The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-25
SUMMER HOTEL CHALMERS.

\ oOALMEIL I1OlEL CftARM E1S. l Young Women Being Used Now as En- tertaining-The young Mans Place, | However Cannot Be Filled-What the Male Entertainers Have to Do | Their Successes and Failures-One Mans Catch of $2,O00,O0O Bride. One of the western papers has dis l covered new field for women in the l employment of attractive young wo- | men as entertainers as fashionable | summer resorts. The innovation is | probably good one, and getting up | whist parties for the old ladies and ! fancy dress balls for the children, in-
 } troducing newcomers to cliques into which they will fit, and in general making guests feel lat home," are all | good and profitable undertakings. But women have limitations in entertain ing, as in all things, and the young | men who organized the industry are l still indispensable.
 A girl, charm she never so wisely, l cannot cut such swath at a summer resort as a man can. Her ministra- l tions may fall like the gentle rain from I heaven and make all women and chil- | dren twice blessed; but the old ladies | and children always get along fairly we'll anyway. They are satisfied cas- | fly. The girls who have no partners, l the chaperons with unattract charg- | es the young married couples who | have passed the stage where each l found the others society sufficient en- | reached the stage where they will be | resigned to stagnation-those are the | clements that ferment, and 1t is upon them that the professional entertain l CT tests his skill.
 What can a girl do to sweeten the | temper of another girl who is too un- | attractive to win any attention from l the few stray men at a summer hotel? 1 Nothing. But man, who is well paid 1 for it, can make that homely girl think ! that the hotel is an anteroom to | elysium. Naturally, when the lonely I girls are many, and the hotel provides | only one self sacrificing man, that man
 has his hands full and must develop
 power of diplomacy and a knowledge l of tactics that would fit him for Am | bassador or General. Even under the | most favorable circumstances his posi- | tion is no sinecure, and the man who | can career successfully through sea- | son of such work is fitted for better | things.
 One of the most popular of the great | lake resorts asserts that it was the first | to add an entertainment committee of one to it's staff of employees. The manager knew young fellow of good | social standing who was handsome, jol- 1 ly, likable and excruciatingly hard up I For his expenses and tempting con- sideration this luminary consented to shine upon the hotel premises during | the summer season. At first the man. | ager had to Wrestle with a tendency on | the part of the new employee to com l bine duty and pleasure by devoting | himself to the pretty girls in the house; | but he was brought to realization | that he couldn't earn his salary in that | blissful way, and, after that, he did his duty manfully. His real position was kept secret. The guests of the hotel looked upon him as fascinating fellow, who, from philanthropy or per- verted taste, showed marked prefer ence for wallfowers. The manager chuckled and patted himself upon the head, but in the height of the season the philonthropist in his round of the needy, ran up against a splinter with | $2, GOO in her own name. Three weeks later the wallfowers were dropping their heads dolefully and the | philanthropist was travelling in Europe with his bride.
 It sounds like a Sunday school story, but it is a matter of history, and they do say that the hotel manager now gets his entertainment committee | cheaper by telling each aspirant the l encouraging story of the man who married the millions. No one else has | drawn a reward of merit at that par l ticular hotel, and the mystery about the entertainers has faded away. Ev- cry one knows their real position now, or, at least, every one does after being | in the hotel for few days, but the manager still shows discrtion in his selection of men, and a charming man l is a comfort at a summer resort, even | if he is paid for with the other extras It isn't easy to find the right man for such a hotel place. He should be a good looking, well bred, we'll dressed, | talkative, gay. He must dance, bowl, drive, ride, swim, play golf, billiards and tennis. He must be equal to get ting up some sort of a lark at any hour of any day He must be able to deal out a convincing devotion to any wo- man under three score and ten, and to three-score- -and-ten women at one and the same time. He must sing and play the banjo. He must have the en- durance of Hercules and the cheerful self-sacrificing fervor of an early Christian martyr.
 Such incarnations of all social virtues
 are not to be had for the asking, or
 even for $500 and expenses for the sea- son; but some hotel managers are able
 to secure the services of men who ap-
 proximate to that ideal. Several sum- mers ago a delightful fellow was em- ployed by the owner of a Wisconsin ho- tel to fill this role of ministering angel
 to the dull and bored. He plunged into | the work with youthful enthusiasm and made things hum about the hotel. He was indefatigable and irresistible.
 Even the old ladies adored him, and he | convinced each girl that he looked upon his moments with her as oases in the desert of his exacting work-rays of sunshine that frightened tn dark hours which he was obliged to spend with others not, like her. beautiful and charming. A serious bachelor girl