The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-27
RAFTING AFTER-DINNER sPnGcH.
The Truth About HoteIkeepers-Their
Importance and Their Virtues.
From the Hartford Time

From the Hartford Times.
Simeon Ford, the hotel man, made some
fun at the meeting of the Manhattan
bankers, which the financiers enjoyed
quite as much as the dinner. He said;
Il am grateful to the postmaster for re-
ferring to the fact that l am a hotel
keeper. That gives me a standing at
once. I was afraid that you might mis-
take me for a cabinet officer, or a clergy
man, or even a financier (Which God
knows am noO.
: "A year ago, you may remember Chose
of you who were sufficiently in possession
of your faculties), sat up here among
/ the elect, with j. Pierpont Morgan on the
one side and the Rev. DR.. Greer on the
other, suspended like Mahomets coffin
twixt heaven and earth. During dinner
l was up against his deaf ear. DR.. Greer
| tried to work me for a contribution to
his mission school, but he found he was
up against my deaf ear. So this year
asked 10 be seated among the riffran CT
bank presidents.
1T is a mistake for man to get out
of his class. The fact is that when any
thing really good is wanted, either gas
Economical or intellectual, the hotel man
must come to the rescue. AS a class, no"
tel keepers are as modest and shrinking
as a suit of fiannels. Like full many
flower we are born to blush unseen. NO
one ever saw a hotel keeper blush You
seldom hear from us except when yol
want a contribution. or something easy TO
serve in an anti-vice crusade.
But all the same we represent busi'
ness of great magnitude, and one upon
which the city's reputation greatly de-
Ponds. II is at the hotel that the visiS
gets his first Impressions of the city.
New York's motto is Excelsior, but
visitors won't stand for any of IL in Their
mattresses. Give the stranger a poor
bed, or a chicken which has sowed its
wild oats, or hen which has fallen into
the sere and yellow leaf, and he will go
away and say New York is jay town
But we don't do that We take such
good care OF him that he starts for WaH
street rejoicing like "a lamb TO the slaugh-
ter. Our greatest joy is to go about do
ing good. When we do anybody we do
'em good.
II know of no class of men who work
harder and get worked oftener than us
orators. Some few orators really enjoy
speaking, but they are men without any
sense of shame AS for me, 1 am free TO
say that / would rather he the humhlest
bank president among you, and sit down
ana relish my Victuals than be up here In
| the nerce Ught Wnlch DeatS npoH -
head table. and get my dinner for notn-
ing and have lovely ladies nearly tumble
QUE of the boxes as they hang upon my
! lightest word. Let a man keep at after
dinner speaking long enough and he wiz
! get softening of the brain and either lahu
| in the cabinet or some big public once
! or in lunatic ayslum. Mr. Depew lane
| ed in the United States Senate, but II
was a toss-up where>he should be sent
| Horace Porter is minister to France, JUG
| Choate is tossing verbal nosegays at
| Queen Victoria, several gentlemen pres
ent this evening have get lucrative JOBS
| under the government; but cheer up-me
and st. Clair McKelway are stu a.
| large.
81 noticed about 10000 Of you bankers
| on the 9th of November rubbering up
town in the wet-goods parade. Several
OF you had taken so many precautions
against catching cold that I don't De
lieve you fully realized the difference
between the full dinner pail ana thS
empty coal scuttlc l saw one oromi-
nent barker make several Intellectual 81
forts to get through the Dewey arch anu
finally gave II up and walked around He
said II was an outrage to obstruet the
highway with an edifce under which ="
ordinary load could not pass"