, 1888-11-09
SOME HOTEL HAwksHAws.
The Men Who Have Become Indispens-
able to Our Bonifaces-

ooh, he's a hotel detective, is he?
Well, what on earth good is a hotel de
t~ective7 What do hotels want with de-
tectives, anyhowY"
This remark, made in a petulsnt tone,
was uttered in the corridor of the Hoff-
mar house the other afternoon by a
western man who was on a visit TO the
metropolis and had beer looking at the
art treasures of the cafe. He eyed in a
contemptuous way the well dressed little
man, with a SLOUGH hat, who was lean
ing against a pile of trunks near the ele-
vatUr. A friend showing the western
man the city sights had happened Incl
dentally to point out Detective Jacobs as
n of the features of a big metropolitan
hotel.
Ten minutes later the westerner saw
the little detective step up to a well
dressed man in a group of three who
had just sauntered into the art gallery.
'I'H have to ask you to move on, sir"
the detective said.
''Who are your growled the man,
angrily, what do you mean by talking
to me that way7"
"Just what l say, and l mean it" the
little man replied, ~undaunted, "and
here's who I am, and 1 know you per-
fectly we'll"
The little detective threw open his
coat and showed his glistening detective
shield. The well dressed man cut short
his bluster instantly, and walked quickly
out into the street.
He was a local bunko man, who had
casually dropped into the hotel cafe with
two out of town crooks. The CONVERSE
ton with the little detective was ANNA
ted, but not SO loud that anybody in the
art gallery could understand it. The
Gothamite who was showing the west
erner AROUND knew what was up, though,
and turning to his friend said playfully:
CHATS some good a hotel detective is.
That was a confidence man that he
talked to. Maybe he'd have caught on
to you if it hadn't been for the detec-
tive"
1t was an apt illustration of one of the
duties of the hotel detective. In the
marvellous perfection Of the equipment
of a metropolitan hotel in the last few
years thep private detective has come to
be an indispensable detail, and today
there is not a hotel in town that enjoys
any select patronage at all that does not
employ a guardian. who is empowered
to make arrests if l. .~ssity arises. Some
OF the detectives men specially as
signed from the L i4eo force, and whose
salary is guaranteed by the hotel in con-
sideration of the policeman's exclusive
service. Often, however, the special
guardians are regular private detectives.
They are men well trained in detective
methods, and enjoy the advantage of a
wide and varied acquaintance with the
faces of metropolitan rascals and the
confidence operators of the country.
Kaontno, tho Hn+o1 o1oo- &c A.. a1.zz r
crooks, however, is only a small part of the
hotel detectives work. Upon them de-
wolves in most cases the supervision of
the porters and hall boys, n all the
army of help that a big Gotham inn has
to employ. If a guest loses anything in
the hotel, or outside of it either, he is
sent at once to the hotel detective to con-
suit about its recovery and if chamber
maids or porters find articles that nave
been mislaid or lost, they are expected to
bring them direct to the hotel detective,
and he, in turn, hands them over to- the
hotel proprietor, or his representative, to
be delivered to the owner.
1t is also the detectives duty to pro-
tect his employers from the numerous
and persistent army Of pests known as
the hotel beat, and it is due to the pres
ence of detectives, in every well regulated
city hotel, that New York has ceased to
be a spot where this peculiar gentry can
thrive. The petty thievery of guests
valuables has also come to be a rarity,
and nowadays the man of means, stop
ping at any well regulated New York no.
tel, can feel as ecure as if he were trav-
cling with a private station house of his
own in tow. More than all, however,
the old time harvest of victims that Hun
CRY Joe and his pals used to gather from
hotel corridors is all tut off.
All this the detective has to do for the
regular salary, but he has legitimate per-
quisites. These are the more or less lib
eral fees that good natured out-of-
towners, who want to see what the life
of q big city really is after dark, pay for
straight tips on the places where the ele-
plant ''cuts up his most hamboyant and
startling shindigs." 1t is worth a hand
some sum to the hotel detective who
pilots a party of strangers through the
multitudinous and more or less pictur-
esque maze of after dark spectacles
known tn the experienced man about
town as 1.-THE sights" And there are
few more experienced men about town
than your quick witted hotel detective
New York Sun.