The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-08
I4z2n15 Pal ,r 49E
eN LAc1EDE

lose patron, even il said patron has been
stopping ct the house for years One un.
pleasant incident will cause him 70 Iorses
Ave years. ard on his next visit to the city
you see his name on the register OF some
other hotel. Frequently we have old,sim ners
/ come in and ask for a room. wanting per
haps the cheapest rate OF the Rouse;
| No. $50 vacant-ths room l had last TIP!
moo s but How n M s It
| do why don't you fellows ever have any,
thing a man wants? Needn't bother. ~
go somewhere else, where man can GET
| something
! TRIALS AND TRIBUI4AT1ONS
OVERWHELM PATIENT CLERK.
Not long ago a man came in wanting a
room He was asked II he wanted "a room room
| that he had one just before leaving Danver.
4 mans baggage fails to arrive or any,
thing else goes wrong with him ne n ,f ad.
tusted. There is often trouble with mail.
Persons with fancy signatures whicn an
put their names on the register. The mall
| clerks have no other means Of knowing
their names. and when letters come the
names on them appear much different from
what appears on the register.
by continual practice hotel clerks come
to be good at , names and
him for several years. They are even more
MAN. In mans nDIS 1o h1
key or mail. whose name the clerk has no
idea Of. He can. without hesitation how
! ever. place his hand on the mans key box
| 1t is just like the attendants having charge
of hats at the dining-room door. It Is the
rarest thing that these men make a mis-
take. though they handle hundreds Of hats
Yes hotels cash endless checks and
drafts In the course Of a year. In large
hotels these will aggregate several hundred
thousand dollars annually. Sometimes the
hotel or clerk is stuck by bogus checks. but
It Is an experience which every man in the
business must purchase. There Is seldom a
loss from checks OF business houses pre-
sented by their representatives. 1t Is drafts
No rule can set a mark at which to draw
the line for check cashing: 1t must be con-
trolled by judgment and circumstances.
Guilty in securing help during the Worlds
Fair. They say that this Is a hard propo.,
sition at all times nn in ST Louis. but it will
be plenty Of work for classes of help which
usually turns to hotels for a livelihood. 1t
Is thought that the influx OF working people
here will not onset conditions produced by
the Fair. In Chicago during 1893 hotel man
ayers were pushed hard to get enough help.
and what they could get was far from good.
WORLDS FAIR PROBLEM
TROUBLES MANAGER LAUGHLIN.
Nicholas Laughlin. manager Of the New
st. James Hotel, who conducted hotel
in Chicago during the Columbian EXPOSE
says In normal times this city presents diff
culties in getting help greater than Chi
cage. or any other city ne knows , OF. MI Nj.
more than a quarter of century. and
knows whereof he speaks.
There are plenty Of applicants for work"
says Mr. Laughlin, but 1t is not an easy
matter to get good help. OF people who VIII
stay. Take, for instance. the bellboys. We
a few months. They are not steady. and
think much more of getting tips than or at
tending to business They have fo fond sss
through the hotels in the large cities:
or more who was taken iii with diphtheria. |
At the same time there was a sick lady in |
the house who employed trained nurse.
unteered to nurse him through his illness. |
provided we put him on the same floor with
her psaent; This was done; and after al
right. The. FIRST day on duty after his re-
covery the boy was sent up to the parlor TO
hotel. The 10 woman la gave awe a SEQ e bin with
which to settle her account. Instead OF
bringing the money to the desk. he slipped
seen OF him.
This is one instance out Of many which
az are m, met with N running hotel You hear
YOU would hardly believe that there were
Of all kinds. In the winter months cold
forces many to work whether they like it
or not. Ffremen and other laborers can be
had then, but with the advent of spring,
with agreeable weather for tramping, these
drift to the road. one by one. and their
places are hard to I'LL.
LACLED HAS TWO VETERAN
ST. LOUIS HOTEL. CLERKS
Thomas Pritchard and John r. Owings of
the Laclede Hotel are the veteran hotel
clerks OF ST. Lo1is. They started in the
hotel business within three months of each
other back IN 1853. They served in tho old
Barnum Hotel, which at that time was the
leading hosiery of the West. They have
known two generations OF politicians, and
remember well the great men who regis
tered at ST. Louis hotels during the Civil
War and the period Immediately follow
ing it.
Mr.. Pritchard has been clerk continuously
at the Laclede Hotel for the last twenty
three years. He is familiar to all regular