Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-28
.PILFERING GUESTS
.HE proprietor of one of the lead
ing hotels of Chicago was talk
ing about pilfering on the part

stop this sort of stealing" he said, but
no single hotel in a city can carry out
any plan, no matter how well devised.
for the extinction of the class oe guests
who make 1t a practice to steai from
hotels. I know what 1 am talking about,
for tried a scheme of my own-a good
scheme. too-and 1 lost out on it: had to
give it up. If all of the other proprie-
tors of first-class hotels in my city had
co-operated with me in the plan I would
surely have won out, but they were
afraid to take n chance. I wasn't afraid
at first. But after trying the thing out
for nearly year I had to pass 1t up. I
found that there wasn't a possibility of
one hotel man, running one hotel, to get
away with it.
You see, I had been losing several
thousands of dollars worth of my hotel
property every year through thefts COM
mitted by my guests. and I felt that it
was up to me to protect myself, If l
could. My house is both European and
American. and I tackled the dining room
and the European cafe problem first. I
was being robbed by guests Of so much
silverware-spoons. knives and forks.
cream jugs, sugar bowls, salt and pepper
shakers. finger bowls even individual
soup tureens, If you'll believe it-that it
made me hot to read my stewards daily
report of these thefts. So 1 put couple
Of detectives. one in the American din
ing room and one in the European care.
to keep an eye on my tableware. They
were diked out like assistant headwait-
ers. They'd both served as detectives in
big department stores. and they pos
sessed sort of intuition. developed by
practice, which enabled them to size up
people who were likely to feel impelled
to hook something of value from the
tables. They knew exactly what silver
ware was on the tables when people sa.
down at them, and whenever party or
folks left one of the tables they made
lightning eye-inventory to see if the
stuff was all there. If anything was
missing they'd beat the departing guests
to the office or desk to make their re-
ports. They would often miss articles
from the tables in making their quick-
eve surveys while walking about the
dining rooms. and not infrequently they
caught guests in the very act OF steallng
things from the tables. The thieves
who stole things fom the tables in the
F,nropean dining room were held up at
the cashiers desk if they were not guests
of the house-my European care is
public dining room. 1t didn't make any
difference who they were or how re-
were held up-and I want to add that II
is my experience that the mere looks OF
people don't figure at all! the most solld5
looking people, men and women. ana
TODD or even rich. will steal from hotels
if they get a chance or are built that
way. IT,, La ,,,
fered something from .a9i e., IN c ssG
desk after having paid their bill TO thelr
waiter they found the manager OF tha'
dining room waiting for them
am required to inform you that
+here,u he an additional charge for your
narty' the manager would say to them.
Charge for what?' they, of course
would inquire. ~, .,o,,
that the additional charge would be 1or
sonoe article or articles of silverWare
missing from the table at which they
eaten. and name the cost of these missing
articles. In nearly every case tilele We
a kick and a fuss. That. of course. was
to be expected. But my men VIZ tha,
structed never to crawfish when tney
we're perfectly sure that they were rlght.
The folks who had eaten at the taole
from which something was missing WmIa
they got up were told that they "ouiu
nav for what had been swiped or Inc
noi;ce would be summoned. They usually
maid. vowing vengeance upon my mouse:
Once in a while the missing piece OF
silverWare would be forked over 10 the
accompaniment of phony lauShter anu
the statement that the article had been
taken lust for fun, to see II 1t couio De
done often it would happen that some
woman dining with a man "ouiu houn
some article quite unbeknownst TO the
man with her. and when the man tSa
stolen article he would not unnaturaliy
get into a fume about 1t. sometimes IN
such instances the woman would own up
to having the stolen articles. pul "Heh
che didn't but stood pat, the man had
rieht to suppose that he had grievance,
and this sort of thing made some pretty
serious scenes. The accounts OF some OF
these scenes got into the papers, ano
printed matter of that sort dldnt teru 10
helm NV house But I stayed with the
scheme as long as I could, though
knew all the time that I was operating
under a disadvantage. with none OF the
other Chicago houses working with me-
"Such guests of the house as stole
things from the tables found the Date OF
the theft plainly set down In their biils:
together with an item for the value OF
the pilfered article. when they came 10
settle up These. too. invariably put up
a roar but we didn't renig little DIT.
We were always dead sure we were right
before we made these charges. once
when a rather well-known st. Paul man
showed up to pay his bill before depart
ing-he and his wife had been occupying
one of the most expensive suites. but that
made no difference-he found that silver
cream Jug sugar bowl and finger poWl
were charged up to him. one or the ON
ing room detectives had seen this man $
wife taking these dTlicleS a. Will S'A'
meals The man from st. Paul hareo up;
of course and called it an outrage. L
happened to be at the desk at the Time
He asked me if I meant denDerateiy 10
state that he or his wife was thief. l
told him that my detective had seen the
articles being removed from the table at
which the St Paul man and his wife had
taken their meals. Well. the man was
reasonable, and he uuieted down when |
told him what the'fts of that sort had
been costing me and about the measures L
was taking in sef-defense to prevent or
offset such losses.
"'All right he said. but I'm going. to
get to the bottom of this. It's cinch that
Z didn't steal those things. If my wife
took them. then I'm going to find out
about it. Everything we We got is packed.
but all the same I'm going to wait over
a few trains till make a search of every
niece of baggage we own. And ! want you
to come upstairs while I'm making the
search he said to me-
so I went up to his suite with him.
In a very mild, decent way, and not an
grily at all. he taxed his wife with having
taken the silverware from the table. AS
he had anticipated, she resolutely denied
having done any such thing.
to doubt your word but I'm going to find
out about this If the house is wrong the
proprietor here nodding in my direction.
will answer to me. But II l find the
things, it'll serve you good and right. this
last to his wife. and he got out his bunch
of trunks and valise keys. took Off his
coat and started the search. First he
turned things over in his wifes trunks
and satchels. and she grew nervous as he