The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-23
IN THE - ROOM OF
l A PHILADELPHIA HOTEL
A Series Of Mishaps that Ended
Only When It Was Changed
to Parlof A.

NO. said the manager OF a high grade
New York hotel, we have nothing num-
bered IS In the shop, not even bellboy
What do myself think Of the 10 super
sHtion? Well, you've addressed that ques-
ton to a interpretations individual who
nevertheless, is a victim Of prejudice
through experience.
@For nine years was head clerk of one
Of the leading hotels OF Philadelphia. One
Of the finest rooms in the house was Room
10. And that Room IS was, seemingly
@The proprietor was shrewd but very
testy business man Of Quaker antecedents
He was violently opposed to all manner OF
supergtitions, and he was particularly
grouchy over the prevalence of the l9
superstition. To indicate his hostility
toward the 10 superstition he saw to it
that the Is room was one Of the most de-
sirable in the house.
sThe head clerk whom I displaced told
mo about this when ! went to work at the
"'You needn't ever say anything about
1t to the old man-it would make him boil
but don't give that Is room to anybody
you know and like the retiring head clerk
said to me-.
room was vacant on the day took my
new billet, That evening bridal couple
from Pittsburg came along. The young
man wanted the best accommodations to
be had, OF course.
'The IS room happened to be the best,
and ! put the pair in that room. On the
following afternoon, while the bridegroom
was out, his bride was curling her hair,
using gas Jet by the dresser to heat the
curling tongs. She was crimping her
back hair when the hot curling tongs slipped
out OF her hand and fell under the collar
OF her combing jacket.
The young wornan's screams aroused
the entire floor. The chambermaids found
her rolling on the floor in agony, the hot
curling tongs still soaring the flesh OF her
back. She was frightfully burned and
had to be taken to a hospital.
"A week or 30 after the bride had been
taken to the hospital a couple from San
Francisco, with a two-year,old boy, came
along, late at night, and the night, clerk
a big brass pin on the following day The
pin stuck in the child's throat, and he had
70 be operated on by squad Of Philadel-
phie surgeons. They got the pin out, but
the operation caused the child to lose the
use OF his voice for several years
Not long after that the first vice -presi-
dent OF railroad running into Philadelphia
took the room one night after a board Of
directors dinner-his room at his clup be-
ing torn up in the process OF refurnlshing
and. having dined pretty well, he left
one OF the gas burners partly turned on
whom he went to bed. He was found
black in the face and all but dead, in
the morning. and had to be hustled of to
hospital to be brought rack to life
The IS room was beginning to get on
my nerves by that time; but there was moth
ing could do about it, knowing, as I did,
the old gentlemans violent antipathy to
the IS superstition.
"A few weeks later a wealthy young
woman from Altoona. whose fiance had died
under the knife in a Philadelphia hospital
some months before, came to town, osten-
slbly to do some shopping The Is room was
tne only thing l had fitting her require
knew nothing Of her history then.
ana, as abe seemed TO be q self-contained
young woman, / couldn't figure out how
anything could happen to her She spent