At public meetings when the national hymn is played, it is proper for every one to stand and to remain standing until it is ended.
CHAPTER XXV
HOTEL AND BOARDING-HOUSE LIFE
THERE is no better place than a hotel in which to study the manners, or lack of manners, of the world at large. It is here that selfishness is rampant, and unselfishness hides its diminished head.
Before we discuss the ethics of hotel life it will be well to give a few general directions as to what one does from the time one enters the door of the building which will, for a long or short time, be his place of abode. He proceeds at once to the office, makes known his desires with regard to a room or rooms, and writes his name in the register handed to him by the clerk. He is then assigned to his room, and a page directs him thither, carrying hand luggage. To this page he hands his trunk-check, and the trunk is soon brought to his room.
Upon the inside of the door in every hotel room is tacked a set of rules of the house, and these are in themselves sufficient to instruct our uninitiated traveler in most of what is expected of him. He here learns that the hotel is not responsible for valuables left on the bureau or table of the room, that the guest is requested to keep his trunk locked, and to lock his door upon going out, and to leave his key at the office; that valuable papers and jewelry can be left in the safe of the hotel; at what hours meals are served and so on. All these directions the considerate person will observe. None of them is unreasonable. There are many things for which no printed rules are given which are none the less essential to the correctness of demeanor on the part of a guest.
AT THE HOTEL TABLE
Loud talking is one of the things to be avoided. One must remember that in a hotel more than in any other place is the warning of the Frenchman likely to be proved true,—“The walls themselves, my lord, have ears!” Each room has another room next to it, and the partitions are thin. The transoms all open upon a general hall in which can be heard any loud remark spoken in any one of the rooms. If one does not discuss affairs one wishes kept secret, one must bear in mind the fact that other people may be annoyed while resting, reading or talking, by fragmentary bits of conversation wafted to them. At the hotel table one must also bear this in mind. Loud talking in a public place stamps the speaker as a vulgarian, or a person who has seldom been outside of his own home, and has never learned to modulate his voice.