “packing,” the casual observer will probably see only three or four
colors. They are first assorted roughly to bring together those of
decided colors--light brown, medium, dark brown, etc. Then a pile of
dark or light shades is gone over again and again until the different
piles of cigars are alike, as if they were all made from one leaf and
turned out by machinery. The packer also discards a cigar that is not
perfectly made, or one not uniform with the rest. A special few, exact
as to form and hue, are selected for the top row, to catch and please
the eye of the smoker when the lid of the box is raised. A good packer
is paid better than any other operative in the business. Men and women
are employed in it, some of them earning as high as twenty-five or
thirty-five dollars per week.

The sponge trade is also a very large and important industry here. The
sponges are found in this part of the Gulf of Mexico, and the trade
gives employment to a great many people. I visited the largest sponge
house, that of Arapian & Co., and saw there in different stages, sponges
valued at a quarter of a million dollars. Such a stock of sponges, as
you can easily imagine, occupies much space. My only surprise was to
find such valuable merchandise housed in a light frame building. A fire
would spread easily, and the whole would be rapidly consumed.

I have spoken of the dirty, unpaved streets of Key West; it would be
unfair not to mention a lovely drive which you can take for a few miles
on the edge of the Gulf. You go around the old forts, you see
lighthouses and other interesting objects en route, the bracing air from
the Gulf fans your cheeks, the ocean is spread out before you, and if
you return in the early evening, and near dinner time, you will most
likely be favored with a grand sunset, and you will surely have a keen
appetite.

Key West is reached from New York by steamers of the Mallory line, and
from New Orleans by New Orleans and Havana steamers, but decidedly the
best and most luxurious way of going to the island is by the Plant line
of steamers which leave Tampa, Florida and Havana, Cuba, three times a
week. The “Mascotte” and “Olivette” were built for this route. They are
both staunch, swift, beautifully appointed ships, whose commanders were
in the Atlantic service for years, the “Olivette” being the fastest boat
of her size in the world--a model vessel.

If you are going to Key West for pleasure--it is possible for people to
go there with that end in view--you will go from New York to
Jacksonville via the Pennsylvania and Atlantic coast lines and there
take the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad, although part of
this “railway” journey consists of a sail on the Gulf of Mexico, from
Tampa.

The island, with all its objectionable features, has churches of
different denominations, it has convents, good schools, and has one
large substantial and beautiful brick and stone building for a custom
house, for which the government appropriated one hundred thousand
dollars.

Key West has a police force numbering fourteen officers, including men
of all colors and several nationalities.




ST. AUGUSTINE.

AN ANCIENT CITY MODERNIZED.


ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA., Feb. 8, 1891.

What a contrast, to leave the dust and dirt of Key West, its unpaved
roadways, full of deep ruts, large holes and great gullies: Key West,
with its mixed population of twenty thousand negroes, Cubans, Chinamen
and white folks: Key West, minus sidewalks, and minus many evidences of
a high state of civilization: what a contrast is it to arrive in this
beautiful city of the South, with its smooth-paved streets, its clean
and aristocratic air, and its three wondrously beautiful Spanish hotels,
all within speaking distance of each other. It is like leaping, if I may
use such an expression, from hades to heaven.

The changes here within the past three years are great. Most important
to the tourist is the erection of a railway bridge which crosses the St.
John’s River. Three years ago you were obliged to stop at Jacksonville
if you approached from the north; if from the south, you steamed across
on a ferry-boat from Palatka. Now you take your seat in a drawing-room
car at Jersey City, in the North, or at Tampa, if you approach from the
South, and you need not leave the car until the conductor calls out “St.
Augustine”--thirty-one hours by vestibuled train from New York, twelve
hours by the West India Fast Mail from the Gulf, at Tampa.

As to other changes, much land has been reclaimed from the river, miles
of roadway have been asphalted and paved with wooden blocks; the old
fort is being restored, for which work the government has appropriated
$15,000; many new houses have been built, all of coquina and in the
Moorish style; to the oldest house in the town has been added a new
stone tower; there has been erected a new City Hall, which includes a
fine market; and to crown it all, as it were, there is a new church, a
Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in memory of the beautiful daughter
Mr. Flagler lost two years ago. The structure is so attractive, so
pleasing to the eye, that in driving away from it you find yourself
constantly turning around to keep its graceful architectural lines in
view as long as possible.

It is probably not possible to enhance the splendor of the Ponce de Leon
Hotel, the drawing-room of which, with its magnificent proportions, its
onyx fire-place, its ceiling decorations, its rich carpets and
furniture, and its rare paintings by Bridgman, Koppay, and other
artists, is not rivalled by any other hotel in the world. To call it
palatial is no compliment to “the Ponce” parlor, for I have seen no
apartments in royal palaces that are more pleasing, and I have been
favored with a view of many palaces in many countries. But the
approaches to the great hotel and its own grounds have been improved and
are now finished.

The same remarks will apply to the exterior of the Alcazar Hotel, the
smooth and pleasant walk around the outside of which measures just half
a mile. The colored boys know: they use it semi-occasionally for a foot
or bicycle race: “twice around the Alcazar is one mile” they will tell
you.

One of the novel features of this establishment is a swimming pool, into
which the sulphur water rushes up from the artesian well with great
force. There is room in the pool (40 by 120 feet) for scores of
swimmers, and there is always a number of visitors looking from the
galleries above on the lively scene below. With the mercury ranging
between 70 and 80 the sulphur water is indeed refreshing; and they say
it is quite invigorating. Temperature of the water, 75 degrees.

In the Hotel Cordova you will notice some changes, for the indefatigable
manager, E. N. Wilson, is never content with his efforts. There is a new
dining-room for instance. The best seems not good enough for Mr. Wilson,
and his critical eye is always finding some way to improve the house and
to add to its comfort. He has redecorated the parlor. The walls are now
richly papered but the tints are not satisfactory--to Mr. Wilson. The
furniture and carpets are in dark colors, so Mr. Wilson later on
contemplates covering the walls with white and gold for an artistic
contrast. Expensive? Yes, I should say so, but who cares for the
expense? Mr. Flagler has a very long purse and Mr. Wilson has _carte
blanche_. If the owner in planning these hotels had thought only of
pecuniary profit probably they would never have come into existence in
their present form. It is an idea with him to beautify the ancient city,
and a half million dollars more or less make little or no difference to
Mr. Flagler. Yet his hotels are conducted with a careful regard of
business-like methods, although this is not apparent to the casual
observer.

By the way, I have the very best of reasons for knowing that Mr.
Flagler’s private acts of charity are many and munificent. After making
full and proper inquiry into a case presented to him he always responds,
but he never wants his generous acts to be made public. He will not
thank me for this “mention,” I feel sure, but it is his due and possibly
no harm can come from printing it.

Mr. Flagler has bought all the land around and about his three hotels,
so that nobody can erect anything anywhere near him. He is not the man
to do anything by halves.

The sitting-room in which this is penned is one of a suite I occupy in
the castellated tower on a corner of the Hotel Cordova. The walls of
the building are of gray coquina. Outside each window is a small and
separate “kneeling balcony,” protected by ornamental iron railings,
painted a reddish brown--such balconies as you see in some buildings in
Madrid. The windows have white lace curtains and the shades are
alternate blue and crimson--contrasting pleasantly with the neutral tint
of the outer walls. To the east, within stone’s throw, is Cordova Park;
to the west, the same distance, is the one-acre park of the Alcazar,
with its tropical foliage, pretty walks and handsome fountain; while
diagonally opposite, same distance again (about one hundred feet), loom
up the terra-cotta turrets, towers, arches and gabled roofs of the Ponce
de Leon Hotel, with its grand park of four and a half acres. This may
convey some idea of the situation; to describe the scene requires the
pen if not the pencil of an artist.

The Cordova drawing-room has its tables and chairs, and it contains some
books also; not odd volumes picked up haphazard, but books bought and
selected by an artist, book-worm and connoisseur. In the Cordova library
you will find “Burke’s Peerage,” “Almanach de Gotha,” “Webster’s Royal
Red Book,” “Kelly’s Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official
Classes,” “The County Families of the United Kingdom,” Debrett’s “House
of Commons and the Judicial Bench,” “Castles and Abbeys of England” and
“Stately Homes of England.” I have enumerated only a few of the ordinary
volumes relating to Great Britain, but there are also rare and valuable
tomes richly and beautifully illustrated, descriptive of life and scenes
in different countries. For instance, one set in three volumes is
“Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International
Exhibition,” by J. B. Waring, published in 1862. This mammoth work is
richly illuminated, bound in red morocco, picked out with gold, and
measures one foot by a foot and a half. It probably cost in London
twenty-five pounds, and gives one some idea of the money and good taste
expended in selecting the Cordova library. If one is fond of instructive
books his taste can be gratified at the Cordova.

At the majority of hotels you eat ordinary oranges, brought to the table
direct from the store-room: at the Cordova only Indian River oranges are
used, selected “Indian Rivers,” and instead of coming direct from the
store-room they come from a refrigerator. After this process they become
Grateful and Comforting, to quote the names which Epps, the famous cocoa
man, gave his two daughters. Perfect quiet reigns in the dining-room.
The waiters are governed, well governed, by a head waiter whose head is
level. He would even satisfy that “cranky critic,” as he has been
called, Max O’Rell. The men, when serving dinner, wear dress coats,
black trousers and white cravats. Instead of a loose waistcoat they wear
a broad black sash around the waist, and instead of noisy boots they
wear shoes having cloth uppers and rubber soles--black tennis shoes. Not
a word is heard from the servants, except in polite response to an
order, and they glide about like dark angels.

[Illustration]




ABOUT TAMPA.


THE INN, PORT TAMPA, FLA., January 31, 1891.

Tampa is of interest historically, being the place where Ferdinand De
Soto landed May 25, 1539. From here he started on his search for the
mines of wealth supposed to exist in the new world, which resulted in
the discovery of the Mississippi river. It is here also that Narvaez,
having obtained a grant of Florida from Charles V. of Spain, landed with
a large force April 16, 1528.

Tampa is on the Gulf coast of Florida, two hundred and forty miles from
Jacksonville. There are two trains daily with Pullman cars from
Jacksonville and St. Augustine to Tampa, passing through Palatka,
Sanford and Winter Park, both having direct connection with all Eastern
and Western cities and one being a through train from New York.

Its rapid growth during the past seven years from about eight hundred
inhabitants to as many thousands, has been brought about by the Plant
system, which completed the South Florida railroad to Tampa for the
purpose of developing Tampa commercially.

Dr. Long, a United States army surgeon, wrote of Fort Brooks, at Tampa,
“This post has always been considered a delightful station.” Dr. Long’s
reports and other reports to the surgeon-general at Washington show it
to be one of the most healthful stations in the country.

Peninsulas have always been thought desirable because of their climate,
which gives them advantages over other localities, and among peninsulas
Florida is unrivalled because of its latitude and particularly as it is
affected by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The investment of large capital in constructing a new hotel in Florida
with the expectation of drawing to it the requisite patronage, demanded
a knowledge of the requirements of winter tourists who visit the place
for health or pleasure. Those requirements have been carefully studied
by Mr. H. B. Plant, president of the Plant Investment Company, acting
under the advice of eminent scientists, in the selection of Tampa. The
new hotel is situated on the west side of the Hillsborough river where
it empties into Tampa bay, opposite to and facing the city, which is
within easy walking distance. From the river to the front of the hotel
there are extensive lawns and flower beds, with orange, palm and other
tropical trees, the hotel grounds and property including twenty-two
acres. At the rear of the house there is a long stretch of pine lands.

As you view the house at a distance, from the deck of a steamer, or from
a car window, with its long stretch of brick front, its iron and stone
trimmings, its many towers with great and gorgeous silver-bronzed,
balloon-shaped domes, each surmounted by a shining gold crescent, it
impresses you at once as being a great oriental palace. And this idea is
aided by the palms and other tropical trees and shrubs by which it is
surrounded.

The oriental idea also strikes you as you enter. There is a grand
“office,” the ceilings are supported by stout marble columns, and the
music-room, the drawing-room, and all the minor rooms on the main floor
are furnished in the very best taste, the matter of expense never
seeming to be a question with those who selected the furniture and
decorations in different parts of the world. It is safe to say that very
few winter or summer resort hotels in this country are as richly
furnished.

The hotel has been most thoroughly constructed and is practically
fireproof, the outer and inner walls being of brick, with steel beams
and concrete floors. There has been the most approved scientific work in
drainage and plumbing, and there is an abundant supply of good water. On
each floor the wide hall extends the entire length of the main
building--512 feet. There are no inside rooms. Every room has the sun
during some portion of the day, and a large number of suites have
private baths. The house is heated by steam, in addition to which there
are open fire-places in the rooms. The latest improvements have been
introduced in lighting.

The other day I was in the Savannah depot of the Savannah, Florida and
Western railroad waiting for the Florida special vestibuled train, when
I heard a colored “depot hand” say that he wished the Tampa Bay Hotel
had been built elsewhere. “Why, may I ask?” “Well,” answered my civil
and sable informant, “I am tired of handlin’ de stuff for dat hotel;
we’se been a doin’ it in dis yer depot for de whole year. But it’s
comin’ putty near de end now, I guess. Las’ Saturday der went thro’ de
depot three whole cyars filled with nutting else but cyarpets, all for
dat house.” These remarks give one some faint idea of the size of the
new hotel.

Mr. Plant did a great deal for Tampa when he ran his railroad down
there, his lines of steamers from Tampa to Havana and Mobile have
greatly helped the prosperity of the place, and now he has crowned his
good work by putting up a magnificent hotel utterly regardless of the
cost. If there was not already a Plant City in Florida, I should suggest
to change the name of Tampa to Plant City. The house will accommodate
four hundred guests; the rates are five dollars per day. It is only
open during the winter, from Christmas until the first of April. But do
not go to Tampa without your summer clothes.

       *       *       *       *       *

All the above relates to the big new hotel at Tampa Bay, but all of it
is written at the Inn, in Port Tampa, distant from Tampa Bay proper nine
miles. The Inn is “little,” it accommodates only seventy-five guests,
but it is a gem of a hotel. It is built on, or rather over, the water on
piles, and is like an island, being actually surrounded by water. There
is always a pleasant breeze on one side of the house, and a breeze is
very grateful in this latitude. As I write, the mercury in a thermometer
hanging outside my bedroom window marks 75 degrees; this is at 5 P.M.,
Saturday, January 31. We sleep with open windows, and nothing more than
your pajama or a sheet is necessary for a covering.

Two sides of the dining-room are composed entirely of sliding-windows
through which you can see wild ducks and fish in great quantities. I
have seen wild ducks hauled in by the waiters through the open windows
of this dining-room. You can throw a line into the water as you sit at
dinner and if it be properly baited you will probably find a mullet at
the end of the cord before you reach your _café noir_.

It goes without saying that there are good sailing and fishing at Port
Tampa: Spanish mackerel and the pompano abound, the latter conceded by
epicures to be one of the most exquisitely flavored fish in the world.
Here also is the famous tarpon--Silver King he has been christened. In
fact Port Tampa is a very paradise for sportsmen. It is easy to supply
the table with oysters, fish and game in profusion. The table by the way
is liberally provided, and the service by Swiss and French waiters is
good.

The dining-room of the Tampa Inn reminds you of the dining-room of the
Hygeia Hotel at Old Point Comfort, not for its size, but for its water
surroundings, and the scene outside brings up recollections of the Surf
Hotel at Fire Island. Picnic Island, across the Gulf one mile, might be
a bit of Long Island. But there the similarity ends because the Inn,
unlike the Surf Hotel, is a new house and is luxuriously furnished.

Steamers leave here weekly (every Tuesday) for Mobile, and tri-weekly
(Monday, Thursday and Saturday), for Key West and Havana.

The railway depot conveying you to Tampa Bay (frequent daily trains), is
at the door of the hotel, and from this same depot you can get a through
car to Jacksonville or to New York.

The rates at the Inn are four and five dollars a day. It is proposed to
keep it open all the year.

[Illustration]




MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA.


MONTEREY, CAL., March 25, 1891.

The name Monterey means Mountain King and was bestowed on the place in
1602 by Don Sebastian Vizcaino in honor of Jaspar de Zuniga, Conte de
Monte de Rey, at that time Viceroy of Mexico. It was he who suggested
and projected the expedition undertaken by Vizcaino.

When the members of this expedition returned to Spain the place returned
to its primitive condition and nothing was heard of it till a band of
Franciscan missionaries arrived on this coast in 1768, one hundred and
sixty-eight years after the first discovery. This expedition came under
the direction and guidance of the president of the band, Father Junipero
Serra.

At the risk of being charged with sacrilege, I will interpolate right
amid this ancient history a bit of fresh news imparted to me yesterday
by a carriage driver. He showed me from the road a high plateau
overlooking the sea, where plainly to the naked eye were to be seen
preparations for receiving a statue, which is to be in place and to be
dedicated before long. It will be in honor of Father Junipero before
mentioned; it will cost ten thousand dollars, and the wife of Senator
Leland Stanford will foot the bill. The site for the statue is a
magnificent one, and if the work of art be worthy of its position, the
city of Monterey will have something it may be proud of.

There’s a “History of Monterey County” by E. S. Harrison. I didn’t know
before I came here and looked into it that Monterey was the first place
settled in the State of California; that the first custom house in the

[Illustration: HOTEL DEL MONTE.]

State (now an old rookery) was established here; that Monterey was once
not only a bustling city, but the capital of the State. It is not a
wholly deserted village now, but its commercial glory, like that of
Newport, R. I., which was once a greater port of entry than New York,
has departed, never to return. But Monterey will always be dear to the
hearts of Californians, from its historic associations and connections.

“The first European lady to come to California,” says Harrison, “was the
wife of Governor Fages, who arrived in Monterey in 1783. Their child,
born about 1784, was probably the first child born in California of
European parents.”

Monterey is one hundred and twenty-six miles from San Francisco, and is
reached in four hours by the Coast Division of the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company. On the way, in San Mateo county (_en passant_, what
musical names all these counties and mountains have), within ten to
forty miles from the starting point, Fourth and Townsend streets, you
pass the rural homes of San Francisco’s millionaires. Some are set in
great forests of oak surrounded by acres of flowers in perennial bloom.
Next, the beautiful city of San José comes in view, and a flourishing
city it appears to be from the car windows. As the train rolls along you
keep in sight for many miles the dome of the Lick Observatory, which
glistens in the sunlight on the summit of Mount Hamilton.

And then you haven’t eyes enough to take in and enjoy the beautiful
views of ocean, river, valley and mountain as the train dashes
along--the Coast Range mountains on your left, on the right the Santa
Cruz mountains, with the sun setting behind them--a glorious moving
panorama.

After passing what is called the most fertile valley in the State
Monterey is reached, if that be your destination, but there is a more
important station one mile this side of Monterey. When the conductor
calls out “Hotel del Monte” very few passengers in the cars remain
seated, and the train speeds on to the sleepy old town of Monterey,
almost empty.

The first action which the Pacific Improvement Company took when they
concluded to make of this place a summer and winter resort was to
purchase some land for the purpose, so they purchased _seven thousand
acres_. Part of this domain was a forest, and of this they selected for
their hotel “garden” a simple matter of _one hundred and twenty-six
acres_. Forty acres of this they cultivated in flower-beds, lawns,
vegetables and fruit; the rest they allowed to remain as nature left it,
after hiring the services of a landscape gardener to lay out within
their gates a few miles for drives and paths.

Then it occurred to them that it would be well to have a grand outside
drive as an additional attraction, so they made one, cutting away
mountain, forest and bluff; going through the woods, four or five miles;
skirting the ocean for the same distance; altogether a nice little
post-prandial drive of _seventeen miles_. But this is not much--for
California. The drive being private property it is used only for the
guests of the Hotel del Monte, the owners of which keep it in the best
order, and in summer time have it watered. It is macadamized and in as
good condition as the drives in Central Park, New York.

The road winds toward the bay through a forest of oaks and pines. For
two or three miles it will be cool, dark, shaded and sweet smelling, and
presently you get a view of the ocean. If the wind is high, as it was on
the twenty-second of March, you will see foaming white-caps in the
distance, and the spray dashing wildly on the bare brown rocks in the
foreground, making a picture which, on the day we saw it, was awfully
grand. I don’t mean this in the sense that girls do when they

[Illustration: THE SEAL ROCKS AT MONTEREY.]

say a thing is “awfully nice;” I mean that the boisterous waves were
almost frightful with their impetuous rush and their terrible roar.

To quote dear old Fitz-Greene Halleck, whose statue in Central Park few
recognize:

    The winds of March were humming
    Their parting song, their parting song.

It was a habit of my predecessor on the _Home Journal_, General George
P. Morris, to publish annually this sweet song of Halleck’s in the _Home
Journal_ during the first week of March. It was a singular fancy of
Morris’s and it pleased his brother poet.

But I am getting away from my story--and the surf. The seals didn’t seem
to mind the roaring surf or howling wind. Their unearthly bark formed
part of the grand chorus. They tossed their heads and rolled their
ungainly bodies about with all the grace at their command, which is not
saying much for their sylph-like movements. No; water is their element.

If you expect to see the seals of the same color as the sealskin sacques
worn by women, you may not see the seals at all, for they match in color
with the brownish gray rocks on which they romp. They have not gone
through the process of “London dyeing.” I didn’t take the trouble to get
out of the carriage and go down to the shore, so in this instance I
accepted the driver’s word that there were five hundred seals on the
rocks.

The cultivated grounds of the Hotel del Monte astonish you with their
size and beauty and with the neatness and order in which they are kept.
Probably not elsewhere is there such variety in horticulture. Everything
from everywhere seems to thrive here. Nor do I know of any section of
country where there are such noble oaks and pines, but probably the
company claim too much when they say that “the garden is the finest,
the most gorgeous, the richest and most varied in all the world.” A few
years have elapsed since I examined Kensington and Kew closely, but it
seems to me that the Tuileries gardens, which I saw one year ago, are
richer, and I know that the gardens in Hyde Park, through which I
strolled last August, are more pleasing to the eye and to the sense of
smell. I speak of the floral display only; it must be remembered,
however, that the Del Monte gardens are not at their best in March.

The trees are wonderful. I carry with me not only a thermometer but a
tiny tape measure, the latter in my pocket. I asked the driver to stop
as we were driving through the grounds, while I measured a pine and I
found that it was four and a half yards in circumference near the
ground. The driver told me how tall it was, but I will not quote him as
I’m not giving you “California stories.” This pine was not pointed out
nor did I select it for its size. There were others within a few feet of
where this giant stood just as large, and for all I know there are
hundreds on the ground much larger.

Of course the palm abounds, all trees of tropical growth are here; there
are calla lilies for borders, violets, heliotrope, nasturtium,
honeysuckle in wild profusion, and this in March, mind you. Is there
ivy? “Well, rather,” as an Englishman might answer such a question. A
leaf now lies on my table which measures five inches across. The grounds
are in charge of a skilled landscape gardener with a force of
thirty-five men--English, American and Chinese.

Foreigners from other lands may rail against the Chinese as much as they
please, and our legislators may be right in excluding them lest they
overrun the country, but it must be said in their favor that they are a
peaceful, industrious set, and there are no better servants for indoor
or outdoor work. Under certain conditions, however, they are as
obstinate as mules. When you engage them you must be exceedingly
careful in giving them instructions, for they will always continue to do
what they are at first told to do; you cannot change their ways.

Mr. George Schönewald, manager of Hotel del Monte, while we were
chatting in his office, illustrated it to me in this way: “Observe that
Chinaman wiping carefully the casing of that white door. He was told
when he first came here that he was to do that sort of work at this time
of day, and if the heavens fall he’ll do it. If I were to ask him this
minute to leave that door and polish this plate glass window he might
obey, but it would upset him for the day, if not for all time. If you
change your mind and want the work done in a different way you had
better change your Chinaman, you can’t change their ways. But seven
Chinamen will do the work of fourteen white men.”

And this brings me to the fact that nearly all the walls and all the
interior woodwork of these great buildings are painted white. The lack
of color becomes a little tiresome to the eye, but one thing comforts
you, it is kept white--not a mark, not a spot to mar its perfection.
Chinamen are always washing either doors, windows, surbase, or whatever
part of the floor is not carpeted; all is pure white except the floor of
the beautiful dining-room, which is of dark English oak kept highly
polished.

The series of buildings is in the modern Gothic style, the main building
three hundred and fifty feet front, with a central tower eighty feet
high and wings or annexes two hundred and eighty feet long, showing an
entire floor area of sixteen acres. An acre or two, more or less, is
nothing--in California. The bed-room in which this is written is an
ordinary room here, eighteen by sixteen feet. Even the marble wash-basin
is worth measuring--three feet three in circumference. Running water,
gas, fireplaces; and closets built with partition walls in every room.
There are five hundred and ten rooms, and seven hundred people can be
accommodated comfortably.

I am surprised here, as I have been elsewhere in California, at the low
rates which obtain at hotels. A placard on the door of this
well-furnished room, with beautiful walls and ceiling and a luxurious
bed, reads: “Rate for this room, with board, for one person $3.50; for
two $6.50. With bath-room $4 and $7 per day.” And in the bath-room there
appears to be an inexhaustible supply of boiling water. There is no
charge made in the ladies’ billiard room, which adjoins the parlor; no
charge for use of boats on the twenty-acre lake.

If the plumbing is right, and so it appears to be, there is no trouble
with the question of drainage, the ocean being at the door. The drinking
water is brought from Carmel river, eighteen miles distant, in the
mountains. A ton of ice per day is made on the premises. Some of the
vegetables are raised near the hotel, and there is a dairy farm
connected with the property measuring untold acres.

Native wines are sold at Hotel del Monte lower than I’ve seen them
either here or abroad. It’s easy to be a “swell” at Del Monte. A half
bottle of Zinfandel is opened and served at table for fifteen cents, and
a very good wine it is, too, so far as pleasing my palate goes. But I
don’t profess to be so well versed in wines as the late Sam Ward or the
present Ward McAllister. There is a secret, however, in the low charge
for California wine at Hotel del Monte--the company have their own
vineyards. What haven’t they got? They have nothing less than a Steinway
concert grand in the parlor and another in the ball-room.

There’s a feature that almost escaped being put down, and yet it is
worthy of special mention. To the first floors in the two annexes you
neither ascend nor descend any stairs; nor do you to the second floor.
To the first floor you descend an inclined hall or arcade; to the
second you ascend an inclined arcade. If you have a room even on the
third floor you only walk up one flight of stairs, unless you prefer the
elevator.

This is not a new idea, however. I remember being shown through an old,
unused palace in Berlin which was constructed in the same way, A member
of the royal house was weak in the knees from rheumatism and so was
rolled on a sedan chair up and down in this way. The porter at this
hotel, wheeling his truck “upstairs” loaded with trunks, reminded me of
the rheumatic royalty.

In all hotels recently constructed there is an electric bell as well as
an electric button in every room. If you leave word to be called in the
morning, there’s no rapping outside your door--rapping loud enough to
awaken every sleeper near your apartment. There is an electric button in
the office which connects with a bell in your room, and to this call you
will respond. There is no escape from it; you must get out of bed to
stop the ringing.

The first Hotel del Monte, opened in 1880, was destroyed by fire: the
new house was erected four years ago. The present manager, Mr. George
Schönewald, opened the first house and superintended the construction of
the second. As his name indicates, he is not to the manor born. He
arrived in this country twenty-five years ago without a penny in his
pocket, but with a determination to make a position for himself. There
is no secret in his success. Anybody can gain success who will follow
the Schönewald method. It was not “blind luck “ with him, but industry,
unceasing industry, directed with unusual intelligence.

Schönewald fitted himself thoroughly for his position. On his arrival in
this country he decided to be a practical confectioner, and not long
after he received the highest salary ever paid in the State to a
confectioner. Then he took to cooking and earned the highest salary
ever paid to a cook in the State. Step by step has he moved from the
very bottom round of the ladder to the management of one of the largest
and finest hotels in the country.

Schönewald is a worker. He is supposed to take three meals a day, but
sometimes his breakfast is not touched till late in the afternoon. From
my window I have seen him driving about rapidly in a buggy before my
toilet was completed; and your humble servant, as a general rule, is out
of bed before seven A.M. The interests of the company first, his own
comfort last, seems to be this manager’s motto.

Yes, your Germans are workers. Mrs. Schönewald is her husband’s
helpmeet: she fills the position of housekeeper at Hotel del Monte, and
that probably accounts for the bed-rooms being so comfortably
furnished--a rocker here, an easy, arm-chair there, with a neat white
“tidy” on the upholstered back. There’s nothing like a woman’s eye, a
woman’s thoughtfulness in providing all the tasteful etceteras which
make a home comfortable and complete.

I will close with a clipping from the tourist book, “To the Golden
Gate,” issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad:--“The Eastern traveler
coming to California’s coast and failing to see ‘Del Monte’ has indeed
missed not everything, but a goodly part.”

[Illustration]

[Illustration: OLD OAKS, DEL MONTE.]

[Illustration: PROFILE OF FRONT. HOTEL DEL MONTE.]




[Illustration: HOTEL DEL CORONADO, CORONADO BEACH, CALIFORNIA.] SAN
DIEGO AND CORONADO.


CORONADO BEACH, CAL., March 5, 1891.

I was induced to think about coming to Southern California by the
tempting descriptions in Henry T. Finck’s book, “Scenic Tour of the
Pacific Coast,” and by interesting articles in the Century Magazine.
Toward San Diego and Coronado Beach my steps were turned by Charles
Dudley Warner’s glowing accounts in Harper’s Magazine.

I had always accepted with a grain of salt the flattering reports so
widely published, and now that I have seen for myself these wondrous
things, my friends will scarcely credit my story, so enthusiastic have I
become.

However, I do not intend that you shall rely on my mere “say so.” I’ve
been looking up official and other authorities--men of wide reputation,
who have a name to lose.

First, as to climate. This is the fifth of March; I have been here one
week to-day, and every day of the seven has been about alike--dry,
sunshiny, only on one or two days cloudy. On some days of the seven I
have seen men bathing in the ocean, and the bathers said that the
temperature was enjoyable--this in February. I am told that you can
bathe in the surf the year round, but never mind what “I am told.”

And in temperature, I believe it to be the most equable climate in the
world--but away with “beliefs,” I have a thermometer of my own, and the
hotel has one also, but I have watched closely a government,
self-recording instrument which is so placed that no ray of the sun nor
no reflection can approach it, and the figures, signed by an official of
the signal service in the United States army, record something like this
for the current week: five A. M., 55 degrees; noon, 68 degrees; five P.
M., 64 degrees. The figures quoted, to be exact, are those recorded on
February 28; some days since then have been a trifle cooler.

You may suggest: “If there is almost continual sunshine during daylight,
and the ground is always covered with grass and wild flowers, it must be
very hot and trying in summer.”

Must it? Remember there is a bay on three sides of Coronado, and the
Pacific ocean is on the other. But I will ask you to remember nothing.
From the compiled records of the United States signal station here, I
have “boiled down” a lot of facts and figures into this condensed form,
to wit:--in ten years, from 1876 to 1885, both years inclusive, there
were only one hundred and twenty days on which the mercury rose higher
than 80 degrees. And the summer nights are far more pleasant than those
you experience in New York.

What about the winter then? Here is the answer, gathered in the same
way from the same official source. There were only ninety-three days in
those same ten years upon which the mercury reached as low as 40, and on
no day did it remain at 40 for more than two hours.

By comparing, as I did, the United States record of the mean temperature
at Coronado for one year with a computation--made in the same year by
Dr. Bennett of the mean temperature of the Mediterranean records, I find
that the winter temperature of Coronado is 8 degrees _higher_ than the
winter temperature of the most favored foreign winter resorts, and the
summer temperature 10 degrees _lower_, thus making an average of 9
degrees in favor of Coronado as an all-year-round resort.

I haven’t the honor of Mr. Douglas Gunn’s acquaintance, but in his
interesting pamphlet concerning this region he says: “With scarcely a
perceptible difference between summer and winter you wear the same
clothing and sleep under the same covering the year round. The average
annual rainfall is about ten inches, with an average of thirty-four
rainy days in the whole year. And here most of the rain falls at night;
there are very few of what Eastern people would call “‘rainy days.’”

My week’s experience agrees with Mr. Gunn’s observations. He says:
“Almost every morning, about two hours after sunrise, a gentle sea
breeze commences, attaining its maximum velocity between one and three
P.M., then decreasing, and changing to a gentle land breeze during the
night. The sea breeze increasing as the sun gains its height, modifies
the power of its rays, and keeps the skin just comfortably warm. The
gentle land breeze at night cools off the heat absorbed during the day,
and makes every night refreshing.”

I could go on and quote to the same effect from no less distinguished an
authority than the scientist Agassiz, who was in this locality nineteen
years ago; also from Dr. Chamberlain in the New York Medical Record, who
says “it is the sanitarium of the Military Division for the Pacific,”
and from one known to me personally, Dr. Titus Munson Coan, a New York
littérateur of reputation, who calls this “the most charming spot on
earth;” but I fear that you might make some such remark as a very young
clubman did (fifty years ago) on seeing “Hamlet” for the first time.
Asked for his opinion, he said: “It’s a very good play, Fred, but too
d----d full of quotations.”

THE LOCATION.--Coronado Beach proper occupies about one-half of the
peninsula that forms the bay of San Diego. It is situated in the extreme
southwestern corner of the State, in latitude 32 degrees 42 minutes 37
seconds north, longitude 117 degrees 9 minutes west, and is four hundred
and eighty miles southeast from San Francisco. The peculiar shape of
this unique peninsula makes it difficult to describe. Beginning as it
does, very near the boundary line of Lower California, in Mexico, it
reaches away to the westward for miles, until, at a point opposite the
present city of San Diego, it forms a conjunction with what seems to
have been an island, which, if squared, would measure about a mile and a
half on each side. On the northeast and southeast are the slopes and
peaks of the Coast Range and Lower California chain of mountains;
southward lies the Pacific ocean; on the west is Point Loma, which forms
the western boundary of the entrance to the bay, and breaks the force of
the winter winds from the Pacific.

But how do you get to the hotel? Well, Coronado is one and a half miles
from San Diego, San Diego is one hundred and twenty-five miles from Los
Angeles, and Los Angeles is a station of the Southern Pacific Railroad,
also a station of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé road. San Diego is
also reached by steamer from San Pedro and from San Francisco, eight
hours from the former, two days from the latter.

The Pacific Coast Steamship Company runs a fine line of boats. I made
the trip on one, the Corona, a well-appointed vessel of 1500 tons, built
on the plan of the Olivette and Mascotte, which run between Tampa and
Havana. The Corona makes about thirteen knots; not so swift as the
Olivette; no boat of her size is as swift as the Olivette.

Some of the conditions of land and water are similar to those at Fire
Island--ocean on one side, bay on the other. But while Fire Island lacks
vegetation, every inch of ground here which is allowed to remain so is
green, or is carpeted with flowers--literally carpeted. No; Fire Island
will not quite answer for comparison. There is no use for a horse, nor
is there a horse on the land or the sand of Sammis, while here there are
fast trotters, lovely drives and a race course. The two places are
alike, in that surf and still water bathing can both be had, as well as
sailing and rowing. But there is other sport here--shooting, for
instance. I saw two men go out this morning after breakfast,
empty-handed (one of them was E. S. Babcock), and I saw them return this
evening with a bag which they said contained “about one hundred quail.”
I saw the birds counted and they numbered one hundred--lacking eight.

Is the ocean too cool for you or the surf boisterous, there is a plunge
bath off shore with water heated to 80 degrees. The tank measures 40 x
60 feet, so you can flounder about like a veritable fish.

But you neither shoot, fish, swim, ride nor drive? Then there are
charming and varied walks--on the edge of the rough ocean, on the edge
of the smooth bay, on the high bluff at the side of the former, or
through pretty country lanes and lovely gardens.

There is a charming walk of about one mile from the hotel to the ferry,
and planks are laid about half the distance. You pass by or pass
through pretty parks. On each “sidewalk” there is a row of young fan
palms six to eight feet high, these alternate with daisy bushes six feet
in circumference, the palm trees and bushes being about eight feet
apart; here and there rows of young pines ten or twelve feet high.

A MAGNIFICENT VALLEY VIEW.--To my mind one of the most delightful
morning or afternoon excursions hereabouts is made at an expense of
forty cents, without walking a block. Steam railway from hotel to ferry,
boat across the bay to San Diego, next a horse car to cable road, then
five miles by cable road through a country rich with gorgeous mountain,
valley and ocean views, to “The Pavilion.” The Pavilion, erected on the
summit of a mountain, is an amusement building surrounded by well-kept
paths and terraces from which a view is had of Mission Valley, a valley
and a view not unlike that which you get from the old Catskill Mountain
House and which many people prefer to that, because this view is not so
extensive and can all be taken in and enjoyed at a glance, with the
naked eye. You can see cattle and dogs in Mission Valley from your
elevated position, and you see men ploughing and engaged in other farm
labor. It is a spectacle that is worth going a hundred miles to see, and
if you can afford it you would not begrudge as many dollars as it costs
cents to make the trip. You are at a loss for words to describe your
feelings of pleasure when the grand Mission Valley view bursts upon you.
You remain silent in awe and admiration.

Are these walks and excursions not of your choice, or should the weather
be inclement, there are verandas about the hotel measuring a mile or
more.

Neither have interior amusement and exercise been forgotten. There is a
dancing hall (to which reference will be made further on), there are
bowling alleys and there are some billiard tables--as many as
thirty--some for men on the lower floor, some for the other sex on the
main floor, and some for both sexes on the floor above. Just think of
thirty billiard tables in one house.

The tables for women are well patronized. It is remarked that women
favor billiard playing in the evening and in evening dress, and it is
also noticed that the figure of a beautiful woman with her shapely arm
in short sleeves of lace is seen to excellent advantage when leaning
over the table, the white arm forming a pleasing contrast in color to
the dark green baize of the table.

CORONADO’S RAPID GROWTH.--The Coronado Beach Company was organized a few
years ago with a capital of three millions of dollars. The directors are
E. S. Babcock, Charles T. Hinde, John D. Spreckels, H. W. Mallett and
Giles Kellogg. The president is E. S. Babcock. The company some years
ago laid out that part of the peninsula known as Coronado Beach into
streets and avenues; but up to January 1, 1887, not a house was built.
Now the streets are lined with beautiful villa residences--some of them
substantial, imposing brick buildings--handsome cottages and many
business blocks. There are three or four hotels, several nurseries,
lumber yards, planing mills, foundries, factories, fruit packing
establishments and shipbuilding yards. There is a handsome Methodist
Episcopal church; the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic denominations
also have places of worship. A commodious school-house has a large
number of pupils and Coronado has a weekly newspaper. With the growth of
young Coronado came the growth of old San Diego--in fact, the latter
reflects and shares the popularity of the former. San Diego’s
population, which in 1884 was twenty-four hundred, now numbers over
twenty thousand. Imagine the population of a town increasing eight fold
in seven years.

Neither crooked like those of London, nor narrow like those of Boston,
are the streets of Coronado. Like the streets in Philadelphia and San
Diego, they are named after trees: Orange avenue is one hundred and
forty feet wide, Palm and Olive avenues one hundred feet wide. A
boulevard one hundred and thirty feet wide extends around the entire
property. What about the sewer system? Unlike Key West, in Florida,
Coronado with its unequalled water facilities has taken advantage of its
excellent natural position. With the bay and ocean at its doors, the
sewer question was quickly and easily solved--every street is already
sewered. Investors were not taking any chances when they placed their
funds in Coronado’s keeping.

A GOOD PURCHASE.--The whole of what is now the flourishing city of San
Diego was bought twenty years ago by a Mr. Horton for twenty-six cents
an acre. He built the Horton House, and for him the Horton Block was
named. San Diego’s neighbor, Coronado Beach, was bought half a dozen
years ago for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars by a company which
has since parted with a parcel of the land for a million or two. They
kept some choice pieces for themselves. Among the parcels of land is
that upon which Hotel del Coronado stands, and upon which was expended a
million and a half dollars. San Diego and Coronado Beach both
experienced “booms” about three years ago, when many men became suddenly
rich, some of them since becoming poor. Not a few now are what is known
as “real estate poor,” their money is “locked up” in land for which
purchasers cannot be found at present--at least not at the price which
“raged” three years ago.

Choice pieces on the main street of Coronado Beach sold as high as $500
per front foot, which is about the price of lots in certain parts of New
York--say in Harlem--with this difference, that “lots” here are one
hundred and sixty feet deep. Had there not been real value in the land
when the bubble burst, the bottom would have dropped out entirely when
“hard pan” was reached. As it is, land and lots are again finding ready
purchasers, and houses are being built in goodly numbers. That there is
a steady growth, a healthy increase, and a great future for San Diego
and Coronado Beach is a matter of certainty.

WATER, ICE AND SANITATION.--In my travels about the world I advise my
daughters to be cautious of the water in new places and to drink as
little as possible; here, on the contrary, I urge them to drink freely.
The water is not only pure and most agreeable to the taste, but it
contains medical properties which are beneficial to the system. Of this
we are assured by testimonials from leading physicians in different
States; among them Dr. W. H. Mason, late professor of physiology in the
University of Buffalo, N. Y., who, referring to the analysis, says: “The
water may be regarded as a regular elixir of life.” Its ingredients are
almost identical with the famous Bethesda waters of Wisconsin.

At all events, a company with a capital of half a million dollars has
been formed that has secured possession of the springs, fourteen miles
distant. It has been “piped” to Coronado Heights and Coronado Beach and
the yield is now five million gallons per day, which can be easily
doubled by development. The water is used as drinking water at the hotel
and with carbonic gas it is bottled for shipment to all parts of the
country. If widely and liberally advertised, there is a fortune in
Coronado Springs. All the ice used on the premises is made from this
spring water, distilled, so that it is absolutely pure, which is more
than can be said of Rockland Lake or Maine ice. The machinery at the
hotel has a capacity of twelve tons per day.

THE HOTEL.--The structure, which with the furniture cost one and a half
millions of dollars, is built around a quadrangular court 250 × 150
feet, the court being another name for a beautiful and well-kept
tropical garden. This feature reminds you of the open garden about
which the United States Hotel at Saratoga is built (which house has
earned the name of “the model hotel of the world”), only the Coronado
garden is filled with tropical plants and trees, and beautiful flowers
bloom the year round. It never looks as do the gardens in Saratoga at
the end of September. There are orange trees, lemons, figs, loquats,
olives, limes, pomegranates, the banana, etc.

Mention of limes calls to mind that by invitation of the courteous and
intellectual gentleman in charge of the Coronado nurseries, I cut a
large cluster of limes and sent it to a friend in New York as a
souvenir. Such a profusion of flowers you never saw, unless you have
seen Coronado. For instance, a short time ago, in this nursery, thirty
thousand roses were cut in one day from less than a quarter acre of rose
bushes, and the flowers were merely cut to save the bushes. Everybody in
the neighborhood carried away great baskets of roses to fill bags and
pillow-cases.

We were loaded with flowers, cut from the trees and bushes, in the open,
as we walked through the paths of the nursery--actually “loaded,” for
the ladies of the party not only carried hands and arms flowing over
with flowers--but their necks and shoulders were thickly entwined with
smilax. The flowers included the delicate heliotrope, the sweet
honeysuckle and the sturdy camelia, and they also embraced many flowers
new and strange to us, for everything seems to grow here, side by
side--everything that grows in the temperate, semi-tropical and tropical
zones.

The hotel is situated on the southeastern portion of a beautiful mesa
(the name here for a slight elevation) which slopes gradually, in
terraces, from its centre toward the Pacific ocean on one side and the
bay of San Diego on the other. No one style of architecture has been
followed, as the reader will see from the accompanying illustration. It
partakes of the Queen Anne style, also of the classic Norman era,
bringing up recollections of a grand old Norman castle: but the
architect has availed himself of different schools, producing a complete
and uncommonly beautiful whole. It is a striking object and the series
of buildings form a noble picture against the sky line when viewed four
or five miles distant--from San Diego or from the ocean.

The projectors seem to have had a fancy for the biblical number seven.
The building covers seven acres; counting guest chambers, sixty parlors,
large and small, the private dining rooms and other public rooms, there
are in all seven hundred rooms, and there is accommodation for seven
hundred boarders.

Why one side of the house is enclosed in glass I cannot understand, when
you can sit out doors every day in the year and bask in the sun. This is
a good arrangement for Atlantic City, but not necessary, it seems to me,
for Coronado Beach.

THE DRAWING-ROOM.--This is not a cold, bare and barn-like apartment such
as you find the parlors in so many American hotels. It is cozy and
home-like, with an air of marked refinement. The dark walls are relieved
with some choice engravings, and here and there you’ll meet with a
living plant, and there is always a vase or two filled with fresh
flowers, such as greet the eye and please the sense of smell (in summer
time) in an English country hotel, say in the Lake district. The
Coronado parlor is cheerful, and with its low ceiling and pillars of
unpainted wood, calls to mind the beautiful parlor of the (Spanish)
Hotel Cordova in St. Augustine. In fact Mr. Babcock tells me that some
of the features of the house are reminiscent of the grand hotels in
Havana, where he lived for some time.

OTHER PUBLIC ROOMS.--But beside the drawing-room there are a number of
other large and beautiful apartments near by--the ladies’ billiard-room,
the reception-room, writing-room, chess-room, etc.,--something like the
elegant public rooms (which are not so very public) in the Hotel
Victoria, London. There are a dozen or more suites of rooms with private
parlor for each suite, opening on the garden.

THE DINING-ROOM.--This is unique. At first glance, especially if you are
in the middle of the room, which is oval, it strikes you as rather bare,
monotonous and inartistic; very practical, with room for six hundred
people, but not entirely pleasing. But the longer you stay the more you
admire, particularly if you are lucky enough to get a table near an end
of the room, either that end which overlooks the garden or the end from
which you can see the ocean, the bay and the mountains beyond. It
measures 176 × 66 feet, and the ceiling is distant from the floor 33
feet. The whole immense apartment, floor, walls and ceiling, is of light
colored wood--white Oregon pine and solid oak worked into panels of all
sizes and shapes conceivable. The materials and light colors, or color
rather, are suitable to this climate and in time you get to like them.

The breakfast room is no miniature apartment either, 47 × 56 feet, with
ceiling as high as the dining-room ceiling. It is far more attractive to
my eye, its floor being carpeted, and having a high dado of California
redwood, which serves to relieve the lighter woods. But Americans demand
size for their beauty, and they have it in the dining-room with its
floor area of 10,000 feet. To quote the writer of a pamphlet, “it fills
the beholder with an astounding admiration.” Better than that, to my
taste, they have a skilful _chef_, and he fills your platter with most
appetizing dishes--if you get a good waiter.

WHERE THEY DANCE.--In the extreme southwest corner of the building is
the ball-room, with an extended view of the beach and the ocean; indeed,
you cannot get away from the ocean unless you get away from Coronado.
The designer of this room has also “gone in” for size. It is a circular
room, no less than 60 feet high and 120 feet in diameter, giving a floor
area of 11,000 square feet. Too much room for a small “dance,” but
splendid for a ball or grand concert.

A feature of the ball-room is a stage for amateur theatricals, which,
for size and appointments in the matter of lights, would not discredit a
regular theatre.

A RICH AND ROYAL SUITE.--Taken as a whole, there are more prettily
furnished bedrooms in Long’s Hotel, London, than in any other hotel I
have ever seen. The tower rooms in the Oglethorpe, at Brunswick,
Georgia, are large and remarkably beautiful, and the bridal suite in the
Ponce de Leon is supposed to be very choice, but the Ponce de Leon
“show” apartments will not compare in beauty nor in completeness of
detail with the bridal suite in Hotel del Coronado. These rooms in the
Coronado are not so palatial in size nor in the matter of costly
frescoes as the rooms in the London Métropole, in which I found Mr. and
Mrs. Augustin Daly last October, but they certainly are among the most
tastefully furnished hotel bedrooms I have ever seen, and it is not
surprising that the photographic views of these apartments find many
purchasers.

The window has an eastern view that is extremely pleasing. To the right
are seen the ocean’s rough breakers, to the left is the smooth bay of
San Diego, while to the immediate front, as you lie in bed, if the
curtains are parted and you are awake at 6.20 A. M., you can see the sun
creeping up behind a range of great mountains, miles and miles away. The
soft cloud of black smoke curling from the tall, round, red brick
chimneys of the electric light engine house between you and the golden
sky beyond, does not mar the picture in the least.

Across the centre of the principal room of the suite are three arches,
supported by the side walls and by two wooden fluted columns, and under
the arches are heavy portières of double silk, salmon pink on one side,
old gold on the other. The windows are draped elaborately and
beautifully--light blue silk shades, lace curtains next to the windows,
with inner curtains of heavy pale blue silk, lined with silk of a rose
tint. The furniture is of mahogany, upholstered with blue silk plush,
the carpet is a rich moquette in delicate colors, and the toilet set is
in Haviland Limoges decorated in deep blue, white and gold. The ceiling
is daintily frescoed. From its centre depends a three-light electrolier;
from the wall, over the bureau mirror, juts out a bracket with two
electric lamps. The mantel is ornamented with two side pieces of Limoges
and a bronze cathedral clock--a miniature representation of the clock in
the Houses of Parliament, in Westminster. If you do not get from these
notes the idea of a luxurious and tasteful apartment, the fault is not
with those who furnished it, but with the pen which has failed to
describe it.

[Illustration]




[Illustration] SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA.


SANTA CRUZ, CAL., March 27, 1891.

In area, Santa Cruz county is one of the smallest in California, but in
resources, productiveness of soil and natural attractions it might be
called the largest in the State. In its equable climate is grown almost
everything indigenous to the north temperate zone.

The county is in central California, eighty miles south of San
Francisco; it has a coast line of forty miles, and includes, according
to the United States Government survey, 280,000 acres. So rich is it
that there are not more than five thousand acres of waste land in the
entire county. South of this is the Pajaro Valley, the most fertile spot
of California, called “the wonder of the Pacific.”

There is not much stock-raising in Santa Cruz county. The mountains,
being heavily timbered, are not adapted to grazing. Nor are citrus
fruits cultivated to any great extent; but the apples of Santa Cruz
county are superior to any grown in the State, the quality of the wine
is unsurpassed in the State, and the remarkable richness of the soil
renders the cultivation of potatoes, beans, hops, sugar beets, etc.,
profitable to a degree unknown in less fertile sections. The vegetable
products of the county form one of its most extensive industries. E. S.
Harrison, a trustworthy authority in California history, calls Santa
Cruz “a vegetable wonderland.”

Let me illustrate the natural advantages of this region by a comparison.
While riding on the Southern Pacific railway over the Texas plains, a
month ago, the travelling auditor of the company, who was on our train,
surprised me by stating that the company is glad to lease its lands at
four cents an acre annually. Land within a couple of miles of where this
is written is leased to Chinamen for farming at fifty dollars an acre
annually, and they realize from it a profit per acre of two or three
hundred dollars.

The City of Santa Cruz, the principal city and county seat of the
county, lies between the Pacific ocean and the northern side of Monterey
bay, about eighty miles south of San Francisco. It nestles among the
foot-hills of the Santa Cruz mountains, and its outskirts are bathed by
the sea. The city proper has a population of six thousand five hundred,
and if East Santa Cruz is included, the population is about nine
thousand. The city is growing rapidly. New business houses are
constantly going up, capital is coming from the East, and everywhere are
evidences of a steady, healthy increase.

Santa Cruz has good railroad facilities. Two branches of the Southern
Pacific run here direct. They are called the broad gauge and the narrow
gauge roads. The broad gauge is an important line running through Santa
Clara and Pajaro valleys, passing San José and the larger towns between
San Francisco and Monterey. The narrow gauge runs from San Francisco no
farther south than Santa Cruz. It is more of a local line and stops at
the smaller places--places, however, of such great interest to tourists
as Big Trees. The steamers of the Pacific Steamship Company plying
between San Pedro (near Los Angeles), and San Francisco stop here,
regularly, on their way north and south.

In writing from Hotel del Monte in Monterey, I mentioned some large oaks
and pines; there are as big and still bigger trees here, or very near
here, at a place appropriately named Big Trees. It is a ten minute ride
on the narrow gauge road of the Southern Pacific, or an hour’s drive by
carriage from Santa Cruz. You need not go to Yosemite, Calaveras or
Mariposa to see giants of the forest; here they are, a grove of 320
acres, some of the trees 300 feet high and 46 feet in circumference.
These figures are quoted, but I measured a few specimens myself. One
about four feet from the ground was 52 feet in circumference. The
interior of another, “General Fremont,” had been burned out. Four
persons beside myself stood inside of it, and thirty-five more, we
calculated, could have found room in comfort. This measured six feet in
diameter about five feet from the ground--inside measurement--the
“shell” of the tree being probably a foot thick. There are dozens and
scores and groups of trees in this wonderful grove, nearly as large.

The trees are of the famous California Redwood species, the wood hard as
flint and very heavy. The largest specimens are named and bear tablets,
“Daniel Webster,” “General Grant,” “General Sherman,” “Ingersoll’s
Cathedral,” etc. Under the shadow of the last named, the honorable
gentleman held forth one day to an admiring audience. “Big Trees” is
owned by a wealthy widow of San Francisco, Mrs. Walsh.

Powerful and proud as are these giants of the forest, some of them have
been uprooted by nature’s convulsions and lie humbly and horizontally on
the ground. I noticed that a few of these were charred. The keeper of
the grounds explained that year after year fire had been tried, but the
hardy giants would not yield to flame. They are so thick and hard they
won’t burn as they lie. “Then why not cut them up,” I suggested. “Oh!”
was the answer, “lumber is worth nothing here; it is so plentiful.”

They have done a little “cutting,” however. In exchange for a dime you
will get a piece of red wood quite heavy enough for your satchel, or a
piece of the bark much too clumsy for your coat pocket. The bark is
three or four inches thick.

This is a famous wine country. We visited the tunnels of the “Santa Cruz
Mountain Wine Company,” whose vineyards are visible nine miles away on
the hills. The tunnels are dug out of the soft, sand-stone rock and are
dark and rather cool. That is to say, the air seemed cool when compared
with the atmosphere outside, but as a matter of truth, which is often
stranger than fiction, the thermometer showed the temperature in the
tunnels to be 52 degrees, and it remains at about that figure all the
year round. There are three such tunnels, each 380 feet long, 24 feet
wide, and 18 feet high. The vineyards of the company include two hundred
acres.

In these deep, cool tunnels the company has stored in great vats no less
than two hundred thousand gallons of wine. Bottle after bottle was
opened for our party and so cheaply was it held that the glasses were
freely washed with the wine as the different kinds were tasted--port,
sherries, clarets and white wines.

The claret has good body, and if you add a little water to it, as the
French treat _vin ordinaire_, it makes a very good drink for a thirsty
soul at the dinner table.

California Angelica has been a popular wine for twenty odd years: the
Angelica produced in Santa Cruz is sweet, smooth, oily and delicious.

A brand of Sauterne so pleased my palate that I ordered twenty gallons
to be shipped to New York. But I’ll let you into the secret of this
seemingly extravagant order; the price is only one dollar per
gallon--and not Jones, but I, paid the freight. In ordering this wine I
was guided first, by my own taste--it has delicious flavor; secondly, I
felt assured that it was absolutely pure. The grapes are here, on the
spot, ship loads of them, in the season, and there’s no incentive for
adulteration.

The well-kept roads and fine drives about Santa Cruz are not its least
attractive feature. One of them you can take from the shore, driving
over a bridge of the San Lorenzo river, passing Phelan Park and the twin
lakes, on the borders of which are the summer home and settlement of the
Christian Church. You keep the mountains in view all the way, and a turn
here or there shows you the city, the bay, or the ocean.

The three-mile cliff drive takes you immediately above the rock-bound
shore of the Pacific, where you see giant crags upon which the
everlasting waves have had their effect. Some of the rocks stand off
from the shore twenty and fifty feet, and through these the powerful
waves have worked great holes, through which the waters rush with a
tumultuous roar, dashing their spray far above. These “natural bridges”
would be considered a rare sight if they were the only feature of this
scene, and would attract people from a distance, but where there is so
much to admire and astonish, they are only one among the many marvels
that here make an embarrassment of pictorial riches.

The city has two banks, good public schools and water-works; it is
sewered to the ocean, it has horse-cars, fine public buildings, and two
flourishing newspapers, the _Sentinal_ and the _Surf_. Good society is
not lacking, and beautiful homes abound. Duncan McPherson has a fine
Gothic villa; the residence of Mayor Bowman commands beautiful views of
the bay and the town; the home of William Kerr, two miles out of the
city, is a handsome structure in the Queen Anne style, having two wide
entrances and bay windows, affording extensive views of the valley and
bay. Colonel A. J. Hinds, a pioneer of Santa Cruz, has built himself a
charming home, and Mrs. P. B. Fagen’s house on Mission street, one of
the principal residential streets, attracts the attention of all
passers-by. Other pretty homes are those of D. K. Abeel, R. Bernheim,
Mr. Glover and Mrs. E. J. Green.

Mr. J. Philip Smith, a New York capitalist, who has travelled far and
wide and who passes much of his time in Europe and New York, came here
with his family four years ago, bought a two-acre site upon which a fine
house stood and this he enlarged and reconstructed, laying out the
grounds in a tasteful way, making it one of the handsomest residences in
Santa Cruz. It has a high and enviable position near the Sea Beach
Hotel.

It reminds you at once upon entering it of a Parisian interior and on
closer examination you are not surprised to learn that many of the
things of beauty which adorn the rooms had a French origin. The Smiths
are great travellers and in their journeyings about the world have
“picked up” any number of art works and curios which now find an
appropriate resting place.

One of the finest views here, one of the most beautiful of its kind in
the State probably, is to be had from Logan Heights, the estate of Judge
J. H. Logan. Judge Logan is president of the Santa Cruz bank and one of
the most esteemed citizens of this section. The house, not imposing
architecturally, stands on a mesa or plateau of about twenty acres, in
which beautiful roses and other choice flowers bloom the year round.
From this elevated position a series of bird’s-eye views are spread out
before you, the extent, beauty and variety of which are not easily
described.

At this point you are two hundred feet above the Pacific ocean.
Immediately below, in the foreground, is the whole city of Santa Cruz,
with its high school, its gardens, reservoirs, depots, hotels, and its
church spires. To your left, eastward, are the villages Soquel and
Aptos, famous lumber centres. A few miles further off in the same
direction, glistens Monterey bay, backed by the Santa Cruz mountains.

Southward, beyond the city at your feet, winds the bay of Monterey. Look
twenty miles further south, and, in this clear atmosphere, you see the
sleepy old town of Monterey with the mountains as a background for the
picture.

To your right, westward, is the ocean again--altogether, forming a
number of diversified and beautiful pictures.

There are a number of good hotels at Santa Cruz--the Pacific Ocean
House, the Wilkins House and Ocean Villa. The last named looks cozy and
comfortable as it stands in its own pretty garden, with a commanding
view. The leading house is that owned by D. K. Abeel, the Sea Beach
House, which he has recently enlarged and reconstructed, putting in all
the modern improvements, and putting in as landlord John T. Sullivan,
who, after securing a long lease, furnished it in good style. It was
designed by G. W. Page, a prominent architect of San José, and presents
a most pleasing appearance, viewed either from the heights or from the
shore, above which it stands nearly one hundred feet, and to which its
grounds, beautifully terraced and ornamented with flowers, gracefully
slope. “Modern improvements,” of course--every room in the Sea Beach
Hotel has running water, but the improvements include hot water also.

The parlor is on the main floor, in the corner round tower of the
building, and, with its many windows, is uncommonly pleasing. Through or
from these windows you get the best features of the scenery hereabouts,
from the tasteful flower gardens of the hotel grounds to Loma Prieta and
the mountains in the distance, or to Monterey, beyond the bay in the
foreground.

The lessee, Mr. Sullivan, is not unknown to New York. He was a tried
friend of Horace Greeley’s and a trusted officer under Hon. Thomas L.
James in the New York Post-office, in which place he rose after faithful
service of fifteen years to be superintendent of the newspaper
department. Mr. Sullivan has been in Santa Cruz only five or six years.
I saw a modest little two-story building in which he started here,
“keeping boarders,” and he now finds himself in the leading hotel of the
town, owning his own furniture, a fine stable, and with the prospect of
making his fortune. With success Mr. Sullivan has made many staunch
friends, among them the mayor of the town, judges, bank presidents and
other leading citizens.

The steamship landing is nearer the Sea Beach Hotel than it is to any
other house; the broad guage station is at the door, so to speak, and
the narrow guage station is two minutes walk around the corner. The
house is open all the year. Santa Cruz is attractive in winter, but in
summer it must be delightful.

[Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE, SANTA CRUZ.]




REDONDO BEACH.


REDONDO BEACH, CAL., March 13, 1891.

New Orleans obtained its sub-title from the crescent shape of its banks
on the Mississippi river. The trend of the Pacific shore here suggested
the pretty name, “Redondo,” in Spanish, signifying round.

It is midway between Capistrano, south, and Point Duma, north, and is
sixteen miles in a southwest direction from Los Angeles, from which city
there are several trains daily over two roads--the Santa Fé and the new
Redondo Beach railroad. All passenger steamers to and from San Francisco
and way points stop at Redondo.

Three years ago Redondo was a waste, or at best it was a cattle ranch.
There was not a house nor a hut here, now it is a garden spot of
Southern California. It came into existence as if by magic, as do many
flourishing towns on the Pacific slope.

Beautifully situated on grounds rising gradually from the ocean, backed
by rich, tillable lands and ranges of green hills, with seaport
facilities not surpassed in California south of San Francisco, its rapid
growth is not surprising.

The creation of Redondo, according to plans which promise such a
satisfactory result, is due to Californians--men of irrepressible energy
and wide experience in large affairs--Captain J. C. Ainsworth, Captain
R. R. Thompson and Captain George J. Ainsworth, not captains by
courtesy, either. They planned and have established successfully
railroad and steamship lines in Oregon and the northwest.

That they have ample capital at their command may be judged by a few
figures given at random. Their first step was to buy one thousand acres
of land; second, to build a railroad and wharf; third, to secure an
ocean front of _one mile_, then to erect a hotel four hundred and fifty
feet long to accommodate three hundred people. It was first opened May
1, 1890.

In the hotel they built a music room, 48 × 80 feet, spending two
thousand dollars simply on an inlaid floor; there is a tennis court
which cost seven thousand dollars; they laid a Portland cement walk from
the station to hotel, sixteen feet wide and a quarter of a mile long,
expending another ten thousand in that way--altogether it is easy to
believe that checks for more than a million have been drawn in the
enterprise. These Californians, with their big trees and their
forty-thousand-acre ranches, do nothing in a small way.

Do you ask what are the natural attractions of the place? “First, last
and all the time,” there is the almost wonderful climate--genial, balmy
and equable, such as you will find nowhere but in Southern California.
The hotel proprietor tells me that the average winter temperature is 61
degrees. In case you should not care for figures at second hand, here is
a record from my own thermometer. Yesterday, March 12, noon, 68, this
morning at seven it registered 53; at this writing, eight P.M., 60, the
instrument hanging outside my window.

The summer here, I am assured, and I firmly believe, is more delightful
than the winter, and the hotel will be kept open the year round. Like
the Hygeia at Old Point Comfort, Redondo attracts people from a distance
in winter; in summer it is largely patronized by residents of San
Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities of the State.

I do not agree entirely with Mrs. Malaprop that “comparisons are
odorous.” They often serve a very useful purpose in illustration. At any
rate I am given to the habit of comparing, be it a good or a bad habit.
What is large or small, fine or coarse, hot or cold, wet or dry, good or
bad, except by comparison?

For once, however, I am put to my wits’ ends for comparison. Redondo is
like no place on the Atlantic coast, because, although directly on the
seashore, every foot of ground, almost up to the edge of the ocean, is
covered with fine grass; and the most tender flowers grow and flourish
in profusion everywhere, almost within a few feet of the surf. This in
winter, mind you--a Southern California winter, though. It is not so,
even in summer, on the Atlantic coast, in the United States, nor in
England. Yes, I have it: I can indulge in the old habit; the climate of
Redondo is like that in the South of France: in fact it is in the same
latitude: there!

In the hotel nurseries, which are distant from the surf but a few
hundred feet, you may revel in roses, heliotrope, tulips, mignonette,
daisies, etc. There are tall calla lilies in plenty and the pleasing
sight of acres and acres of pinks of various colors is one that is very
fascinating. The hotel farm of two hundred acres, where choice stock is
kept, supplies the house with more than all the milk, cream, butter,
fruit and vegetables it requires.

The hotel is only four stories high, yet there is an elevator; of course
electric lights and all modern improvements. Neither is the building
deep, but it has great length, to give views of ocean in front and of
green hills in the rear. It stands north and south thus affording ocean
views from three sides. Of the 225 rooms, every one has a sunny exposure
at some hour of the day; every one is well ventilated and lighted; every
one is an “outside room,” and every guest feels that his is the best
suite in the house.

The porch is not one straight, unbroken line like the porches of so many
summer hotels in the east. It has a few graceful curves in it and from
it you may watch the craft sailing by--coast steamers to and from San
Francisco and other ports. The golden sunsets you may see from this
porch are such as no artist could represent. It is not within the
possibilities of paint and canvas to reproduce such gorgeous scenes. On
a clear day without the aid of a glass Catalina island is visible thirty
miles away.

The dining-room of the hotel juts out in a northerly direction and has
windows on three sides. From a distance it looks as if it might have
been an after-thought in construction, but the architect planned it this
way, to give what was most desired--light, ventilation and pleasing
views, and he succeeded.

Two hundred and sixty can sit down to dinner at one time.

There are no loose wardrobes nor clothes presses; all the bedrooms have
closets built in the walls. Every room is supplied with hot and cold
water running into marble basins. Every room has a tiled fireplace in
color and design to match the carpet, and what is also worthy of
mention, the furniture in the bedrooms is not duplicated, nor are the
carpets.

The drinking water is from an Artesian well. It has been analyzed and
pronounced pure. The plumbing seems to have been done in a careful
manner, and the question of sewerage need give nobody concern. The hotel
stands on a _mesa_. The refuse goes through an iron pipe and empties
into the sea half a mile from the house.

There are no better fishing grounds on the coast, so they say. If you
are lucky with the line you may catch bonita, Spanish mackerel,
baracouta, smelt and yellow tails, whatever they are.

The circular of the Redondo Hotel as to rates merely says, “same as any
first-class hotel.” This is hardly in accordance with the facts, as I
see them. The terms at the Redondo are from three to four dollars per
day, while hotels in the east, of the same class, charge from four to
five dollars. Why such low rates obtain in California hotels is
something I intend to find out before I leave the State. For illustrated
circulars address Redondo Hotel Co., Redondo Beach, Cal.




PASADENA.


PASADENA, March 10.

People who care more for comfort than for great “style,” who prefer a
quiet, home-like, family house to one of noise and bustle, those who are
seeking health, pure air and out-door life with grand views rather than
the music, dancing and entertainments of a fashionable hotel may jot
down as a memorandum “The Painter Hotel, at Pasadena, Cal,” thirty-five
minutes by train from Los Angeles and fifteen minutes by “free ’bus”
from passenger station.

It is a new house, was built in ’88; it accommodates seventy-five
boarders, and is owned and kept by J. H. Painter’s Sons. The house is
airy, the bedrooms are comfortably (not luxuriously) furnished, the
parlor is pleasant, the class of guests select, the table is well
provided, and at once, let me say, ere the important fact escapes me,
the rates are remarkably low for the nice appointments and good fare
supplied--only $2.50 per day for transient guests, and from $12.50 to
$17.50 per week to season boarders, for people come to stay for a month
or so--some spend the whole winter here. The house is open the year
round, it being pleasant in summer as well as in winter. It is a
mountainous district, and the ocean, from which come soft winds in
summer, is only thirty minutes’ distant in a south and southwesterly
direction.

Yes, and here are two more facts--Pasadena is one thousand feet above
the sea, and the Painter Hotel, which is one and a half miles from the
centre of the town, stands on the highest point hereabouts.

The grounds comprised in the property include ten acres, upon which the
owners grow their own fruits for the table--peaches, apricots, raisins,
prunes, etc.

Do you want to visit the town? Street cars pass the door of the Painter.
And if you want a view it will “pay” you to climb up to the roof of the
hotel, where there is an observatory. Three miles off is the Raymond
Hotel, plain to your view in this clear atmosphere. On one side is the
San Bernardino range of mountains, on the other the Sierra Madre range.
You may see San Jacinto, ninety miles away, also Wilson’s Peak, upon
which the new observatory, with its powerful lens, is to be placed; and
beautiful San Gabriel valley is spread out immediately beneath you, a
feature of which, at this writing, are acres of large, orange-hued
poppies, so bright that you could almost imagine them aflame, especially
if the wind is blowing, thus giving vibration to the thin, delicate
leaves.

The drives are a most delightful feature:--to the city proper, with its
wide avenues of beautiful residences, to San Gabriel mission, and to
“Lucky” Baldwin’s ranch, a pleasant afternoon drive.

Those who are planning a winter or spring tour will thank me for
suggesting a visit to the Painter House, but if people demand “style,”
if they would dance to orchestral music; if they demand great size in a
dining-room and grandeur in the drawing-room, and they are willing to
pay for it, all these are also obtainable here, or rather at East
Pasadena, which is only three miles distant; eight miles from Los
Angeles. And the price, $4.50 per day, $21 to $28 per week, is
reasonable considering what you get for the money.

Reference is made to the great Raymond Hotel, which was built in 1886,
where they have a bar, as well as billiards and bowling; elevator,
electric lights, a reception-room, music-room, grand parlor, and a
dining-room which accommodates three hundred persons. From your seat at
table you see “Old Baldy” looming above the clouds eleven thousand feet
and snow-covered ten months out of the twelve, looking like a great
sugar-loaf and recalling the Jungfrau, near Interlaken, Switzerland.

Like the dining-room of its modest neighbor, the Painter Hotel, every
table in the Raymond is decorated daily with fresh flowers plucked from
the hotel grounds--this is “winter,” mind you. The grounds of the
Raymond cover a space of fifty-four acres, so there is no lack of fruit
(oranges, lemons, etc.), to say nothing of the roses, blue bells,
honeysuckle, dandelions, heliotropes and violets which may be picked _ad
libitum_--if you don’t regard the painted signs.

A view from one of the Raymond’s verandas is not much unlike that from
the front steps of the Grand Hotel in the Catskills, only the former is
far more extensive.

The proprietor of the Raymond is W. Raymond, of Raymond’s Vacation
Excursions, Boston, and the manager is C. H. Merrill, of the Crawford
House, in the White Mountains. The post-office address is East Pasadena,
Cal.

Orange Grove avenue and Marengo avenue and the paths in the grounds
leading to the houses are lined with luxurious fan palm trees,
interspersed with great cacti and not a few century plants, which it is
proven here bloom much oftener than once in a hundred years. The calla
lily, that delicate plant which is so tenderly cared for in the East
that the flower is wrapped in cotton wool, here grows in such profusion
that it is used for hedges. You will see fields of “callas” at Pasadena,
raised for shipment to large cities. The whole of Pasadena is like one
immense garden, a garden city indeed.

PASADENA COTTAGES.--You would scarcely credit it, so I won’t tell you,
that some of the “cottages” in this new place are as large and
elaborate as those on the New Jersey coast, between Seabright and
Elberon, and some of them would not look out of place alongside the
grand Newport “cottages.”

Mr. Kernaghan, editor of the _Pasadena Star_, has a fine home here. One
of the prettiest places belongs to and is occupied by Mrs. Kimball, the
widowed daughter of Rufus Hatch of New York.

Charles Frederick Holder, formerly of New York, came out here six years
ago for his health, and having obtained it has made this his home. He
has a cozy cottage on Orange Grove avenue in which is his study, where
you may find him at his ease, wearing a short black velvet coat or
smoking jacket.

Mr. Holder is a journalist and littérateur, a frequent contributor to
current magazines and leading newspapers. He has published two or three
brochures on Pasadena. One of his contributions concerning this section
was an illustrated article which appeared in _Harper’s Weekly_. It was
entitled “The Rose Tournament,” and described a beautiful ceremony which
takes place here annually, on New Year’s day. Mr. Holder’s style is
finished and scholarly and his language choice, with no waste of words.
Being a man of cultivated taste, with a rare poetic fancy, he is at home
here, when treating of this lovely country with its wealth of fruits and
flowers.

Among others who have built houses and who occupy country seats at
Pasadena is Governor Markham, of California. A Mr. Nelmes has a lovely
ten-acre place, and with it a generous heart. A sign placed
conspicuously outside his gates reads as follows: “All are welcome to
drive through these private grounds and groves. Eastern tourists are
each invited to pluck one orange.”

Near the Painter Hotel are many beautiful homes owned by “Eastern
people.” One is owned by Dr. Green, of Woodbury, N. J., another
luxurious place is that of Mr. McNally, of the publishing house in
Chicago of Rand, McNally & Co.

Professor Low, of Norristown, Pa; J. W. Scoville, a Chicago banker, and
E. T. Hurlburt, a capitalist of Chicago, are owners of fine estates, and
of less notable places there are owners in Pasadena by the hundred.

It strikes you as rather odd to find winter and summer together, hand in
hand as it were. At your feet flowers; raise your head and snow on the
mountain peaks is visible to the naked eye.

The one-horse cars which ply between Pasadena and East Pasadena,
California, like some of the one-horse cars of some other cities, have a
driver who acts as conductor also, but the driver in the Pasadena cars
serves as collector as well. There is no automatical nor mechanical
contrivance to receive the fares, nor is there any way of recording
them. When a passenger gets on the driver leaves the front platform,
and, letting the horse take care of himself, or handing the reins to a
front-platform passenger, he runs back and collects the new fare. There
are not many cars on the line--one starts only every half hour--and as
most of the passengers are through passengers, and few get on or off
between the two points named, the animal being very docile, there is no
difficulty in one man doing the whole work. The driver getting on and
off his car reminds me of the elevator in Philp’s Hotel, Glasgow, which
will not budge upward if there are as many as four or five people in the
car. The man who runs it gives the rope a pull, on the ground floor,
then leaves the car, walks up the stairs, getting up to the second or
third flight in ample time to give the rope another pull and to let the
passengers out.

Some people talk of the winter months in California as “the rainy
season.” This may be an old story, told of what was the case years ago.
It certainly is not true to-day. Examining the records, I find that
from January 5 to February 1 of this year there was no rain at all in
Pasadena, and in all of that time there were but two cloudy
days--January 23 and January 28.

I have been in Southern California now for about three weeks and have
seen it rain only on two days and one night--two days in Los Angeles and
one night, for one hour, at Coronado Beach.

I don’t advise you to throw away your umbrella, as did a tourist from
Colorado when coming here, but my experience would show that there is
very little use for such an article in Southern California, even in what
used to be called “the rainy season.”

[Illustration]




LOS ANGELES


LOS ANGELES, March 17.

If you are going from Los Angeles to San Diego, or vice versa, don’t go
by boat unless you have a great affection for the sea. First, you must
change at San Pedro, from cars to boat; second, the waterway occupies
much more time; but what is most important, if you go by rail, over the
Sante Fé route, you get magnificent and diversified views of the ocean,
close views of foot hills and distant views of snow-capped mountains.
You pass through a fertile country, see picturesque cottages, large
sheep and cattle ranches, and great rifts in the mountains that make you
smile when you think of “gaps” in the east, which are so widely
advertised. The train skirts the edge of the sea for scores of miles and
recalls similar scenic features of land and water which you admire in
travelling from Aberdeen to Ballater over the “Great North of Scotland
Railway,” a pretty little road with a big sounding name. If you should
have to stop on a switch, or for a “heated journal,” for five or ten
minutes, you can step off the car platform and in a few minutes you can
gather a large bouquet of sweet, wild flowers, among them fragrant
“mignonette” as they call it here. Southern California might well be
named the land of flowers, and this branch of the Sante Fé is entitled
to be called by that much abused term, picturesque.

FLORIDA ORANGES “BEATEN.”--I wrote last season about some Florida
oranges which Mr. Orvis showed me at the Windsor Hotel, Jacksonville.
The largest of them, if I remember aright, measured thirteen inches in
circumference and weighed twenty-three ounces. I asked, “who can beat
these?” They are “beaten.” This morning I weighed an orange in Los
Angeles which turned the beam at thirty-three ounces and which measured
nineteen and one-quarter inches. This particular orange was light for
its size, because it was not quite ripe nor “full” when picked. It came
from George Bunce’s grove (pray do not print this “grave”) at Rivera, a
small town nine miles from Los Angeles. The grove was only set out in
1888. All the oranges on the tree from which this one was picked were as
large and as heavy as the one described, but there were only three of
them.

All the ticket brokers’ offices, all the fruit stores, segar shops and
all the shops of small traders and of places patronized by men have
their doors and windows thrown open during business hours. No
“protection” from the weather is needed. It is never cold enough for
closed doors or windows in the daytime. Nor are some of these places of
business closed even at night except by strong iron-wire netting
covering the fronts of the stores. This open feature strikes a visitor
as very strange at first, but one soon becomes accustomed to it. All
through the winter open street cars are used.

Three years ago, when the Los Angeles boom was at its height, the
foundation was laid near Main street for what was intended to be the
largest hotel in the United States. There it stood and there it stands
to-day (the foundation), the bricks appearing just one foot above the
ground level. These bricks enclose a space of two acres. Pullman, of
sleeping-car fame, was one of those interested, and he says that the
idea has not been entirely abandoned. The idea may yet exist but the
open lots and the brick foundation look very lonesome. Meanwhile Mr. O.
T. Johnson erected a very handsome hotel, The Westminster, on the corner
of Main and Fourth streets, which will accommodate two hundred and fifty
guests. The site of the Westminster is choice; the house contains all
the modern improvements; it is well furnished and well patronized.

As I write, in my bedroom of the Westminster Hotel, looking north I can
see, without rising from my seat, great high mountains covered with
snow. They present a most beautiful picture in this clear atmosphere,
with the sun shining upon them.

That “cranky critic,” as the New York _Hotel Gazette_ calls Max O’Rell,
would be suited at the Westminster Hotel. O’Rell complains because in
American hotels guests have regular seats; that each person upon
entering the dining-room is not allowed to sit just where he pleases.
The contrary is the rule in the hotel mentioned. A notice is prominently
posted near the elevator which reads: “Positively no seats reserved in
the dining-room.” The waiters are young, intelligent American girls of a
good class, some from New York and some from Nebraska, all uniformed in
white. They look neat and clean, are alert to take an order and quick in
serving it.

Strawberry short-cake was part of the dessert at to-day’s luncheon in
the Hotel Westminster. Fresh-picked strawberries are served every
morning for breakfast. Not a dozen or two small, hard berries, such as I
have seen served for a “portion” at hotel tables in Florida during
February, but a saucerful for each guest of large, ripe berries that
have a delicious flavor. Strawberry ice-cream was on the dinner
menu--the cream made, not from “strawberry flavoring,” but of the honest
fruit. Fresh peas and Lima beans figure on the bill, also oranges in
profusion, picked from the groves hard by.

All the way between New Orleans, La., and Los Angeles, Cal., on the
Southern Pacific railroad, you pay five to ten cents each for oranges;
as soon as you reach Los Angeles, boys with baskets of the golden fruit
swarm about the cars crying out, “Oranges, three for a nickel, six for
a dime.” If you have a little patience you will hear, “Oranges, eight
for a dime,” and if you wait till the train is about to start you can
get ten for a dime. Possibly after you are out of hearing they are sold
at ten cents a dozen.

In the cars of the Southern Pacific railroad that run between Los
Angeles and the seaport town of San Pedro appears this printed notice:
“WARNING:--Passengers are hereby warned against playing games of chance
with strangers, of betting on three card monte, strap, or other games.
You will surely be robbed if you do.”

[Illustration]




THE CALIFORNIA.


SAN FRANCISCO, April 1, 1891.

California being one of the largest of these United States, the
Californians thought that their chief city should have large hotels, so
they built in San Francisco the Baldwin House, the Lick House, the
Occidental and larger than any of these, the Palace Hotel, “larger than
any hotel in existence,” it is claimed. Whether this claim is well
founded or not, the Palace is large enough to suit the most extravagant
American ideas. It occupies three acres of ground. It has seven hundred
and fifty-five bedrooms; number of rooms all told, ten hundred and
fifteen.

But with the growth of the State and the growth of culture and good
taste, Californians and tourists from other States demanded something
above and beyond mere size; and so a few months ago was erected “The
California.” There are several “California Hotels” in San Francisco, in
fact, an old house directly opposite the California now calls itself
“The New California,” probably because the name is new. So many houses
with names near alike give trouble to the Post-office people, but the
title of the house of which I write is simply “The California.”

It is in a central and accessible part of the city--in Bush street, just
off Kearney street, which runs nearly parallel with Market, being not
far from the _Chronicle_ building, which with its great clock tower
running up hundreds of feet in the air, serves as a finger or sign-post
from many parts of the city.

The front is of cedar-colored sandstone, and with its modern, low-arched
entrances and high, round towers, is uncommonly pleasing to the eye.
There are one hundred and forty rooms in the house, and it is nine
stories high, the higher floors being most desirable. The light is
better as you ascend, and the views from the windows across the bay and
the Golden Gate are a constant delight. From my bedroom window I can
plainly see the graceful movements of the white squadron, which, with
the green hills in the far distance make a magnificent picture. The
California was erected by “an estate,” and the estate considered not the
expense. They started out with the idea to build a hotel as near
perfection as possible, and they succeeded.

Every known precaution is taken against fire. It was the intention from
the first to build a house as proof against fire as men, money and
materials could make it. Scientists were consulted as to sanitation and
plumbing, and to these points special thought and attention were given,
Such luxurious fittings in marble and silver plate I have never seen
surpassed, if equalled; not even in my recent ten-thousand-mile tour
through the South and West, and I have visited hotels that cost all the
way from one to three millions of dollars.

Instead of marble and brass, which are used so freely in large American
hotels, rare and beautiful woods prevail in decorating the interior of
the new house. The ground floor is finished in quartered oak, the second
in bird’s-eye maple, the third and fourth in sycamore, the fifth and
sixth in red birch, and the seventh, eighth and ninth in oak. The wood
was cut, carved and polished especially for the building, and is of the
most exquisitely beautiful grain.

Max O’Rell would be pleased. Printed rules are not posted on all the
bedroom doors: it would be an act of vandalism to thrust a nail into
hard wood of such high polish and beautiful grain. The furniture and
carpets harmonize in colors and are very rich: there seems to have been
no thought of economy. The bedrooms are furnished as you would furnish
your own apartment, provided you had a large bank account. They only
lack pictures, mantel ornaments and such dainty etceteras, as you find,
for instance, in the bedrooms of Long’s Hotel in London, to give them a
finished, homelike and elegant air.

Some idea as to the extent to which this wood decoration is carried, may
be gained when it is told that the wood used to decorate the parlor and
music-room cost six thousand dollars, and yet they are small apartments
when compared, say, with those of the Windsor Hotel, New York.

The music-room adjoins the parlor, and is only separated from it by a
pair of portières. It is circular, with a frescoed dome. It is only
twenty-four feet in diameter; but a veritable bijou is this music-room.
It has tables and a cabinet of onyx, pieces of statuary and bronze, two
piano lamps and a pedestal upon which stands a vase decorated with
scenes painted by a French artist. The vase itself is three feet high.
There are two semi-circular upholstered recesses in this room curtained
in front. Occasionally these recesses are put to a very good use. I have
seen young couples, a modern Claude and Pauline, engaged in very close
conversation behind the curtains, whispering “soft nothings” to each
other. “Soft” without doubt were the words spoken, and, so far as I
heard, they amounted to nothing.

In the central front wall of this room there is a window, and pendant in
this window is a colored lamp in which electric light is continually
burning. There are similar lamps hanging in each of the cozy
recesses--the scene, with its Moorish surroundings, reminding you of an
Oriental synagogue, in which there is a similar lamp, and in which,
according to Jewish custom in public places of worship, the light is
never allowed to go out. Of electric lamps, there are twenty-five
hundred in the house.

There is a ladies’ waiting-room which is strictly reserved for ladies;
there is a ladies’ billiard-room, as well as one for gentlemen; there is
a banqueting-room for public dinners at the top of the house, and at the
bottom of the house there are cellars which contain a stock of choice
wines valued at twenty thousand dollars.

The European plan is gaining in popularity in this country. When you
proceed to write your name on the register at the Palace Hotel the clerk
asks, “European or American plan?” At the California no such question is
propounded; it is kept entirely on the European plan.

But they have a restaurant which is a feature, if not the feature of the
house. It measures 120 × 30 feet, it has tiled floor, mirrored walls,
beautifully decorated ceilings and countless electric lamps. During the
dinner hour a band, stationed in a half-hidden gallery at the end of the
restaurant, performs music that is properly called pleasing--light
selections which suggest good cheer, and which no doubt aid digestion.
The restaurant is entered from the street as well as from the interior,
and such is its popularity that it is patronized by many people who are
not otherwise guests of the house.

It is equal in style of service to any café I know of--to the Café
Savarin or the Brunswick in New York; in fact, the manager, A. F.
Kinzler, is a son of Francis Kinzler of the Brunswick.

The question of moustached waiters was easily settled at the California.
They are skilled and experienced French and Swiss waiters, and there was
no demur to the order, shave the upper lip.




SALT LAKE CITY.


SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, April 6, 1891.

On the last Sunday of last September I was one among the five thousand
people who enjoyed the masterly eloquence of Spurgeon at his Tabernacle
in London; to-day, Monday, I was in the Mormon Tabernacle, where a
conference was being held, and in which were gathered as many people as
the great building would hold,--seated and standing, twelve thousand.

Several Mormon elders held forth, but what they said did not
particularly interest me. It was, for the most part, a defense of their
form of “religion,” and they claimed they had a right, in this free
country, to teach and practice their peculiar doctrine.

The acoustic properties of this great edifice are excellent; I tested
them in different parts of the house, and heard almost every word that
was said by the several speakers. Each spoke but for a short time, ten
or fifteen minutes.

The most interesting part of Monday’s “session” to my mind was the
musical part, a chorus of two hundred and fifty male and female voices
singing to the rich and powerful tones of what is claimed to be the
largest organ but one in the world.

A strange feature of the assemblage was the great number of young
children and babes in arms; the crowd of baby carriages in the halls and
entrances being very noticeable.

The exterior of the Tabernacle, from its oval shape, is often likened to
half an egg bisected lengthwise; to me it looks like a tortoise, with
its low curved roof and its remarkably short pillars, only a few feet
apart.

But it is a mammoth tortoise, 250 × 150 feet, with not a column nor a
pillar to obstruct the view--the largest span of unsupported wooden roof
in the world.

The Temple in Salt Lake City, the corner-stone of which was laid on the
twelfth of April, 1853, is, like the municipal buildings in
Philadelphia, the City Hall in San Francisco and the Cathedral in
Cologne, still unfinished, although $3,500,000 has been expended in its
construction so far. The Temple’s dimensions are 200 × 100 feet.

It is built entirely of granite. The towers are beautiful. When
completed they will be 200 feet high. A marble slab 12 × 3 feet is
inserted in the centre tower. Upon that slab appears this inscription in
gold letters:

“Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord. Built by the Church of
Jesus Christ, of latter-day saints. Commenced April 6, 1853.
Completed”--space is left under the word “completed” in which to insert
the date, but that space may not be filled during the next quarter of a
century.

The first blocks of granite for the building were hauled from the
quarries, a distance of twenty miles, by oxen, but for many years past
the granite has been brought to the city by a railroad planned
originally by Mormons.

Salt Lake, on account of its unpaved streets, must be miserable as a
place of residence. In wet weather the mud in the streets is from six
inches to two feet deep, and in dry weather the dust is intolerable. It
is probably not quite so bad in these respects as Key West, Florida, but
it is always disagreeable enough. Yet the city is well laid out; all the
streets are over one hundred feet wide; there is a good system of
electric street-cars, and there are many fine granite and brick
business blocks. Salt Lake has an evident air of prosperity. Its
population has more than doubled in the past ten years. In 1880 it was
20,000; in 1890 45,000.

Brigham street, the Fifth avenue of Salt Lake, contains not a few
private residences of which any city might be proud.

The leading hotel is “The Templeton,” owned by a company of which D. C.
Young is president. The manager of the hotel is Alonzo Young. The
president and the manager are both sons of Brigham Young, but are half
brothers only. Brigham sleeps with a couple of his wives in a cemetery a
few hundred feet from the hotel.

The Templeton is new and substantial, but it was not erected for a
hotel, and it lacks some conveniences which you expect to find. It is
better adapted for an office building, which was its original purpose.

The dining-room is on the top floor, as is the dining-room of the
Auditorium in Chicago, and the Vendome in New York, and as is the
kitchen of the Windsor Hotel in London.

From this room in the Templeton, if you secure a choice seat, you get
most magnificent views. You are surrounded by snow-covered mountains,
and to the west you see the principal buildings of the city--the Mormon
Tabernacle, the Temple and the Assembly Hall, all enclosed and fenced
within a ten-acre lot.

We were unfortunate in the time of our visit to Salt Lake. The city was
crowded on account of the Mormon conference and all the hotels were
full. At the Templeton they had an insufficient number of waiters and
they served saucers of ice cream on warm plates.

But perhaps we are hypercritical in our notes on the shortcomings of
hotels in Salt Lake; some allowance must be made for the fact that we
had just come from a week at “The California”--that new and beautiful
hotel in San Francisco which is kept by A. F. Kinzler, the comforts and
elegancies of which, fresh in our memory and with their flavor, so to
speak, still lingering on our palate, had for the time spoiled us for
less perfect accommodations and an inferior style of living.

I had occasion to look at the city directory of Salt Lake and in turning
over the leaves I noticed that there are living no less than nine widows
of the lamented apostle of Mormonism, Brigham Young.

[Illustration]




THE AUDITORIUM HOTEL.


CHICAGO, May 16, 1891.

During his engagement here I met Mr. Willard, the English actor, walking
on Michigan avenue, with Mr. Hatton, the English dramatist, for
companion.

“Mr. Willard, where are you staying,” I happened to ask. “At the
Richelieu,” said the handsome and intellectual-looking Englishman. “I
looked at the Auditorium,” he went on to say, “but it appeared to me too
large, and such a stronghold that it almost reminded me of a prison.”

I am not surprised that its great size was an objection in his eyes,
because Englishmen prefer smaller, quieter and more home-like houses;
those great palaces in Northumberland avenue, London, were built rather
for American patronage. But that the Auditorium looks as solid and
strong as the rock of Gibraltar should not be regarded as an objection.
In the eyes of most people this is a great advantage, especially when we
remember the flimsy character of many of our hotels--those at the
seaside, for instance, or those in small towns, to say nothing of many
make-shift hotels in New York.

Among other excellent features of the Auditorium building there is this
to commend it: it is called and is believed to be absolutely fireproof.
The first and second story outside walls are of dark granite, the upper
walls are of dark Bedford stone. The materials used interiorly are iron,
brick, terra cotta, Italian marble and hard wood.

The whole structure covers one and a half acres. It stands on three
streets, Michigan avenue, Wabash avenue and Congress street, with a
frontage measuring seven hundred and ten feet. The height of the main
building is ten stories; there are eight floors in the tower--two above
the main tower--twenty stories in all; the entire height from street
level to top of tower two hundred and seventy feet. Some authorities
estimate the cost as high as four millions; the lowest estimate I have
seen printed or heard mentioned is three million two hundred thousand
dollars. It is possibly safe to say that about three millions were
invested in the enterprise, and I am told that it has yielded a profit
from the start--the hotel certainly has.

The structure includes a theatre called “the largest and most
magnificent in the world”--the “Auditorium”--used for conventions and
meetings, having a stage and what is called “the most costly organ in
the world.” Of course, being Western, everything must be the biggest and
costliest. There is also a Recital Hall, which seats five hundred
persons. The business portion of the building includes stores on the
ground floor and one hundred and thirty-six offices above, some of which
are in the tower. The United States Signal Service occupies part of the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth floors of the tower. From this
tower you may get an extended view of the city when the fog from the
lake is not dense, and when the chimneys of the town are not emitting
black smoke. The best time to get a view is on a clear Sunday, when many
of the factory fires are extinguished.

The Auditorium building is owned by “The Chicago Auditorium
Association,” and is managed by them; the hotel proper, which forms only
a part of the great structure, is managed by “The Auditorium Hotel
Company,” and is a separate business concern.

It is kept on both the European and American plans. For those who choose
the former there is a grand café on the ground floor; for those who
prefer the latter there is a dining-room on the top floor, on which
floor the kitchen is also situated. To the dining-room two elevators are
constantly running. In the whole building there are thirteen elevators:
in the hotel proper there are eight elevators, five for the use of
guests, three for servants.

Besides the café below, and the public dining-room above, there are a
number of private dining-rooms, and on the sixth floor there is a
banqueting hall which will seat five hundred people and which may be
called magnificent. It is built of steel, on trusses, and spans one
hundred and twenty feet over “The Auditorium.” On the panelled walls are
painted beautiful scenes in oil by skilled artists.

It does not lack for light, this banqueting hall; it contains four
hundred electric lamps. In fact, the electric plant of the building is
the largest private plant in the world--it is Western, you know. Its
first cost was $100,000 and it costs to operate $175 per day. No
electric department in any place, either public or private, that I have
visited is cleaner, neater or more methodical in system. The tools are
hung on the walls, behind glass doors. No workman may remove a tool
without giving a receipt for the same and the tool must be returned to
its place immediately after it has served the purpose for which it was
removed or the man pays a fine.

“The office” is not a small, unimportant looking apartment like the
“counting house” of an English hotel. It is after the American style,
large and showy, but there is not a waste nor a wilderness of space as
there is in some Chicago hotels, the “offices” in some of the Chicago
houses being used not only for a public rendezvous but also for a public
thoroughfare--people pass through them in going from one street to
another to save themselves the trouble of walking around the block.

The floor of the office of the Auditorium Hotel is of Italian
marble--mosaic work in artistic designs. To go into figures again,
there are of mosaic floors in the house fifty thousand square feet,
containing fifty million separate pieces of marble, each piece put in by
hand. The ceiling, which is richly decorated, and from which depend
numberless electric lights, is supported in the centre by five marble
columns nine feet in circumference. The chairs and sofas, here and
there, are of oak, plush-covered, and the walls are of nothing less
luxurious than Mexican onyx, than which for the purpose probably no
material is richer. Leading from the office to the parlor floor there is
a white marble staircase twelve feet wide. This combination of rich
materials and artistic work, with ample space, gives the Auditorium
office a gorgeous, yes, a palace-like appearance.

The dining-room on the tenth floor, measuring 175 by 48 feet, affords
extended views of the lake and a stretch of Chicago’s grand boulevard,
Michigan avenue, as far as the eye can reach. The lower part of its
walls is of mahogany panels; the six massive pillars which support the
ceiling are of mahogany, the tables and chairs and Venetian blinds of
the same costly wood. As well as six pillars, there are six arches in
this room, which also has an arched ceiling. The walls above the
mahogany dado up to the ceiling are in yellow and gold, the ceiling
delicately and beautifully frescoed.

On one of the semi-circular arched walls above the mahogany pillars
which support it, is painted a lake fishing scene, on the other a
duck-shooting scene. The latter is taken from the estate of Ferd. W.
Peck at Lake Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. It represents two or three men in
sporting costume in a canoe, which is half hidden by tall grass and cat
tails. The man in the bow stands ready to take aim at a flock of ducks
which are preparing for flight. Mr. Peck is one of the originators of
the Auditorium enterprise and the present president of the company.

There are five hundred electric lights in the dining-room; the floor is
of marble mosaic. For the American plan two dinners are served. You can
take your choice or eat both if your appetite serves; first dinner, from
twelve till two; evening dinner from six to eight.

The bedrooms are heated by steam and also have fireplaces. Of course,
they are lighted by electricity. The bedroom in which this is penned
measures twenty-one by thirteen feet. As there is no step-ladder at hand
I must guess at the height of the ceiling--about fourteen feet. The
dimensions given do not include a very large clothes closet built in the
wall and a very small washroom, too small, indeed, but supplied with hot
and cold water. On either side of this bedroom are similar rooms each
having two heavy, double doors of oak, so that while the rooms are
“communicating” the sound is not “communicated” from one room to the
other.

The walls are painted and frescoed in tints to match the wood-work,
which is of light varnished oak. Part of the furniture is of dark,
highly polished oak, the rest of cherry, covered with olive or old gold
plush. These hues in turn match the Wilton carpet which is bordered, and
upon which, here and there, is a handsome rug.

The curtains are of reddish-brown plush, lined with old-gold silk;
inside these are lace curtains, and against the windows are Venetian
blinds of oak. The windows are of plate glass, large and massive--much
too heavy, in fact, or else the sashes are not put in by a master hand.
They are raised or lowered with great difficulty, notwithstanding a pair
of brass handles is attached to each lower sash. For such large, weighty
windows they have a better plan in the Windsor Hotel, London. Long,
loose ropes with light, wooden handles attached are fastened to the
upper and lower parts of the upper sash, and by this method the heavy
windows are raised or lowered with perfect ease.

But I have wandered away in thought from my apartment in the Auditorium,
which is lighted by a handsome, seven-lamp electrolier pendant from the
ceiling, with a convenient tap just inside the door to turn on or off as
you enter or leave the room.

There is an electric dial in each room, the invention of the New Haven
Clock Company. Upon this dial the inventor and hotel-keeper combined
have anticipated as many as twenty-four wants of the guest, from a
chambermaid to a doctor; from a telegraph blank to a hansom cab. Max
O’Rell may poke fun at this anticipation of so many wants in American
hotels, but if they had such an arrangement in Continental hotels, their
system would be greatly improved.

You need not trouble yourself about good air or bad air at the
Auditorium: the house is ventilated automatically, by machinery. Among
other modern improvements is a letter chute which extends to the top of
the house. Your letters from any floor drop into a locked United States
post-office box, opened at intervals by the official carrier.

There are four hundred and fifty rooms. As hotel men usually reckon
“about one and a half guests to a room” there is accommodation for six
hundred people. Charge for rooms: European plan, $2 to $5 per day;
American plan, $4 to $6 per day.

The house is managed by James H. Breslin and R. H. Southgate. It is not
necessary to explain who these men are, and to commend them, at this
late day, would be no compliment.




MAX O’RELL ON AMERICAN HOTELS.


M. Paul Blouet (Max O’Rell) is a brilliant writer and a clever,
entertaining talker, but in his article in the _North American Review_
for January, 1891, entitled “Reminiscences of American Hotels,” he shows
that he lacks fairness as a critic, and that he writes without the
necessary knowledge of his subject. His remarks concerning the American
methods of conducting hotels may be amusing, but when he makes
comparisons between English and American hotels and their systems, it is
evident that as a critic he is open to criticism. In his opening page he
says:

“When you enter a hotel not a salute, not a word, not a smile of
welcome. The negro takes your bag and makes a sign that your case is
settled. You follow him. For the time being you lose your personality
and become No. 375, as you would in jail.”

The facts are just the contrary. The clerks, porters and waiters in
American hotels are only too glad if they can learn your name. They will
pronounce it and announce you on the smallest possible provocation. Max
O’Rell’s remarks on this point would exactly fit if he were writing
about some large hotels in London patronized by Americans. At those
houses, the Langham excepted, you do not enter your name in a register,
and you are known only by the number of the room you occupy. If a friend
calls, his card will be carried about on a silver salver by a little
page whose duty it is, in going through the halls and public rooms in
search of you, to bawl out at the top of his voice not your name, but
the number of the apartment you occupy; and to this you are expected to
respond.

But people are not so apt to know the hotel customs which obtain in
cities where they live, and that may account for M. Blouet’s ignorance.

This French-English humorist tries to make it appear that in every
American hotel the fire-escape consists of “twenty yards of coiled
rope.” I believe that the New York State Legislature expects all hotels
in that State to make such provision, but if it is done in New York it
is certainly not the case in other States, as I know, for I have lived
at hotels in many States of the Union during the past few months,
westward as far as California, and as far south as New Orleans.

Mr. O’Rell feels very much injured because order and method reign in the
dining-room. He says:

“When you enter the dining-room you must not believe you can go and sit
where you like. The chief waiter assigns you a seat and you must take
it. I have constantly seen Americans stop on the threshold of the
dining-room and wait until the chief waiter had returned from placing a
guest to come and fetch them in their turn. I never saw them venture
alone and take an empty seat without the sanction of the waiter.”

Chaos would reign indeed if the regular guests of a hotel had no regular
seats, and if every newcomer were allowed to sit where he pleased. Of
course the head waiter assigns seats. This good custom obtains in
England and France as it does elsewhere; without it there would be
confusion for all concerned.

It would be strange if such a close and keen observer, as Max O’Rell
certainly is, did not make some good points in such a labored article.
He makes one when he objects to the solemn, almost funereal air which
pervades an American dining-room. People can be well mannered and yet be
and appear to be, in good spirits, whereas we seem to make a business, a
sad business of eating--it cannot be called “dining.” You seldom or
never hear such a thing as a laugh in our hotel dining-rooms, and yet
everybody knows that laughter is the best aid to digestion. There is a
time for everything, and when should there be good cheer if not at
dinner time?

O’Rell shows that he is unfair and uninformed when he is discussing some
of the important features of our hotels, but he scores another good
point when he talks of the shameful waste of food in American hotels. I
quote in full his remarks on that head. They cannot be too often
repeated:

“The thing which, perhaps, strikes me most disagreeably in the American
hotel dining-room is the sight of the tremendous waste of food that goes
on at every meal. No European, I suppose, can fail to be struck with
this; but to a Frenchman it would naturally be most remarkable. In
France where, I venture to say, people live as well as anywhere else, if
not better, there is a perfect horror of anything like waste of good
food. It is to me, therefore, a repulsive thing to see the wanton manner
in which some Americans will waste at one meal enough to feed several
fellow creatures.”

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

THE HOME JOURNAL,

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF

LITERATURE, ART AND SOCIETY,

FOUNDED IN 1846 BY THE WELL-KNOWN POETS,

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL,

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GREAT EUROPEAN CENTRES OF CULTURE.

THE HOME JOURNAL contains more advertisements of SUMMER AND WINTER
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It has particular value as an advertising medium for EUROPEAN HOTELS,
being the organ of cultivated and fashionable Americans--those who pass
their summers in Europe.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY.

Subscription, $2.00 per Year.      FIVE CENTS A COPY.


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240 Broadway, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration]

DEMPSEY & CARROLL,

THE
ART STATIONERS
AND
ENGRAVERS,

UNION SQUARE,
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EAST 14TH STREET,
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       *       *       *       *       *

THE

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This proud title has been bestowed by an appreciative public on the

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It is well deserved because the train affords more conveniences, more
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       *       *       *       *       *

IT is the favorite train between New York and Chicago, and a trip on it
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       *       *       *       *       *

THE Pennsylvania Limited leaves New York from the Pennsylvania Railroad
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_General Manager_.

       *       *       *       *       *

ATLANTIC COAST LINE

VIA WASHINGTON.


SHORT LINE

----BETWEEN----

BOSTON,
PHILADELPHIA,
NEW YORK,
BALTIMORE,
WASHINGTON,

----AND----

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WILMINGTON,
BRUNSWICK,
CHARLESTON,
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PUNTA GORDA,

=ALL FLORIDA POINTS, AND HAVANA CUBA.=


EASTERN OFFICES:

_229 Broadway, New York._
_33 South 3d St., Philadelphia._
_228 Washington St., Boston._
_106 East German St., Baltimore._
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       *       *       *       *       *

                            ----TO ALL----
                            WINTER RESORTS
                              ----IN----
       South Georgia, Florida, Cuba, the West Indies and Mexico,
                           Via HAVANA, CUBA,
                            REACHED BY THE
                             Plant System
                              ----OF----
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sleeping-car service, and

                =JACKSONVILLE, ST. AUGUSTINE, TAMPA AND
                         PORT TAMPA, FLORIDA.=

                FAST AND COMMODIOUS STEAMSHIPS BETWEEN

Port Tampa, Key West and Havana; Port Tampa and Mobile; Port Tampa and
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The magnificent Tampa Bay Hotel, at Tampa, and the Seminole, at Winter
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The Inn at Port Tampa is open the entire year, and is in an attractive,
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For further information apply to any Railroad Ticket Agent, or to

                    J. D. HASHAGEN, EASTERN AGENT,
                        261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

                 FRED. ROBLIN, TRAVELING PASS. AGENT,
                        261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

                        H. B. PLANT, PRESIDENT,
                     12 WEST 23D STREET, NEW YORK.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE DE SOTO,

SAVANNAH, GA.

[Illustration]


One of the most elegantly appointed hotels in the world. Accommodations
for 500 guests. Special rates for families and parties remaining a week
or longer. Tourists will find Savannah one of the most interesting and
beautiful cities in the entire South. No place more healthy or desirable
as a winter resort.

Send for Descriptive Illustrated Booklet.

                           WATSON & POWERS.

       *       *       *       *       *

                  _PARIS._      =HOTEL=      _PARIS._

                            ANGLO-FRANÇAIS,

                         6 RUE CASTIGLIONE. 6

                            [Illustration]


This first-class Hotel, situated in the
best part of the metropolis, opposite
the Hotel Continental and the Tuileries
Gardens, is highly recommended for
comfort, cuisine, moderate charges and
sanitary arrangements; Otis American
elevator.

                         VARGUES, Proprietor.

       *       *       *       *       *

                             HOTEL BINDA,

                         11 rue de L’Echelle,

                  AVENUE DE L’OPERA,        =PARIS=.

Large and small apartments; lift to each floor; smoking and
drawing-room; bathroom on each floor; table d’hôte, 6 francs, from 6 to
8 o’clock, at separate tables; restaurant a la carte.

       *       *       *       *       *

ADVANTAGEOUS ARRANGEMENTS MADE WITH FAMILIES WINTERING IN PARIS.

       *       *       *       *       *

Electric Light all over the House.

       *       *       *       *       *

                      CHARLES BINDA, PROPRIETOR,
                    Late with Delmonico, New York.

       *       *       *       *       *

                       London, Chatham and Dover
                               RAILWAY.

                              A. THORNE,
             Formerly at H. B. Claflin & Co.’s, New York,

                  AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVE IN ENGLAND,

           London, Chatham AND Dover Railway,
                   VICTORIA STATION, LONDON, S. W.,


Attends the arrival of the principal steamships at Liverpool and
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North Western and Midland Railways from Liverpool, or by the South
Western Railway from Southampton to London, and thence to Dover from
Victoria Station by the =London, Chatham and Dover Railway=. From Dover to
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A. THORNE secures Private Deck Saloons, and from Calais to Paris and
other prominent points Special Saloons and Sleeping Cars as required.

       *       *       *       *       *

=TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS: “CALDOVER,” LONDON.=

       *       *       *       *       *

The London, Chatham and Dover Company’s trains run from Victoria, St.
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and other places of interest.

       *       *       *       *       *

                       ARE YOU GOING TO EUROPE?
                             EDWIN H. LOW,
             Low’s Exchange and General Steamship Office,

               947 BROADWAY, MADISON SQUARE,--NEW YORK.
              57 CHARING CROSS, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON.


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[Illustration: NELSON MONUMENT.--VIEW FROM LOW’S EXCHANGE.]


POSTAL RATES: 1 year, $10.00; 6 mos., $5.00; 3 mos., $2.50; 1 mo.,
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is a handy little volume published by Mr. Low for cipher cabling. The
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       *       *       *       *       *

                            THE CALIFORNIA,
                       BUSH STREET, NEAR KEARNY,
                          SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
          THE ACME OF PERFECTION ATTAINED IN AMERICAN HOTELS.

[Illustration]


It is a recognized fact that San Francisco has made, from time to time,
the greatest effort to surpass all other cities in her Hotel
accommodations, and it must be conceded that the acme of perfection has
now been reached.

The California was opened last December, and there is nothing on the
Pacific Coast, so far as artistic taste, elegance of appointments and
lavish expenditure go, which can compare with it.

The California is unsurpassed in style of service by the best hotels of
the United States. Heretofore there has been no strictly European-plan
hotel in San Francisco.

A visit to this city is incomplete without seeing the California,
unquestionably the most beautiful and luxuriously furnished hotel in
America.

                        A. F. KINZLER, MANAGER.

       *       *       *       *       *

MONTEREY-CALIFORNIA.

[Illustration]

                           MIDWINTER SCENES

                           AT THE CELEBRATED

                           Hotel del Monte,

                            MONTEREY, CAL.

              AMERICA’S FAMOUS SUMMER AND WINTER RESORT.
                  ONLY 3-1/2 HOURS FROM SAN FRANCISCO
         _By Express Trains of the Southern Pacific Company._


=Rates for Board=: By the day, $3.00 and upward. Parlors, from $1.00 to
$2.50 per day, extra. Children, in children’s dining-room, $2.00 per
day.

=Particular Attention= is called to the _moderate charges_ for
accommodations at this magnificent establishment. The extra cost of a
trip to California is more than counterbalanced by the difference in
rates at the various Southern Winter Resorts and the incomparable HOTEL
DEL MONTE.

=Intending Visitors= to =California= and the =Hotel del Monte= have the choice
of the =“Sunset,” “Central,” or “Shasta” Routes=. These three routes, the
three main arms of the great railway system of the =Southern Pacific
Company=, carry the traveler through the best sections of California, and
any one of them will reveal wonders of climate, products and scenery
that no other part of the world can duplicate. For illustrated
descriptive pamphlet of the hotel, and for information as to routes of
travel, rates for through tickets, etc., call upon or address =E. HAWLEY=,
Assistant General Traffic Manager, Southern Pacific Company, =343
Broadway, New York=.

_For further information, address_

             _GEORGE SCHÖNEWALD, Manager Hotel del Monte_,
         _OPEN ALL THE YEAR ROUND_.     =MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA=

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: REDONDO HOTEL]

This new but already popular seaside resort is located on the Pacific
Ocean, under the shelter of the prominent headland known as Point
Vincent, while to the south and east are the Palos Verdes and other
hills.

The Redondo Hotel has been spoken of as the “crowning effort of all
hotels on the Pacific Coast,” covering over an acre of ground, reposing
gracefully upon a slight eminence “where the broad ocean leans against
the land,” with fine vistas of sea and shore meeting the eye in all
directions. Of the 225 rooms, every one has a sunny exposure at some
hour of the day, every one is well ventilated and lighted, every one is
an “outside room,” and every guest feels that his is the best suite in
the house.

The building is supplied throughout with modern improvements. It has
incandescent electric lights in all the rooms and arc lights on the
grounds. There is cold and hot water and grates in every room. The halls
and lobby are heated by steam. The latest and most improved hydraulic
elevators are in use.

On the hotel grounds is the best tennis-court in the State,
well-arranged and complete in every detail, with club-room, baths, etc.
There is also a nursery of several acres and a large green-house, where
the most beautiful and delicate flowers bloom the year round, and the
hotel draws from this source the freshness and fragrance of perpetual
spring.

Redondo Beach is cooler than Cape May in summer, it is warmer than San
Fernandino in winter. The temperature of the water of the ocean varies
less than ten degrees in the course of a year, and surf bathing is
always enjoyable. The bathing beach is the finest on the coast, and is
provided with a commodious bath-house and every appliance for the
convenience and safety of the bathers.

Special rates made for families and permanent guests.

For further information address

                         =REDONDO HOTEL CO.=,
                      Redondo Beach, California.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: The Sea Beach Hotel

Located upon the Bluff. Commanding a view of Ocean, Bay, Beach,
Mountains, Flower Gardens, Tennis and Croquet Grounds and Promenades.

                       JOHN T. SULLIVAN = Prop.

                         125 LIGHT AIRY ROOMS:
                         :FIRST CLASS SERVICE:

                        SANTA CRUZ: CALIFORNIA.
]


The Sea Beach Hotel has large, light rooms, affording extensive views,
wide verandas, surf bathing, fishing. Livery. Electric lights and
electric bells. Rates from $2.50 per day. Illustrated Souvenir mailed
free. Address

                     JOHN T. SULLIVAN, PROPRIETOR.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                            WINDSOR HOTEL,

                               NEW YORK.

                           HAWK & WETHERBEE.

                   *       *       *       *       *


         CONVENIENTLY SITUATED ON FIFTH AVENUE, NEAR THE GRAND
             CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION, ELEVATED AND SURFACE
               TRAMWAYS, THEATRES, PLACES OF AMUSEMENT,
                          CHURCHES AND CLUBS.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                  HAS BEEN RECENTLY FITTED THROUGHOUT
                    WITH THE LATEST MODERN SANITARY
                               PLUMBING.

                   *       *       *       *       *

        THE DRINKING WATER USED IS CHEMICALLY PURE AND THE ICE
                     IS MADE FROM DISTILLED WATER.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                   CUISINE AND SERVICE UNSURPASSED.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                    COOL AND ATTRACTIVE IN SUMMER.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                 COMFORTABLE AND HOME-LIKE IN WINTER.

                   *       *       *       *       *

        STAGES WHEN DESIRED, WILL MEET ALL STEAMERS AND CONVEY
                 PASSENGERS AND LUGGAGE DIRECT TO THE
                      HOTEL AT MODERATE CHARGES.

                   *       *       *       *       *

          RAILWAY TICKETS, SLEEPING CAR AND DRAWING-ROOM CAR
           ACCOMMODATIONS CAN BE SECURED IN THE HOTEL; CABLE
               AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE, RUSSIAN AND TURKISH
                     BATHS, AND EVERY COMFORT AND
                      CONVENIENCE FOR TRAVELERS.

                   *       *       *       *       *

     WELL-LIGHTED AND VENTILATED SPACIOUS PUBLIC ROOMS, CORRIDORS,
                DRAWING-ROOMS AND PARLOR SUITES, SINGLE
                OR DOUBLE ROOMS WITH OR WITHOUT BATHS.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                         ALL LANGUAGES SPOKEN.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                           YOUR ADVERTISING

                             IS SOLICITED.

                            [Illustration:

                           HICKS’ NEWSPAPER
                          ADVERTISING AGENCY.

                              ESTABLISHED
                                 1869
                            WILLIAM HICKS.
                       --150 NASSAU ST., N.Y.--

                      PROMPT CAREFUL & EFFICIENT
                               SERVICE.]


Estimates, containing Selected Lists of Suitable Publications with Rates
for Advertising, furnished free on application.

       *       *       *       *       *

AUDITORIUM HOTEL,

[Illustration]

Michigan Ave., Congress St., and Wabash Ave.,

_CHICAGO._

The most massive hotel structure in the world, built entirely of stone
and iron, ten stones high, absolutely fire-proof. Overlooking Lake
Michigan, situated within four blocks of the business centre of the
city. American and European plans.

                         BRESLIN & SOUTHGATE.


                             GILSEY HOUSE,

               Corner Broadway and Twenty-Ninth Street,

                              _NEW YORK_.

                            European Plan.

               J. H. BRESLIN & CO.,        PROPRIETORS.

                   *       *       *       *       *

                          VISITORS TO EUROPE!

                  CIRCULAR CREDITS. FOREIGN EXCHANGE.


     _Cheque Bank Cheques are the most convenient of Exchange to carry._

     _They are issued in books from £10 up to any amount._

     _They can be cashed at 3,000 Banks and 1,000 Hotels._

     _They are cashed in the currency of the country visited, free of
     commission._

     _They are no good until signed._

     _Special letters of identification are issued._

     _Travellers’ mail matter promptly attended to without charge._

       *       *       *       *       *

Send for circulars and testimonials, list of Banks and Hotels, etc., or
apply to

                         E. J. MATHEWS & CO.,
                           Bankers’ Agents,
                         2 WALL ST., NEW YORK.

Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

laden four-house truck=> laden four-horse truck {pg 22}

previous arragements=> previous arrangements {pg 48}

but it it worth half=> but it is worth half {pg 55}

where they had aparments=> where they had apartments {pg 57}

in their minuest detail=> in their minutest detail {pg 63}

but a concensus=> but a consensus {pg 89}

an Amerian host=> an American host {pg 96}

not actuatly fond=> not actually fond {pg 104}

describing the _modus operandi_=> decribing the _modus operandi_ {pg
110}

Nelson moument, the city prison=> Nelson monument, the city prison {pg
112}

more commandiug site=> more commanding site {pg 112}

his later opportunies=> his later opportunities {pg 121}

thoroughly agreeably place=> thoroughly agreeable place {pg 126}

that you most come a little later=> that you must come a little later
{pg 158}

the new Oglethrope at Brunswick;=> the new Oglethorpe at Brunswick; {pg
156}

the Oglethrope=> the Oglethorpe {pg 168}

its cleanly and aristocratic air=> its clean and aristocratic air {pg
180}

Landed and Offical Classes=> Landed and Official Classes {pg 183}

skilled landscape gardner=> skilled landscape gardener {pg 194}

owners in Pasedena by the hundred=> owners in Pasadena by the hundred
{pg 229}

there is a grand cafe=> there is a grand café {pg 244}