The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-09-15
THAT BELL BOY.
The Curious Life and Surroundings of !
Front" IN IL First-cIass Hotel.
From the New York Graphic.

'Front -
A slightly-built, open-eyed colored
boy of from Is to - years probably,
clad in livery, and certainly with an air
of fatigue and mild protestation at being
asked to do any work, rises from the
bench in the corner of the hotel lobby.
shuffles over the counter, sagaciously
standing to one side TO protect lis eyes
from the glitter of the clerks diamond
pin, and listens with an air of offended
humility while the autocrat of the reg
lister tells him to "see what 932 W ntl. ="
How well knows that there are SIX
flights of stairs, the first covered with
tbickly- padded velvet carpet, the sec
ond with Brussels carpet, also thlckly
padded, into which his tired feet sink
soothingly; the third covered with com
mon carpet, the fourth oil cloth, the
fifth painted and the last innocent of
any covering whatever. between him
and ''g32." But he starts off like quar-
ter horse and continues at a reasonably
rapid gait until he is out of the ellen k s
sight; but then What II change. He
steps firmly on the inst of the stairs,
grasps the rail firmly and takes the
second step, and so on until he learns
what 1892 wants, il the guest has not by
that time forgotten what 1t was.
But he is a very useful person, the
hotel boy IS, despite his abundance of
leisure when busy, and his life is not a
bed of roses.
They see many queer things, too,
these bell boys. People much used to
living in hotels are apt to regard the
hotel boys as their own family servants
and call them at all sorts of hours 20 do
all sorts of things. A congressman, not
from the West, but this time an Eastern
one, used to call bell boy every night
to perform the duties of valet, elping
him undress, cutting his corns and sim
liar little offices.
The ladies are apt to push the electric
button which calls the bell boy on all
sorts of things, and bell boys often III
answering call find the fair caller in
the most startling sort of dishabille, and
sometimes with not even enough cloth
ing on to justify its being called dis
habille
They ''get the dots" on lots of peo-
pie, too, these bell boys. An assiduous
society belle worn ont with excitement
and late hours has a little instrument
with a hollow, needle-hke point, with
which she wishes to inject few grains
of morphine under the lily white skin
no, not of her arm, because the red
blotch would show every time she
appeared in evening dress for a
week; but she has no morphine. The
bell boy gets some for her.
And if welI-known prohibitionist
should want to have little drink or Il
bottle brought to his room, who would
find it out before the bell boy But
these boys are supposed to have nei-
Their eyes nor tongues-nothing bat ears
and these only for the reception of or
ders.
Several noted and weil-fought divorce
suits have been decided by the testi-
mony of bell boys, though generally in
such cases the bell boy displays the UNI
retentive memory and inability to
identity people whose personality
would be supposed to be deeply i'm
pressed on his mind by attendant cir
cumstances that insure his retention in
tie hotel as long as he chooses The
ease with which the bell boys have for
gotten the most astonishing sort of
things when on the witness stand il
"a en- amusing.
Bell boys sometimes also ascend to
the heroics. Some time ago a Western
congressman Numbered into the loom
of lazy guest lille she was asleep
She rang the bel, the annunciator
dropped, the bell boy came and Ie-
lie ed the lady of the congressman
iTesence., a
'sSometines, too, brute for brutes
are 10 be found on hotel registers as
well as anywhere else) comes to his
room drunk and beats his wife, and the
bell boy is ruug MP by the unfortunate
spouse to take her part. Some of the
boys have been roughly handled, too,
in such rencontres as this. But the end
is apt to be that the brute sobers up
the next morning and ceases to be
brute, and the wife gets a trunktul of
new dresses and bonnets galore, and
the bell boy a watch and chain, and the
event never gets outside the family and
the bell boy. But what the stair Climb
ers-ior they are not allowed to ride in
the elevator in first class hOtels-hail
with especial JOY IS quiet game of
poker" When boy gets wind of one
such he haunts the corridor that M
munIcates with the room and claims
the party as his meat" When the
party inside rings for boy he darts
into the room as soon as the boy who
comes up stairs gets III sight, and does
what is wanted done. He usually finds
some preteXt TO stay in the room, acting
as butler, or rather barkeerer, and the
snap" is often worth s. to $40 10 him
IN single night. When he does any,
thing for player he is usually given
chip or two, and when he ''cashes in"
his pile is bigger than that of some of
the pl4yers. 1t is the tips, by the way,
that the bel boys, at least in the city.
work for. The salaries are, for the
most part, almost infinitessimal, but the
lids bring the average m to unite q 70
81 ectable figure.
The ladies', strange to say, are even
more liberal IN the n after of tips than
the men, and MANY bell boy is given
a dollar for purchasing for an angel
faced girl French novel that she
would never think ofasking bookstore
clerk for herself