The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1882-01-25
The Blue Hen Hetel.

"Some time ago" said the drum
mer, III had occasion to visit the
city of D., in the State of Della
ware, and 7 concluded to stop at the
Blue Hen Hotel, where / had spent
one night during a previous visit.
Whom L reached the spot where
the hotel used to be, 1 was surprised
to see that the tall building had
given place to low structure with
a single row of windows, and the
roof close to the ground However,
I recognized the keeper of the old
hotel sitting on a chair in front of
one of the windows, and | asked
him where his establishment was"
"Phere she la sir. I've enlarged
rher since you were here last
t"Indeed!e + Enlarged? | don't ex-
aetly understand.Rq or
sob / know she looks smaller;
but, stranger, ! tell you that I've
added four stories to this hotel since
January, iTa,p2s snd}l
I u "What became of them?'
Iee ~ explain After the hotel had
~ built but q year or two she
hly began to sink. ! dunno
WMt the reason is, Aquicksand under
her, I reckon. Anyhow, she kept
going down and down until the first
story passed under gr9Qnd. Then
I moved. the BARRON up stairs, put
another story on top and began
business again. Pretty soon she
sank to another floor, and we moved
up a second time and added another
story. Its been nothing unusual in
this house to GO to he'd in the seeond
story and wake up in the morning
to find yourself in the cellar. The
milkmaR has regular Instructions to
pour the milk down the chimney in
case he comes some morning early
and can't dig out a window. Last
,month I IoRerslept myself for forty
eight hours because the room re-
manned dark, and when l did get
up, the roof was just even with the
street" .viirsssora tfa
3et" This part of the house that you
see now / built on early last week.
There are sixteen stdlles tQ the
Blue Hen now, and | have got to
add another before the week is out.
If this hotel was spread out side
ways she'd be, about three hundred
yards long. Eventually l expect
she'll be six or seven hundred stories
high, and it'll take you. week to
get into the cellar. | 'spose if I
keep on, this here hotel will reach
clean through from Delaware to
China. The lower, end will come
bursting into Hong Kong or Shang
hal, and may be I'll be taking
Cinnamon for boarders without |
knowing it. Then, very likely, |
they'll tax both ends Of the hotel and |
take money out Of my pocket.
They're always grinding a poor
man SOS he can hardly get along.
Cost like thunder, you know, to run
q hotel like this that requires SO
much to keep upa respectable ap-
pearance. I dunno exactly what
I'll do if she breaks out on the other
side of the earth and then slips
through the hole agf can't carry on
a hotel floating out into ethereal
space, you know" !" ige4ov 8
s13haEe some hopes that may be,
before she sinks more'n a mile or
two, she'll strike volcanic vein or
and get shove up; come
all the way out, for all | know,
and stand on solid ground If she
ioes, you come around and see me,
and I'll take you up and show you
.he view I'll bet you can see Peru
and Oshkosh and Nova Zembla and
Tuckertown, and all those places
regular birds eye view. You come
around anyway and I'll take you
down into the cellar. !" {.
e J said I would, and then ! hunted |
up safer hotel. The Blue Hen is
too original, too eccentric for com
fort.AMax iAdeler, in Philadelphia
Bulletin. i9 sai sha