The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-03-22
THE PLANTERS HOTEL.
A Renaissance of the Old st.
Louis House Just Closed.

Louis House Just Closed.
$50 the old Planters Hotel has
had to close up at last" said a gray.
haired St. Louis merchant in an up
town cafe the other night as he read
the dispatch to that effect in the
Tribune Of February 9th. "That's
one of the old landmarks of St.
Louis gone. l wonder what they'll
do with it now. 1t seems only the
other day when the building Of it
was begun with much ceremony,
though when you come to think of
it that was over fifty years ago, and
the center of the town was down in
the river district then, and we
thought it was going to stay there.
But it couldn't. Everything goes
west, even st. Louis, and not all the
attractions of fine rooms and a gen.
erous table could keep the travelling
patrons, or the local ones, either.
loyal to the old house. That hotel
sir, is closely associated with all the
stirring incidents. Of the city's his
tory. Around it clung all the mem
ories on which your oldest inhab-
liant loves to dwell, and Charles
Dickens immortalized it in his
American Notes by calling it, l
believe, the best hotel in the coun-
try, or at least, a most excellent
house. Many's the merry night
I've spent there, and many a good
story has been told about the old
house, it's inmates and it's patrons,
which are not so true, perhaps, as
amusing.
"St. Louis had sort of epidemic
of spiritualism some years ago."
continued the talker, "and one of
the negro porters about the Plant
ers', smart fellow with some white
blood in him, used to work on the
feelings of the other boys SO much
by his talk on the subject that he
had most of them pretty badly
scared. He pretended to be a me-
dium himself, and word of it came
to the ears of the proprietor, who
called him up one day and told him
he must stop talking such nonsense
to the other porters or get out.
"'If you're fool enough to believe
in it yourself, which | don't believe
you do said Mr.. H, I won't
have you soaring the other boys
al dom 60 far to scah 'em, Mis-
tab H says the boy. They
allus askin' me bout it, and I can't
hep bein' er mejum. nohow.'
"'You a medium, said Mr.. H.
Don't talk such rot to me, boy
How did you find out you're me-
dump
az kin do some mysterious things,
sab, said the darky. I kin make
a bell ring 'thout touchin' it,
"'Go along, boy said Mr.. H,
don't tell me any of your lies
"' Bet you my next weeks wages
'gainst a ten dollah bill I can, Mr..
H. Bet you l can set a dozen
Of dem call bells 'dere a jingling
'thout ever touchin' one OBJ DEM
"'Well, I'll take you up, boy
said Mr.. H, but don't try to
beg your wages after you've lost
them, for you won't get them. Now
go ahead. Begin the seance. Sum
mon the spirits. Stand back, boys,
Or the ghosts may get their long
fingers in your WOOL This to a
group of the other porters who were
half grinning and half quaking in
expectation.
"The smart darky Immediately
stepped into a little cupboard un-
Ter the stairway-it was about 9
o'clock in the evening-took off his
white jacket, stopped down and did
we could not see what,
ii course, and then stepped forward,
keeping his eyes on the bells, and
waving his arms t them, jabbering
something intended for an impress
We incarnation. In about a jiffy a
score of the bells were jingling like
mad. The darky grabbed the ten
dollar bill he had won, from the
hands of the stakeholder, and Mr.. |
tt said rather angrily:
"'Now stop their confounded |
noise, can't you? Quick 7
II amt mejum nuffyet to do dat,
,ah,' said the darky with a grin.
"Just then a furious guest came
down stairs, shouting,
What's the gas turned off for in
his outrageous way, up stairs?
"'Stop that black rascal!' yelled
Mr.. H, as the negro 'mejum'
made break for the back entrance,
,ut he was gone before any one
could catch him. The scamp had
urned off the gas from the upper
,art of the house, and it took deal
# trouble to go around to all the
ooms and shut off the burners be-
ore the gas could be turned on
lgain and relighted my. Tribune.
low to Tell q Bleached Blonde.