Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-02

The concerted action of the house
detectives of all the large hotels in
America has carefully extracted the
points from two erstwhile excellent
stories, the first, ascribed to Adele
Richie, now Mrs. Charles Bell, or
Newark, n. j.. who, when asked IL
she NAG ever been in Kansas City, re-
piled: ~ can't just remember, but
will look among my towels and see;
and the second, the more pathetic
narrative of the young man who was
Obliged to break off his engagement
because, as he left the DINING room
of a large hotel with his fiancee,
number of forks and spoons fell from
the sleeves of her gown. tor the
house detectives have devised "sys-
TEN" whereby the man or woman VINO
wants to take a souvenir from Dig
hotel finds his path beset with al
most insurmountable dithculties, says
the New York Times.
The matter is carried on with the
greatest artfulness. There are no
"hurt feelings no bones broken, no
arrests made.
The house detectives simply extract
the unrightfully attached articles as
painlessly as they extract the points
from old stories, and in the great
majority of cases the frustrated Dor
rover never knows at all what nap
pened to him.
First, the detective is provided with
complete list of everything which is
owned by the hotel-every particle OF
linen. silver. soap, etc. Then he dele
gates the responsibility for the return
of them to various head walters,
walters, housekeepers and chamber
maids.
Then he gets a list every day of new
arrivals. and Of those who, having re-
NAMED a few days, are preparing TO
leave. From these lists of occupied
rooms the detective calculates tne
areas where trouble might possibly
brew, and into these he goes with ms
subdivided lists and a checklng-up
| book.
| The chambermaid is required to give
an exact accounting of every piece OF
| linen she has supplied to the man or
woman who is about to leave. This
! is in turn taken to the laundries,
where a balance is made of those
| sheets, towels, etc, which have come
| out of each room. If there is pre-
else balance the matter ends there;
| but woe to the woman who belleVes
that the towels she placed careIuily
in her locked trunk will not DE
Her trunks and bags on their way
down stairs are simply carried to the
basement floor, as If by chance ana
there the house detective, with the
aid of a skeleton key, goes through
them in search of lost hotel linen.
1t is very gently removed and
| checked up on the housemaid's list,
and the trunk is carefully repacked
and reloeked. Nothing Is left to give
warning that the search was made.
And nothing Is ever, by any remotest
chance, said to the departing guest
She is sent cheerily on her way re-
ioicing, and is usually perplexeu out
of all reason to account for the fact
that the towels and pillow cases that
she knows we'll she put in her trunk
have mysteriously disappeared.
Do you suppose for moment that
this is an extreme case, nor even a
rare one? 1t happens on an average
of once a day in every large hotel in
New York, and with almost as as
founding frequency In Boston, Phila-
delphia and Chicago
And in the case of silverware the
matter is almost as simple, though
remedying these thefts requires taxi
ing into your confidence at least the
man who pays the bill. For every
waiter has had his eye trained to
count up the silverware while he is
placing the finger-bowls, and if so
much as one small spoon Is not where
il should be, 1t is unostentatiously
placed upon the bill Tho hotel gra-