The times., 1899-08-21
A GREAT SMALLPOX swINDLEo
1t Cost Hotel Man Five Thousand
Dollars.

|
(From the New Orleans Times Deinoerat)
| ~ dare say you never heard of the great
/ smallpox swindle," said the hotel mana
| ger. The facts of that remarkable affair
were withheld at the time for the most
urgent reasons of policy, and even now I
prefer TO tell the story without names or
| localities. 1t happened in the fall of 1886,
| when certain hotel in a large Western
| city was crowded with tourists. One day,
| at the height of the season two gentleman
| iy-iooking strangers put up at the house
and were assigned to what we call a 'dou-
/ bic room. About a week later one OF them
! appeared at the Office and requested a pri-
yate interview with the manager. : re-
| greet to inform you, he said after the door
was closed, that my friend is down with a
severe attack of smallpox. The proprietor
nearly fell out of his chair. There was
! known to be smallpox in the city, and the
| bare suggestion that the disease had ap-
! peared in the hotel was enough to empty
/ 1t in a twinkling To let the news get out
meant the loss of thousands upon thou
| sands of dollars. ! meant the ruin of the
| seasons business. He must be quietly re-
moved at once, said the proprietor, trying
to control his agitation. Removed! ex-
claimed the other; taken through the cold
air to lazaretto! Why, man, that would
be murderl I'll not permit it.' The hotel
to say he must stay here?' he gasped. Ger
tainly,' said the stranger.
1T was tickiish situation. The hotel
! keeper dare not enforce his suggestion,
while to let the case remain was Ike stor-
| ing gunpowder in a furnace room. He
| pleaded protested begged, threatened, and
| clustered, but all in vain The man was
| as firm as a rock. If you attempt to eject
my sick friend he declared, I'll publish
| Finally it occurred to the distracted pro-
/ prietor to see, first, whether it was really
! a case of smallpox. So he sent for a
physician, swore him to secrecy, and hus-
! tied him up TO the room. The doctor took
one look at the disfgured face On the pill
/ low and reported that the malady was
/ there in malignant type. He adv sed the
mans immediate removal at any cost. If
/ you keep him concealed, he said, the dis
case may spread and ii would ruin you for
/ life You owe something to your guests,
Again the proprietor interviewed the
/ friend, and again the latter refused to
I bulge from his position. Where can L
take him?' he demanded You know very
/ well / can't get comfortable quarters for
| such d purpose, and won't have him
! butchered in a pesthouse to please any
/ landlord on earth.i The hotel man felt his
/ hair stand on end, but concluded to let
things stand as they were until morning.
! Next day he sent for the sick mans
| friend and asked him whether he had any
suggestions to make. Yes, he replied: 4
| thought up a plan over night which you
| may adopt or not as you like. AS l said
/ before he continued. 1t is useless TO try
| to rent quarters for such a case. We
might however, buy small cottage and
| take him there. l have figured the thing
up and the total expense would be about
! 81, 600 If you are willing TO hand over
that amount l will take him away and as
sumo all further responsibility | make
1 the offer entirely out of sympathy for your
! guests The landlord looked him in the
/ eye. T. too have thought the situation
! over he said, and I'm convinced its a con-
| fidence game, pure and simple. I'm con-
! vinced there's nothing the matter with
your dear friend upstairs, but / am also
i convinced that the slightest breath of the
affair would greatly damage the reputation
of the house. As business proposition
consider it worth $1,000 to get rid of you.'
/ The other man smiled ironically. Call a
/ cab and get out your money he said and
inside of an hour the incubus had been
/ spirited through side door swathed in
blankets and driven away. AS the land
! lord shrewdly surmised, the whole thing
! was a confidence game, and he learned the
particulars later on through sport he hal 4
once befriended. There was nothing the
matter with the rascal upstairs, except
that his face had been pricked little with
a quill dropped in croton OIL something
that makes a horrible looking pustule,
which disappears in few days and leaves
no mark. / always thought the hotel man
| showed good sense in taking the course he
did. He was caught in trap and took the
/ cheapest way out. The bare rumor of even
a suspected case would probably have in
I volved a loss OF $4,000 or $4,000. 1t was
far better TO pay the $4,000 and charge it
/ to education"