Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-07-13
where the
DRUMMERS STOP
Stories of Odd Hotels.

tive bills Of fare in the world, writes
+. E. Grassland, in the Chicago Trib-
une. The colored boy appes red 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 iii some spots still,
furnishes the limit in the hotel line. I
remember one evening in March down
in Kentucky, l had driven % miles
over mud roads, and, arriving at the
hotel, which appeared tolerably COM
Portable, inquired if l could get a hot
bath, and, to my delight, was informed
that | could. A fine rain, half snow,
was falling and a high wind blowing.
| went to the room, disrobed, and,
throwing a bath robe around me, fol-
lowed the negro boy down the corri-
dor. Pretty soon we emerged on to a
latticed back porch on the second
story and in a 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 fiaring lamp, sizzling as the snow
flakes 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
n Ti1E,S - ~ 4Ox -,
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
diningroom 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?''
I 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 l was selling
farm machinery in western Kansas, |
struck some queer hotels, but the odd
est of all was owned and operated by
a genius named Richards in little
village in Sheridan county, 10 or 20
miles from HoXie.
Richards was queer character,
and his speciality was invention. He
had invented more worthless things
=, ~,
everything he made would work, but
they all required more time and Ia
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
filled with things he had invented.
He put me to bed in a small room,
perhaps eight by ten, with one small
window, and one extremely narrow
door. : 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 I fell asleep.
Sometime during the night l was
awakened by a Earring, a rumbling,
ana the thought flashed into my mind
that a cyclone had struck us. l leaped
out of bed and ran to the window. A
sicken1ng sensation of falling came
over me. Everything was dark
damned my arm through the window
and my fist struck solid earth. | was
terror stricken, but with a jar the
movement ceased, and with few
minutes we began to ascend again
and stopped suddenly. A gust OF wind
struck me and as | was about to climb
through the window Richards opened
the door and asked:
How did she work?"
/ demanded an explanation.
Cyclone" he said, cheeriiy. Took
the calf barn and two haystacks and
part of Dobb's barn and his windmill
/ thought it was going to hit us and
let you down"
The next morning he showed me
the mechanism. Every sleeping room
was really a double room, the inside
being like an elevator, and he had
rugged weights and counter weights