The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-14
TOM GAY HAS GOT A RANCH.
NIT HE'DJUST As SOON NOR NAVE
THAT FACT PRINTED.
~ . Ucsterner with Money Befriends n
Head waiter Is n Any Of q Newspapers
nnslness?-'Tlsn't the first mini
Dave MOrat Ever Did for Hin.

Dave MOrat Ever Do TOR fhW'
When little Tommy Gay ran away from
bis home in Cazenovia in lse2 and came
down 10 New York 10 help save heUnion
NV e~nlisting he thought 1t was n deplorSble
thing that the recruiting officers wouldn't
,ske n fourteen-year-old boy, small for his
ago. But if Tommy had gone to the front
he Uouldn nave got a job in the Fifth
Avenue Hotel, never would have risen to
,bo distinction Of head waiter and prob
ab,v would nOt have met David H. Monat
~ colorado and the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Consequently the papers would not have
had occasion to print yesterday the despatch
datad Denver which told Of Moifat's
latest gift to the read waiter-a ranch
comprising 1853 acres near Steamboat
Springs, Routt county, Col, on which
the railroad and mining king viii erect a
comfortable house, build an artificial lake
and other conveniences and luxuries 30
that Tom Gay, old friend and boon COM
nsnion, MAJ end his days far from the
racket Of Broadway.
II was a busy day for the head waiter
Yesterday. Young men in nifty felt hats
and SIS two piece suits began to arrive
on the Job and ask the clerk Of the Fifth
Avenue where could be found the rich"
head waiter.
You're a reporter" the clerk would
ssv with fnality, and the young men would
confess with shame thai they were. Then
thew we're directed to the American dining
room. one fight up.
Standing near the door Of the dining
room was a dignif ed looking person whose
face said he was IS and whose hair in
sisted that he was near the top OF the so
mark. Some doubt as to whether the dig
uifed. calm faced man was a guest or the
head waiter caused the reporters to pause
for a moment, but i was finally learned
that this was the man with the ranch. Also
il was lea rned he didn't want to talk about IL.
Now, how did that get in the papers2"
asked Tom Gay, Indignantly. I've known
about II since early in July but I've kert II
70 myself. Now it's out and l have to stand
for a lot Of questions about II. / don't
mind answering them so far as l am con-
cerned. but cut out things about Mr.. Moi
that man ! know out in Denver. When
ne does anything for a friend and II gets
in the parers he gets sore. Mr.-that man
know out West, likes to keep the good
things he does to himself"
The friendship between that mar out
West" and Tom Gay runs away back TO war
times. When little Tom GAY came away
from the recruiting office early in the sum-
mer Z 1852, afiame with wounded pride,
he wandered down Broadway amnesty
and too indignant to remember that he
was beginning to get hungry. But a Whit
of something cooking hoated out to him
as he passed a grating in front OF the Fifth
Avenue and he went in to see il he couldn't
get something to do.
Tommy Gay got some kind Of a job in
the hotel and within a week was . regu-
lar waiter, which in those days he thought
almost as fine a thipg as soldering. The
boy gradually rose to be head waiter, which
corresponds with a Colonels lob in the
army but pays better. And early in the
game he had introduced a broiled spring
chicken to the man from the West" and had
become one OF Mr.. Moffat's clnse friends.
The man from Denver first began to
show his regard for Tom Gay by little gif ts,
which increased in value az the friendship
between the two and the Moffat bankro II
began to grow. Tom Gay never roasted
about the friendship, and it had gone on
for almost forty years before il was first
mentioned in the papers
That was in 1898, when Dave Moffat came
into the Fifth Avenue Hotel one day to tell
Tom Gay that he had just cleaned up a
big fortune out in the West, and that, fur
tEermore, he was going to Europe and
that Tom was to be his guest. What Tom
Cav didn't see on that first trip TO the Cen
tinent would be easier to tell than what
be did see. There was a second trip in
September, 1905, when the head waiter
and Mr.. Mofat occupied elaborate suites
on the Celtic and had the time Of their
lives. Tom Gay wound up the trip by
spending a week in the Cecil giving his
orders to the English walters.
1T was about a year ago that Mr.. =
nv friend out West, told me he had in
structed his engineer, Mr.. Sumner said
Tom reluctantly yesterday, ito look uI
a good location on the new Denver, North
western and Pacific Railroad for ne. He
this friend of mine-built that road
the first over the Divide, and when IL wal
finished, last July, he and ! went out there
to look at the ranch that Mr., Sumner haC
picked out Tor me. say, if | didn't hav'
a good time in-but you must have enough
for a story now, haven't you?
mo, | don't want TO tell YOU all he-theJ
did for me out there this summer. lie
wouldn't like IT,. He doesn't like to havC
what he does for people put in the papers
Anyway you ought to have enough abou
il now" concluded Tom, edging towarc
the door.
For fear he had giyen'orence. Tom sough'
to retrieve himself by telling of the famoui
men he had met during his forty-four
years in the hotel. There were Generals
Of the war days who were friends OF Ton
and little Tad Lincoln was a cause OF terro
to the waiter while Tad and his mothel
stayed at the hotel during a part OF thu
var.
They used TO nave suite S3, upstairs. tn
Lincolns,- said Tom, and the Presiden
also was putting up for a man servant here
forget his name to look after Tad. Mrs
Lincoln would give nat chump none Il
take Tad out to see the sights almost ever!
day,
We're going to the theatre, Mrs. Lin
. In the man would say, and then iet
~kins acros the square and take that XII
down to the Bowery and into a lot Of cheal
shows tina he shouldn't. I'd a told Mrs
Lincoln about il, but IL wasn't any OF m,
business. Anyway, Tad was too young I
De harmed.
And old Gen. Winfield Scott was a goo,
friend Of mine during the war. One day
remember helping him out on that bal
~cony-that one right thereto review
Vermont regiment going on to the wal
The General was tall and weighed over 20
pounds. was a kid and il was hard wor
for me 10 help him out.
IT'S a fine thing TO see, Tommy, he sal
to me when the soldiers gave him a rough