Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
No-PAY HOTEL GUESTS.
Make Hostelries Their Clubs and Pill
fer Just a Little.

Ter JUST q L1tCle.
From the New York Tribune.
II wish you would have some new pens
put on the writing table" said a we'll
dressed man to the clerk of an uptown
hotel.
Certainly. Front" and a boy was call
ed and instructed to attend to the matter
Now, wouldn't you think that he was
our star guest?' asked the clerk. "If you
did think SO you would be wrong for he
never spent a cent in this house. He lives
quite a distance from here, but comes in
as regularly as the day, reads his papers
here, writes his letters at our desks and
receives his callers in our reception rooms
He is not alone in his class. There are
hundreds Of men Just like him. They are
respectable. and in no way offensive, but
they enjoy a lot of hotel privileges for
nothing SO long that they finally look upon
them as vested rights"
The clerk told about the various kinds
OF no-pay guests to be seen In all New
York hotels and said that they were a
source OF expense to the hotels, but that
they helped to distribute the hotel station
cry and occasionally some of their friends
left a dollar there.
The man with the long hair over there"
SAID the clerk pointing to a distinguished
looking man who lolled in an easy chair
with an air of proprietorship, lis one of our
regular guests. His specially is newspa-
pers. He has his breakfast at coffee and
cakes place near by, and comes early every
morning He sits about with his eyes half
closed apparently oblvious to all around
MIN, until some one, Lays down a paper and
walks away.
Then he will jump for the paper quick
as a flash, and begin to read. While he is
reading he keeps an eye on the others
In the room, and as papers are cast aside
he adds to his store but when he has fin
lshed reading he leaves the papers in the
reading room, and some Of his fellow regu-
lars carry them away. At the writing
desks our expense for stationery is looked
upon as legitimate, but there is one feature
that goes a little beyond the limit, and is
rather eXasperating. That Is the pilfering.
"Penholders, with pens and without,
pens new and old, and blotters in all stages,
are carried away in great quantities. A
man who is known as the professor in
the hotels in this. nefghborhood probably
because ne was once school teacher, used
to SIT around writing table for long
time every day, pretending to read, but he
really watched for an opportunity to con-
ceal new blotter in the folds of his paper.
When this had been accomplished he fold
ed up the paper and walked out. What he
wanted the paper for I don't know, because
he did all his writing here. One day I call
ed him aside and told him that he must
stay away. He asked no question, but he
understood why. 1 am sure, however, that
his place as blotter pilferer has been
filled"
In the winter these hotel loungers make
the public rooms their club, and in warm
weather they cannot be distinguished from
the real guests in the fresh air parts Of the
hotels.
"Of course" said the clerk, 'if we would
allow every one to make, our house his
headquarters we would soon have no room
for our guests, but we do not. Our 'sitters'
are reputable people, who have no business
10 occupy their time; old men whose day
has passed or men who are waiting for
something to turn up. end am sure that
they are all honest people, even If they do
occasionally take a few pens and other
articles of stationery or the daily papers.
This class belongs to a New York hotel
as much as that other class which con-
sists of men who stand around the ticker all
day figuring how much money could have
been made if certain amount had been
invested on a certain stock. These people
never speculate, because they have no
money, but they haunt the hotel ticker, and
live in hopes of some day to- play the game
again which they understand so much bet
it before"