Evening star., 1902-03-22

con. and rything connected Herewith went
on in great style. But when the guests had
departed and the chef and his assistants
started In to clear away the debris of the
luncheon, they were amazed to find that
about nine-tenths of the borrowed silver
ware had totally disappeared from the
table. The guests had simply gathered IL
all in as souvenirs of the occasion If they
had only stopped at the spoons alone, the
chef wouldn't have been put in such hole,
although that calamity would have been
enough for him and sufficiently bad show
ing for the guests at the luncheon. But
they didn't stop at the spoons. They COB
bled up the knives and forks, and cream
pitchers, and butter dishes, and bread and
sandwich trays. and nut crackers. and cake
salvers-every old thing the table I'm
the way of silverware-just as souvenirs.
you know, Of the launching Of the empe-
rors yacht. The table was looted every bit
as scientifically as If the Job had been done
by professional second-story workers. 1t
was simply bald. braZen, perfectly inexcus-
able stealing on the part Of men and wo-
men of the very highest social standing.
and in lifting that silverware on any pre-
text they showed themselves to be as UNI
considerable thieves as the masked fellows
VINO work o nights with jimmies and dark
lanterns
The Chef Was Ruined.
Their wholesale theft OF this borrowed
slverware simply put the chef out OF
business. 1t ruined him. He Is an hon.
orable man, and he felt that he had to
make good to the friends who had let him
have the use OF their silverware for the
luncheon. He had some money and prop
erty. He sold the property. and then made
an assignment for the benefit of his cred
itors-his only creditors in the world being
those same friends who had let him have
their valuable Silverware. He settled with
every last one Of them, dollar for dollar for
the value of their loaned silverware, al
though none of them showed any inclina-
ton to push him. and when he got through
making good for the thieving propenSities
of some two thousand highly placed Amer
lean men and women he didn't have dime
to bless himself with. And now in middle
life, after more than thirty years of hard
work and saving, he's got to begin life all
over again. If this isn't cruel and an
outrageous case, then the writer hereof
never heard of one.
Ask any proprietor OF a fine hotel
in New York city what he thinks of the
relative honesty of travelling Americans and
he will laugh In your face and tell you with
out an instantS hesitation that there is
such thing honesty among travelling
Americans. And he will go farther than
that and tell you that the natural-born
thieves among his guests are the women.
IT isn't very exalted showing for the we'll
to-do people who Sojourn for various pc
riods at the greatest hotel in New York
1t not in the whole world, that this same
hotel is compelled to count on thefts on the
part of its guests every year amounting to
no less a sum than $4,000. The very rich
est rooms in these hotels are the ones that
are most frequently looted. and the hotel
detectives say that the guests who can
best afford to buy are the worst thieves
around hotels.
Take Anything Movable.
They do not confine themselves to grab
bing off the silverware. but they loot the
bric-a-brac from the rich rooms. They not
only steal soap and towels labeled with the
Of fha aI, h,,t
been known to cut souvenir strips of silk
from the walls thus rendering necessary
repairs involving hundreds of dollars. They
steal fur rugs and rugs that not fur.
They walk off with expensive bed coveretS
1t is perfectly reasonable to suppose that
they would steal the chandeliers could they
but stuff them away in their trunks. The
thing has grown to be a real evil. The very
swaggereSt hotels and restaurants in New
York are compelled to use less elaborate
table services than they would otherwise
use for fear of the well-clad, comfortably
fixed and supposititiously respectable men
and women with inborn thevish inclina-
tionS. Some time ago the proprietor of one
of the great hotels tried the scheme OF
presenting to each Of his female guests an
exceedingly neat and tasty casting of his
beautiful hostelry In metal. Each of these
castings cost about 81. 50. but the idea of the
hotel man was that so clever a souvenir. be-
ing voluntarily given to the women guests
would assuredly prevent them from steal
ing Otner articles OF value around the MOTEL
and thus be a means of saving money for
him in the long run. But the scheme didn't
work at all. The pilfering went right on as
before This hotel man is a very sore in
dividual over the losses he has been COM
PEELED to pocket for years past due to the
furtive pilferings Of the guest thieves. and
short time ago he came out boldly in an
announcement that any guest Of his house
caught in the act OF stealing much as a
partly used cake Of soap would be instantly
handed over to the police. whether the thief
happened to be the occupant Of one of the
small top-hoor rooms the holder Of a
$2OO-a-day suite. c. LC