Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-08-28

p'SNNo WV VI % many Ouc, anu lOu
would have no difficulty in proving
your ownership of the money. How.
eve, as | remember your giving me the
package, | will return it to you, but il
had forgotten the circumstances and
you were stranger l think l would
hold on to it for awhile"
The guest paid his bill and departed,
and the reporter who witnessed the az
fair sought out an attache of the house
and asked him when such novel plan
had been adopted to prevent sharpers
from imposing on hotel-keepers.
" 1t is not original with us" said he,
"but is generally known among the
fraternity. 1t is sure preventive
against swindling on the part of guests,
and in all tirst-class hotels has entirely
superseded the old brass checks we
formerly used. The hotel business is a
most peculiar one in many respects,
one of which is the constant dealings
we have with peop'e who are entirely
unknown to us, and who, perhaps. we
may never see but once. We have
scores of regular customers, it is true,
and they always stop here whenever
they come to Detroit, but the stream of
travellers who daily arrive in the city
are not all business men. Among the
strangers who may stop at this hotel
are undoubtedly many who, il they can
capture a few stray dollars by slick
trick will not hesitate to do so, and if
we did not use every possible means to
prevent swindling, we might sometimes
get trippod mp and lose large sums of
money. The paper slip whlch you saw
on the envelope is the best and only
sure way we have of circumventing any
attempt which may be made to swindlo
us out of money packages which have
been left in our charge for safe keep
ing, and will show you why this is the
case.
Hardly a day in the year passes but
we are requested by greater or less
number of guests to lake charge of
their valuables while they remain with
us. We take the articles and, wrapping
them securely in package, seal it up
in the presence of the owner. This
done, he is requested to write his name
on slip of paper, which is torn in two
in an irregular manner, one-half being
given to the guest and the other portion
pasted on the package, which is put in
the safe. When the guest is leaving
and asks to have his property returned,
he must produce the slip of paper we
gave him in order to identify himself.
The piece he gives us and the piece on
the package are then pla ell together,
and if they match, as they certainly
should, he gets his valuables, and we
say no more about it. The safety con-
sists in the fact that Swindler no
matter how cute he may be, can not
tear a piece of paper so that il will cor
respond with the piece on the package.
You might try million times, but you
would fail TO accomplish it, because it
can not be done, except after pattern,
and even then it would take much
longer to do it than we keet the pack
ages in our possession.
with the old check system it is al
together different, because it is an easy
matter for any one to get one OF the
hotel checks and have a duplicate made,
it only being necessary to have the num-
Der of the duplicate correspond with
that of the check in the safe. Ii a guest
leaves his money with us and we pay it
out to the wrong man that is our loss,
and if when the owner presents his
check for the property we tell him that
he has it already, he would laugh at us,
and if the matter was taken into the
courts he would have no difficulty in
getting judgment for the amount. So
you see We cant be any too careful in
handling property that does not belong
to us. More especially when our que is
are nearly all strangers.
"Have you ever been beaten out OF
any considerable amount in the way you
mention?"
mo, we have been fortunate in that
respect, and never have lost cent un-
der either the brass-check or slip sys-
TENS. But other hotel proprietors have
not been as lucky as we have, and there
are numerous instances where tley have
been mulcted by guests. A case OF this
kind appeared at the St Nicholas Ho.
tel in New York only short time ago,
and still another at ST. Louis, Mo. In
DObu lhSlulIOS llC lOSScS WCIC uuilO
heavy, and the hotel proprietors had to
make them good, but if they had us d
the slip racket, as we do, there would
have been no trouble. You can see for
yourself how easy it is to beat man
who uses the check system. Take the
coat and hat rooms, for instance. Here
the customers are so numerous that it
keeps the coat-boy hustling around
to attend to them, and lie can not re-
member the faces of all those who leave
their wearing apparel in his care, and
we can not use the slips, because guest
might object to having the Innings OF
their coats and hats disfglfred and be-
smeared with mucilage and bits OF
paper. The boys are liable to make
mistakes that the slip system would OBJ
vinte, and is like the mercury in the
thermometers, some men will descend
so low they can readily have duplicate
checks made and capture overcoats and
hand-sachels. But I'll bet thousand
to nickel that the slip system will baf-
fle the smartest confidence man thai
ever attempted to work a hotel safe.
and any landlord who is fool enough to
continue to use brass or any kind OF
checks on valuable packages when he
can adopt a safeguard protecting him
self from any loss in this way deserves
to be swindlel us often as is necessary
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