The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-17
The Three of Them

EoR eleven years Martha Foote.
head housekeeperA at the Senate
Hotel, Chicago. had catered. I'M
seen, and ministered. unknown. to that
great, careless, shifting, conglomerate
mass known as the Travelling Public.
Wholesale hostessing was Martha
Foote's Job. Senators and suffragists,
ambassadors and first families had
found ease and comfort under Martha
Foote'S regime. Her carpets had bent
their nap to the tread of kings. and
show girls, and buyers from Montana.
Her sheets had soothed the tired limbs
Of presidents. and princesses, and
prima donnas. For the Senate Hotel
Is more than a hostelry; it is a Chicago
institution. The whole world is churn-
ed in at its revolving front door.
For eleven years Martha Foote. then,
had beheld humanity throwing its
grimy suitcases on her immaculate
white bedspreads: wiping its muddy
boots on her bath towels; scratching
its matches on her wall paper: scrawl-
ing its pencil marks on her cream
woodwork; splitting its greasy crumbs
on her carpet; carrying away her
dresser scarfs and pincushions. There
is no supremer test of character.
Eleven years OF hotel housekeepership
guarantees a knowledge of human ma
ture that includes some things no Hv-
ing being ought to know about her
fellow men. And inevitably one of two
results must follow. You degenerate
into bitter, waspish, and fault find
ing shrew: or you develop into pa
tient, tolerant and infinitely under
standing woman. Martha Foote dealt
daily with Polak scrub girls, and Irish
porterS. and Swedish chambermaids.
= and Swiss walters. and Halsted street
bell-boys. italian tenors fried onions
in her Louis Quinze suite. College
boys burned cigarette holes in her best
linen sheets. Yet any one connected
with the Senate Hotel. frcm Pete. the
pastry cook. to H. G. Featherstone,
lessee director, could vouch for Mar
tina Foote's serene unacidulation.
Don't gather from this that Martha
Foote was a beaming, motherly person
who called you dearie. Neither was
she one of those managerial and mag
nihcent blonde beings occasionally en-
countered in hotel corridors. engaged
in addressing strident remarks to a
damp and crawling huddle Of calico
that Is doing something sloppy to the
woodwork. Perhaps the shortest cut
to Martha Foote's character is through
Martha Foote'S bedroom. (Twelfth
floor. Turn to your left. That's it;
| l246. Come IND
In the long years of its growth and
success the Senate Hotel had known
the usual growing pains. Starting with
walnut and red plush it had. in its
adolescence, broken out all over into
brass beds and birds'-eye maple. This
In turn, had vanished before mahogany
veneer and brocade. Hardly had the
/ 4
faces been doctored by the house
painter when-whisk. Away with that
sombre stuff! And in minced a whole
| troupe OF near-French furnishings;
| cream enamel beds, cane backed
spindle legged dressing tables before
which it was impossible to dress; peril
Gus chairs with raspberry compilations
| Through all these changes Martha
| Foote, in her big. bright twelfth floor
| room, had chung to her old black wal
nuAset.
| The bed, to begin with, was a mas
sive towering edifce with a headboard
that scraped the lofty ceiling. Head
and foot-board were fretted and cary
| ed with great blobs representing grapes
| and cornucopias, and tendrils. an6
| knobs and other bedevilments OF the
cabinet makers craft. 1t had been pol
| lSAAc0 anu IuDDeu until HOW II 61OLS
like soft brown satin. There was E
monumental dresser too. with a liver
colored marble top. Along the wall
near the windows, was a couch: 6
heavy, wheeling. fat-armed coucf
declked out in white ruff1ed cushions
suppose the mere statement that. il
| Chicago, Illinois, Martha Foote KEEP
these cushions always crispy white
would make any further charaeteriza-
ton superhuous. The couch made yol
think Of a plump grandmother of by
gone days, q beruffled white flchl
across her ample. comfortable bosom
Then there was the writing desk;
substantial structure that bore no re
lation to the pindling -and-crean
affairs that graced the guest rooms. I
was~the solid sort of desk at which al
English novelist of the three-volum
school might have written a whole row
of books without losing his dignity o
cramping his style. Martha Foot
used it for making out reports and in
struction sheets. for keeping accounts
ana for her small private correspond
ence.
Such was Martha Foote'S room. L
a modern and successful hotel, who's
foyer was roses shaded. brass grilled
peacock alleged and tessellated, tina
bed sitting-room of hers was as whole
some, and satisfying. and real as
piece Of home made rye bread on a ira.
OF French pastry; and as incongruous
1t was to the orderly comfort of thes
accustomed surroundings that TIL
housekeeper of the Senate Hotel open
ed her eyes %this Tuesday morning
Opened them, and lay a moment. bridg
Ing the morphean chasm that lay be
| tween last night and this morning
was $50 A. II. 1t is bad enough t
open ones eyes at $50 on Monda
morning. But to open them at $50 o
Tuesday morning. after an indig
Monday. The taste OF yesterda
fingered, brackish, in Martha's moutl
"Oh, well. it won't be as bad, as yes
terday, anyway. It can't" So she as