Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-09-22
LONDON INS0LENCE
PROPERLY REBUKED By A HIGH SPIRITED
KENTUCKY COLONEL.
A Cockney Hotel Clerk Insults the American People
by His krrogarce-He Makes an Abiect
Apology at the Muzzls Of an
Unloaded Pistol.

LONDON, September 21.-Col. James
Pepper, of Pepper whisky fame, who
has been on a wedding tour in Europe,
sailed with his wife on the Servia for
New York, followed by the blessings of
many American visitors to London, who
have stopped at the Hotel Metropole.
The employees of this establishment
have never been noted for courtesy to
American guests, and this has been
the case during the present sea-
son particularly, rs a great in
1ux OF transatlantic travellers has
made the hotels feel Independent. 1t
was reserved for Colonel Pepper, how
ever, to introduce discipline. The
Colonel and his wife came home from
the theater one night this week and
Mrs. Pepper at once got into an cleva-
tor, while her husband stepped up to the
desk for his key. The night clerk. q
particularly naughty and pompouS per-
son, was talking 10 an Englishman close
to the key board, but though Colonel
Pepper asked him three or four times
for, the key the clerk paid not the slight
est attention until he had finished his
conversation.
Pepper took this calmly enough, but
when he got into the elevator the Eng
lishman who had been talking to the
clerk said: Il beg your pardon, sir, but
| think you really ought to know why
| the clerk was so inattentiye. He said
to me when you first asked for the key,
He's only an American. Let him
watt" The colonels Kentucky blood
suddenly rose to the boiling point. He
sprang from the elevator and whipped
huge pistol from his pocket. "Come
out from behind that dcsk!" he shouted
to the clerk. "Come quick, come a
running" The clerk came, and he
came running, likewise perspiring with
terror. His face was ashen, and
though he was trying to speak his lips
moved like the jaws Of an expiring
trout, and no sound came from them.
Fifty people in the great corridors
rushed up to see what was the matter.
Get down on your knees cried
Pepper, in an awful voice, relapsing
into the Kentucky vernacular. Get
down on your knees, or I'll shoot your
ears of"
The terrified clerk heSitated but a
fraction Of a second and came down to
his knees on the marble floor.
"Now," cried the Kentuckian, "yOu
apologize to every American that ever
stayed here for your - impudence to
the people that keep your hotel going.
Repeat after me what | say: Il apollo
gize TO all the Americans in London
Say it quick"
II apologize to all the Americans in
London" stammered the clerk.
For all my previous inciyility, CON
tinued the Colonel, Sternly.
For all my previous inciyility, fal-
tered the victim.
"And | hereby solemnly promise to
treat all Americans with respect and
consideration hereafter, quick, say IT,
The menial Obeyed, and Pepper then
allowed him TO rise and retire behind his
desk. the humblcst and must crestfallon
clerk In any hotel anywhere then. The
Colonel showed his pistol to the assem-
bed multitude. at is one picked up
in a curiosity shop in Paris for a friend
who has collection OF ancient fire
arms" he said. 1T has not been load
ed for 100 years, and the lock is rusted
OUT"
Up TO date the Mctropole clerk has
kept his VOW % treat all Americans with
respect. and the reverence he manifest
cd when Colonel Pepper was about du-
ring the remainder of his stay was
touching.