The Washington times., 1902-03-17
VICTIMS OF THE
SOUVENIR FIEND
Hotel Proprietors Lose Hun
dredS of Dollars a Year.
SYSTEMATIC ROBBERY
Tourists, College Boys and Girls, and
Chance Travellers Scoop Up Towels,
Soap, Menu Cards, and SiIverware-
Even Door Keys Are Bagged.

One of the principal things that hotels
have to guard against is the theft of por-
tions of its dining-room service, towels.
and other small furnishings, by tourists
and travellers of all sorts. Especially are
the number of these petty thefts great if
a hotel has its forks or spoons engraved
with an attractive monogram. or its
towels worked with a pretty design or
the name of the hotel.
Particularly Fond of Spoons.
The majority of the thefts of spoons.
forks, towels, and similar objects are
committed by women and young girls.
College girls are particularly fond Of
spoons. College boys, too, delight in
carrying off the keys of their room doors.
especially if large tag bearing the name
of the hotel is attached to the key.
This practice is not confined to any par
ticular class of hotels, but is more preva-
lent in the higher-priced hostelries, where
in most cases the table silver and small
room furnishings are of such an attrac-
tive sort as to make really magnificent
souvenirs. Even the menus at many places
are carried off by the souvenir fiends. -
usually before they can be used or even
seen by the majority of the persons who
come to the tables.
Handsome Menus Taken.
The Portland Hotel. in Portland, Ore,
provides exceptionally handsome menus.
The walters are perfectly willing. Of
hot ha hall
as large number are printed for that
purpose. But so attracted are the guests
by the beauty of the cards that they
clutch all on the table and hide them
even before the waiter has chance to
hand them around. This. of course, keeps
the walters running back and forth to the
storeroom to obtain menus for every new
person who is seated at his table.
+ There is no hotel on thc American con-
tinent so noted for its table silverware
as the Chateau Frontenac. in Quebec.
Canada. The knives, forks. and spoons
are Of an unusually fine quality. and have
a beautiful and artistic monogram en-
gEayed upon the handle. In less than a
year after the hotel was opened an en-
tire new set of silverware had to be pur-
chased so great had been the thefts of
the articles by the guests. In order to
prevent the table service from being car
ried off the walters now carry the knives.
forks, and spoons in their pockets. and
keep a strict watch upon every one they
place on the table.
"The Old Man of the Mountain"
The Profile House. in the White Noun
tot bae nj ~ rba
Old Man of the Mountain cut in each Of
its glasses: Difficult as it may seem to re-
move a glass from the dining room with
out having it observed by some one, the
glasses are constantly being stolen.
In the Yellowstone National Park all
the hotels are provided with towels hav-
ing yellowstone Park worked in them
raids made by tourists upon the towel
supplies that the women who care for
the rooms are required to keep a list of
every towel that is placed in / room. and
if it is missing when the guest leaves his
baggage is intercepted and the towel
searched for. Several hundred towels
were stolen before this scheme was put
into practice.
Some caravansarles undertake to pro-
name of the hotel moulded in it, In al
most every place where this is done the
soap is missing as soon as the guest en-
tiers the room.
Remarkable Fancy for Door Keys.
College boys have a remarkable fancy
for door keys with large tags attached.
The larger the tag the more they prize
the key. Boys have been known to gath
er up as many as three and four dozen
keys from as many hotels.
One Of the most peculiar thefts of this
sort ever perpetrated in hotel was com
mittcd by college boy In the Halifax
Hotel, in Halifax, n. S. The majority
CT the beds in that hostelry are of iron.
painted white and trimmed with brass
At the foot is an artistic brass disk about
twelve inches in diameter. comprising a
series Of scrolls and figures. When the
college boy entered his room and spied
the disk, he made up his mind that ii
was just the thing he wanted at home to
adorn the steering wheel of his little
pleasure yacht. And before he left the
hotel he had worked the brass disk off
the bed and slowed it away in the bottom
OF his trunk.