Kansas City journal., 1898-02-06
HOVERING AROUND HOTELS.
QUEER CHARACTERS WHO HAUNT
WASHINGTON HOsTELRIES.
Flotsam and Jetsnm on the Stream of
Life, They Float Into the Lazy
Eddies of Hotel LObbies, and
Then Float Away Again.
From the Washinrtnn Pnst


i've, as well as where they live, are both
eisome matters to study out. And how
for years they carry, some of them not
cEiy creditably. but even fowingly, that
elusive, slangful, yet very necessary, very
important outward aspect known as d
front. is another thing that no man
knoweth." said the hotel clerk off watch.
They are the men of that unusually
large class in Washington who hover
| around the corridors of hotels at night.
| some of them year in and year out, for
no other ostensibe purpose than to loaf.
AT night did l say? Well, l should re-
Wise that. There are hordes of them who
do their lowering during all the hours of
the day. as well as up to the last gasp
at night. How these day-hoverers con-
| trive to perennially provide themselves
with shelter. food. raiment. moderately
clean linen, and even an occasional smoke
is subject that is going to take up a
whole lot of your time if you tackle it.
or course, in the matter of whisky, that
Eoiadl Is an easy one. Any man wearing a clean
ky when he can't get a mouthfuI to eat.
or all the free commodities in this world.
whisky is the freest. So it does not
ton day-hoverers around hotels get their
whisky. But how and where they eat.
and and how some Of EN- even keep their
But there is such thing as an in
Gomez"
Not, think. that the hotel hoverers of
Washington ever heard of. They simply
are the beneticiaries of providence that
l has hoverers under its especial protection.
best leather-covered seat in the lobby.
across the way. Now, I've been around this
hotel hotel for ten years. So has he; The dif-
ing for living right along. and he has
simply hovered. In no hotel in Washington
has he ever been known to eNpend sou.
there differences from
Ns-either he is miser. or that he hasn't
had a sou since he's been under the eye of
Washington hotel people. 1 think it's the
latter.
Typical Hotel Hoverers
Notice that makeup Of his. The long.
bushy hair. the fairly good gray cutaway
ccat. trousers a little loose. but not fray
ed, boots with shine on em. clean shirt.
collar. and cuffs. and round slouch hat
crer the same way ever since l first clap
ped eyes on him. ten years ago. And I'm
dead certain that there has not been ID
days. since I've been behind this desk on
watch, that he hasn't fioated in. here a
ns beut b and
to get on nodding terms witt. him, and I
simply the nod, on his first tioat-in in the
morning, and that's. all. He doesn't ap-
pear to know anybody. He just walks in.
that he had when l first saw him. prowls
around the waiting room. looks in. prowls
billiard room. looks in. and then makes
his final prowl out the door-engulfed in
Then there is large body of limping
hoverers-the hoverers considerably past
middle life; whose makeup is made to
accord with the prebelIpm Ia, period; ,sl,d and
that is. they have habit of picking ac-
'D eiai or 't alcoholic Clements in m pr prospect. %
/ have observed that the limps Of the
limping hoyersrs rsr are I generally imps of Of
they lean heavily upon heavy canes, os-
tentatiously to proclaim. I guess, their
sufrerlngs as q, result of their part in the
big conflict. Now. do you know that l
have had the human curiosity to put war
record knowing friends of mine upon about
every case have found that the. Sarrulous
and heroically-related tales they have eXud-
ed around here and other hotels about their
mighty dangers by flood and field are pure
efforts of the imagination-that not a one
Of 'em was ever in the war on either side.
a Unsuccessful Ofice Seekers.
THE unsuccessful office seeking hover
ers are rather a pathetic lot. They wear
that constant eXpectant look in their eyes,
you know. They seat themselves on the
lobby chairs, doing lot of fingernail biting
ard mustache chewing, and their eyes seem
doors. When a pair of EN- happen to be
sitting together, perhaps for mutual en-
ana intermit tent-for the eyes of both of
EN- have to watch the doors, you know
Wen. some, big man comes in-one of the
big men who Is richer in promise than in
fulfillment. you know. and the office seek
ing hoverer sees him. He springs to his
feet; and leay awaits the approach Of the big
man, one of the latter's we'll groomed
friends has quite easily taken him in hand.
slumbering in his eyes. the office seeking
hoverer approaches the big man and begins
to make his little salutatIon. It is received
with that cold lowering of the head and eX-
tension of the ear that big men affect. and
well; the big man passes on: The office
On s or Se e % R aep
with a humility that shows he expected no
better treatment, Most of these office seek
of jauntiness in their manner and dress
but it is an affecting attempt, 1 can tell
you.
day-hoverers, these-who make it a point
to stand in front of the hotels. and give
salutes of the hand to all of the famous
not known to these big men. but 1t is their
cheap desire to make 1t appear to their
hoverer friends that they are. The big men.
who. during the course of day. meet SO
many strangers presenting suits of one sort
or another cannot remember all these
faces. and so fearing, perhaps TO give Of
fcnse to some man who really has a right
TO recognition, return these hoverers'
salutes in nine cases out of ten.
The Writer and the Lonfer.
The day hoverer. who remains at the
writing room tables for hours at time
franctically writing. with his head bent low
writing with the fierceness of the chief
correspondent of n great paper, who is re-
porting the workings of n national conven-
ton-is another one of these pathetic
types. He does not use the hotel stationery
he brings about a ream of foolscap along
with him when he turns up in the morning.
buttonholing in the lobbies, is addressed
b. no one-hs only desire in life seeming
10 be TO get as many thousand words of
copy. as possible. For years l have WON
koverers have. set down on paper but [
venture to believe that 1t Is of a suppl-
catory sort, and that few pages of it are
ever as much as glanced over.
There is a sort of hoverer who does
not hover at ALL who simply appears some
where in the neighborhood of 10 o'clock in
the morning: takes a seat in an obscure
hours, twiddling a heavy stick. and taking
in the passing panorama Of men. Him I
have figured out 10 be one of the men
running boarding house somewhere or
other. and who is cxled for the day by the
wife in order that he may be kept out of
the sight of the boarders.
The hovcrer, who, twenty times during
the day and night. portsly approaches the
Dc SIX. solemnly pulls his glasses from the
faded cases, adjusts them to his nose with a
flourish. hauls the register around and pro-
ceeds to examine the names of the new
arrivals with critical eye. also belongs TO
the sad lot. Never have I seen one of
knew: I'd know. you see. because he would
send up his card, or. upon meeting any of
the new arrivals in the lobby. make him
self known. and permit himself to be shaken
t,,, tI,a how