Even in my time I have seen
marked changes, and have witnessed the gradual disappearance of
national costumes, and of national types of architecture. Every
capital in Europe seems to adopt in its modern buildings a
standardised type of architecture. No sojourner in any of the big
modern hotels, which bear such a wearisome family likeness to each
other, could tell in which particular country he might happen to
find himself, were it not for the scraps of conversation which
reach his ears, for the externals all look alike, and even the
cooking has, with a greater or less degree of success, been
standardised to the requisite note of monotony. Travellers may be
divided into two categories: those who wish to find on foreign
soil the identical conditions to which they have been accustomed
at home, and those searching for novelty of outlook and novelty of
surroundings. The former will welcome the process of planing down
national idiosyncrasies into one dead level of uniformity of type,
the latter will deplore it; but this, like many other things, is a
matter of individual taste.
Pages:
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434