Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-05-15
THE HOTEL MANAGER.
He Signs for the Good Old Times-His
Bill of Complaints.

20 to have been an innkeeDer in
those days." Chicago hotelman
stood back of the railing at Powers
last week and mourned because he had
not lived 200 years ago. He had drop
ped into the playhouse Just in time
to see the act in which the boniface
was host to crowd OF cavaliers, ana
the sight made him feel bad.
Look at that" he exclaimed, as u
fellow in boots and spurs tossed his
purse to the innkeeper. why, they
didn't even have to make out bills
then. When man got ready to leave,
he threw a bag of gold at the host and
let him count out what was due. No
clerks, no cashiers, no bellboys. Moth
ing but money!"
Now, to many people the life of a
hotel proprietor is pretty nearly ideai.
He has a fine suite of rooms, he lives
on the best the chef knows how to pre-
pare. he has small army of servants
at his call, the livery company which
furnishes his guests with carriages of
fers him the finest in the stable with
sire? Yet hotelmen complain of their
lot. Not as most people complain gen.
orally, but with bill of particulars.
Look at me-" said the hotelman in
all injured tone Last spring | took
charge of the hotel because the maa
who had purchased the lease thought !
could make it go. 1t had gone before
that-gone to the devil-but he want
ed it to be first-class hostelry You
have no idea what | have had to con
tend with. In the first place had tc
get rid of certain class of patronage
That isn't as easy as you may think
but it was cinch compared to othe,
things | had to accomplish.
We'll, you've succeeded" suggested
a friend
mot by a jugful. Why, look at last
week First there was a man hurt in
the Office building which bears the
same name as the hotel. Some of the
newspapers had it happening in the
hotel. Then guest was sick, and be
cause he was vaccinated the story
spread that he had smallpox. Next
day fellow is taken from the Turkish
baths next door with his skull frac-
tured and dies at the hospital Again
the hotel is mentioned, and lots of PEG
pie think the affair happened in the
hotel
That's one week only. The fact
that the hotel was mentioned in the
newspapers was no fault of mine, but
it hurt us just the same. ', e take ev.
cry precaution yet sometimes a man
will slip in here and commit suicide.
II man who registers looks wild he is
watched-if he is very bad the clerk
tells him we have no rooms. But oc-
casionally they get past u.s. The next
day the people read that John Smith
shot himself while in his room at our
hotel. Men who intended to come to
our house will go to another when they
read that in the paper coming in on
the train. If man is from out OF
town, Oshkosh. for instance, the whole
town talks about this hotel, and we get
no business from there for a year. or
until the affair is forgotten.
Then we are troubled with certain
men who celebrate with too much en-.
thusiasm when they reach Chicago.
Some OF them use couple of rooms
for two or three months every wear.
and we don't like to lose their patron.
age, so we have to handle them with
diplomacy. A little poker party in
one of the rooms sometimes costs us
as much as the money that changes
hands 10 times over The drummers
make too much noise: we demonstrate
when other guests complain at the
office, and they may leave us entirely.
Yet we nave to protect the other
guests.
Il read in the papers about the worry
hotel men have over the loss of linens
and silverware and china taken as SOU
venirs, but these troubles are petty
alongside some of the others. A hotel
man must guard his house as a father
does his home, but he's at big disad-
vantage. because his is a public place.
We keep a couple of detectives, be-
sides our watchmen, porters and bell
boys, yet it seems that every week
something must turn up to hurt us.
Hard luck story? Well, / suppose it
is. But every time see one of these
plays it makes me sad. Those fellows
III the olden time certainly had us beat
en- when it came to running a hotel
and living easy. Tribune.