ing a
sermon, from Dr. Bedell; and it was suggested to us to go in the evening
to the Opera-house to hear a great Presbyterian preacher, Mr. Alexander;
but this we did not feel disposed to do. The Opera-house is being made
use of, as our Exeter Hall is, for Special Services.

I think I may as well fill up the rest of this sheet by describing the
arrangements of American hotels. There are frequently two entrances, one
for ladies and the other for gentlemen. That for the ladies leads by a
private staircase to the ladies' drawing-room; and the gentlemen's
entrance opens upon what is called the office. Whether there are
separate entrances or not, the gentleman is at once conducted to the
office, which is usually crowded with spitters and smokers; and there he
enters his name in the travellers' book. This done, the waiter shows him
to the drawing-room, where the lady has been requested, in the meantime,
to wait, and they are then taken, often through long and wide passages,
to their bedrooms. A private drawing-room may be had by paying extra for
it; but the custom is to do without one, and to make use of the ladies'
drawing-room, which is always a pretty room, and often a very handsome
one. In it are invariably to be found a piano, at which the ladies
frequently perpetrate most dreadful music; a marble table, in the centre
of which always stand a silver tray and silver tankard and goblets
containing iced water, a rocking chair, besides other easy-chairs and
sofas, and a Bible. It is a rare thing not to find a Bible, the gift of
a Society, in every bedroom and drawing-room in the hotel. The bedrooms
never have bed-curtains, and sometimes no window-curtains; but the
windows usually have Venetian or solid shutters.

The dining-hall is a spacious apartment, often 80 or sometimes 100 feet
long, and in some large hotels there are two of these, one used for
railway travellers, and the other for the regular guests. The meals are
always at a _table-d'hote_, with printed bills of fare; the dishes are
not handed round, as in Germany, but the guests are required to look at
the bill of fare and name their dishes, which does not seem a good plan,
as one's inclination is always to see how the dish looks before ordering
it. Everything comes as soon as asked for, and there is a great choice
of dishes. There is very little wine drunk at table, but to every hotel
there is appended a bar, where, we are told, the gentlemen make amends
for their