The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-19
QUEER THINGS IN TRUNKS.

satlrical proprietor of the Grand Union
Hotel. boast Of the finest assortment in
New York of waif trunks and Yalises
left by persons who forgot to pay their
bard bills. There are any number no.
tel managers in New York City now, says
the World, who can beat him out of sight
The reason for this is that Mr. Ford
sold his varied collection of 401tr unks
and dress suit cases at auction. a few
days ago, before he sailed for Europe
He refused to entertain suggestion that
he send them to the Metropolitan Muse
UNI He went there with his family oc-
casionally, he explained, and he did not
care to see them again.
When baggage guests do not take away
is sold, and the ledger balanced, it costs
the Grand Union about 81, 600 aryear to
entertain persons who do not pay. At
some other hotels in the city where guests
stay longer and run up bigger bills be-
fore departing, the losses from this
source run from 5000 to 5000 a year. No
hotel is immune from it. from the Wal
dorf-Astoria TO the fifty-cent-a-night
place ON the Bowery. The only difference
is in the time the trunks are kept with
out being sold
The law says that they must not be
sold within three months, and must be
advertised before they are sold. Crook
games have been put up on hotel keep
ers who have little room for storing
trunks, and who have sold them within
the time limit. The Hotel Keepers Asso-
citation will defend all such cases If the
matter is brought to its attention, but
as a general thing the hotel man pays
in the trunk at all. and tells his steward
to be more careful next time for 1t
must not be supposed that Simeon Ford,
or any other hotel manager, ever sees
these waif trunks. The entire matter is
settled between the hotel steward and the
cashier, and the proprietor looks only at
the balance sheet.
1t is a popular belief that hotel en-
ployees do not get a look at the wait
trunks before they go to the auctioneer.
This may be true and it may be not.
Persons who manage to bet the worst
end of the auction sales say that it is
not true. Hotel employees are regular
attendants at these auctions, no matter
an auctioneer, and their good luck is
more than mere coincidence would ex-
plain. There is certainly nothing to pre-
vent their giving the wallis a good over
hauling if they want to.
OF strange things found in unclaimed
trunks there is no end. Doubtless many
a tragedy lies behind them. AT the sale
from Simeon Fords interesting collection,
at a Broadway auctioneer's, a Spectator
most of these sales are attended by men
who go to similar sales by railroad and
express companies In hope of turning
over a dollar by collecting something
valuable for nothing-a coachman gave
81 for an English leather trunk that was
shabby and looked as though it contained
old clothes. He wanted the trunk for
a special purpose more than he did the
contents. He found himself the possessor
of shells that came from shores and deep
seas in all parts of the globe, and which
it must have taken years to collect. He
Melted $3.50 on their sale to a collector.
after paying the man who arranged the
deal $50 commission. Proprietor Jaimes,
of the Sturtevant House. tells of a bar
keeper in his employ who took a fancy
to a trunk let by queer little old man
who lived literally and suddenly disap-
peared one night owing IS. When the
trunk was sold the barkeeper, for an
expenditure of 81, found himself in pos
session of $500 worth OF watch springs
of the finest make.
Nothing could be funnier than the scene
at an auction room during a sale of waif
trunks. Unmarried men get baby clothes;
women Gor they attend these sales) get
mems clothes; other trunks contain moth
ing but books or papers, and there is
always a bunch of very much disappoint-
ed buyers wanting what some other buy
er has got. But the result proves that
il is no more safe to judge a trunk from
appearances than it is a man; and the
rich clothing. yes, even jewels and sill
verware. found in others. proves that
the ma nor woman who desired them
need never nave run away for lack of
money to pay a hotel bill. What became
of them? Who knows.
There was one trunk al the Grand In
ion that Mr.. Ford kept a long time The
owner Of it owned only about s.. and
went away one winter morning without
eve making his overcoat Nearly a year
later he turned up in dreadful anxiety
about his trunk. When told that # had
just been sold he almost tainted. II con-
tanned manuscripts that money could not
replace. He had been called 10 Europe
at ten minutes notice He had sent a
cabman to the hotel with money 10 pay
his bill. get his trunk and coat and meet
him at the steamer He had 10 see his
lawyer and could not so back to the
hotel. When the cabman did Tot come he
was almost frantic about his trunk But
he sent letter hack by the pilot asking
the hotel people 10 forward his trunk
10 the Metropole, in London. and inclosed
check to pay his bill But he addressed
the letter Cashier. Grand Central Ho-
tel New York" and the man who looks
after INSTRUCTED letters in the postofice
never got hold OF that one.
Firefiies are used as Jewels by the wom-
Ell OF Mexico. They tie them in little
! gauze bags and put them in their hair or
on their clothing. They also keep them IN
little wire cages and feed them or scraps
OF sugar cane.
Charged with vagshondage. youth who
was arrested by the Paris police the other
day declared that he gained a living as
a professional applauder OF public meet
ings at about IS cents night.
There has recently arrived in Germany
the hide OF an elephant that was Is feet
3 inches high. this being over three feet
| above the largest elephant ever known
hitherto.