Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-22
HE'S CIVIL NOW.
Col. Pepper Of New York Stops
at the Metropole in London.
The Naughty Clerk Treats Him With
Indifference, for Which the COL
onel Brings Him to Time.
Upon His Knees He Apologies to All Ameri-
cans for Inclvility and Makes
Solemn Promise.
Col. Peppers Pop.


Special to the Gazette.
NEW YORK, Sept. 21.-The Sun pub
fishes the following cablegram from
London: "Col. James Pepper, of Pep
per whisky fame, who has been on q
wedding tour in Europe, sailed with his
wife on the Servia to-day for New York,
followed by the blessings of many Amer
lean visitors to London who have stopped
at the Hotel Metropole. Tbs
employees of this establishment
have never been noted for courtesy
to American guests, and this has been
the case during the present season, par
ticularly as the great influx of trans
Atlantic travellers has made the hotels
feel independent. 1t WAS reserved for
Col. Pepper, however, 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 elevator while her husband
stepped up to the desk for his key. The
night clerk, particularly
NAUGHTY AND POMPoUs
person, was talking to an Englishman
close to the key board, but, though Col.
Pepper asked him three or four times for
the key, the clerk paid not the slightest
attention until he had finished his con-
versaton. Pepper took this calmly
enough, but when he got into the elevs-
tor the Euglishmau, who had been talk
ing to the clerk, said: 81 beg your par
don, sir, but think you really ought to
know why that clerk was SO inattentlve.
He said to me when you first asked for
your key, 'he's only an American, let
him wait. - The colonel's Kentucky
blood suddenly rose to the boiling point.
He sprang from the elevator and whipped
a huge pistol from his pocket. ''Come
out from behind that desk,' he shouted
to the clerk; leone quick; come a rum
nm - and 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 in
the Kentucky vernacular. sect down
on your knees or I'll shoot your ears
off,
The terrified clerk hesitated but frac-
ton of 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 id imrudence to
people that keep your hotel going.
"Repeat after me what l say: l apol-
ogize to all Americans in London; say it
quick!'
81 apologize to all Americans in Lon
don,'' stammered the clerk.
"For all my previous incivility," con-
tinued the colonel, sternly.
"For all my previous incivility, -
faltered the victim.
"And l hereby solemnly promise to
treat all Americans with respect and
consideration hereafter. "Quick;
say it.
The mental obeyed, and Pepper then
allowed him to rise and retire behind his
desk, the humblest and
MOST CREsTFALLEN
clerk in any hotel anywhere. Then the
colonel showed his pistol to the as
sembled multitude. cit is one picked
up in curiosity shop in Paris for a
friend who has collection of ancient
firearms, - he said, sand it has not
been loaded for hundred years, and
the lock is rusted out. -
Up to date the Metropole clerk has
respect, and the reverence he manifested
when Col. Pepper was about during the
remainder of his stay was touching.