The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-09

the study in Poe's Raven with the bust ot Pallas and the rest of the props,
 ana then sat in a deep chair, with a
 turned-low lamp on the table beside him, and rected The Raven It gives 'em the creeps and kills 'em read every time l do it, he told me,
 Of course I told him that l should think 1t would, and famed him, which
 caused him to depart with a very low opinion of my intelligence.
 But I'm trying to get around to some
 or the queer applicants for summer ho-
 tel terms who drift in here. For a
 minute or two the other afternoon it
 looked to me as if I stood a good chance
 to get clawed up by woman who
 wanted herself and young son to be
 booked for the house in the mountains
 during the months of July and August.
 l had already got her name down when
 she handed me this question::
 Is the hotel piano good one?'
 Best made, madame said I.
 Grand or upright?'
 Grand.
 "Is it used very much by the guests
 Not so much during the day. I re- piled. The young women guests per- form on it a good deal during the even- ings.'
 Well, I am glad of that she said with a satisfied tone. My boy Alowyn Ines prodigy, and only ten-cannot give up his piano-forte practice of course, even while we're away. I re- quire him to practice about five hours day, and he can get through it all dur ing the day at the hotel
 Well, could just see some four hum dred guests, stopping at the Catskill Mountain Hotel for rest and recreation, in state of riotous frenzy over the five hours daily practice of little Alowyn, the piano forte prodigy, and, of course, I had to freeze right then and there. I told Alowyn's maw that under no cir cumstances were children permitted even to touch the piano at the hotel
 But she exclaimed, bridling right off, he's a virtuoso'
 '' That may well be. madam" said I, but he's ten years old you say, and that's the rule of the house.
 Ut was at this stage of it that I cal culated that I was due to lose some hair, but she didn't quite carry it that far But I'm not going to forget very soon the way she let out on me.
 Plenty of the stipulations that pro- spective guests at summer hotels at tempt to make in advance, with all se- riousness and solemnity are so gro- tesque as to be hardly believable. A | few days ago one of the most typical | spinsters that I ever saw out of the | pages of a funny paper-she had every ancient maiden lady physical charac- -eristic except the corkscrew curls- came at me with sumner.
 "She arranged for good accommoda- ions at the hotel on the Sound, and it | vas all fixed down to the train that she vas to take for the resort on the morn ng of June 15, when she, too had one If those after thoughts with which summer hotel booking agents are pret- y familiar.
 "Oh,' said she coyly coming back af- CT she had started to make her depar- ure, does the hotel keep rain barrel?'
 q was so puzzled to understand her meaning that to gain time I asked her o repeat the question.
 CA rain barrel said she The salt ir is so bad upon ones complexion, ,ou know, and the only thing that pre- erves mine at the seaside is the plen- iful use of rain water
 Nope, I didn't ask her whether she leant for drinking or bathing purposes, ut I was compelled to tell her that I cared the hotel was few shy in the natter of rain barrels. That settled it 'ith her, Any alleged first-class seaside hotel = hat charged first-class rates and yet :, ,as so primitive in it's appointments, he said, as not to keep a rain barrel going for the preservation of it's wo len patrons complexions, &c., Sc. She I ancelled the booking and passed out -ith her head held very high.
 "A stout, f1orid woman in widows I eeds also had a mighty important af- I arthought after she had engaged r oorns at the Sound hotel for the sea f 1n. and I was powerful glad she did f ave it. [ Now. they're not mean, peevish, | alous old cranks, are they. these ho- c I people?' she said, after the comple- on of the negotiations as to terms and l. on. s " The proprietor madam said I, is s le most rotund and best-natured man [ 1rth of the Tropic of Capricorn, and r ,th the day and the night clerk are Il S brothers and just like him " Well deed, I am glad of that said le. Then they won't mind my little ats' !, |" 'Pets?' I put in, with the rule yainst them in mind. W " Yes said she, I never go any U here without them. My Maltese cat, 5 an Ali, and my toy spaniel Cutey, and y paroquet, Chiquita, and II "Well, I don't know the rest of the l< t, for when she saw me sadly shaking y head she came to sudden halt. V Id when I told her that all pets of 5 natever kind or degree had to be kept Il
 the cellar in charge of the hotel tcher she f1ounced out impetuously. O. Not withstanding all of my pains, I E casionally put my foot into it in a i% stressful manner. A week or so ago " handsome buXom, jolly looking wo- an came along and engaged good rim tc at a mountain hOusa for