The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-08-31
WHERE THE DRuMMERs STOP.

land which had one of the most prim-
tive bills of fare in the world, writes
E. E. Grassland in the Chicago Ti-
6une. The colored boy appeared at
the 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 fur.
nishes the limit in the hotel line. I
remember one evening in March down
in Kentucky. I had driven twenty
FIVE miles over mud roads, and arriv.
ing in the hotel, which appeared toll
erab1y comfortable. I inquired if I
could get hot bath, and to my de-
light was informed that 1 could. A
fine rain, half snow, was falling and
high wind blowing. I went to the
room, disrobed, and, throwing bath
robe around me, followed the negro
boy down the corridor. 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 bathtub,
into which the boy had dumped two
buckets of hot water.
The latticework was open, and even
the flaring lamp, sizzling as the snow
flakes struck it, revealed me to half
the neighbors. l gave up the luxury
of the bath and retreated in as good
order as possible.
Once in Kansas I doubled up with
two stockmen in one bed, but the
limit was reached one night when I
reached small town in southwestern
Texas, tired out from a long drive
across country q was selling irriga-
ton pumps), and inquired for quar-
ters. The hotel man regretted ex-
ceedingly that he had but one room
and that occupied, and hoped I would
not object to doubling up with the
occupant, who had already retired.
He lighted me to the room, show
ed me the bed, put down the lamp,
and as he started to leave he asked
casually.
"I suppose you've had smallpox" :"
"No," Ireplied.
"That's bad" he remarked, and
added cheerfully, "but I don't sup
pose it can be helped"
He was going out when 1 inquired /:
"What has smallpox 10 do with
this?"
"Nothing," he answered, moth
ing-only your bedmate has it.
beat him downstairs and slept in
chair.
One of the oldest hotels 1 ever
struck was up in the lumber district
of upper Michigan. 1 hit the town
one election night and found the
place crowded with loggers from all
up and down the river. There was
one hotel, 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 COM
pleted the outfit. A double row of
cot beds with heads to the wall made
the furnishings, and yet there was
only about room enough for third
of the visitors in town to sleep.
Along about 9 o'clock I decided to
retire, and the proprietor after look
ing me over curiously and evidently
debating inwardly assigned me to a
bed and I turned in.
At midnight every cot was filled
and half the picked log rollers were
snoring when, suddenly and without
a traceof warning, every cot was over
turned, the occupants dumped on the
floor. The sleepers arose, put on
what clothes they had removed before
retiring and started out without COM
ment. I was dazed for a minute and
and then began to kick to the boss,
who stood in the doorway and yelled,
"All out -
"What the dickens does this
mean?" I demanded, hotly.
''First shift turning OUT" he ex-
planned, and as he did so line of
men marched in and retired, while
the first shift slipped away to the
near by saloons. At 3 o'clock the
second shift was dumped onto the
floor and at E when the third shift was
dumped, paid the boss 81 extra to
let me turn in and sleep until 8.
In earlier days, when was selling
farm machinery in western Kansas,
1 struck some queer hotels, but the
oldest of all was owned and operated
by a genius named Richards, in a
village in Sheridan county, fifteen or
twenty miles from Hoxie.
Richards was a queer character,
and his speciality was invention. He
had invented more worthless things
than any man in the country. AL
most everything he made would work.
but they all required more time and
labor 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
filled with things he had invented.
He put me to bed in small room,
perhaps 8 by 10 feet, with one small
window and one extremely narrow
door. I noticed as he showed me into
the room that the place seemed to have
double walls.
retired. The night was sultry
and close, but after a time l fell
asleep. Some time during the night
was awakened by a jarring, rum
bling, and the thought flashed into
my mind that cyclone had struck us.
| 1oorod o,,t of had and ror RI the