The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-02-28
NO CAME rHsRE.
tDesroit Free PNss.l

kAVW yWW ySatgt0AyS Sata ~ kWroN aA V1< oi the hotels to the clerk Ia charge
 "WAat kind of a package was h P said the hotel man.
 "Money," laccnically replied the guest
 "Have you check for itF'
 "No."
 "But gave Ycu one"
 guess not"
 ~Weil. we7t see" said the clerk, as he stepped to the safe and took thsretrom an envelope on the back Of which vas pasted a ragged slip inscribed with the name, os what was lek of 1t. of the owner.
 This is the packaEe," said the clerk, !" and the name on the slip was written by yourself. You observe that the slip on the envelope is torn in two. The missing portion gave you when you left the package. Perhaps you did not pick il up, hu, if SC had It here !, would bt found that the two pieces were originally one, and you would have no difficulty in proving your ownership of the money However, as remember your giving me the package, will return it to you, but if l had forgotten the circumstances and you were stranger, think would hold on to it for a while."
 The guest paid his bill and departed, and the reporter who witnessed the affair sought out an attache of the house and asked him when such novel plan had been adopted to prevent shaspers from imposing on hotel-keepers.
 "it is not original with us," said he, "but is generally known among the fra ternity. It Is a sure preventive agains, swindling on the part of guests, and in all hrst-ciass hotels has entirely super ceded the old brass checks VIC formerly used. The hotel business Is mos, peculiar one in many respects, one oi which is the constant dealings we have with people who are entirely unknown to us, and whom, perhaps, we may never see but once. We have scores of regular customers, IL is true, and they always stop here whenever they come 10 Detroit, rive in the city are not ali business men Amongst the strangers who stop at this hotel are undoubtedly many who. if they can capture few stray dollars by slick track, will not hesitate 10 do so, and II we did not use every possi ,le means to prevent swindling we might sometimes get tripped up and lose large sums oi money. The paper slip which you saw on the envelope Is the best and only sure way we have of circumventing any at tempt which may be made to swindle us out ol money packages which have beep lett in our charge for safe keeping, and l wili show you why this is the case.
 "Hsrdly day in the year passes but @A kss m .swAaeAr tana nus.. bev of guests to take charge of their val uables while they remain with Us. We take the articles and wrapping them se- curely in a package, seal it up in the presence of the owner. This done, he Is requested % write his name on slip of paper, which is torn ia two in an irregu- lar manner, one half being given 10 the guest and the other portion pasted on the package, which is put in the safe. When the guest Is lea. ing, and asks to have his property returned, sse must produce the slip of paper VIC gave him in order to identity himself. The piece he gives us and she piece on the package are then placed together, and if they match, as they certainly should, he gets his valu- ables and we say no more aboutit. The V no matter how cute he may be, cannot teas a piece of ssper SO that it will coz respond with the piece on the package. vos might try a millioa times, ba, you would fail to accomplish it, because 1t cannot be ds~e, except after pattern, and even then it would take much longer to do It than we keep the packages in our possession.
 "Wnh the esd check system it is aito- gether diferess, because 1t is an easy mstter for any enc to get one of the hotel checks and hs~e a duplicate made, it only being reoessasy to have the number of the duplicate cosrespoud with that Of the check ia the safe. lf . guest leaves his money with us and we pay it oat to the wrong maa chat is o1r loss, and ii whea the owner presents his check los the Property we cell him that he has it already, he would laugh a, us, and f the matter was taken into the courts he would have DO difxicuity in getting judgment fos the amount. Sc you see ve can't be any too careful in handling property that does not beioag to us More e. peciaily when our guests are nearly all strangcrx"
 Have you eves been beaten out of any considerable amesnt in the way you mention 3r asked the pencil -pusksS
 No, we have beea tortunate in that respect, and never have Iess a cent under either the brass check or slip systems. Bus other hotel propriesoss have no. been as iucky as we have, sad there are ns- merous instances where they have been indicted by guests 4 case oi this kind happened in the St. Nichoias hotel h New York, oaly short time ago, aLd still another at S. Louis, Mo. In bnth instances the losses were quite heavy, and the hotei proprietors had to make them good, but # they had ussd the slip racket as we do. there would have been no trouble. You can see for yourself hos easy ii is to beat a mas who uses the | check system. Take the coat snd has 1 rooms, for instance. Here the custom. CTS are % numerous that t keeps the coat | boy husting around to asteed to them, | and he cannot remember the faces of sli | hose who leave their wearing apparel in | his care, and we cannot use the slips, be. |