Smyrna times., 1874-05-20
The Average Hotel Clerk.
A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THAT UNAP-
PROACHABLE INDIVIDUAL.

| can shake hands with Governor, sit be-
side an alderman, and smoke with a State
Senator, and never feel my littleneSs but
when | come to stand in the presence of the
modern hotel clerk, feel that awe and in-
feriority which tourists feel as they stand i'll
the Yosemite valley and look up at the noun
tain-tops of thousand feet above.
There is something about that young man
standing behind the counter ofa frSt-class
hotel which is calculated to hold the common
man at a distance you may gaze at him II
you wish to-in fact he Is there to be gazed at
but don attempt to be familiar. | would
as soon think of dining with the crater of
volcano as OF going up, extending hand to
hotel clerk, and asking him if his family were
enjoying tolerably good health. | sometimes
dream of being thus familiar, and when l wake
| | feel as if had been frozen.
! The dignity, ssperity and condscenslOn OF
| the modern hotel clerk Did you ever notice
how he resents any attempted familiarity of
travellers 1t man calls him old boy, or
yes :" Say, you fellow there !" no wellbred
clerk let's on that he hears. He goes right on
reading the morning newspaper, and finally
that familiar traveller has to put on bessech
ing look and timidly ask
Please, mister, will you kindly permit me
to disturb you while hunbly inquire If that
Toledo train leaves at eight o clock or at half
past"
The clerk will raise his eyes from the the
paper drop them, raise them to the clock
gently move them around the room, and finally
reply
!" / guess SO.
} With what dignity they receive and assigr
guests If a traveller asks for room on tn
! first floor, on account of his lame leg, tn
clerk lies back on his dignity and assigns hin
to the top story as punishment, and 1t all tn
. earthquakes which ever quaked were to al
< tempt to alter that clerk y determination, the
a would get beaten.
used to believe that hotel clerks were lk
o hotel walters, and that brbe would fetc
d 'em; but found out my error when trying t
II pass crumpled ten.cent note into the youn
mans hand. He drew back with such loo
:, of scorn and contempt on his face that
didn't dare to register at all, but slept in
4 barn and breakfasted on cheese and crackers
d heard afterward that he had been killed by
" railroad collision, but don't see how any sue
a thing could have disturbed his dignity.
* There are times when the hotel clerk W
ne unbend. 1t is when traveller says that he hi
wandered all over the world, stopped at a
lie kinds of hotels and seen all sorts of clerk
s. yet in all his experience he had never see
such hotel and such clerk as that The
7; are well authenticated accounts of at lea
lg two clerks who after being thus addressed, a
lowed something like a smile to cross the
'e- faces as they offered the persons addressi
ry them a five cent cigar.
can never forget the case of young Tempt
m, ton he was clerk of the Grand Duke, a.
he during the eleven years OF service in that p
ny sition he had never been known to smile, or
ry answer civil question when he could help
ret Everybody thought he owned the hotel, a
ne everybody took off their hats to him and q
preached him with awe and trembling,
to diad ona dou thouUh | dOn'f 400 how daa
nr- dared to fool around him. | was on the col
y ner jury, which rendered verdict that 1t
of deceased came to his death from an overpl
to of lofty grandeur, hastened by too large
ge- amount of unbending top-loftiness. s. WdUe
ZEN Magazine.