Morning journal and courier., 1888-08-15

Joys and Trials sf a ssFronl, in a
 Ffrst.Class Hotel.
 From the Washington Crftic.l
 'fFront!"
 A slightly built, open eyed oolored boy of from eighteen to twenty-two years probably, clad in livery, and certainly with an air of fatigue and mild pretestatien at being asked to do any work, rises from bench in the corner of the hotel lobby, shuffles over to the counter, sagaciously standing to one side to protect his eyes from the glitter of the clerks diamond pin, and listens with an air of offended humility while the autocrat of the register tells him to ''see what 932 wants"
 How we'll he knows that there are six flights of stairs, the first covered with thick
 ly padded velvet carpet, the second with
 Brussels carpet, also thickiy padded, into
 which his tired feet sink soothingly, the third covered with common carpet, the fourth oilcloth, the fifth painted, and the last innocent of any covering whatever, be- tween him and "932." But he starts off like a quarter horse and continues at a reasonably rapid gait fer several steps un- til he is out of the clerks sight, but then
 what change, He steps firmly on the
 and takes the second step, and so on until
 he learns what ''932" wants, if the guest
 has not by that time forgotten what it was.
 But he is a very useful person, the hotel
 bell boy is, despite his abundance of 1eis- ure when busy, and his life is not like 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 to do all sorts of things. A Congress man, not from the West, but this time an eastern one, used to call bell boy every night to perform the duties of valet, help fr,o, hin, ou%fir,ey hiw ipoiu lar little offices
 The ladies are very apt to push the electric button which calls the bell boy on all sorts of occasions and for all sorts of things, and ! bell boys often in answering a call find the | fair caller in the most startling sort of dis | habille, and sometimes with not even cloth | ing on to justify it's being called dishabille.
 They "get the dots" on lots of people too these bell boys. An assiduous society belle | worn out with excitement and late hours, ial a little instrument with hollow, needle like point, with which she wishes to inject
 few grains of soothing morphine under ths | lily white skin-no, not of her arm, because the red blotch would show every time she | appeared in evening dress; but she has nc morphine. The bell boy gets some for her. | And if well known Prohibitionist should want to have little drink or bottle brought to his room, who would find it out 1 before the bell boy4 But these boys are sup posed to have neither eyes nor tongues 1 nothing but ears-and these only for the re ! ception or orders.
 Several noted and we'll fought divorce suits have been decided by the testimony of bell boys, though generally in such cases the bell | boy displays the unretentive memory and in-
 ability to identify. people whose personality would be supposed to be deeply impressed on ! his mind by attendant circumstances that in l sure his retention in the hotel as long as he | chooses. The ease with which the bell l boys have forgotten the most astonishing sort of things when on the witness stand if | even amusing.
 Bell boys sometimes also ascend to the he | roies. Some time ago a western Congress ! man blundered into room of 8 lady guest while she was asleep. She rang the bell, the l enunciator dropped, the bell boy came and 1 injected himself into the situation and re. I lieved the lady of the Congrsssman's pres- | ence.
 Sometimes too brute tfor brutes are to bt | found on hotel registers as well as anywhere l elsel comes to his room drunk and beats hil ! wife, and the bell boy is rung up by the un | fortunats spouse to take her part. Some oi I the boys have been roughly handled too 1T I such rencentres as this. But the end is apt | to be that the brute sobers up the next morn ing and ceases to be brute, and the wift gets trunkful of new dresses and bonneti galore, and the bell boy watch and chain and the event never gets outside the family
 
 l and the bell boy.
 But what the stair climbers-for they ars not allowed to ride in the elevators in first class hotels-hail with especial joy is ssqui ct little game of poker" When boy gets wind of one such he haunts the corridor that communicates 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 has come up stairi gets in sight, and does what is wanted done He usually finds some pretext to stay in the
 room, acting as butler or rather barkeeper and the "snap" is often worth five or ten dollars to him in single night. When he does anything for player he is usually Riv. en chip or two, and when he "cashes in his pile is bigger than that of some of the players.
 It is the tips, by the way, that the bell boys, at least in this city, work for. The i salaries are for the most part almost in6ni- tesimal, but the tips bring the average up to quite respectable figure.
 The ladies. strange to say, are even more | liberal in the matter of tips than the men I and many bell boy is given dollar fol purchasing for an angel faced girl a French ! novel that shs would never think of asking l a bookstore clerk for herself.