I write these lines as I sit in the hall of the largest hotel in New York, a newly arrived stranger, somewhat dazed by the bustle and the glare. The whole establishment is on a greater scale than anything else in the worldexcept its own bills. Everything is made of gold and marble, including, I fancy, the foodat least this hypothesis plausibly reconciles the quality and texture of the viands with the value the vendors seem to attach to them.