The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-25


 l Mrs Blank. usually described as Western. strolls through the hall some
 evening in an ermine opera cape and | creates a sensation. It may never ap- | pear again worn by her, for the reason that some envious woman With the clothes mania finds the name Of the furrier and the same cape Is sent her in few days in exchange for couple of thousands.
 "women make one another's ac- quaintance easily at these hotels. where
 most of them are bored to extinction l and so this method of selling goes on
 with great success. Of course. these
 sales people are as rule supplied with cash although they in no way live lives that justify in a pecuniary way their expensive rooms.
 But there is another class of men and women who value the address or | fashionable hotel so highly that they are willing to dispense with the actual
 necessaries of life in order to dwell
 within the sacred precincts. Beyond | the payment for their rooms, they are rever known to spend a cent in the
 hotel. "All the other items, considered in- separable from the plush lined exist ence, are eliminated They never pa tronize barbers, hairdressers, manl' cures or chemists. They don't even have their shoes or boots blacked in 1 the hotel. They never buy a cigar at
 the counter or drink at the bar Yet although they remain mysteries | for weeks they always prove in the end to be of the class that in some way | Is grating through residence In the
 hotel, using the address as a means 10 gull others.
 "I don't mean to insinuate that they are criminals. They are merely cheap | 1nt 0f In uv actual ! Justify their existing in some middle class boarding house, where meals are provided and paid for. But these hotel l birds seem to live without eating any | thing. At all events they never eat at
 the hotels. They browse around some
 how and acquire free lunches or else victimlze their friends.
 "Then there are brokers and men in other lines who derive an actual money advantage from a residence in the Fifth Avenue hotels. They settle m Irooms there with their wives and begin an existence not one-quarter as com fortabIe as most people enjoy in
 moderately priced fiat.
 First, in order to get moderate
 prices, they take rooms looking out on air shafts. The effort to live up to the hotel becomes all but insupport- | able. especially to the woman, for sne must have clothes and must look well and frequently she cannot even anoru
 to tin the chambermaid to help her in
 dressing. so closely are the expenses | figured out. .. Living at the big hotel becomes the whole thing There Is no going to the theatre, never drive in the park, ana as for entertaining. 1t is closed book \ In fact. there is no social life. for the l hotel rooms eat up every cent or the
 income.
 some of these guests will spend the most of a day preparing their clothing | for the evening, and we have had cases of women who do laundry work in the
 bath tubs during the hours they are | invisible.
 '"They arrange their meals by get | ling coffee and rolls In the morning. and that Is the extent of their dining
 room bill. The men manage to pIck up l something at the bar or in the cafe ana aupuort life in that way, while the wo- men sIip out to the restaurants of de-
 partment stores and acquire bargain 1 lunches,
 "Eating becomes a very unimportant detail with these people. The man
 thing is to meet the room rent and put in a smiling appearance In the eleVa-
 tors and the railways once day. | "Some philosopher once discovered that the easiest way in which to avoid spending money was to remain in oed' and many of these hotel guests have
 mastered this secret, as any number or them are invisible until the electElc lights are shining.
 we had one industrious woman who. during a summer in town. affected lux urious negliGe gowns, while her hus- band sported silk shirts, fiannels and | white coastcoats The chambermaid discovered that the wife did the entire
 wash in the bath tub. hung the things
 on temporary lines and turned the elec- tric fan on them for an hour
 1 Then she rolled up her sleeves and
 went to work with an electric iron at- tached to a chandelier. Next day she
 worked with gasolene on gloves ana
 Panama hats and lace wells.
 Tn the evening the two wandered
 about as though they had maid and
 valet to dress them The wife worked
 all day in the seven dollar room and bath, getting ready for that one bliss full stroll through the marble halls. | "she always had the air of one fa- tIgued by a trying social day and no
 enc could help respecting her pluck
 and her industry, but the amazing thing was why they continued to pay
 $50 a week for their room. Doubtless | they had a reason. but we didn't keep them long enough to find out what 1t
 was. Gasolene is a dangerous thing
 when the laundress smokes an occa- 1 sional cigarette.
 "But the crowning stroke of busi- ness enterprise was unearthed when we | found a lady, gray raired and of su- perior manner and great refinement VI ho was putting up jams and preserves | in ten dollar suite, labelling the jars
 with the name of the hotel, and dispos- 1 ing of them by the dozen to the fash
 ionable grocers and fruit stores.
 "They were excellent preserves and
 sbe was indignant when we requested her room. She had a small stove and
 was so clever in ventilating and killing odors that she would have carried on the work indefinitely if she could have
 managed the shipping.
 But when her orders became ex- tensive she had to bribe a bellboy and she worked him too hard and he gave
 her away. She had had a good start. though and her excellent Jellies and
 jams are still for sale at the shops that deal in delicacies.
 "Of course, the most common offend-
 CT and perhaps the most objectionable
 IS the person who. choosing to pay