But we have a few words to say of another class,--_grumbling travelers_. At some of our hotel tables, where travelers “most do congregate,” one can read a chapter of absurd and ridiculous weakness to be found nowhere else. We have known people to sit down to a table where we could find no occasion for complaint, and grumble loudly at every individual article. Coffee, “horrid”; tea, “an insult to set such stuff before any one”; soup, “too thick,” or “too thin”; and so on through the whole bill of fare. Nothing set before them that was not made a subject of criticism or rude comparison between the hotel fare and the wonderful perfections of their own table. This habit of fault-finding is, by a certain class, considered a certificate of superiority which cannot fail to convince the public that they are persons of wealth and high-standing at home. A mistaken idea. Even the waiters at public tables, who, in consequence of the variety of guests to whom they are called, are usually good judges of character, are not deceived by this vain pretense; but many sly glances, that can only be interpreted as contemptuous, may be detected; and as these complainers leave the table, the waiters whisper to each other, as they pass to and fro, “Shoddy,” with looks that cannot be misunderstood. This class of travelers leave their homes, not for information and improvement, but for the opportunity of grumbling, on a new and more extensive scale than can be attained in their own families. They leave home in search of some yet untried cause for grumbling, and by a long stretch of conscience and imagination they contrive to find it, and return with a large store of freshly gathered material, over which to expatiate for some weeks, quite to the relief of their families.