The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-11-23
HOTEL SWINDLERS.
How They Ply Their Arts In
London and Paris.
Extraordinary Robberies Executed By
Daring Adventurers Of Both Se1as-
Tho Champion Hotel Thief
OF the World.


Tho Champion Hotel Thief
OF tho World.
Hotel-keepers are peculiarly liable to
be swindled. So many people Of all
sorts are constantly coming and go
ing in the busy season that it is next to
impossible for the most careful man to
be sure beforehand that his guests are
all honest and straightforward, and
will not be found to have skedaddled
when the time comes for the little bill
to be collected, after they have Jared
sumptuously for many days. The best
the sorely tried landlord can do is to
steer. as well as he may, the happy
middle course, without offending the
solvent by raising suspicious of their
solvency beforehand, and watching the
doubtful lest they suddenly disappear
in the night. And he may be trusted
to be pretty sure on the average to
make up for his losses by sticking
them on to those who do not pay up.
Two well-dressed young fellows, ap-
parently strangers to each other, were
given rooms on the same floor of a cer-
tain hotel. A day or two later one OF
them said his trunk had been stolen,
and made such an outcry that, to get
rid of him, the unsuspecting landlord
paid him the value of his trunk and it's
contents. amounting to something like
ell. The young man left and presnt-
ly the other gentleman paid his bill and
also took his departure. But in some
way the defrauded landlord learned la
ter that when gentleman No. 2 left he
took with him not only his own trunk
but the one for which No. had been
paid, concealed inside it.
From Margate there comes tale OF a
bold attempt by foreign countess"
to get the better of hotel manager.
Aware that hotel keepers are liable for
the property of guests up to certain
amount, irrespective of negligence"
the countess, when her bill was pre-
sented to her, declared that she had
been robbed of valuable silver belt,
worth more than the amount of her
bill. But while the manager was du-
biously discussing the point there
stepped forward the head chamberlain
and quietly said that he had heard that
identical silver belt story twice pre-
viously-at Monte Carlo two years be-
fore, ard at Scarborough last year. At
both places she had happened to be serv-
ing as housemaid. The countess
quickly paid her bill and departed.
One of the most extraordinary rob-
berries recorded is the one which was
effected short time ago at hotel in
the Rue Sophie German, Paris. One
afternoon well-dressed man and wom-
an arrived at the hotel in question and
took the best bedroom in the house Tor
one night, paying for it in advance and
requesting the waiter to call them at
four o'clock the next morning. He did
so. and they left at five o'clock. But
when the chambermaid went to put the
room in order she met with an astound-
ing sight. The place was nearly bare,
and, in fact, every movable article OF
furniture had disappeared. The visit
ors, with the aid of accomplices in the
streets, had managed to lower all
through the window without being per-
ceived.
The death was recently recorded of a
remarkable scamp who must surely
have been the champion hotel thief OF
the world. He rejoiced in the name OF
Col William Addison, and is estimated
to have in his lifetime departed from
5000 hotels without leaving any money
behind him. His mode of operation
was peculiar and ingenious. He had
devised contrivances for carrying on
his nefarious career in the shape OF an
Addison collapsible trunk and an Ad-
olson balloon hand bag. The trunk ap-
peared to be an expensive leather-cov-
cred affair of large size, which, when
contracted, could be carried under the
arm like an artists portfolio, while the
hand bag could be diminished SO as to
go into pocket. Selecting his hotel
usually high-priced one-the colonel
would fill his trunk with bricks and
blow out his hand bag with straw and
proceed to take up his quarters. At the
least indication of impatience on the
part of the landlord for payment OF his
bill the colonel, announcing that he was
going to the bank, would pack his trunk
in his portfolio and put his bag in his
pocket and depart for good. In this
way he had lived in luxury for many
years, and, consistent to the end, he
died in a hotel and left no money behind
him.-London Tit-Dits.