Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-26
HOTEL CLERK COT EVEN
Sicked Card Sharks Onto CruSty Guest
Who Lies About Him.
THEY TRIM THE VICTIM GOOD
Then He Goes 10 the Clerk ts Get
check Cashed, IL Released and
Delayed I'm Town fer
Three Days.

This is the story OF how an Omaha no.
tel clerk got revenge on a travelling man
As a preface to this tale II Is necessary
to explain that at nearly every Omaha
hotel there may be found from one to
three card sharks. They are not perna-
nent guests, but they come and go; they
are here this week and in Kansas City or
Minneapolis the next They stop At the
hotels as regular guests and generally
the clerks never learn that they are smooth
card men. Infrequently, though, the head
clerk gets next to them and then they
are watched. When they learn that they
are known they soon leave the hotel, for
none of the Omaha houses will allow them
TO work among the other guests.
Many Of the card men stop at the hotels
and do not try to get Victims among the
guests, but work among the sports OF
the town. In such event the hotel man
aEement, II It learns their business, does
not modest them.
There is nothing to distinguish these
sharks from any otncr arrivals at the no.
tells. They dress with modesty. are not
loud in their talk and apparently arc
tending strictly to their own business
Two of These sharks.
At one Of the leading hotels OF Omaha
the one at which the clerk got his re-
y~enge-there are now two of these card
men. One is about AZ years OF age and
looks fully that old. He wears a dark
mustache; his clothes are light, his shoes
black and his hat a dark derby. His part
ner is about fifteen years his junior,
smooth-faced and dressed In Q black suit,
with a felt hat. He is nearly six feet
Atl and is seen in the lobby OF the hotel
"a great deal during the day.
It was through these two men that the
particular clerk referred to in the opening
sentence secured deep qualification by see
ing a cranky m trimmed. The clerk
tells the following story:
For several years, Mr.. Blank, who sells
clothing out OF New York, has been stop
ping here, and every time he has come he
has made life miserable for me. / have
tried to please him, but to no avail.
III give him the best room In the
house he kicks about the light in It OIL
about the way the bed faces. He COM
plains about the meals in the cafe. II
makes me look over the mail every halt
hour to see II there is a letter for him.
there usually is none.
starts over the Mail.
w ell II was . llAAtC AAoNkN @9kNk AAe
mail that brought relations between hin
and me to a crisis and made me swear e
have revenge.
Recently, you know, an order was IT,
sued from the Postoffice department re-
curing all hotels to look over the mails Of
their guests and not to allow the strangert
to handle the letters. This umm mad'
his first visit here since that order wal
issued and demanded at the counter that
hand over the mail for him to look through
~ politely told him about the order
Then he went up in the air and eussed
about the hotel. said was a cheap skate
and declared he would not stop here an
more.
But he had an idea that i was just
keeping the mail from him because I did
not like him, so he went to my manage
and told him all kinds OF lies about me
He said l had called him names and told
him TO get out OF the house. There werC
other worse lies he added, too.
1T took IA long time for me to explain
the situation to the manager and max
him see the right side OF the affair. Ate
Ilearned what the travelling man had don,
l swore to get revenge, and l did.
Now 1t happened that l got next t
these two card sharks that are stopping
here, They did not know until then tina
l knew them, but l arranged with them I
get the drummer into a game,
The old crank is a pretty good carr
player and he has made lots OF none!
around here in games with other travelling
men. lie always Is ready to get into
game, for he thinks he can beat the aver
age man.
ITO the two card sharks I related q few
details about the rumm and told then
TO get him into a game upstairs and
would not cause them any trouble.
sit In for Four Hours.
Sure enough they arranged q gam
with the crank without his Suspectinl
them. They went up to his room on tn
second floor and were there about fOu
hours, At the end Of that time they cam
down to the office, They winksd at m
and l felt that they had made good.
Il did not learn until the next morning
what they had done, though. Then tn
drummer came to the desk and tried 4
get a check cashed. He was broke. / re
fused TO have anything to do with hi
c~h,ck-and that Is where l got my revenge
'Ihu pleaded with me to cash his check
but l told him | did not know his firm an,
that he would have to get the money som
otDtr place, Tie manages was out o
tuou, So he could not appeal TO him. II,
had TO telegraph his house for money an
Il WAS three days before he WA able I,
get out OF town.
In the game with the ShAFkS he haC
lost $40 and had been delayed In oBaba
three days. hat was the revenge I tool
out on him for his dirty treatment Of me
Remember, we don't allow those card
sharks TO trim our guests; any man Il
safe from them IN this or In any Other
big hotel in Omah The sharks are no
allowed to operate here II we know any.
thing about them