AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



"quaintness" is specialized, whether intentionally 

 or no. There are thousands of them; and all of 

 them well worth the discriminating traveller's 

 attention. Concerning some of them — as the old 

 inns at Dives-sur-mer and at Mont St. Michel — 

 whole books have been written. These depend for 

 their charm on a mingled gift of the unusual and the 

 picturesque. There are, as I have said, thousands 

 of them; and of their cataloguing, should one embark 

 on so wide a sea, there could be no end. And, 

 again, I must for convenience exclude the altogether 

 charming places like the Tour d'Argent of Paris, 

 Simpsons of the Strand,* and a dozen others that 

 will spring to every traveller's memory, where the 

 personality of the host, or of a chef, or even a waiter, 

 is at once a magnet for the attraction of visitors and 

 a reward for their coming. These too are many. 

 In the interest to which I would draw attention, 

 the hotel as a building or as an institution has little 

 part. It is indeed a facade, a mise en scene before 

 which play the actors that attract our attention and 

 applause. The set may be as modernly elaborate 

 as Peacock Alley of the Waldorf or the templed 

 lobby of the St. Francis; or it may present the 

 severe and Elizabethan simplicity of the stone-paved 

 veranda of the Norfolk at Nairobi — the matter is 



*Inold d«yi before the "improvements." ' 



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