The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-04-16
IN THE BIG HOTELS.
THE GREAT NUMBER OF EN-
PLOYES FOUND IN THEM.
An Army OF Twenty-Five Thousand
Persons Required In the New
York Caravansaries Alone
Housekeepers' Duties.

IN so many different capaci-
Q ties, keeps the machinery of
our big hotels in operation?
There are to-day 1876 large transient
hotels in New York City. New York
besides has over 200 so-called family
hotels with facilities for taking care
of nearly 5000 persons. 1t takes
numerous servants to look after so
great u multitude, and there are more
OF them in the large transient hotels
| here than there are soldiers and
strikers in Brooklyn.
The hotel directory only gives the
principal hotels. There are besides
these hundreds OF places, in each of
which from forty to fifty servants and
walters are employed that have to he
added to the list. Ii is safe to say
that the great army of employees in
the New York hotels is 1000 strong.
| Over 10, 900 Of these work in the large
transient hotels, which employ from
100 to 40 persons each ut salaries
ranging from IS month up, with
board, and in many cases lodging in
! Guided.
Among the female employees Of a
! hotel are some women of rare natural
| intelligence, executive ability and
knowledge of human nature, and
their services are considered worth as
much rs $500 n year and meals and
rooms free. These are the house
keepers.
Most large hotels have also furni-
ture repairers whose duty it Is to see
that clusters ere kept upon chairs,
dressing-cases and bedsteads, and to
take badly broken Articles of the kind
to the hospital in the basement or
elsewhere. The chnmbermaids are
divided into watches, short and long,
or regular and dog-watches, as on an
old-fashioned sailing ship In the
larger houses their work il SO arranged
that it is not very laborious.
In the linen room the housekeeper
! has under her seamstresses whose duty
1T is to keep the linen and bed cloth
ing in order. Then there are the
windOw-cleaners the scrub-women.
the curtain members and hangers and
score of others which, summed up,
would take n small directory to de-
scribe them and their various duties.
Then down stairs Is the laundry.
which is also under the charge Of the
housekeeper. Here are more men
under her command. The chief, or
boss, rs he Is called, has one or two
assistants, three machine operators
and forty laundresses who are mang-
lers and hnndwashers, as no aannels or
! delicate fabrics are allowed to 90
through the machines
The handling of the food takes an
other auxiliary force, which is under
the supervision of that very import
ant parsonage, the steward. 1t has
| been said that this individual can
break the most prosperous hotel in the
! country, and many Il genial bonface
will tell you that the saying is "a true
one. Next to the proprietor, he is
monarch Of all he surveys, and his
! domain is vast, for he controls nearly
/ dozen different departments. He
has on his personal staff one lieuten-
/ ant, boo&keeper, two receiving
/ clerks, one checking clerk, from three
! to five storekeepers, who on order
! only deal out the stores, and n time
keeper.
1t is not generally known to the Law.
man that the kitchen, md consequent
| ly the chef are under the immediate
J control Of the steward. The two de
! eide at night as to the menu for the
next day, but in case of II difference
/ OF opinion, what the steward saws
goes. The chef has under him at
least half n dozen lieutenants, each of
whom is generally an artist in his own
| particular line OF cooking. Then, be-
sides these, there are scullerv bows,
pot washers and scOurers. who nre
generally termed omnibuses. as they
can generally turn their hand to sew
cral kinds of work In the best hotels
there are very few women under the
/ direction of the chef Nearly all the
work is done by men and the so-called
"boys' may be fifty years old. Be
sides these there are the pastry cooks.
who are quite independent fellows.
and the ice-crenm makers etc, whose
creations can he seen every year MT
both the French and the German
Cooks balls, and which excite so much
admiration.
There are also three or four shell
fish men, who prepare Holsters, crabs.
oysters and CLAIMS for the table. and
who are experts in this rather difficult
art.
Many hotels also employ one or two
gardeners TO attend to the lawn or
terrace about the hotel, and also TO
the standing baskets aud pottcd
plants and ferns. He has under his
control the sidewalk swecpcrs, whose
duty is TO keep the walks about the
hotel free from rubbish.