The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-09-22
THE GUEsTlEss HOTEL.

was at Lne HOnce dc Leon OIL
rectly after it opened, when it had
only sixteen guests and 900 SER
wants" said a Chicago drummer,
"but that wasn't anything to an ex-
perience I had once at a summer re-
sort up in the Northwest. had
wandered into the region looking for
fellow who had beaten our firm out
of big account, and somebody told
me about this hotel. A branch road
connected it with the main line, thirty
miles away, but early in the season
the landlord and the railroad presi-
dent had had row and they stopped
the train service. That killed busi-
ness as dead as Caesar, for the place
! Was buried in the heart of the wilder
ness but, strange to say, the land
lord had kept it open, and as was
nearby and needed a rest I hired
wagon and went over. 1t was big,
handsome structure of the regulation
summer resort pattern, all gables, and
porticoes and stained shingles, and as
I walked up the fine, shady driveway
I could see that everything was in
applepie order. When entered the
Office boy IN buttons seized my grip
and the clerk got up from behind the
counter rubbing his eyes and looking
a bit dazed. The register was per-
fectly blank, and while there was
full office force on duty there was not
a guest in sight. Business is little
light, eh?' asked, after writing my
name. The clerk grinned. You're
the first soul I've seen in six weeks,
he replied.
~ thought he was joking" con-
tinued the drummer, but it was the
Gospel truth. l was the only guest
in the house, yet as far as I could see
it was being run exactly as if all its
100 apartments were full of people.
1t gave me strange sensation, and,
upon my word, I could actually feel
the emptiness as I walked down the
big, wide corridor to my room. sup
posed, of course, that I would find
all this really bluff and everything
pared down to the lowest possible
notch, but it wasn't the case. There
was full corps of help from kitchen
to check room, and the chambermaids
used to turn to of mornings and make
up few dozen unoccupied beds just
to get exercise. The table was tip
top, although most of the stuff was
evidently canned but to walk into
that huge dining room with row of
walters standing motionless at each
side, and to eat in solitary state, was
a trial to the nerves. The proprietor
kept almost entirely to his private
Office. He was a very quiet, bald
headed man, and naturally | enter
tanned doubts as to his sanity. At
the thee e,lses ,lsessrtesfed tf me- but f afthhe the ft' fa
-tia3s of lone grandeur it began to give
me the horrors and I packed up and
left. used to often think about it
afterward and wonder what the deuce
could have possessed the bald-headed
boniface to throw away good money
in that kind of fashion, but it was
more than two years before 1 found
out. One day I was sauntering along
Clark street in Chicago, when I met
my friend and landlord coming out
of a store. He remembered me,
shook hands cordially and finally ac-
cepted an invitation to lunch. L ex-
pect you thought I was crazy out
there in the spruce woods, he said,
over the black coffee, but there was
method in my madness. That infer
nal railroad had a contract with me to
haul certain quantity of fresh vege-
tables every day. They had forgot
ten all about it, but when they threw
me down on the train service I saw
that my cue was to keep open at full
blast and then sock it to them for
damages at the end of the season.
My lawyer claimed that the lack of
fresh vegetables was what kept away
guests. Of course the jury under
stood it was just a peg to hang a
damage suit on, but any stick is good
enough to beat dog and they gave
me a whooping good verdict. 1 soak
ed them for enough to pull me So, 900
ahead of the game. +"