The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-18
THE PASSING OF THE HOTEL CLERK.
Gradual Disappearance of Landmark in
the Pathway of Civilization.

NAoNuoA OfShppcdTduce ia 1TnUnark In
the Pathway of Civilization.
Charles Dudley Warner. in November Harper.
The hote clerk has disappeared, or is disap-
pearing. The faithful chronicler must note this
significant change in American life. for it means
the passing away of a whole order of things.
And he notes 1t with a certain sadness For
though this clerk was feared by the general pub
lie. he was the admiration OF the humorist.
There was never anything III the world be-
fore answering to this resplendent autocrat Of
sleeping accommodations this darling of the
flashing, pin, perfumed locks. impudent
eye and lofty ccndescenson. He was the
one being in existence before whom the
free born American quailed We have
so little real aristocracy in this country
that this dominating person stood out in
relief: he had power to abase the proud,
and to make the humble crawl into hole But
his hour has struck and he is passing away-not
gone absolutely for the traveller can still find him
here and there, generally only in those gorgeous
pearance of lacquer, and is not of the substance
of the life
In fact, the kind OF civilization that produced
the hotel clerk is gone, or is going also. He be-
longed to an era of smartiness and pretension
which the foreign traveller did rot recognize as
a growing development of character, but mistook
for vul garity. He belonged to what might be
called the steamboat period. when the steamboat
was as gorgeous and as beautiful as a BARRIERS
saloon, and its clerk had the fine
gambler. He belonged to the era of the table in
the hotel dining room quarter of a mile long,
where the walters are all drilled to move like
clock work at signal from the first officer, who
stood at the head of the table We can see them
now facing the table in shining line, half
wheeling at the signal. stretching out simulta-
neously over the heads of the submissive guests
hundred arms, Selling the tops of the vegetable
Dishes and then, tramp, tramp. with the step of
the soldier, going down the echoing floor, disap-
pearing through swinging doors, ar anon return
ing with the same military precision to deposit O
plate that weighed two pounds, with a bang
before each awed occupant of seat AS @
military evolution it was nearly perfect, and
the American people were rather proud of it. Ii
was magnifcence which somewhat crushed
them, but they felt they were somehow part
Of it. and it is doubtful if any foreign potentate
was ever served exactly in that way. 1t was
very cheap at So day, and If there had been any
dinner to match the evolutions. we might still be
in that snowy period of our national develop
ment. The hotel clerk had so subdued the spirit
of the traveller that he had not perhaps much ap-
petite, and rather preferred magrifcence to COM
fort. But in time, with other standards of taste.
this pageantry vanished, and the traveller began
to assert his manhood
Of course thece are still traces left of the old
civilization, and when the traveller finds them,
they awake train of reflections upon the singu-
lar development Of democratic life in America.