The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-23

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
kilograms and the things which he
may have forgotten are sent after him.
The average American is a forgetful per-
son. He leaves about 5000 articles of his
personal property in the Hotel Aston 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 disap-
peared entirely from the haunts of man
he will sooner or later be located and his
property returned to him.
The great modern hotel contains many
labor-saving devices and many kinds OF
machinery. But the telephones and eleva-
tors, the ice-makng 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
cannot take the place of the hotel clerk.
The bell boy may disappear, but the man
behind the desk, with his vast fund of in
formation and his marvellous memory is
for the proprietor to meet his guests per-
sonally, but the clerk greets them with
the old-tme cordially. He is the con-
Meeting link between the barren and cheer
less inn of years gone by and the great es-
tabllshment of the twentieth century.
Must Have Cool Memory.
Now, as in the last generation. the hotel
clerks memory is one of his chief assets.
N ha str in, a Of ri lie a,
qualification when he asks for the room he
occupied on a previous visit to hear the
clerk reply: Certainly; number 500. I'll
see II it's vacant" 1t is the clerk who
can 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
the railway time tables and the sailing
hours Of the steamships. He is in many
particulars a better city directory than the
printed volume. And. above all, he is a
born diplomat, able to give confidence to
the timid and peace of mind to the wan
derer whose longing for home has made
him irritable.
Indications are that this is to be a rec
breaking season in the New York no.
tells. Every year sees an increase in the
demands made upon the hotel men for ac-
commodations for dining and dancing par
ties, for gatherings of associations and
business organizations. At the same time.
the number of families who prefer a hotel
to house or fiat is constantly growing.
while the great army of the visitors to the
city is steadily increasing. New hotels are
going up by the dozens. still the accommo-
datons do not exceed the demand. The
Engllshman who said that New Workers
worked in twentystory skyscrapers by
day and slept in twenty-story hotels by
night was not far wrong. And because
Americans are the worlds greatest travel
crs, they are also the hotel mans best
customers. They have created a demand
which has made American hotels the best
in the world.