Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-09-09

sleep. From the time the guest hands his
valise TO the boy IN buttons who meets
him at the door until long after he has
left the hotel, the efforts made to promote
his comfort are never for minute abatsd
Perhaps, from the point OF view Of the
guest. the greatest convenience afforded
by the modern hotel IL found In the ia
cilities II offers for obtaining all sorts OF
things quickly and on credit
As soon as a visitor IL assigned 20 q room
the house opens an account with him END
he may charge to It his restaurant ex-
penses. his laundry checks. telephone calls
kilograms. baggage transportation, messen-
gers, thenter tickets. carriages, OF what
ever else he may desire. More than that, ct
any hour Of the day or night he may call
for his bill and ind Il waiting for him.
The vouchers for whatever he has ordered.
whether bouquet for his buttonhole or a
ten-course dinner for twelve friends, are
Immediately sent through pneumatic tubes
70 the cashiers desk and are entered AZ
once in a loose-leaf ledger, in which page
already has been inserted bearing the name
OF the guest. Every night these items are
put on q bill TO be presented in the morn
ing II asked for. All that is left to be
done when any one comes TO the desk to
make a settlement Is to complete the bill
by adding any charges that may have been
incurred since the previous night. and this
work takes but a few moments.
what the Gaests Forget.
The modern hotel keeper literally speeds
the parting guest, because arrangements
are made to see that the head baggage
man is notified when the visitor is to leave.
After he has passed out Of the building
on his way to train or steamer, the same
care is exerted to see that letters and tele-
grams and the things which he has for
gotten may be promptly sent after him.
The average American Is a forgetful per-
son. He leaves about 1900 articles Of his
personal property In the Hotel Astor every
year. To take care Of these things there
is an elaborate card index system and a
special safe in which are kept articles Of any
intrinsic value. Such an article Is placed
in a bag, tagged and deposited in the safe.
and unless its owner has disappeared en-
tirely from the haunts of man he will
sooner or later be located and his property
returned to him.
The great modern hotel contains maay
labor-saving devices and many kinds of
machinery. But the telephones and ele-
vators, the ice making appliances and the
machines WHICH purify the air, the pneu-
matte brooms which capture dust and
germs and the hundred and one other
contrivances for other useful purposes can
not take the place of the hotel clerk. The
bell boy may disappear. but the man behind
the desk, with his vast fund of informa-
ton and his marvellous memory is still in
dispensable. It is no longer possible for
the proprietor to meet his guests personally,
but the clerk greets them with the old
time cordiality He is the connecting link
between the barren and cherries inn OF
years gone by and the great establishment
of the twentieth century.
Where the Clerks Come In.
Now, as In the last generation, the hotel
! clerks memory is one OF his chief assets
To the stranger in strange city It IL a
qualification when he asks for the room he
occupied on a previous visit to hear the
clerk reply: Certainly; number 509 III
see II It's vacant" It is the clerk who car
tell which is the best part of any one OF
the theaters from which to view the stage
| He knows all about the actors and the
amounts of their salaries In his many.
chambered brain are the figures of tho
railway time tables and the sailing hour
OF the steamships. He is. in many par.
ticulars, better city directory than the
printed volume. And, above all, he is
born diplomat, able to give confidence Il
the timid and peace of mind to the wan
derer whose longing for home has mad,
/ him irritable.
Indications are that this ie to be a record
breaking season in the New York hotels
Every year sees an increase in the de
mands made upon the hotel men for &C
commodations for dining and dancing par
ties, for gatherings OF associations and bus
iness organizations. At the same time, tn,
number of families who prefer o hotel I,
a house or fiat Is constantly growing
while the great army Of the visitors to tn
city Is steadily growing New hotels ar
going up by the dozen, still the accommo
dations do not exceed the demand TIL
Englishman who said that New Yorker
worked in twenty-story skyscrapers by da.
and slept in twenty-story hotels by nigh
was not far wrong. And because American
are the worlds greatest travellers, they ar
also the hotel mans best customers. The,
have created demand which has mad
American hotels the best in the world.