The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-20

"I can tell you a little incident that
happened on the historic Island of Put
in-Bay, in Lake Erie, some years ago,
and as the narrative leads up to a sem
sational and tragic climx and has never
appeared in print 1t would perhaps
make interesting reading" remarked
John ]. Rice, a travelling man for
New York house, recently, to a WASH
ington Post reporter. "It occurred at
the time the old Putin Bay House was
in the zenith of it's glory. 1t was in
August at the height of the season, and
the hotel was crowded to it's fullest
capacity with pleasure seekers. One
day one of the clerks was taken sud-
denly i'll. and as the entire office force
was rushed with business the loss of
the services of a clerk just at that time
was quite a serious matter.
Il had had some experience behind
the desks of hotels in the east, a fact
which was known to the hotel people
at Putin Bay and the second day after
the clerk was taken i'll 1 was appealed
to by the head clerk to take the sick
mans place until he recovered suffic-
iently to resume his labors. AS 1 was
away on a vacation rather disliked to
go to work, but the inducements offered
me were first-class, and 1 finally con-
sented. 1 was to go on duty at noon
and remain until midnight.
A YELLED LADY.
"The second day I was behind the
desk a rather tall lady, Of aristocratic
bearing, and heavily veiled, arrived at
the house, entered one of the reception
rooms, gave a bell boy her card with
inc Otr,,a = Io,,a 70 faly tn a
him to register her name and assign
her a pleasant room in a quiet portion
of the house. On the card was the
name Clara r. Opydyke' in print, and
below was written in percil in a small,
cramped hand Baltimore, Nd reg
| istered the lady and sent boy to show
| her to her room, to which her baggage,
| a mediums sized sole-leather trunk, was
soon sent. The lady informed me, by
| the bell boy, that she desired to have
her meals served in her room. 1 had
| no Idea then that she meant she did not
| intend to go down to the dining room
| at all during her stay. 1 supposed she
was tired and intended to have only
one or two meals served in her room.
| She also asked the boy to bring her a
| note from the clerk advising her as to
the rates for board by the day and also
| by the week. 1 wrote the rates on a
card and sent it to her. She sent the
| boy back with a 500 bill telling him to
| inform me that she would perhaps re-
| main week, but If she did not the
| house could take its pay out of the $40
| and give her the remainder when she
| left.
After she had been there three days
without going to the dining room, hav-
ing all her meals carried to her.
sent her a note informing her that we
would have to charge her dollar a day
extra for meals sent to her room. She
made no reply to the note.
DRINKS GAVE HER AWAY.
THAT evening when the head bar
keeper turned over his receipts to the
hotel office he had, as usual, several
slips Of paper on which certain guests
designated by their room numbers
were charged with drinks, and one OF
these slips bore the number of the
room occupied by Clara r. Opdyke
her room being charged with tive
drinks of whisky, brandy smash. and
| two cocktails. / asked the barkeepel
if he wasn't mistaken about the num-
Der of the room, but he said he was not
and while we We're talking over the
matter another order was brought by
a bellboy for a whisky punch to be de-
livered at that room.
II was beginning to get suspicious
and ] made up my mind that / woulC
find out whether the woman was drink
ing the liquor or was entertaining
thirsty gentleman in her room. I tolc
the bellboy 1 would deliver the liquo
myself. The barkeeper mixed tn,
drink and l took it upstairs, knocked
at the door of the womans room, ant
was told to come in l opened tn,
door and saw the woman sitting at ,
table with her back toward me. Sh
did not turn her face, but simply said
Put the liquor on the stand I place,
the glass on small stand, and thel
remarked:
II beg your pardon, but it is in VIC
lation of the rules of the house t.
serve whisky to ladies. OF course, w
have very few calls for it from ladies'
and l laid special emphasis upon tn
last word. An exception has inadvert
entity been made, however in you
case, but
SPRANG TO HER FEET