Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-11
LANDLORDS RUSE.
A Story Of Some of the Pleasures of
Running a Hotel.

A story OF some OF tne treasures OF
Running a Hotel.
Nv friend, who told me the following
yarn. is one of the proprietors of big
summer hotel on the New England
coast At this time of the year he is
taking things easy" and waiting for
next summer to come, and he spends
certain portion of his leisure time in
my Office, where | am always glad to
welcome one of the fraternity. One
day last week he lighted a fresh cigar,
disposed himself at the proper angle in
his chair, and fired away about as fol-
lows:
did / ever tell you the inside his
tory of our sudden grand change from
colored walters 10 white down at the
beach last season.? 1t made lots of talk
at the time, Well, sir, this is how it
happened 1t was in the middle of
dinner one day. and everything sliding
along as usual, when one of the walters
went down stairs and walked up to the
girl who gave out the toast. and said:
You Irish -, 9 We me some toast
The girl up with the toasting-rack and
let him have it over the head. He had
in his hand a heavy butter dish, and
he gave her crack with this on the
side of her head that knocked her
senseless and stiff as quick as a stroke
of lightning could have done it. Some
body ran for me, and | piled down,
with D., our special constable and
detective. close behind me. There lay
the girl, apparently dead, and the
place was full of the 'coons, who were
after their orders for the dining room.
D jumped right on to the fellow.
and together we hustled him upstairs
and had him showed into closet and the
door locked before the crowd down.
stairs knew what was going on.
Now, there is this difference be-
tween white walters and colored ones:
If a white waiter gets drunk or cuts up
rusty you can throw him out, or knock
him down and drag him out if neces-
sary, and that's all there is to it; but
if you touch one coon they're all ON
top of you and there's .razors in the
air in no time.
..Well, in a minute these fellows dis
covered that their man was gone, and
they began to rush through all the
lower corridors and halls looking for
him. There was regular pandemoni-
um there, YOU can bet, with the gang
of darkeys rushing back and forth,
swearing to find their pal snd cut up
every body in the place if he wasn't
produced. We got the girl out and
safely il bed. with the doctor looking
after her. and then | tried talking to
them, but they paid no attention to me
at all. OF course. thought about the
people in the dining room, SO l un-
locked the closet, let my prisoner out,
told him the girl was coming on all
right and he could go to work. He
took his tray and went and got his
toast and marched up stairs with it,
and then the others also fell in, got
their various portions and followed
suit. The whole affair lasted less than
ten minutes, and in the dining room no
one suspected anything. ] stood by
the door and not a single person COM
planned of any delay or told me that
this was deuce of place to pretend
to serve dinner or said any of the
other pleasant little things that We all
have to take whenever anything goes
wrong.
But tell you, l was mad clear
through. While the row was going
on the darkeys had been perfectly fran
tic, fourishing razors. cursing and
threatening, and one fellow told me to
git out de way! We's gwine to run
dis place And then the Internal bru-
tality of the attack on the poor girl,
who never stirred or showed any signs
of life beyond breathing, till late in the
evening-that made my blood boil.
| The men came to me, some OF them,
and said that if was going to make
any change they wanted to know 1t.
told them that they would know
when made change, and l meant
that they should. l went up to the
| city as usual that afternoon and ad-
vertised for fifty white walters to ap-
| ply at the office of friend to whom l
| explained the situation. In the morn
| ing | went up again at my regular
| time, saw lot of men, engaged every
| one that said he was waiter or looked
like one. and the next day had my
fifty. My comings and goings were
| lust the same as usual, so none OF my
old walters suspected anything. The
| second day got my new recruits to-
| pether and took them down with me.
| made them walk up from the boat to
the house quietly in twos and threes,
keeping their bundles out of sight, and
| locked them all in the bar room.
went to the office and saw my part
| ner.
".Where are all the men?'
lover in the barracks. shaving and
cleaning up for dinner. as usual. This
was about eleven o'clock.
".Have you got their accounts all
made up?
Yes, all ready for en-
Il went to the dining room. There
found one solitary darkey, Big Dan.
{" Dan said l, you make tracks
right over to the barracks and tell those
fellows that want every man Of them
to step right up to the office and get
his paw and take the next boat for the
city. If there's single coon here af
ter the boat leaves, I'll have him in
jail (We have jail of our own or
the premises.)
Lightning never went any faster
than Big Dan did when he broke fol
the barracks with his eyes sticking out
to tell the colored boys the news. Be
fore they were out out of their quar-
tiers had D., and some other Off
GERS firing out their trunks and boxes
The darkeys came rushing over in al
sorts of dress and updreSS, bare-head