Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/136



106 MONTE VIDEO.

certified that she was not attacked by the epidemic. This barbarity cost the house much and should cost it more. The United States officers at once deserted the Oriental, despite its ready baths and marble courts. I regret to say that English gentlemen did not ; with a little more esprit de corps and public spirit we should do much good to our travelling fellows and to our travelling selves.

Remained for m^the Gran Hotel Americano, built in 1865 for a company. It is imposing outside, with its four brand-new Caryatides, and fronted in prints by crowds of equipages. Inside all is white and black marble brought from Italy or Marseille : the hall columns and pavement equal those of the Grand Opera, and heavy slabs form the staircase even to the highest floor. For this grandeur we shall suff"er in purse and flesh : we shall find it the regular French hotel of the bad old stamp â€” all show and no comfort. The bedroom is a stone jug, a tall square hole, with a light- hole in the ceiling. On both floors " baths^" appear in huge type, but you cannot have one before 6 p.m., and a tub is represented by a pie-dish full of lukewarm fluid. Your washerwoman will take your linen, but not return it â€” mine at least all disappeared, nor could any extent of energy recover it. The eating-room is a coffin with one end knocked out, a long, low-ceilinged box ; dingy, frowsy, and ill-ventilated, with a single street-window perpetually kept under persiannes, and with mirrors craped against the flies. The waiters attempt to serve twenty-seven people scattered at diff'erent tables : no wonder that the former are late risers, and that milk and butter cannot be had before 9 a.m. The feeding is atrocious ; the soup is ever lukewarm. You must dine at 4 p.m. or the fish is finished. The flesh is fatless â€” all the adipose tissue having been re- moved for tallow. The fowls have each three wing-bones and as many necks and drumsticks. There is no ice to