The Garland globe. [volume] (Garland, Utah) 1906-191?, 1907-07-20
where the
DRUMMERS STOP
Stories Of Odd Hotels.

elbow OF the guest morning, noon and
night, and his simple inquiry covered
the entire ground:
How you laik yoh aigs?"
Indeed, the south until within the
last decade, and in some spots still.
furnishes the limit in the hotel line. l
remember one evening in March down
in Kentucky, had driven rs miles
over mud roads. and, arriving at the
hotel, which appeared tolerably com.
Portable, inquired II could get hot
bath, and, to my delight. was informed
that could. A fine rain, half snow,
was falling and high wind blowing.
/ went to the room, disrobed, and,
throwing a bath robe around me, fol-
lowed the negro boy down the CORR.
| dor. Pretty soon we emerged on to a
latticed back porch on the second
story and in latticework that was
covered with vines in midsummer
stood a bathtub, into which the boy
had dumped two buckets of hot water.
The latticework was open, and even
the laring lamp, sizzling as the snow
fakes struck 1t, revealed me to half
| the neighbors. / gave up the luxury
of the bath and retreated in as good
order as possible.
One of the oldest hotels ever
struck was up in the lumber district
J of upper Michigan. / hit the town one
election night, and found the place
crowded with loggers from all up and
, down the river. There was one hotel,
a small board affair. The office and
dining-room occupied one side, the
kitchen was a leanto in the rear and
one long bedroom extending along the
entire side of the hotel completed the
| outfit. A double row of cot beds with
heads to the wall made the furnish
ings, and yet there was only about
room enough for a third of the Wis
itors in town to sleep. Along about
nine o'clock I decided to retire, and
the proprietor after looking me over
curiously and evidently debating in
wardly, assigned me to a bed. and
turned in.
At midnight every cot was filled
and half the picked log rollers were
snoring, when, suddenly and without
a trace of warning, every cot was
overturned, the occupants dumped on
the floor. The sleepers arose, put on
what clothes they had removed before
retiring and started out without COM
ment. ] was dazed for a minute and
then began to kick to the boss, who
stood in the doorway and yelled: "All
OUT"
What the dickens does this mean?"
! demanded, hotly.
First shift turning out" he ex-
planned and as he did so line Of men
marched in and retired, while those
who had slept in the first shift slipped
away to the near by saloons. At three
O'Clock the second shift was dumped
onto the floor and at six, when the
third shift was dumped, ! paid the
boss one dollar extra to let me turn In
and sleep until eight.
In earlier days, when was sellins
farm machinery in western Kansas,
struck some queer hotels, but the odd
est of all was owned and operated by
genius named Richards In a little
village in Sheridan county, Is or 20
miles from Hoxie.
Richards was queer character
and his speciality was invention. He
had invented more worthless things
; than any man in the country Almost
everything he made would work, but
they all required more time and la
Dor than the things he tried to i'm
prove on. His barn lot and barn, as
we'll as his little one-story hotel, were
~. .,.. NOD tpxV Tod
He put me TO bed In a small room
perhaps eight by ten, with one small
window, and one extremely narrow
door. l noticed as he showed me into
the room that the place seemed tC
have double walls.
retired. The night was sultry anC
, close, but after time | fell asleep
: Sometime during the night ! wal
awakened by jarring. rumbling
and the thought flashed into my minC
!, that a cyclone had struck us. | leapeC
out of bed and ran to the window.
: sickening sensation of falling cam'
over me. Everything was dark.
: jammed my arm through the window
and my fist struck solid earth. | wa
. movement ceased, and with few
: minutes we began to ascend again
and stopped suddenly. A gust of win'
. struck me and as | was about to climI
through the window Richards openet
v the door and asked:
q "How did she work."
Y demanded an explanation.
@ Cyclone" he said, cheerily, Too
!, the calf barn and two haystacks an
O part of Dobb's barn and his windmill
g | thought 1t was going to hit us an
+ let you down."
/ The next morning he showed m
s the mechanism, Every sleeping roor
e was really double room, the insid
8 being like an elevator and he ha
e rugged weights and counter weight
g until by pushing lever he sDuld dro
/. all the sleepers in the hotel down int
Il the cellar until the cyclone passed.