or later protect the automobilist
better than it does to-day.

Chapter IV
Hotels & Things

[Illustration: Hotels & Things]

In all the literature of travel, that which is devoted to hotels has
been conspicuously neglected. Certainly a most interesting work could
be compiled.

Among the primitive peoples travellers were dependent upon the
hospitality of those among whom they came. After this arose a species
of hostelry, which catered for man and beast in a more or less crude
and uncomfortable manner; but which, nevertheless, was a great deal
better than depending upon the generosity and hospitality of
strangers, and vastly more comfortable than sleeping and eating in
the open.

In the middle ages there appeared in France the _cabaret_, the
_gargot_, the _taverne_, and then the _auberge_, many of which,
endowed with no more majestic name, exist even to-day.

ICI ON LOGE a PIED ET a CHEVAL

is a sign frequently seen along the roadways of France, and even in
the villages and small towns. It costs usually ten sous a night for
man, and five sous for his beast, though frequently there is a
fluctuating price.

The _aubergiste_ of other days, on the routes most frequented, was an
enterprising individual, if reports are to be believed. Frequently he
would stand at his door and cry out his prices to passers-by. "_Au
Cheval Blanc! On dine pour douze sous. Huit sous le cocher. Six
liards l'ecurie._"

With the era of the diligences there came the Hotels de la Poste,
with vast paved courtyards, great stables, and meals at all hours,
but the chambers still remained more or less primitive, and in truth
have until a very recent date.

There is absolutely no question but that automobilism has brought
about a great change in the hotel system of France. It may have had
some slight effect elsewhere, but in France its influence has been
enormous. The guide-books of a former generation did nothing but put
an asterisk against the names of those hotels which struck the fancy
of the compiler, and it was left to the great manufacturers of
"_pneumatiques_" for automobiles to carry the scheme to a
considerably more successful issue. Michelin, in preparing his
excellent route-book, bombarded the hotel-keeper throughout the
length and breadth of France with a series of questions, which he
need not answer if he did not choose, but which, if he neglected, was
most likely taken advantage of by his competitor.

Given a small _chef-lie