The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-10
THE NIGHT CLERKS STORY.
He Tells Some of His Experiences
Retwaen NaDS

Between Maps.
II tell you we have the toughest time of
any poor people living"
The speaker was sleepy night clerk at
one of the hotels.
"You see it's this way. We come on duty
at 7:30 at night, when there's nothing to do
but sit and fight mosquitoes until $3.50 IN
the morning. The same thing over and over
every night has almost cooked my goose. >"
Zone would think that doing nothing
would be to your hand" remarked the
reporter.
BE to my hand, indeed. 1t is not so
easy matter as you might suppose to SIT
here and hold your eyes open. and that is
all W have to do. If we had work to en-
gage our attention, the hours would not
drag themselves so slowly by. l have
thought many a time, when / sat here
nearly nodding, that III give my whole ex-
istence for couple OF hours of sleep. To
tell the truth, | envy the rooster that
awakens the slumberer with his cries. AS
for experiences mysterious, the mid
night clerk cannot be equaled. More
strange things happen under his nose
than he has hairs on his head. Why,
they have been known to become
so frightened during the dead hours
of night, that they turned instantly gray.
Queer beings they. | once heard of a night
clerk in a Western town who invariably
went to sleep nights while on duty, and as
sure as he did, be dreamed Of fire and
awaked in a terrible fright and would have
the bell boy sound the alarm and wake all
the guests. This was the case more than
once, and each time he was severely reprl-
manded by the proprietor, and was finally
told that if the thing should occur again he
would be bounced Well, you know it
was to his interest to hold his eyes open,
and he did so for a long time. One night,
however, he dozed off and when he awoke
the building was in flames He thought to
sound the alarm, but the reprimands of the
proprietor required to him, and he con-
cluded to wait until he was thoroughly
awake and knew what he was doing
before he took action. In the
meantime a midnight prowler CHANGED
to pass the hotel and seeing it wrapped in
flames, sounded the alarm and the inmates
narrowly escaped a burn to death | saw
the clerk sometime afterward, and he said
the real fire was no more terrifying to him
than those he had seen in his dreams.
81 knew of another case in California
some years ago. The story was told by the
bell boy after the unfortunate occurrence.
The night clerk kept a Smith & Wesson
revolver in a drawer. within hand-reach of
his desk. One nighthe dozed off to sleep.
The bell boy sat watching him. After
awhile the clerk began to move about IN
easily in his chair and breathed quickly.
Suddenly he shriellod out, my Godl My
wife. Burned to death. l cannot en-
dure this life" Then Selling the
the revolver, put it to his temple and fired
blowing his brains out His wife, who was
sleeping on the floor above him, was noti-
fed of the occurrence at once, and she was
seized with commissions and died shortly
afterward. 1t was sad affair. But you
talk about feeling sad you have never had
a first-class case of the blues Wait until
you sit in hotel Office all night, and if you
don't get 'em then you never will"