Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-01-07
BALTIMORE CITY HALL
ANNAPOLIS annex
Promises To Be Dry As A Bone
Oh Gloom!
MAYOR PRESTON IN COMMAND
Will Hold Forth At Hotel de Vile
Said To Have CycIone
Cellars.

Beneath a picture OF the Marchand-
f1fhornton house, topped off with the
State House dome. the Baltimore
Evening News has the following:
Somewhere in Annapolis-at Mary
land avenue and Prince George street.
TO be exact-stands the Baltimore
Hotel de Vile, Annapolis branch. the
house taken by Mayor Preston and his
followers as headquarters for the
Baltimore City delegation TO the Gen
eral Assembly Here the city's bat
ties viii be planned; here the ad-
vances 'oyer the top of county op-
position will. be laid out, and here the
Red Cross work for the verbally
wounded will be carried on. The
house, report says. viii be fitted with
AN modern conyeniences, such as
wireless, dictagraphs and cyclone
cellars for the benefit OF the citys
first line of defenses.
BY wireless it came into the Legis-
lative halls at Annapolis and in FIVE
minutes nearly everybody knew about
it. The message was about like this:
THE Baltimore Hotel de Vile is to
open an Annapolis branch. 1t is a big
house, 20 rooms, plenty to eat and
drink and place to sleep when the
hotels Jump the rates. Mayor Pres
ton is to be proprietor. Sunset Field
general manager, Dan Loden steward,
Charley Kreuder chief clerk and Billy
O'Conor chief cook and bottle
washer Everybody welcome"
And what was the comment?
Glory, glory, glory, in these times
of long prices and short living
Glory
And then a little later another re-
port sent by grapevine telegraph:
THE Mayor says the house is to
be bone dry, no buffet or bottles of
anything stronger than ginger ale.
and no poker games"
Rats! rhe Mayor is getting as
sanctimonious as the Governor. Both
of 'em gone dry on the same day.
What is the world coming to? How
can the annexation bill pass now?
suppose they are going to blame
everything on the war"
But no one, not even q Mayor or a
Governor, can please everyone all the
time. so that the fact that everyone'
was not satisfied with the rules that
the Mayor is to enforce in his An
napolis branch Office need cause no
surprise. Yet one old Annapolis
crouch who was around the State
House in 1894, when Mayor Preston
was Speaker, remarked with bitter
ness:
Il remember when Harry was
Speaker and he never opposed no
game of poker and he never left none
when things were going good for him.
And he never was no Sahara, neither.
/ guess he is getting economical on
account of the war"
The Mayor on behalf Of the Balti-
more City delegation and police in
yestigation funds has rented big
residence at the corner of Maryland
avenue and Prince George street. It
is about three blocks from the State
House and quiet convenient to Carvel
Hall, the headquarters of Carville
Benson.
There are plenty of rooms in the
house and it has Only remained
empty in these times because few
people had the cash to hire such a
big place. Now there viii be reeep-
tion rooms, parlors, bedrooms, rooms
in which to consult and amend bills,
special rooms in whica to cuss cut
the Police Board, a sound-proof room
in which Loden can denounce Frank
Kelly, a big dining-room and kitchen.
pantry, a coal celler. but no buffet
and no poker room-no- even a
place to shoot craps except in the
back yard
From this big house the Mayor is
to direct his fight for control of the
Liquor and Police Boards and for city
annexation. Wires viii connect with
The main city hall in Baltimore, with
the State House, with Carvel Hall,
where a photograph may be planted in
enemy headquarters, and with every
other important point, except the Gov
ernors Office. Communication with
the lGiltI VIII RS =. 1EC~teAA NSNAeN-
armed TO the teeth and escorted by a
mounted squad OF the city water
works guard.
Legislators will be welcome callers
and If they fail to wipe the snow of
their shoes or even if they spit on
the rugs they will not be sc0lded-
provided they vote right on the May
or's measures There will be class
to the house-or Hotel de Vile, An
napolis branch-just as there is class
to the Mayors state dinners. and
even though the whole house may be
as dry as a Baltimore-bound Eastern
Shoreman is it not possible that some
member Of the Mayors staff working
under secret orders may, when he
finds that his visitors are badly
parched on the interior, quietly take
them down the street to Caryel Hall,
march them in the basement way and
when they get their feet on the brass
rail, say:
Gentlemen. what viii you have?
rs on me But don't mention it to