The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-11-26
II COSTS TO run 4 HOTEL
Thousands Of Dollars Yearly FOR
Crockery, Silverware, Linen.
Furniture and Carpets.
Forty Places which epend o0O, 600
Annually for Glassware
and China


40 Of Dishes, 10 that CaxoleesaeeS
becomes ExpensivA
Give man the money spent by the forty
BIG hotels Of this city for china and glass
vare eyery wear. you put him in comfortable
circumstances, says tho New 1cfk Herald.
Let that be his annual income ana you
mako him rich. A man ONE came g New
York from New Jersey. ~ was unused TO
barter and trade. He was fresh from the
ONCE Of pottery factory. About that time
= new hotel was being furnished, and this
svounR man tried to sell the proprietor tho
china and glassware. He might have sold the
Goods, but, being unused TO barter and
trade, he was too Rrasping and the decker
fell through. Whsreat the young mans
compositions grew joyful and the man who
knew his business supplied the msrchan-
disc at barely more than cost prices.
ssNever mind, = he said; II may mot grow
rich upon such bargains, but I have got ths
nsw. proprietor's confidence and ! shall con-
trol his trade
sBut be has just bought hin chinaware.
He has plates, saucers, cups and pitchers,
enough to feed an army on. and hs counts
bis glasses BY the thousand:
.True. All this has COST him $780, but
he will have to spend $1,5OO more before
lths year u out for new ware. and will sell
rs al at fair profit"
This illustrates how necessary 1t ID for .
5crockery salesman to be used to barter and
strade. and II also shows how costly tribes
sare In the hotel business.
The forty big hotels n this city spend
The smaller hostelries spend over 800 .
month, and the large ONES pay be-
tween $500 and 500 month, according
to tho season. Why is there 20 big . waste7
There are many reasons. In the dTst place,
fashion and there il fashion in table,
decrees that hotel china shall be thin and
fragile. Coffee nowadays il not coffee un-
less it il served in delicate cup with q
handle like . CanAry's claw and rim al
most AZ sharp ~ the edge Of 4 knife. Soft
boiled eggs must be served II cups that are
almost Transparent. This kind Of ware ia
easier broken than the moral law.
\ .sTake busy day at the dinner hour, -
bald Banquet, who has been head waiter
more years than he will own, for he is rath-
er proud Of his youthful appearance. "The
walters rush in with their orders and rush
ont with the china. They put down their
trays and the dishwashers scoop up the
plates and dishes 60 plump into the hot wa
Tor, rafting and banging together. Then
the dishwashers take them up, smear their
towels over them and toss them in. the racks.
Do you not see? A knick here, crack
there, q chip and a'smash. and there goes
3 doliar!''
Once . dish is Clipped it is thrown aside.
No self-respecting hotel serves clipped
dishes on it's tables.
What becomes Of the broken china? All!
that's the question. Most hotels have their
broken stnh hauled away by their junkman.
care less. Some frugal men sell their DAM
sged ware to psddlera, and il finds its way
to curbstone bazaars on the east and west
aide avenues. Some Of it goes into cheap
restaurants and still cheaper boarding
houses. Not . little lands in tenement
houses. But the bulk of it goes into the
ash barrels.
s.You can't empty hot, soft boiled egg
into thin cup without cracking 1t, nine
times out of ten, unless you follow little
trick picked up said the wise Banquet.
SIT is this-before you open your egg put
your spoon into your cup. Why2 The
heat follows the spoon upward and
simple, but it doean't cost anything to
lis the only wastea5ou hotel in the
china pantry?" Iput this question to Gus
;tav, who has beenb b chef of the widest
known hotel in this city for over genera
costs about $z.605 a year to repair the break
age in his big meat and pastry kitchen. In
Blanquet's kitchen the loss is over
$1,000. This Is paid out for pans and pota,
crockery and earthenware, odds and ends,
breakages in the ranges and ovens, dam
aged aues, and no one knows what not: It
costs from 5000 to $15,OW to furnish q
hoko1 kitN1fen and IL Ia cato k, anv that nna.
fifth Of that amount must be spent every
year for repairs.
But ono 81 the chief sources Of expence Is
in the linen department.. When Uucle Blue
Jeans Villains, Of Indiana, was In congress
2 dozen years ago he made himself talked
ing particularly expensive extravagance
| in the wash room Of the house Of represent
atives.
s'Thfee hundred towels . day for this
room" be cried, Great Scottl On my, farm
in Indiana the family and the hands use
one towel in hull week. y And he forth
with entered protest against this phase Of
governmental waste that made him famous
even IN the woolly and unvashed west.
Old Uncle Jimmy has long since gone to
his rest. and his methods Of economy died
with him. At least. II any vestige Of it
survives. it does not exist in the linen de-
II costs from 500 70 "a, 900 to furnish
. hotel throughout with sheets, pillow case
and table cloths and napkins. and the an
nual waste IL from 5000 to $4,000 . year.
Tho napkins, for instance, are washed two
or three times day and the table cloths
90 TO the laundry every day. Almost BE-
fore ono p4ckage OF linen hss its vrappesu
taken OF the closet keeper issues . requisiH
ton for more. The life Of q napkin q put
down ~ three mouths, provided it 10 OF ex-
ira good material. A sheet lasts ak months
and table cloth depends for its existence
upon the care that ID taken Of it. Once
these articles are frayed they are laid away
and new &oods take their place.
There q still another department where
the Losses are great. When hotel u new
u furnishsd from 5000 to $4,000 il Get
apart for tho purchase Of silverware. Now,
if il next 70 impossible to wear out heavi-
y plated spoon or fork, OF sugar bowl or
co4eepot With any decent usage under
three or four years at the very least. With
the knives Il 10 different. From daily
scourines the blades become 90 thin that
thsy bend in QUITTING mslsed butter. 70 use