The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-03
1t Has to Do With Absent
Minded People.
Hundreds of Them Visit To-
peka Hotels and Cafes.
THINGS THEY LEAVE BEHIND
Coats, Rubbers, Money, Bull
dogs. Carriers and Umbrellas.
SCOTS Collection Ranges From
Metaphysics to ManSlaughter.

1 III
to forget things, perhaps you will find
solace in the musings of the hotel ana
restaurant men. 1t is in the hotel and
restaurant that man or woman's aoll-
| ity to forget things is shown to the pest
advantage.
Yesterday it rained. Probably half
the people who ate lunch down town
carried umbrellas or rain coats. Today
some of those same people are wonder
| ing where they left these umbrellas and
rubber coats. Tomorrow they may find
them at their favorite lunch room.
Almost every day, the clerks in the
Topeka hotels are made custod1anS OF
some missing article-some article that
| hurried cr absent minded guest has
| forgotten. Many of these things are
never called for, although the larger
per cent of the missing property is re-
claimed. Every hotel and restaurant
| man could tell of hundreds of valuables
that have been found and restored to
| their owners.
Under the Pillow.
| 1t is usually the very cautious and
| suspicious persons who lose their Valu-
| ables. Take for instance the hotel
| guests. The wary hotel visitor puts his
| or her pOcket-book under the pillow or
| hides it in some remote corner in the
| room-only to forget it when they check
| out. Then there are garments, pack
| ages, jewels and valuables of a hundred
| kinds that the guest leaves in his or her
| room. They are usually found by the
| housekeeper or some maid, and are
| turned over to the clerk and if possible
| are restored to the owner.
There are stories and stories about
people who left their pocketbooks or
| hand bags on the table of some down
| town cafe and except for the alert wait
ers and managers might have lost much
valuable property. Sometimes they DO
| lose them. But they are comparatively
| rare instances. Every time there is a
cafe collects from one to dozen UNI
| brellas, rain coats, rubbers and other
| weather protectors. On a cold day, the
| absent minded business man invariably
| leaves his oVercoat in the lunch room
| only to remember it when he returns 10
| the street and encounters the frigid
| weather.
Cashiers in the cafes tell of another
| class of absent minded people-a class
that does not provoke a smile with the
| cashier. That is the man or woman
/ who eats hearty meal, walks away
| and forgets to pay. It's genuine absent
| mindedness in most of these cases, too
| And sometimes it never occurs to the
| absent minded one that they have for
| gotten anything and on a busy day the
| cashier cannot spot everyone as they
leave the dining room.
The DimpIed Soubrette.
Last winter a musical show visited
| Topeka. Among the chorus ladies was
a dimpled soubrette-and she owne I
| p bulldog. Now that bulldog and the
chorus lady occupied the same room
When the show left Topeka on a rather
early morning train. the dansuette was
at the depot right on time. Not until
the train was 40 miles out of town
did she miss the bulldog, which she had
left quietly sleeping in a corner of the
| room as she had hastily dressed tc
catch train.
Clarence Scott,s Collection.
Clarence Scott owns a cigar box full
| of spectacles. which he has collected
| from the dining tables after the guests
at the Cremerie had flown. He al
\ ways accommodates his guests with
| set of monocles when they complain
that they have left their own at home
| And every few days a new pair of eye
helpers are added to the list in the
cigar box.
Who Left Her Garter?
At the National and Throop hotels,
| the clerks have a collection of forgot
ten articles which the guests have left
| in their rooms. These articles vary
| from silk carriers to fancy handbags
false hair meerschatlm pipes. assorted
millinery and real money. Every day
girl once found a forgotten burglars
| kit in room and another girl found
| 8. handbag which contained stocks anc
| bonds and other collaterals worth
thousands of dollars.
Every One Does 1t.
| The habit of forgetting things is not
confined to any particular class of peo-
pie. The shrewd and alert business man
| who seems never to forget anything
| when at the bank or in his office will
| deliberately walk out of a hotel and
forget everything except his hat and
the clothes he wears. Some people. of
course, are affected more by the ha biz
of forgetting things than others. "Thev
are all subject to the disease" saws thn
cigar girl, who works in a Topeka
nostelry. People just come here to
! forget the things they ought to re-.
member And the veteran hotel man
insists that the cigar girl speaks from
the facts and the records