The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-24

l of 'em dislike having the wind taken out ftheir sails in this fashion | "Then there is the tribe of men who | have prejudices against certain num-
 bers for individual reasons, There IS one man who always comes to this houe --hes postmaster of a big western city now-who has a violent detestatton tor the number IT, Last time he was here the only room that suited his require ments-front, second floor, with bath
 was 1T. He came near falling down
 when We handed him the key, and he i took another roo mthta didn't at all sult his requirements When he went away the cashier cooked up little job on hiln and made his bill an even $l7-the Dill really amounted to SIPS.
 When the postmaster saw the bill he turned white and gave clutch at ms forehead, he spent half an hour with the cashier trying to figure the bill eith- CT oyer or under SIT, but the thing couldn't be done, and so he missed his train by going into the dining room ana eating another dinner, which made his
 bill $1S50 But he went away with
 contented smile
 Back in the sos we had a suicide in
 this house. It happened in one of the
 best rooms. The room was completely refurnished, but people who stop at ho-
 tels read the newspapers despatches
 about these affairs, and, they had us
 pat about that room until we abandon
 ed the number But there still remain
 about a dozen old-time guests of the
 house who remember that suicide and
 you couldn't drive one of 'em into that
 room with a pack of mastiffs.
 Many of the elderly ladies who come
 here make it practice to turn down
 the bed covering when they are shown a room They want to make sure that the bed linen is bleached, I suppose, If
 it doesn't measure up to their idea of whiteness the man behind the desk is
 the boy who hears from them, It all ways makes the bellboy very tired to see the fussy old persons turning over the bed coverings. We were compelled to fire on complaint, one bellhoy who when anl old lady did this, said to Ter, when an old lady did this, said to her, as tarpaulins, lady?'
 "On the subject of beds. here's anoth~ CT one touchin' on an appertainin' thereto. About eight years ago the pro- prietor of this house fitted up about about half of the rooms in the hotel with fine folding beds at an average cost of about S125 per bed, He was strong advocate of the folding bed dea, and he wanted to be up to date.
 Now, after the beds were nicely in- stalled, there began an epidemic of foldng-bed accidents throughout the country, and the newspape.s made a great deal of these accidents That vir- tually sealed the doom of the hotC' fold ing bed. about five years ago Oh' pro prietor had to have 'em cared down to the auction room, and he was out about S?0,000 on his little folding-bed transac- ton.
 "The women guests who are not ont- l and-out kickists have other little pecI- liartes that keep the man behind the desk busy being sad With Himself on account of the other kicks tnnt these peculiarities produce. Tor examnle l we've got an i"on-clad rule in this house against dogs cf all degreeg, high or low, coerse or refined. But the women guests smuggle the dogs in on us all 1 the same.
 "Once the dogs are got in they can't be got out by any means short of order 1 ing the women guests out, and this is [ not often practicable or possible The i mutts are all right in the rooms while i their mistresses are with them but ! when they are deserted for shopping tours or the like they set up their plain 1 tive wailing and bowling. Then the i man behind the desk has to stand for 1 hot moans from guests located in rooms within half a block of the room con- taining the querulous canine.
 "Then there's the piano. From the day it is installed in her room she drums on it inc 7ssantly, using it in ad- | dition as an aid to her vocal lessons Then the man behind the desk has to