The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-09-14
The Hotel Clerk.

The magnificent and aWfully impressive
clerk OF our fashionable hotels has long
been the terror of travellers and the sport
OF satirists. He has demonstrated how
easy it is to have an autocrat in the midst
OF q democracy. He represents, in the most
positive and unpleasant manner, the
tyranny Of the minority. We Americans,
as foreigners have often remarked, are a
patient and long-suflcring people. We
shadow OF the Great Man at the Desk,
and when he has glowered on lis our
blood has froze in our veins. Nor is it
strange. His Joye-like majesty is admira-
bly, calculated to terrify ordinary mortals,
who, under the euphemistc name of guests,
are presumed to hang upon his bounty.
They stand before him tremblingly inquir-
ing If they can graciously be permitted to
sit at his table and lodge under his roof in
exchange for four or five dollars q day.
They are willing to be bullied by the SER
wants; to take anything they can get; to
occupy sky-parlor, or cot in the CORR
dor, il they can only stay in the neighbour
hood OF the Great Man, and semi-occasion-
ally steal glance at him from afar.
Has he not the power to say to them nay,
to Danish them from his presence and his
portals, unless they quail before his eye
and shake before his augustness? There
are other hotels. True; but there are other
autocrats in them, and those may be still
more formidable. And it is weakness Of
our common nature to shrink from the I'M
known-to endure the ills We have rather
than fly to others that we wot not Of.
We are all OF us but too well aware what
the hotel clerk is-perhaps we may say
what he has been, for it is our fiuttering
Sosf s,,f ha lonlinn ~ bio n Nd
imperious sway that has emboldened us to
make him an editorial topic. Unless we
are greatly mistaken, we have seen recent
and repeated evidences of variation from
his normal condition. Certain it is that he
is no longer what he was-at least his out
giving and manner have changed.
We have observed the change both in
town and country; we are sure OF it. Any
departure from his usual lofty and sub
limely-inditferent manner could not fail of
detection. Cesar cannot stoop from the
purple without arresting attention. AT the
springs, among the mountains, at the sea-
side, where he has long been supreme and.
aired his consequence, mutation is visible
in his behavior. Strange as it may sound,
we are confident we have traced in him
signs Of civility to his masters patrons.
He has actually appeared to have some in
terest in their concerns. He has magnani-
mously refused to snub them; he has posi-
lively given ear to their questions; yea, he
has answered them with promptness and
politeness. Such concessions have hitherto
been unknown, and they ore too eXtraordi-
nary to be accidental.
Nobody could be more amazed than we
have been at the symptoms Of the reYolu-
ton. AT first we scarcely dared to trust
the evidence OF our own senses. We fancied
ourselves dreaming; we rubbed our eyes
to dispel the vision. But it was reality-no
mirage OF the mind. The great man no
longer carries himself distantly and de-
family, as was his wont. The angle Of his
back with his waist has diminished several
degrees; the parabola described by his
th0raX and abdomen is not Soj impress
slyely clear; his large seal and diamond
rings glisten less, because they yibrate less,
on the fingers OF the hands whose thumbs
are thrust into the arm-holes Of his porten-
tous waistcoat. He has ceased to reply to
all inquiries with his back; to hurl keys at
gentlemen who had the temerity to ask
for them; to condense any information,
when youchsaied ut all, into the brieiest
and sharpest sylables, discharged angrily,
as Ii at an insolent foe.
Quiet, modest persons from the country
can now approach him without peril to
their nerves or sefi-respect. He is unques-
honably mitigated, II not Modified. he
has plainly come to the conclusion that they
have some rights which he Is not obliged
TO disregard. When they ask for a good
room low down he does not take pains to
assign them poor room high up. If they
inquire the hour he does not assume to be
deaf, nor does he point impudently to
some distant card, supposed to furnish the
requisite information. He Is not absorbed
with some Of bis cronies at one end of the
counter while dozen or more hungry and
trayeEstained men are leaning over the req
lister waiting to learn where they are to be
bestowed. He still has many defects; but
his eyes have been partially opened to the