Waterbury Democrat., 1901-11-14
WORKED EVEN BY KIDS.
Hotel Man Simon Ford Explains What
 a Very Easy Mark He Is,

e 'I don't know but what the old timer has been the most fatal proposl- ton to me. Sometimes a man has been coming to the house for years, and has always been on the straight. He strikes hard luck, asks for time. We let him run along for the sake or his record. His bill climbs high, he doesn't pull out of tie hole and .he lands us for good round sum.
 ''Bnt it isn't only the old timer who beats us. Why, even the children can play with us hotel men. Only little while ago three small boys came here. That was the most ingenious beat ever saw
 MT Ford's serious face relaxed into a reminiscent smile.
 .'They were very small shavers," he went on, ''and they stayed three or four days before We asked them for money. When we did they confessed that they didn't have any, that they had run away from home and had spent every cent they brought with them. We thought it was good deal of a joke. They were such nice, bright little chaps. They gave Us their home address and we telegraph ed to their parents. Got a telegram m right back. Parents were overjoyed to get track of their erring children. Would we kindly hold the boys. The parents would be down here after them
 We held the boys and they kept right on eating everything within sight. After few days had gone by we telegraphed to the agonized pa rents again. Prompt answer. Fam fly bereavements had prevented their coming at once, but they would be on by the end of the week. We fed the young cormorants all that week. No parents. At last we bought railroad tickets and sent the kids home to save ourselves from bankruptcy. They had had the t'me of their lives. l suppose the parents wanted to give the children an outing. They did it. and it didn't cost them anything be- yond the price of tickets to New York
 Hotel men get caught on bad cheeks more often than in any other way. It's the worst feature of the business. Men are travelling and don't want to carry large sums of cash. They have their funds in cheeks. They want the hotels to be their bankers. Of course. we like to be obliging. but it is hard to discrim- mate between tho honest and the dis- honest. and about once in so often we are left with a worthless check
 "Do many women jump their bills" asked the reporter.
 "Oh. I don't know: oca sicnallv one does, but the men are the chief offend CTS. The women come in strong on tho petty stealing that goes on eter- nally in every hotel. Still. I don't know that the women arc any worse at that than the men. It was man that played the limit here carried off everything portable he could get his hands on and finally took a pair If blankets. cut holes through the mid- dle of them stuck his head through the holes put on his long overcoat ana hnttoned it up and started out of the hotel. The corners of the blanket hung down helow the overcoat and caught the clerks eye. We saved the blankets.
 "It was a man, too. who tried to steal our marble parlor clock. The clock weighs over one hundred pounds. The man walked from the office LID to the parlor and deliberately took the clock from the mantle. Thrre were guests in the room, but they supposed