The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-01-28
TIE CHECK SYSTEM.
An English Visitor Tells the People About
the American Wny.

An English Visitor Tells the People About
the American Why.
The American constitution has been
called system Of checks. So in Ameri-
can life. When you want to travel. you
give your baggage to the porter of your
hotel, and he gives you a check in re-
turn. At tho station you reclaim it
with the check and pass it in Mt a ooun-
ter and receive another check AS you
approach your destination another funo-
tionary comes along the train, takes
your check and gives you another check
III its place. He fishes out your baggage
and conveys it TO your hotel-for q con-
sideration. You havo left your third
and last check ut the office of the hotel
when you enter it, and thence it is de-
hvered UP Oh receipt of tho baggage
At first you bless this arrangement AS
tho salvation of the traveller After IA
few weeks of it the tyranny of tho check
becomes so CALLING that you begin to
long for tho fine old English method CT
dumping down your goods in front of IL
porter and leaving them to find the way
themselves. You would even hail it as
personal triumph if some of your bag
gage would get lost. But it never does.
Sometimes it arrives late, but it ALWAYS
arrives.
Yet it seldom arrives in the shape in
which it started, if that is any consola-
ton. They who have to do with bag
gage see to that. You very soon discover
why Americans carry their goods in
ironclad trunks, and why IL is madness
for anybody to do anything else. L
started out, like an idiot with new
leather portmhnteau. They ripped the
stout brass lock Off the first week.
not for plumber, apparently, but simply
because it is the tradition of tho service
They punched it and kicked and danced
on it. In softer hours. when literary
inspiration came, they wrote on it. My
portmanteau today is an epitome Of the
political sentiment of the United States
from New York to San Francisco. AS
historical document it is beyond
price, and l am contemplating the gift
of 1T to the library of congress at Wash
lngton. AS q portmanteau it has both
feet i'll the grave.
The system of checks is not confined
to travellers luggage. The conductor of
tHc trdilI phsScS Cu1eleSSly 10 ana ITO
asking for your ticket and giving you IL
check i'll return, Oh asking for your
check and returning your ticket. If yon
hand your stick to boy in hotel
while you write your name in the reg
lister, he dashcs off to stow it away III
some secret place and returns triumphant
with y check In the very hotel bar,
when you buy seycnpcnce ha 'porth of
whisky you get check and walk two
yards across the bar to pay at "a desk
But the apotheosis Of enc check is at
Niagara. When you go down to the
Cave of tho Winds, you strip off all
your clothes and leave them, as well as
your valuablcs, in u tin box with tho
attendant. Then you go down to battle
with the cataract attired only in suit
of pyjamas, suit of oilskins and q
check lashod around your neck and ris-
ing and falling with tho beating OF
your heart. No wonder the American
speaks Of death rs handing in his
checks" 1t is only by death that he can
rid himself Of them. London Mail.
The Minstrcrs Mistake.
He WAS merry troubadour
and his heart was filed with love