Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-03
CURB AND CORRIDOR.

| A Deaf and Dumb Hotel Clerk-EIectricity
in q New Field-Roasting the Weather, a
City Idyl-The Gossip of the Town by the
| Topical Tnlker.
sI,yE met some remarkable hotel clerks In
my time" said D. A. Browne, Of New York,
| to me Yesterday, "but the funniest snap of
| the sort 1 ever heard of came within my ex-
perience at q big hotel in the South last
winter. 1t was one of those big cara
vanseries that are springing up all over the
| South, but especially on the seaboard of
| Florida, and would give you the name of
! the hotel IL I were not sure to be going there
again next winter. Well, when walked up
! to the desk the day of my arrival man
with immense whiskers and a voice to
match handed me O pen and said, You'll
want q s56 room,' and we engaged in the
| regulation scrap over terms and SO on. NV
| wife was with me- and for that reason had
to take what could get and be thankful
| The man with the big whiskers, whom I
| afterward found to be the proprietor,
| handed US over to the bell-boy
While my wife and the trunks
went to the room tarried behind to attend
srse 1nto door behind high des and
across the register from me was a young
man of middle height, and anywhere from
rs to 80 years of age, whose prominent feat
yellow hair, and a fair mustache with
twisted ends, and to a mans a cold, impu-
dsnt stare and sneering upper lip; dis
man behind the desk within reach, SO I
asked him to look and see if there were any
kilograms or letters for me. He flung out
didn't did say say a word. / felt my dislike
for that clerk growing. l noticed
that he was Sudishly sira dressed that
on one Of his hands, and an odor
Of cologne emanated from his neighborhood.
When. l had concluded an unsuccessful
search for correspondence, it seemed to me
that suspicion of a sneering smile hovered
about that clerks upper lip. didn't want
to know very badly, but just to make the
supercilious beggar talk, I asked him what
through me as If I'd been a sheet Of your
Pittsburg plate glass and made no reply. I
repeated the question. think was really
ebanca etaI caas " gos no th answer g,b gave me a
CLASSY eyes of the man. With studied calm
ness said is 1t customary in this hotel to
which they politely ask7 He never moved
his lips, and worse still, his eyes were fixed
upon me in a cold, hard stare. had dollar
In my hand, q silver dollar, and knocking
the question with few added words of q
profane character. 1t hadn't the slightest
effect upon the frozen blonde, but the noise
brought out the man with the big whiskers:
told him very plainly what / thought Of
such treatment as I had received, and I was
about ready to sail in and wipe up as much
S Gn ns then as
said mildly: MY dear sir, Mr.. Blank is
dumb, absolutely speechless; and his hear
"fWhat in thunder do you keep him for,
then2' asked
"'ohl he is very useful in his way re-
Piled the hotel keeper, and that is all the ex- |
doubt that the deaf and dumb clerk was q |
superb instrument of torture to the guests |
and when he was on duty front was de- |
serted"
Where Is the Electrical Pump
''THE steam siphon is big Improvement |
over the old hand-pump, but wonder that |
electricity has not been practically applied |
ere this to the work Of pumping out coal |
barges," said Mr.. W. s. Wolcott, pointing to |
a fleet Of coal boats and barges lying near |
the Bellevue dam, upon which men were
busy at the pumps. Gan electrical machine |
for this very purpose, handy and power
full little pump, that could be carried to any
part of the boat desired, has, I know, been
patented by Pittsburger for some time,
but have never heard of its being put to
any real use in our river trade, where, it
seems to me, there should be a great de-
mand for 1t. If such an electrical pump
could be used there would be an immense
saving of power, that is now frittered away
siphon pipes to remote part as often hap
pens, Of big coal tow"
Woman's Way and Mans.
Two ladies met in front of the Postofice
not long after noon yesterday. The sun was
making Fifth avenue good deal like fry
ing pan at the sizzling point. Both ladies
carried parasols, and the younger, hardly
more than a school girl in years, though
there were indications of matrimony in the
empty market basket she carried eallously, |
began the conversation with the truthful re-
mark: '1sn't 1t dreadfully hot?"
The parasols collided at this juncture and
both ladies shut them up, while the elder,
handsome matron dressed in one of the
highly fashionable creamy cloth dresses
which have a masculine accent in the cut Of
the miniature coat tails, admitted; at is,
indeed.
There was not feather of shade on the
pavement, within their reach, but the
did not languish in the heat.
Il think it is the hottest day this year. l
don't know how to keep COOL" said the
younger.
after the summer sets in," said the other.
It is SO warm to-day that declare could
Don't say anything about that" }" was the
rejoinder. "I feel sure I'm o perfect fright.
[ do perspire SO dreadfully, you know, and
Is for my bang, know shan't dare to look
at it when get home"
Owe got lot of things to do this morn
md, ;" was the next remark from the elder
natron, ''but it's SO hot that really don't
think shall stay down town much longer. |
It is awfully warm, isn't it?'
at is positively very hotr'
"Quite meltingr'
"Like Augustr'
"I'm just roastingr'
At this juncture a rude, unmannerly man
squeezed between them and they were
caught by opposite currents in the stream of
which they had been blocking
20 some extent, and carried apart, one up
,he shady side of Smithfield street, where
,he raised her parasol and the other to a
cable car which she entered.
A moment later theatrical manager and
newspaper man met where the two fair vic
inns of the heat had roasted tn weather and
been roasted for ten minutes Said the thes- |
oian: "Hot, isn't it.''
"Yes. What do you say to beer?" was the
,ther's reply.
"Go YOUR
And they went.
Hot Weather Hoodoo.
'IAsT week was afraid to wear straw
lat," said E. d. Wilt yesterday, "because it
night have set some of my patrons to think