The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1907-02-27
me- LINERS PyRSER.
His Difficult Role on a Transat.
IantiC Steamship.
DIPLOMAT AND SAILOR TOO

This officer Must Absolutely Possess
Tact and Be All Things to All Men.
A Purser's skiIIful Play With Two
Antasonistie Opera Queens.
In the smoking room Of a great trans.
atlantic liner which arrived in New
York recently, after a trip made In not
far from record time, conversation
among those who we're not at cards
turned to the purser Of the vessel, who
by his courteous bearing his well or
dered energy and air Of SAVIOR fare
generally had attracted from the pas.
sengers an unusual degree Of attention.
The talk began about half an hour be-
fore 1t was time for the lights to go cut.
The man with the pipe had observed
that the officers activity was simulat-
ed. The man sitting next, the head of
a brokerage firm, smoking the most ex-
pensive partaga to be had in the case
near the door, held differently. 1t short
" came to Showdown" to fall into
smoking room vernacular,
"Well, II you say so. What does he
do, SO much!" asked the man with the
pipe.
The smoker started to tell him. BE
began perhaps twenty minutes before
closing time, and when one after an
otner the electric lights faded and died
he was not half through. This should
indicate that the purser is a man of
some Importance aboard ship, and
those who SO read it will not drift far
from true course. He is nn impor-
tant man-in his way the most impor-
tant in the employ of the steamship
company.
Even ashore and in some other voca.
ton the purser would be a striking
personality. No doubt in a way his
Office makes him what he Is. but at the
same time he had to be of the stuff Of
which pursers are made before he ever
saw steamship, This may be read to
mean that instinctively he must be a
good fellow. Oh assuredly he must be
every inch of that He must have Il
hOndshake and smile as magnetic as
were President McKlnley's. He must
tell good story well and listen to a
bad one with laughter. At the same
time in his mental and physical equip
ment he must be endowed with a not
Insignificant alloy OF iron, and he must
stand firm in emergency and frown
and swear with facility equal to that
which he evinces in slapping man
upon the back or in touching the
springs Of mlrth.
he should be and Is all things to all
men. He is sympathetic as we'll as
hale and hearty and we'll met. He has
head for figures, which could not be
otherwise, since he is the company's
financial man afloat. He pays all sal
aries; he cares for the money and val
uables Of passengers, which, OF course,
necessitates honesty of a sterling sort;
he pays for all supplies; he knows all
about the cargo and all about the pas.
senGers. A purser who forgets the
face OF man who has sailed on his
craft once before Is of little value to
his employers. When Congressman
Jones goes abroad for his summer va
cation, he proceeds forthwith to the
purser's Office, smile Illumining his
face and seasoned hand outstretched.
"Why, how do you do, Congressman
Jones" This is what he gets.
Do you suppose that this representa-
tive Of the people will ever afterward
sail for Europe with any other purser,
on any other vessel or line? Not SO
long as pride turks within the bosom
of mankind.
The purser In this respect must be
the equal Of hotel clerk, and every
one knows how utterly inept the man
who stands at the gateway Of a
gilded hostelry would be without his
memory for faces and names. Not
alone that, but besides being a man of
resources and ability and q genial wit
the purssr must possess in eminent
degree that God given qualification,
that subtle yet luminous estate of NOR
al and mental equipolse, which men
call tact-curiosa feIicltas. II an old
patron Of the line finds fault because
the stateroom in which he usually
travels has been taken by some one
else month before, IT is the purser
who must apply soothing verbal en-
brocatlon aud make clear the fact that
the former stateroom compares in no
way with the present apartment.
Complaints as to food come to the
purser through the chief steward for
final adjudication, and If In the galley
thare are signs OF dissatisfaction or
unrest he must enter the realm Of pots
and pans and argue with the two as
sistant cooks, 1t may be, until they
shake hands or at least promise not
to allow their personal jealousles to In
terfere with their culinary duties until
they reach port.
They do tell story of a purser who,
in arranging for the usual Wednesday
night entertainment, offended two
prima donnas-one queen Of Wag-
merriam and the other an empress Of
light opera-by assigning the principal
| place on the programme TO the nride