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Chapter XXII 333

During the week away at Boston, I dined for the last time in an American Hotel; for the fortnight I afterwards spent in my second visit to New York. I unclear in the hospitable house of Mr Henry Eyre, a brother of the Rector of Marylebone, & a worthy representative of Englishmen in the commercial capital of America. With this exception, at the close of my tour, I made it a rule, from which I never departed, to decline all invitations to stay in private houses. My reason for doing this was that I might come & go as I pleased; & have my time always at my disposal. This gave me abundant opportunities, as my travels extended over eight thousand miles of American ground, for forming an estimate of their Hotels, & Hotel life. With a few exceptions, here & there, in some of the large Eastern cities, the hotels are on the unclear scale, & managed on the American system. The exceptions are called English, or European Hotels, & their specialty, is that you only pay unclear them? for what you have. On the American System you have to pay so much a day for board & lodging, unclear & washing being extra. That the American System is the cheapest & most convenient is demonstrated by its universality. The few exceptions that exist have to be inquired after & unclear. A traveller will also avoid them, because he is unclear of seeing the manners & customs of the people; & these can nowhere be seen so readily, & to such and extent as in the unclear Hotels. They are a genuine produchon of this soil, are in perfect harmony with American wants & ideas, & are all alike.