The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-23
IT MAY HAVE BEEN FUN.
But 1t Wasn't His Style of Humor-A
Hotel Clerks Western Experience.
From the Chicago Tribune.

dOC6I Cl6rK s w 6Stern experience.
From the Chicago Tribune
We staid over Sunday at Billings, Mont.
and got acquainted with young man who
was waiting to take the train East the next
day.
81 was a hotel clerk in Peoria, ILL., ;" he
| said in the course of some conversation.
land thought it would be funny to come
West and see the country"
Haven't you found it as humorous as
you expectedp' asked.
"Ican't say that have-I am now max
ing, as near as possible, a Decline for
Peoria. You see, | knew fellow down
here at Eagle Pass City, Wyo. and he wrote
me to come there and he'd get me a job as
night-clerk in the leading hotel, the Nav
| erick House. So / went and got the place. y
IBID you have trouble with the proprie-
torg'
mo, not at first, anyhow-it was the
guests that worried me. I'll tell you a lit
tie about it. The first night passed off
smoothly. Somebody shot through the
window and knocked the pen out from be-
| hind my ear, and at the time it worried me
| considerably, but look back at it now and
| it hardly seems worth mentioning. The
second night there was a grand ball in
| town, and all the men on the ranches for
| thirty miles around came in. They call
| it 'shindig,' and said they were going to
have good time. | saw them for a couple
of hours before dark standing around on
the corners polishing up their six-shooters
with their handkerchiefs and swearing be-
cause the government didn't pass a law
compelling the manufacturers of ammuni-
| tion to make cartridges foot long They
| said they had come after fun and were 90
| ing to have it if it took leg. | overheard
one tall, bony man who had but one eye and
| carried a shotgun say that he was no rab-
| bit and would as soon shoot hotel clerk as
Chinaman. He said if the trouble got
| bad anywhere he wanted TO be right in the
middle of it with his boots on. He carried
his shotgun cooked all the time and alwa s
walked in the middle of the street instead
| of on the sidewalk.
81 told the proprietor that / was afraid
there was going to be trouble, but he said |
wanted to stand right up to em and not be
bluffed and it would be all right He said
he would stay and help me but he had to
| play the bull-fiddle at the dance.
Just after dark the boys began TO drop
in and register l would ask them if they
wanted supper or room, and they would
| talk pure profanity for minute or so and
| then say that they don't want nothing
| they were just arriving. Pretty soon had
six pages of arrivals, aud ] began to notice
that some Of them were registering two or
\ three times. One tellOW SAID that he hadn Z
arrived at hotel for twelve years and he
liked it 50 well that he stood and wrote his
name four times Some Of them insisted
on dipping the ends Of their revolvers in the
ink and writing with them, and pretty soon
they began to make a period after their
names by shooting straight down through
the register and counter and pretty nearly
| into my feet. After while the one-eyed
man came in and said he heard | said he
couldn't register. | denied it and after
talking a long time got him quoted down,
and he poured the ink ont of the bottle
down the barrels of his shotgun and then
hourlshed the muzzle around over the page
and let the ink run out and made some
marks that looked as If the cat had dipped
her tail in a quart cup Of ink and then
switched it around over the register. He
said he usually wrote his name in blood,
and it didn't come natural for him to use
ink.
About this time a fellow rode in on a
horse and said no bad taken tho place for a
barn, thouehhe noticed now Il WANT hardly
good enough for horses Then he made his