TESTIMONIAL TO JOHN BULL

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7285, 15 April 1889, Page 6

TESTIMONIAL TO JOHN BULL

A Vienna hotel-keeper has been talcing i' up the cudgels in favour of John Bull the traveller, who, he thinks, "has been slandered by foreigners for generation* ■ past." "The ignorant" (he saye) "are j prejudiced against him simply because they fail to nuderntand his superiority, and are often found to be jealous of the un« definable reserve which distinguishes him wherever he goes. Now, we hotel- keepers whose establishment John Bull does Uβ the honour to patronise have also a rignt to pass our opinion on him and Mβ character, the more so, seelnec that we ate brought into closer contact with him than is the ordinary public. lam speaking in the voice of ray colleagues when I cay that our personal knowledge, « ■ Albion's sons, and Albion s daughters too, gives the Hβ to current exaggeration* We pride ourselves iv having Englishmen in our hotels, and the reason* wnvaft obvious. John Bail is more easily satisfied than the average Continental a.s soon M he discovers the hotel he is lodged in to Oβ a comfortable establishment. He conforms with the best of graces to the rale* of the house, keep 3 his own apartments a picture of tidiness, and in expressing *a order he Is always polite and considerate. He always knows hie own mind and W this means becomes at once a master of tne situation. As to the ordering of his meaw he ie always precise and punctual, ana, being naturally more domesticated eh*a the travellers of other nations, he eojff , making himself at home in his hotel, turn as a rule, does not go In search of refrettn* menta oat of doors. I have never known him to light a cigar in tne presence « ladies without their full permission. *aa he never blows the smoke of hie «e*l[ Into the face of his fair vis-Xoia. B»« punctual to the minute Iα taking Wβ meals and wastes neither his own nor tne attendant's time. He sees the sightsjM the town in a far shorter time than ao either the Auitriaria or Gerraana, **? unlike them, he has no desire to y*w». half the beer-houses In the P'*^ , Then he is an ornament to ♦ very nana* somely furnished soXU i m inger, and in w» very handling of his knife and fork ne» no eyesore to the most fastidious. I consider it a pleasure to watch every EnglUn* man or English woman eating hi 3 ornw dinner, tor in the art of * acinar and drin*Ing too they exc«l over all other natWBB. The very children in charge of «*» governess know how to behave themeel*** at table, having from earliest childhojg been trained in this most pleitsing of eoOf» accomplishments."— St. James's Oatene*

"Nap,"as is well known, is scarcely* game to play in mixed society, because*** advantages obtainable by confederate***' enormous, and this story relates Jn outwitting of a pair of **uch player* bf an apparent innocent. Only two were playing ; and to one, the l n, i°Wri v was dealt ace, king, queen, knave 6f cW» and ace of diamonds. He n» tnr * l 1 !i backed himself to get five tricksjjo* chances in favour of his . doing bo *3*!k enormous, supposing-., the bands *°' «• fairly dealt. His wagers to an in***"??* amount were taken by an outsider loo*h>ls over his opponent's hand. The readiaew with which his offers -were acMfwg raised his suspicions, and when BllwP rose to a high stake be made &*Js*«r* trumps, and found his adversary wltn »v* clubs. The biters were deservedly bit.