The Washington herald., 1913-10-05
"Greeters" from Hotels Throughout
Country Coming Here for ''RanbLe'
To Aid Clerks in Capital HosteIries

''Greeters"-there's a world of cheer in
the name. and the weary, hungry traV-
eler. arriving at a hotel to receive a well
come from an organized clerk at the
hostelry which must be home for an
hour, day, month, year. KNOWS the
full import of the word.
For the ''Greeters' are the organized
hotel clerks. When the men who watch
day and night behind the desks which
mark the meeting point of patron and
proprietor. of the public and the owner
of houses where bed and board and
warmth and light and general life are to
be had at so much day. European or
American. they selected 'Greeters" as
their title
Their title marks their duty. In Wash
ington, perhaps more than in other cities,
the title both denotes and connotes with
a particularly personal appeal The
'Greeters. when they gather in Con-
Vention Hall. October Is, for their Ram
BILE" are sure to feel this. Washington s
hotel population is really rather dis
1inctive. On that account. when the hotel
men from many parts of the United
States come to attend the "Greeters' Rap
BILE" in Convention Hall that night may
get a new angle on their national name
Men Long in Service.
Here in the Capital are hotel clerks
who have held the same desks for five,
ten. fifteen, twenty years There IL
nothing transitory about them or their
work The thousands who sign their
names and pass on to other cities are
the ''transients." And, yet again
washingtonian characteristic. some OF
those who sign their names to hotel reg
listers in Washington have stayed in the
same place for quite as long as the
clerks have held their jobs.
Just as managers and clerks have held
their desks year after year, Senators and
Representatives and other officials of gov
eminent and the ornaments of society,"
male and female, who call the Capital
winter home, stay on in the same place.
Among people like them "Greeter' has
a meaning of its own.
But the visiting Greeters, 1t is quite as,
important to record, will bring to the peo-
pie of the Capital their general meaning
Of the word "greeter" To them the
Greeters is more essentially the man who
makes the stranger feel ct home. The
.'Greeters" who will gather here to the
number of probably 1000 will FORM one
Of the most remarkable conventions lever
held iE Washington. In their aggregate
they have made so many thousands
perhaps millions-of strangers feel at
hcme that one would be dizzy TO ca
Culate.
To the tired man arriving in. the wan
hours, to the hungry man coming be-
tween what the rustics would call meal
lime TO the travel-stained man who
wants water and soap and fresh raiment
70 the bored man. to the sick man-to
every kind of man and his wife and his
child and his servant. the hotel clerk Il
the first host. He stands between the
soulless corporation which owns and OPP
vrifh to
hundreds of rooms and intricate com
r!exity of management, and the humaL
Individual coming into the hosiery with
his real human needs.
GrccterS the Only Word.
'GIeeter'-why. the hotel men, clerks.
and managers. front workers and back
workers and bell boys and barmen and
telephone operators and walters, all say
that "GTeeters'' is the only word for the
clerks.
There's no DOUBT thereH be a welcome
here for the Greeters. Ever since the
Washington Hotel Clerks Association.
Charter 81 Of the "Greeters OF America"
was organized it has been gaining friends.
Merchants of Washington, bankers,
brokers. and other business men. to say
nothing Of hotel proPrietors who recog-
nized that the "GreeterS' organization
would be help to all, have welcomed the
organization. Aside from a personal
friendliness toward the hotel clerks bust
ness men realize the tremendous conf
mercial potentially of the 'Greeters." 1t
is estimated that the hotel clerks OF
" SShington control and direct at least
100000 of trade here every year.
In response 20 appeals for aid in pre-
pairing the "Greeters' RambIe.'' which
will be a great vaudeville show and ball
at Convention Hall October Is Washing
ton business men have been very gen.
crous
In perfecting the organization of
Charter No. 81, "Greeters of America"