The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 241
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Early Texas Inns: A Study in Social Relationships 241
is a common practice. He was amazed that it was carried on even
before women, and still more horrified upon seeing a man teach
a two-year-old to spit and afterwards applaud the child's efforts.77
At the Tremont House, a loud bell for breakfast rang at eight
o'clock, whereupon the doors of a large room which ran the whole
length of the building were thrown open, and the crowds which
had been gradually accumulating, rushed headlong in, and in
less than ten minutes rushed headlong out again. To these suc-
ceeded the host and hostess and their family, and these again gave
place to the servants. Dinner was conducted on the same prin-
ciples at three o'clock in the afternoon, "three relays of guests
being apportioned to one course, instead of three courses to one
relay." An ample supper concluded the day, and "having spit,
chewed, drank and smoked until 1o1/ or 11, Beds are sought
& in brief space the Moon is gazing on no quieter place than
Galveston."7s
Sheridan further says that, along with five other men, he
occupied a bedroom of five feet by ten, which contained as part
of its equipment two small basins with jugs to correspond, and
which was heated by a roaring stove in the center. The poor
fellow suffered greatly from both the snores and the excessive
heating system.
Nor did another British visitor, Charles Hooton, who stayed
at the hotel in the summer of 1841, fare much better. Hooton
spoke of how he sat in the Tremont House smoking a cigar to
keep off the mosquitoes.79 When he mentioned hailing a friend,
a Captain Thompson, who appeared with a brace of double
barreled rifle pistols and a bowie knife, he described the captain
as coming to sit by his side on a "rough-hewn sofa." Among the
amusements of the town which Hooton listed was the interesting
one of frequenting at night-besides the hotels and groggeries-
certain "burrows called ten pin alleys." Hooton explained ironi-
cally that "nine" pens had been forbidden by law, whereupon
the people had set up "ten" and rolled away day and night with
impunity.""80
77Ibid., 38.
78Ibid., 40.
79Hooton, St. Louis' Isle or Texiana, 14.
solbid., 23.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/266/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.