The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-05-16
HOW HOTELS SUFFER.
Little Things Which Make a Big
Yearly Item.
THE CONSUMPTION OF MATCHES
People who Are Not Guests Carry On
Hund ndreds OF Dollars Worth of Sta
tionery, Toothpicks, Matches. Etc
How Bed Linen and Towels Disappear.

Hundreds OF Dollars Worth of sta
tionery, Toothpicks, Matches. Etc
How Bed Linen and Towels Disappear.
When New Yorker strolls into his
favorite hotel on Broadway, lights his
cigar with match from the counter,
picks up a handful of toothpicks, APP
propriates an envelope and several sheets
of paper and sits down to scratch off
letter with pen and ink furnished by the
hotel, he has no idea OF the cost Of these
little luxuries usually given in the same
free spirit in which they are taken.
He has no appreciation OF the fact, un-
less he has kept hotel, that there are
thousand others like himself who make
as free with the hotels conveniences.
He has no thought Of any one else, es-
pecially of the proprietor, when he fills
his pocket with the hotel envelopes and
his matchbox with the hotel matches.
There is on the counter in the Office OF
every we'll regulated hostelry asquare box,
in which are kept dozen necessary
things-letter heads, envelopes, pens, ink,
matches, toothpicks, blank cards, blot
ters, and the like.
No one notices it twice, yet that self
same box is serious item of expense to
every well conducted; hotel. 1t Is drawn
upon in two ways; by the guest for
whose use it is kept up, and by the man,
tho plague of all hotel keepers, who lives
around the corner but makes the hotel
his headquarters. This latter worthy is
always spotted by the fact that he never
spends cent In the place, but takes any
thing the hotel can be induced to give
away.
To run the aforesaid little box on the
counter costs any self-respecting hotel of
fair size from 81 200 to 81 800 year. The
biggest item in its list is the paper and
envelopes furnished free to everybody.
There are usually ordered in lots Of 100, 900
at time, and they disappear like chaff
before the wind when the deadheads that
infest every public place of entertainment
are in need of stationery.
Five hundred envelopes and 900 sheets
Of paper is the estimate which a fire.
quented hotel on Broadway puts on the
daily consumption of its stationery.
Stamps, in conjunction with these, form
another item of expense. Occasions arise
fifty times day where the hotel is
obliged to stamp letter for nothing. 1t
may be q guest who -has his letter
stamped, and remarks, ,9"Tl owe it to
YOU" or a deadbeat, who bustles into the
writing room, helps himself to the best
chair, indites his correspondence, and,
sneaking up to the desk when the clerks
back is turned, leaves his letters there as
il by accident.
They are unstamped and the clerk is at
a loss what to do. They may be guests
who has forgotten them. At any rate
they are stamped, and the amount is
charged to profit and loss. Twenty dol
lars a month goes in this way.
Guests always demand clean blotters;
so the beats get them to. The blotting
paper bill for hotel averages $40 month
ly. Ink disappears mysteriously too. It
is kept tightly corked and doesn't evap-
crate, but il goes all the same. Guests and
beats alike carry 1t of in the little patent
bottles in which it is placed to avoid Leak
age. So small an item as ink costs S5
Even the comparatively insignificant
toothpick costs money. Everybody takes
a handful, and before the month is up it
means 10000 to $1,000 toothpicks. They
will cost $3.50 every month. II guest
has pocket matchbox he fills II at the
counter. So does the beat. Between them
they carry of $15 worth monthly. Pens
and penholders disappear at the rate of
dozen day. At five cents each it means
sixty cents day and s1S month.
SO much for the little box on the hotel
counter. II costs the management s120.60
every month, or about 81 ,440 annually. In
smaller hotels this will be much less; in
large ones il will be q trifie more. The
estimate Is for an average first class hotel
on Broadway. But this is not the only
waste. Down stairs in the lavatory the
soap and towels are disappearing, and up
stairs I'm the chambers the same process
Is going on. The people who help the
process along are different from those
who only take what is nominally free
hey steal. Anything loose, from n cake
of soap to a silver ice pitcher, is their le-
yitimatc prey.
All the watching OF the help does no
good. Those little nickel plated affairs
which grind powdered soap into the soiled
palm are not highly successful. Country
guests don't know how to use them, and
inder the harsh usuage OF city guests
hey become clogged and refuse TO work.
One hotel where S25 worth of soap was
stolen monthly tried the device, but gave
( up In six weeks after numerous COM
,laints and inquiries as TO how the
darned thing worked" and "where in
arpation is the soap?'
Towels go in quantities almost incon-
One hotel on Broadway figures
Is annual loss in this way at 100 dozen.
At e dollars a dozen the loss Is appreci-
Ible. Tides from the chairs and sheets
rom the beds go, too, in large numbers.
One clever man thought he had invented
to prevent the waste OF
matches In hotel. He made the safety
match which could be lighted only on the
BOX. For awhile IL worked. People
iidnt take the matches, and the saving
vas evident. Then instead of taking a
sandfal Of matches as before they took
he whole box. A few took 10 carrying
match safes provided with a coating Of
he composition on the boxes.-N. Y. Sun.