HOTEL 



2848 



HOT SPRINGS 



far in excess of what Popes and kings of the 

 Middle Ages, with all their wealth, could have 

 commanded. In some of the great hotels of 

 large cities there are more rooms than in all 

 the inns Aretino could have visited in a year's 

 journey. 



Hotels of the present day may be roughly 

 placed in three classes the commercial hotel, 

 the tourist, or resort, hotel, and the so-called 

 family, or residential, hotel. 



The commercial hotels, whose guests usually 

 are people traveling on business, have reached 

 their highest development in America. In 

 New York, Chicago and San Francisco there 

 are several with over a thousand guest rooms 

 each, and in a number of other cities there 

 are many nearly as large. Canada's largest 

 hotel, in Montreal, has 700 rooms. Most of 

 these buildings are of the skyscraper type. 

 They require hundreds of servants, and the 

 most enterprising of them contain such con- 

 veniences as swimming pools, Turkish baths, 

 and nurseries where children may be left while 

 mothers shop. In the United States guests are 

 commonly charged on what is called the Euro- 

 pean plan; that is, they are charged a fixed rate 

 per day for their room and are free to eat 

 where they please. The so-called American 

 plan, according to which the charge includes 

 three meals a day, is more common in Canada 

 than it is south of the international border. 



In recent years it has become customary for 

 hotels in different cities to be associated under 

 the same ownership or management, so that 

 each advertises the other. Perhaps the most 

 famous hotel chain is that which includes the 

 Ritz Hotel in London and the Ritz-Carlton 

 hotels in New York and Philadelphia. 



In America summer and winter hotels and 

 hotels for tourists are often larger than com- 

 mercial hotels, though not usually so well con- 

 structed. In Europe, however, tourist hotels 

 are often the best. The smaller ones, con- 

 ducted more or less in boarding-house fashion, 

 are called pensions. Among the famous chain- 

 hotels for tourists are those of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway and of the Flagler system, the 

 latter on the east coast of Florida. 



The Hotel Keeper and His Guests. In law, 

 hotel proprietors are known as innkeepers. 

 Like a railroad, which is a common carrier, and 

 a street railway, which is a public utility, a 

 hotel keeper has certain legal obligations to the 

 public. He is obliged to admit all respectable 

 persons as guests and furnish them lodging at 

 reasonable rates, unless, of course, his house is 



filled. By the common law he is also respon- 

 sible for the safekeeping of the property of 

 guests, but in most states and provinces stat- 

 utes provide that if he furnishes a safe and so 

 notifies his guests, he is relieved of responsi- 

 bility except for goods deposited in it. In 

 return for his liabilities the innkeeper has privi- 

 leges, chief of which is a lien on guests' prop- 

 erty until they pay. C.H.H. 



HOT SPRINGS, ARK., one of the most fa- 

 mous health and pleasure resorts in the United 

 States. It is the county seat of Garland 

 County, situated southwest of the geographical 

 center of the state, about sixty miles by rail 

 southwest of Little Rock, the capital. The Chi- 

 cago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Saint 

 Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways 

 serve the city. Throughout the year, especially 

 in winter, thousands of people are attracted to 

 the resort. The permanent population in 1916 

 was estimated at 17,238; in 1910 it was 14.434. 

 The area is about five square miles. 



The city has a picturesque location 600 feet 

 above sea level, in a sheltered valley of the 

 Ozark range. On the side of Hot Springs 

 Mountain, within an area of ten acres, are 

 found forty-four hot springs, which yield daily 

 about 830,000 gallons of clear, tasteless, odor- 

 less water possessing curative properties. These 

 springs are owned, operated and controlled by 

 the United States government and are said to 

 possess radioactivity to a marked degree. The 

 water is prescribed for bathing and drinking in 

 treating gout, rheumatism and various other 

 physical disorders. The drinking of large quan- 

 tities of the hot water, as well as bathing, is 

 prescribed, and drinking fountains on the thor- 

 oughfare are provided, where, at any time dur- 

 ing the day, groups of health seekers with their 

 collapsible drinking cups may be seen. Noted 

 athletes come here annually to train. On Hot 

 Springs Mountain the United States govern- 

 ment has established an army and navy hos- 

 pital; more than $1,000,000 has been expended 

 in its erection, in beautifying the grounds 

 and in arching Hot Springs Creek, which flows 

 through the city. Some of the most palatial 

 bathhouses in the United States are found in 

 the city; the government provides for those 

 who cannot afford bathing fees. 



It is said that the Indians were the first to 

 discover the curative properties of the springs. 

 Dunbar and Hunter, of the Lewis and Clark 

 Expedition, visited the site in 1804, and a set- 

 tlement was made in 1807. From 1832 until 

 1876, when title was held by the Supreme Court 



