The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-13

A we'll known Kansas newspaper man
mas started a crusade against the wait
er. He is tired of eating in the rest
aurants where men. of whatever color,
minister to the needs of the patrons,
and is in favor of abolishing male wait
ers entirely and substituting girls. Now
am not knocking on the waitress
far be it from suchi-but I can't con-
sclentiously join this new reform move
ment because for the past month my
almost constant companions and best
friends have been walters, bell boys
and sleeping car porters, and l was
never SO we'll looked after in my life.
I believe other people have romantic
experiences and sentimental adventures
when they travel. but nothing out of
the ordinary ever happens to me and
insist that the most interesting ac-
quaintances 1 made in a months tour
of the southwest were hotel and train
employees, people officially appointed to
look after the comfort of tourists, but
who did their duty so we'll, in my case
at least, that their miniStrationS SEEM
ed to carry with them a personal and
friendly attention.
And they made me like it, too. When
l am at home l assume full RESPONSE
bility for everything and everybody and
try to run the flat and the newspaper
Office, ond boss the party, generally.
But while 1 was out in the cold, cold
world 1 learned to be cHnging vine
and to cast all my burdens, from Or
dering my dinner to buttoning my
hops and the porters. And l didn't
meet with an impertinence. a dis
courtesy nor neglect, a waiter who
stuck his thumb in the butter, nor
sleeping car porter who didn't accept
perfunctory fee as if it were a price
less gift.
The cleverest chap I think I ever
met was a waiter in the cafe OF the
Angelus at Los Angeles. He not only
knew everything about waiting on the
table and gave expert and welcome adj
vice about the menu, but he was
ready compendium of useful informa-
ton about trains and boats and street
cars and carriages, sights and scenes
and salaries and expenses, people and
things and climates and places. He had
travelled all over the world but not
without seeing it, and he was so clever
and courteous and superior in every
respect that l wondered why he was
waiter. He finally told me that he was
a mining engineer by profession but had
had bad luck. (Like the little model in
the Devil who had been in the chorus).
Perhaps it was because we were a
Santa Fe reading room concert COM
pany that the train men. who take con-
siderable pride and evident pleasure in
treating the reading room people kind
ly, and seem to regard them as their
especial guests, looked after us so we'll.
One sometimes hears complaints of the
incivility or Indifference of this class
cf employees but the provocation must
be unusual in such cases or the stories
exaggerated. Everybody made so much
fuss over me that L got to feeling like
registered package, costly, perish
able fragile and immediate" There
was always someone, not merely at my
beck and call but waiting upon me hand
and foot. 1 had private guide every
inch of the railway journey in the per-
everything I wanted to know about the
scenes en- route and seeming to take
pride and qualification in so doing.
If one is accustomed to typewriter
it is difficult to get along without one
and the writer tried all the way to
California to hire a machine in order to
write her letters home. But although
there were typewriters in all the hotels
she could not get the use of one for
love nor money. The public stenograph-
ers would of course take dictations, but
she wasn't used to debating. and they
couldn't read her frightful chirography
and refused to trust their machines to
her. But in a busy Santa Fe railway
office at a division point in California
she was allowed the use Of a typewriter
for the whole afternoon. no questions
asked and the only payment a much
obliged to YOU.
On the homeward journey I found
myself unaccountably and unexpected
" short and had to wire home for
money. 1 had four hours wait for
my train but the station agent who sent
my telegram was much concerned lest
the reply should not reach me, much
more so, indeed than I. who had grown
Utterly worthless and irresponsible
from four weeks in the clinging vine
role When, an hour before my train
time, my telegram had not been receiv-
ed and 1 was planning to buy sleep
ing car ticket for only half the way
home and have the agent forward my
remittance he said mo, you couldn't
get the advantage of the through rate
that way. If your message doesn't get
here I'll lend you the money" Now,
could you beat that? The money came,
however, and 1 wasn't obliged to take
advantage of this kind offer, but the
incident is illustrative of the sort of
perils to which lone Spinster is ex-
posed in travelling without protector.
A noticeable thing. to me, about the
Santa Fe employees I met from the
highest to the lowest was their loyalty
to the big corporation which pays their
salaries. In these days of trade union
ism and growing class feeling one eX-
poets a different sentiment. but 1 found
all the Santa Fe men loud in their
praise of the Santa Fe, proud of it and
ba clxing it against all other railways.
1 was much interested in train con-
ductor in California who was explain
ing, to a passenger, who said he had
never travelled the road much, the adj
yantages of the Santa Fe over other
service. 1.-THE Santa Fe,'' said the
conductor man impressively, puts it's
money back into service to the public
Look at the Harvey Houses and see
what they do for this country in set
ting an example of beauty in architec-
ture. Do you know that this car you
are in has a solid steel frame and is
so we'll built that the danger of an ac-
cident is reduced to the minimum?
These cars could tumble down an en-
bankment and not get more than a
dent" 1 wondered if his division sup
erintendent knew what good adver
tiser the Santa Fe had in this loyal
servant?
On our way to California, our party
Gcad to lii ~