ly, "I'm your's to the _last
kick_."

Before I finish this article on hotels, I may as well observe here that
there is a custom in the United States, which I consider very
demoralising to the women, which is that of taking up permanent
residence in large hotels.

There are several reasons for this: one is, that people marry so very
early that they cannot afford to take a house with the attendant
expenses, for in America it is cheaper to live in a large hotel than to
keep a house of your own; another is, the difficulty of obtaining
servants, and, perhaps, the unwillingness of the women to have the
fatigue and annoyance which is really occasioned by an establishment in
that country: added to which is the want of society, arising from their
husbands being from morning to night plodding at their various
avocations. At some of the principal hotels you will find the
apartments of the lodgers so permanently taken, that the plate with
their name engraved on it is fixed on the door. I could almost tell
whether a lady in America kept own establishment or lived at an hotel,
the difference of manners are so marked; and, what is worse, it is
chiefly the young married couples who are to be found there. Miss
Martineau makes some very just comments upon this practice:--

"The uncertainty about domestic service is so great, and the economy of
boarding-house life so tempting to people who have not provided
themselves with house and furniture, that it is not to be wondered at
that many young married people use the accommodation provided. But no
sensible husband, who could beforehand become acquainted with the
liabilities incurred, would willingly expose his domestic peace to the
fearful risk. I saw enough when I saw the elegantly dressed ladies
repair to the windows of the common drawing-room, on their husbands'
departure to the counting-house after breakfast.

"I have been assured that there is no end to the difficulties in which
gentlemen have been involved, both as to their commercial and domestic
affairs, by the indiscretion of their thoughtless young wives, amidst
the idleness and levities of boarding-house life. As for the gentlemen,
they are much to be pitied. Public meals, a noisy house, confinement to
one or two private rooms, with the absence of all gratifications of
their own peculiar convenience and taste, are but a poor solace to the
man of business, after the toils and cares of the day. When to these
are added t