Omaha daily bee., 1885-09-26
HOTEL BEATS.
They Work Their Little Games,
A Chat with an Old Landlord.

~ St 49,
too" remarked Mark Duryee, Of the
Ogden house, to a BEE man, as they
we're enjoying an after supper smoke.
"There goes a fellow now, whom I've
been keeping my eyes on for q good part
Of the day. expect he will try to jump
me-"
"How do such fellows usually present
thsmuelves2" asked the reporter.
"They always present themselves In a
very bold Manner" was the answer.
"They come in and walk up to the
counter with all the cheek imaginable,
and as though they have more money
than anybody or earth; they want the
best room In the house, and every thing
hrst.clsss, and never SAX for rates.
"You have no particular way Of dis
tingulshipg them from honest partles2"
"No, not as q general thing. When .
man comes In with baggage,a well-dressed
and genteel appearing man, and makes q
demand for q room, we suppose Of course
that he Is q gentleman, and treat him &C.
cordlngly. In the morning he comes
down from his room, leaves the key In
the office as requested, and the first thing
we know when we come to take q list OF
the keys, Is that such and ouch a room
has been left, and the key ls In the office,
and OF making an investigation we find
that the room has not been occupied I;
that the bird has flown, leaving no bag
gage, except perhaps q dirty collar, or
something equally worthless; never any
thing valuable"
"Does a man usually stay only about
one night when such Is his gamel'
"Sometimes he stays several days.
As long as he don't arouse suspl-
cion he is willing to prolong his bojourn.
We had q fellow here about q year ego
who stsid several days, and when he
wanted to get away he tried to let his
baggage down from the window of his
room, Amsnupon the back street saw him
and come around to the Office, and said
that there was a man trying to let his
grip out of the window, aud that when
he made a slight noise, the fellow pulled
II back sgain. 1 went up there and laid
in the weeds till about 2 o'clock in the
morning; saw him come to the window
two or three times and look out, but he
made 40 further effort to lower the bag
gage. The next morning we found that
the bed had not been occupied, His
grip was still there, and we opened 1t and
found an elegant shaving outfit, and
some other thing. About two weeks af-
terwsrd the fellow telegraphed the ex-
press company to aeud his vslise to a GER
tain poiIt. We hadhIm then. Hacked
his bill onto the grip and we sent 1t @. o.
N He kicIo1 ltHn a rnnutas h1k fharo
YVES no getting out of paying It,. II he
had succeeded In getting his baggage
away with him when he went, the prob
abilities are that We would Lnever have
heard of him again"
"Do they often have to leave their
baggage to escape the payment of billsl'
Every frequently. l have several val
ises here now full of clothing and other
articles The clothing would be worth
something to the owner, but l don't f. ell
disposed to sell it; 1 wouldn't want to
wear dead mems clothes"
cit Is q prevailing custom In hotels to
take strangers at their word, and trust
them, Is 1t not2"
mo, not unless they have baggage.
If they are without baggage We gener.
ally require them to put up In advance
When l was In Cedar Rapids
o man came INTO the Northwestern
hotel there and wanted the best room
In the house. he said he would rather
psy double rates and have a fret class
room all to himself than to pay tho
price and have it otherwise. He
staid seven days, and n morning we
received a postal from him saying to
hold his baggage until he called for 1t.
Two days after ths. we went up to his
room and opened up his v%allse, On one
side we found nothing but a dirty shirt;
while In the other we found nothing but
shavings and a brick. Suppose the brick
was put In to make the grip heavy. He
had staid seven days at first class rates
'On another occasion we had two
gentlemen come In who pretended
to be very tony fellows from Chicago.
They o,cupied the best room In the
and had their meals sent to their
rooms. One day q nan came in while
they were still there, and said
that somebody had dropped al
valise out of a back window
1 ascertained what room 1t had been
dropped from, and immediately made cut
o bill and sent 1t to the said gentlemen,
along with the information that i'm
mediate settlement would be absolutely
Their Idea had been to walk
gracefully out, clip around to the back
of the house, procure the dropped bun
die, and make good their escape, but
they failed. We get even with them
once In a while, but of course they get
away with US occasionally.
"Tbis trouble Is owing to the misera-
BILE custom existlug In hotels throughout
the country of resolving strangers sim.
ply on the streng'h of their personal sp-
pearance and their baggage. There Is
no necessity for their being beaten as
often as they are. People seem to have
an idea that they are sustained by the
government, and are for their especial
use and benefit. 1t 10 not necessary for
q man to undertake to run a hoiel on
such q system. If he does he is to
blame. II a man should proceed more
carefully In the business, and look more
to his own interests In making rules and
regulations, he would be just SIS highly
respected as the man who is more neeli-
gent, and his success would be equally
great If not grester."
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