The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-12
GREAT MEMS BAGGAGE.
Observations of One Who Noticed 1t fo
Thirty Years in Big Hotel.

Observations of One Who Noticed 1t for
Thirty Years in Big Hotel.
New York Sun.
At the recent sale of the furniture of the St.
Nicholas Hotel many of the buyers noticed a
pleasantfaced rather portly man Of fifty
Patrick Henry Herbert, who has been employed
in the hotel since it opened, thirty years ago,
head usher and under superintendent. He knew
all the regular and prominent guests. He had
charge of the porters and he knew all about the
baggage of the many great men who have stop
ped at the St Nicholas.
LAS a general rule" he said; in talking about
baggage. 81 have observed that women have
more baggage than men, When man travels
he wants as little baggage as possible, and he
will get along without any if he can. Drum
mers are excepted, of course. They will fill the
hotel with baggage if you will let EN-. Porters
never like to see q drummer come to the
house, because that generally means heavy
trunks. We never had a baggage elevator at
the St Nicholas, and the carrying of trunks was
always big job have seen great strong men
give way have seen four porters struggling
with one trunk. 1t almost seemed the rule
that the more important man was the less bag
gage he would have. Take Governor Horatio
Seymour, for instance, who was a steady patron.
| have often seen him come with little carpet
| bag Senator Conkling carried very little bag
| gage, but his wife, delicate woman, had plenty
| Of baggage when she came with him. Senator
| John j. Crittenden used to come with no more
| baggage than you could put in tobacco box,
| when he came alone But when Mrs. Critten-
| den came with him the porters would stagger
| under thirty or forty trunks. Mrs. Crittenden
was very fond of dress and entertaining people,
and all the trunks had to be taken up stairs
when the Canadians came the porters trem-
| bled Sir Charles MacNab would keep the por-
| tiers busy three hours getting in his baggage.
| Sir Charles Grey Governor general of Jamaica,
| brought a CARLOAD of baggage Presidents of
| the United States were common visitors to the
| st. Nicholas. Matty Van Buren, used to come
| with baggage that looked like lady's retieule.
| he was plain man. with no such airs as his son
| Prince John, as they used to call him. Presi-
| dent Buchanan was another plain man who did
| not carry much baggage when he came alone.
| But when Miss Harriet Lane came with him
| there was baggage enough to fill an express
wagon. Miss Lane dressed great deal and had
! great deal of company. When she came to or
| left the hotel the porters generally got tired
carrying her baggage. l think 1 can see them
now putting on the stairs under the load of her
/ big trunks After the boys had rested they all
| General McClellan's father-in-law, Gen
| eral Marcy, used to be frequent
visitor at the hotel He did not have
| great quantity of baggage, but his daughter,
| General McClelan's wife, like most of the lady
| visitors, had plenty of it. L shall never forget
the day she fell sick at the reception of the news
| of the battle of Antietam. L thought the poor
| lady would die in the house
"The biggest lot of baggage I ever saw in the
hotel was when General Wool and staff came
| there, during the draft riots. The hotel looked
| like military camp. We fed /. 400 persons in a
| day, most of them without baggage. on the day
| of the great cable celebration Major general
Benjamin +. Butler came often to visit us, and al
! ways carried moderate baggage The man
! whose baggage grew most after he came was the
| famous Marquis of Waterford, who went on
! spree with head porter Tom Adams and
was locked up in the station house for breaking
| lamps in Broadway The nobility took a great
fancy for Tom. Miss Burdett Coutts gave him
$1,000 for attending to her comfort on an ocean
voyage. She stopped at the hotel all the time
| that Grisi and Mario were there, and she went
| to every performance they gave, although she
| never spoke word to either of them Senator
| Henry Wilson, the Matte cobbler' was a fire.
| quent visitor, and one of those who did not
| bring much baggage. Major general Nathiel p.
Banks was another light baggage man, but his
wife could bring fair allowance of baggage.
That is the general rule Women do not seem
to think how much trouble lot of baggage is.
Men always think about it. Many men would
| rather go with no baggage at all and buy new
Undertaking when they want change. Eras-
tus Corning, the former president of the New
York Central Railroad Company, used to come
with very light baggage AS for Gil Davidson,
his partner, his heaviest baggage was big roll
of bills he always carried in his pocket a share
of which was always left with the boys. | never
saw o more generous man. But Mr.. Corning
brought considerable baggage when he
Miss Turner the one who after
ward married Bureh the Chicago banker,
who tried to get a divorce from her and
failed. Miss Turner was such a sweet little
woman that everybody sympathized with her
and hated old Burch. The last time / saw Mr..
Corning in the house was when he left to catch
the IL. 30 train one evening. / had hard work to
get carriage, and finally had to take from the
street. In. the hurry one of the porters dropped
Mr.. Corning's trunk in the street. 1t made me
sick to see it.
''Of course we made some mistakes in getting
baggage in the, wrong rooms 1t seems to me
that in old times mistakes of that kind were not
so serious as of late. Somehow l have noticed
lately that when a guest had the wrong trunk in
his room the trunk would very often be opened
by mistake. l have seen trunks, filed with
bricks LETT as security for board. | have seen
trunks stopped when guest tried to getotf with
out paying President Buchanans trunk was
marked j. B., and cost about dollar and a half,
while some fellow who did not amount to
anything would have forty dollar trunk.
My experience is that it is a very risky
thing to judge people by the outside of their
trunks. President Franklin Pierce stopped at
the hotel on his way home after his term of Office
had expired. noticed that he had great many
more trunks than when he came from the East.
factors generally brought considerable bag
gage. William E. Burton made the hotel his
headquarters for years. The Booth brothers
were also steady patrons George Francis Train
made the biggest sensation with his baggage, and
kept the custom house lively for some time be-
fore he got it through. The biggest trunks /
ever saw belonged to the family of George H.
Phelps great railroad contractor 1t took four
porters of the strongest kind to get one of these
trunks up stairs. tried hard to save the porters
by having some of these heavy trunks left down
stairs, but the ladies wouldn't listen to it,
think the lady who Travelled with the most trunks
was Mrs. Kate Sprague wife of Governor
Sprague of Rhode Island. 1t would take good
sized room for her trunks alone"