The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-21
HOTEL LOBBY GLEANINGS
MAN O'RELL. WHO MAKES FUN OF
THIS CITY, OPEN TO RIDICULE.
Fearful Fact He Ate His Peas with a
Knife ut Kansas City-The
Circus Business.

AT the Denison Hotel last night one OF
group of men mentioned an article in last
Sundays Journal quoting from the Paris
Figaro an interview with Max O'Rell,
French humorist, wherein he narrated un-
truthfully an experience in the benson
Hotel with a Journal reporter. Now" con-
tinued this man, "O'Rell seems to have 1t in
for indianapolis. On another occasion, some
years ago, l read where he spoke OF IN
dianapolis as being a city of 'chewers. He
made the charge that the women chewed
gum and the men tobacco. He declared that
the management of the Denison House was
at loss to know what to do. He said they
had removed the cuspidors from the lobby
and replaced them with tubs. a favorite
theme of his at one time was American
table manners. 1 once had the honor of
sitting at the same table with him in the
Coates House at Kansas City. The frst
thing he did was to chuck his napkin down
his neck. He smacked his lips and tried TO
eat peas with his knife and of course most
of them dropped off and one of them actu-
ally bounced into my soup. When ii came
to dessert he tried to eat an orange with
a spoon and sent a fine stream of juice
right into my eye. In fact, he did most
everything that smacked of the common
herd, except to remove his false teeth, and
L suppose he would have done that if ne
would have happened to get tomato SEED
or a piece of an oyster shell under the
"A good many of Max O,Relrs comments
on American life and manners have Sug-
gestion of Charles Dickens. Spitters and
tobacco chewerS were favorite themes OF
the last-named author. One OF the best OF
these stories was contained in a private
lnffn To L.
not generally known. He spoke OF being In
the United States Senate. When L arrived,
said he, there was one of that assemblage
who was in the act of making speech. AS
he stood there he scared to the very pima
cles of eloquence and oratory. All at once
he ceased his speech for a moment, sighted
a spittoon some twenty feet ahead OF him,
and hit the center of il without a splatter.
Not one voice arose to cheer his act, for out
of ninety-siX members of that august oody
all of them could do thee same thing
THE trouble with all these foreigners,
continued the narrator, who visit America
and return home and write of the manners
and customs is that they are liable TO pick
out the picturesque exceptions rather than
the rule. / can best illustrate this point
by an experience of my own while travel
ing on the continent. l was going from
Paris to Brussels, and. of course, over there
it S an object to carry all the hand-Daggage
possible, as the excess charges are great L
had a grip that was about as big as year
ling calf and it was about as full as IL
would hold. On leaving my hotel at Paris
L got everything into the grip could, but
was compelled to leave out whisk broom.
This l put in an inside overcOat pocket. As
| was about to leave the train at Brussels
| pulled the whisk broom out, brushed my
self off and returned it to my pocket again.
There were couple of Frenchmen in the
same compartment with me, and they both
observed this operation with detailed
scrutiny l heard one of them remark TO
the other that he wondered if all Amer
leans carried little brooms in their pockets
when they Travelled. | suppose If that
Frenchman wrote a book on American
manners and customs he would conspicu-
ously disclose this fact.