The Washington times., 1903-12-27

Nj chief clerk OF one or the
L Y largest hotels of Washing
ton. which does an immense
business with travelling men and other
translents. e. the hotel reporter Of The
Times strolled up to the desk and look
ed over the register in his vain search
for a good interview.
day of January. 1904. and you won't
miss anything.
From now until that day arrives you
won't be able to dig talk out of the
together. The crowd lit out from here
last Saturday and Sunday. and until the
holidays are over our registers will be
innocent of prominent names as well as
those not prominent The usual crowd
Of politicians. travelling men, tourists,
and other types of humanity that NIL
our rooms, dining tables, and Hobbies
during the session of Congress. will be
conspicuous by their absence until after
the first of the year"
Good time for you clerks to take
rest" suggested the reporter. who was
short of copy and stood face TO face
with the necessity Of turning in some
thing to the editors desk
well. yes. il is, in a way, was the
answer. And yet it is not altogether
as soft and easy a proposition as you
would think For two or three days 1t
works like a charm. but after that the
enforced idleness that results from a
# aCfc IL. faa "a
grows a bit tiresome. Here we sit every
day. We have regular hours on and
Off When we are off we reduce our
salaries with marvellous ease buying
Christmas presents and terrifying our
selves against the time when we enter
into the execution of our short-lived
New Year swearing-on resolutions.
Then we come back 10 our work and
think it all over. We gaze into our
empty pocketbooks and frame lurid Ian
guage concerning ourselves and our
idiocy.
After a while this amusement wears
out and we sit and read a magazine
or a paper or a book. firing of this,
also, we try to make work for our
selves. When there is a little some
thing TO do we go at ii with such heart
felt joy and such excessive zeal that we
finish II before we know IL. Then comes
another rest II three or four arrivals
come to the desk at once, we nearly
throw a fit from sheer excitement. We
chat with everyone to draw out the
transaction of settling each in his room
II he comes downstairs With a COM
plant about the room we have as
signed him. we welcome the diversion
and go into a lengthy discussion OF the
subject. On an ordinary day in the
winter season we dispose o. such cases
as promptly as courtesy ard q desire 10
satisfy everyone will permit But dur
ing holiday times we make as much of
the incident as 1t is worth.
LAS everyone who is familiar with
hotel life knows, clerks are run to death
by lonesome guests who want soma
body 10 talk to. AS a rule. we side
track these loquacious brethren as
quickly as possible. At a time like this.
however, we welcome him as long
lost friend. Such persons always talk
Of themselves and of the places they
come from An ordinary New York
drummer will jam Manhattan Island
down your throat until nature asserts
itself The Western man will tell you
of the greatness Of the West until you
Mild hammered Southerners Will volun-
tarily assure you of their admiration Of
the National Capital until the most big
oted Washingtonian grows ashamed of
himself Their 'spiels are always es-
sentially the same. with slight varia-
tions. and we know them all by heart.
Now. we are glad when they lean
across the desk and open up. The old.
threadbare jolly is music 20 our ears
Instead OF answering in monosyllables.
as is our usual custom. we meet the
holiday guest with inquiries We en-
courage him: We draw him out: we
make minute inquiries about his family
his home town. and everything touch
ing on and appertaining thereto We
get the most of everything that comes
and we tackle all that heaves in sight
or hearing.
'"Oh. it's a great time. this Christmas
time. in a hotel. and now that we have
bad nearly a week OF it. we will be
81. re tlon delighted to meet the rush
that will accompany the return TO
Washington OF the regular crowd"