Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-03-26

task of creating such an atmosphere
/ rests with the office force. The cashier
/ the room clerks. the men behind the
desk. must begin the good v ork. In the
case of servants, maids and porters and
/ walters. courteous service may be in
| spired by the possible tip that awaits
their efforts, But the Office staff have no
| such incentive. To stimulate them they
| have merely the desire 10 prove their
/ usefulness by holding patronage once
gained. Were | RAINING hotel I'd
choose my clerks largely on the strength
| of their ability 10 say good morning
| pleasantly said a woman peculiarly sus-
| ceptible 10 atmosphere.
Then she illustrated what she meant
by outlining her most recent experience.
! She had discovered upon arrival that she
| had not been given the room she had ex-
| pected, but it was two days later when
| she found the letter that confirmed her
| suspicion. Armed with her evidence in
| their own written reservation, she made
her way to the Office and courteously
| presented her claim, The room clerk,
| without the slightest hint of apology or
| regret i'll his tone, merely stated that if
| they had been told of the mistake when
| she arrived, they would have rectitied it,.
! Then l grew angry" said she, and one
could scarcely think il strange. 1T was
/ their mistake and | was the victim. If
/ they had been even decently not pro-
| fusely, apologize; if they had shown any
regret at the mistake. | should have
/ gone away satisfied But the coldly in
| different tone of the clerk who saw the
| letter was the addition in my mind of
| insult to injury"
! With one exception at this hotel frigid-
! ity was the tone of the office. Inatten-
ton, Indifference, and neglect to extend
even the merely conventional courtesies
TO guests, characterize the entire staff,
save the most youthful clerk, and it was
to him the woman who liked considera-
tion appealed during her brief stay in the
uncongenial atmosphere When she de-
parted she bore away an impression that
will make it impossible for her to recon-
mend the hotel to her friends; that will
| prevent her physician from suggesting it
| to convalescent patients, to- whom pleas.
ant atmosphere is most important and
| that Will prove harmful in n score of
ways to the owners of the place. And
yet an occasional good morning" when
she presented herself at breakfast time
with her keys, n smile or two, a bit of
well-simulated regret, and an attitude of
| friendly interest at the desk would have
sufficiently supplemented her real appre-
citation of good cooking, kindly, if some
what inefficient. table service. and the
| impressive courtesy of remarkably
skilful head waiter.
This particular experience was in some
what striking contrast to that of the
same woman when she went back with a
| good friend on a business trip to the
town she had left many years before.
| The hotel she chose for their headquar-
ters had not existed in her day, and she
was sure she would feel as lost as the
proverbial stray cat. 1t was excellently
managed, she knew, as far as cooking
| and furnishings We're concerned but
would it be homelike? The two women
entered the lobby, and the returned wan
derers wrote their names in the register
under the observant gaze of a white
| bearded head clerk. No sooner We're the
names enrolled than he looked up, smiled
genially, and said, you must be the
daughter of my old friend, Blank;
knew him very Well" 1t was the well
come home she had longed for.
The spirit Of the genial head clerk had
spread from the desk to the elevator
! boys, and on to the walters. Wherever
air of special attention And it was not
| for returned wanderers merely. for as
| the elevator bore the two women up-
ward, they heard the same quiet kind
| ly voice, saying, "Glad to see you again.
senator. | thought you'd be arriving
! today" And then they woke to the
| consciousness that the boy, with his
| hand on the clutch, was apologetically
remarking, You're Miss -, aren't
| YOU? 'Scuse me, but l used to see you
and your brother when | lived in the
back alley just behind your house. How
| is Mr.. John?" 1t was the second greet
| ing to the returned wanderer She was
no longer an alien. an outcast She was
at home,-New York Evening Post.
~o+.-o~
| Where Women Propose.
Shall women propose is question
which does not bother the Hopi Indian
/ 4 In
one to matrimony but if necessary drags
| him to the altar, or its Hopi substitute
J by main force.
| When a girl has selected her victim
| this ungallant way of putting it is that
of a writer in the Travel Magazine-she
| simply calls upon his mother and talks
! business. If the old lady lends a will
| ing ear the matter is settled forthwith
| and the young man has no course left
! open excepting to bow to the inevitable
| At times, it is said, violence has been
| resorted to to drag an unwilling youth
| to the altar.
! Once the matter has been settled to
| the satisfaction of the women concerned
| the girl goes to work to grind meal for
| her prospective mother-in-law for a pc
riod of thirty deys, while The man in the
case is set to work to weave his future
brides garments. At the expiration of
the thirty day period the ceremony takes
place.
Whenever a Hopi maiden feels that
the time has arrived when she should
begin to think seriously of choosing
a husband she does up her hair in two
gigantic whorls, one over each ear.
These are danger signals, warning the
young men of the community that she
is cunning for a husband. Sometimes it
happens that half dozen or more young
men will take to the tall timber on
learning that the whors have appeared
upon the head of a young woman. Flight
is their only hope, as the mothers are
so jealous of the prerogative of their
sex that they rarely interpose on behalf
of an unwilling son, and the fathers are
not consulted.
Microbes in Extremely Cold Lands
We are accustomed to think Of severe
and continuous cold as being an enemy
to life of every sort. but data furnished
to the Pasteur institute in Paris by DIR.
CharcOt, the Antarctic explorer. proves
conclusively that the intense cold of the
south polar regions still allows various
forms of microscopic life to flourish. On