The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-02-07
THE HOTEL CLERK.
Some OF the Incidents of Life in Big
Caravansary Related by One.

There are few places which furnish
better opportunities for the study of
human nature and for the acquire
ments of thorough schooling in the
habits of people in all vocations of life
than that of chief clerk in first-class
hotel. He must, if he becomes sue
cess, learn to read faces as he would
an open book, and remember names
and incidents that are of no concern
to him except as matter of business.
He must treat guests in way to make
them feel that he is deeply interested
in their personal welfare, while in fact
he is all the time simply exchanging
kind words for cold cash. But let the
hotel man tell his own story. He
knows it best. Yesterday afternoon a
Nebraska State Journal reporter called
upon r. w. johnson, more familiar
II known as Dick johnson, chief clerk
of the Capitol hotel, and asked him to
tell what he knew about the hotel busl-
ness.
''Of all the people that come to this
hotel the legislators are the easiest to
manage said the affable Dick. ''They
take what is reasonable and fair, and
don't kick when they are crowded.
They realize that crush is crush
and they take what they can get. As
a rule ! like the commercial trade.
The boys on the road are the esttrade
that goes. They pay their bills and
usually ask nothing but what is right,
"There are some funny things that
happen around hotels, and n re are
other things that are not so i'any. |
remember the first dead mal ever
found. 1t was about six years ago
when | was clerk at the Palmer house,
Chicago. There was a fellow that
slept very late one morning, and l
hammered on the door awhile but
couldn't rouse him. | boosted a boy
over the transom and he unlocked the
door. Then | went in and felt of the
man in the bed. He was as cold as
wedge He had accidentally turned the
gas on after turning out the light. It's
queer how many people blow out the
gas. A man may be ever so smart
and vet if be is accustomed to blow
ing out lamp he is liable to do the
same act when he comes to put out the
gas.
about dead beats, I want to tell
YOU vi iiit SlllOolutSb u i'm l. CfCI hhCn
in that line. Four men went into a
Chicago hotel and registered from diff
ferent towns, pretending to be perfect
strangers One of the four had a
trunk, the others had grips. As they
all had baggage the clerk did not de-
mand pay in advance. After the fell
lows had been IN the hotel for three or
| four days the man who owned the
trunk paid his bill, ordered his trunk
down and left. The other three never
| showed up at the hotel again, neither
did they pay their bills. They packed
| their grips in the fourth mans trunk
while it was in the room.
.'As a rule hotels suffer more from
dead beats and what are called Jolly
| good fellows who live right in the
city or town where the hotel is located
than from travelling beats. There is a
| certain class of men who think that
| their presence about the hotel is of a
| great help to the business of the house,
| when the facts are it is only dam
| age, and every meal those men eat
without paying for it is Il dead loss.
when women travelling alone come
to hotel where | am clerking | never
| put their names on the register. 1t is
very unwise thing to do. There are
! always low-lived fellows, sometimes
| transients and sometimes residents,
| who the moment a woman comes to
| hotel with no escort, fly to the register
! to see where she is from and what her
name is. / keep the names of ladies
away from the eyes of such men as far
as possible. Some women are awful
particular. We had a woman here
not more than two months ago who
| would not sleep III Il room with glass
| door to it, There is no more chance
| to see through one OF those frosted
| glass doors than there is to see through
brick wall, but she would not take a
room with glass in the door.
| ''But the greatest cranks in the whole
| business are the opera troupes. The
dude tenor singers and the high So
prano, they take the cake. There is
one prima donna singer who some
times comes to Lincoln who has even
| gone so far as to have us stuff paper
or rags in the key-hole to keep out the
| wind.
Zone thing that hotel men need in
| this state is a change in the law, so
| that the proprietor will not be held
responsible for goods stolen from the
rooms of guests. As the law now is a
| man may come in half drunk. leave
| his room unlocked and be robbed by
some sneak-thief and hold the pro-
prietor responsible for it. He may
even swear that he had a sum of money
in his pocket when in reality he had
not a cent. and yet the proprietor is
held responsible. Guests should be re-
quired to deposit their valuables with
the clerk. 1t is utterly impossible for
hotel men to stand guard over every
room in the house
"Our American hotels are superior
for comfort and convenience to any
thing of the kind in the world. Eng
lishmcn sometimes sputter around De-
cause they dnn't find thinrs the same