Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-29
NOR eleven years Martha Foote
~ head housekeeper at the SEN
ate Hotel, Chicago, had ca

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
mad soothed the tired limbs Of pres-
dents and princesses and prma DON
mas For the Senate Hotel is more
than hostelry-it is a Chicago insti-
luton The whole world is churned
In at its revolving front door.
for eleven years Martha Foote,
theh had beheld humanity throwing
It's grimy suit cases on her immacu-
late white bedspreads, wiping its
muddy boots on her bath towels
scratching its matches on her wall
paper. scrawling its pencil marks on
her cream woodwork, splitting it's
greasy crumbs on her carpet, carrying
away her dresser scarfs and PIN
cushions. There is no supremer test
OF character Eleven years of hotel
housekeepership guarantees knowl-
edge OF human nature that includes
some things no living being ought to
know about her fellow men: And in
evitably one of two results must fol-
low. You degenerate into bitter,
waspsh and fault finding shrew, or
you develop into a patient, tolerant
and infinitely understanding woman.
Martha Foote dealt daily with Polak
scrub girls and Irish porters, and
Swedish chambermaids and Swiss
walters and Halsted street bellboys.
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, from Pete, the
pastry cook. to H. G. Featherstone.
lessee director. could vouch for Mar
tina Foote'S serene unacdulation.
Don't gather from this that Martha
Foote was beaming, motherly person
who called you dearie. Neither was
she one of those managerial and mag
niticent blond 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;
1916. Come in)
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 it's
adolescence. broken out all over into
brass beds and bird's-eye maple. This,
in turn. had vanished before mahogany
veneer and brocade. Hardly had the
white scratches on these ruddy sur
faces been doctored by the house
painter when--whisk! Away with that
somber stun! And in minced a whole
troupe Of near-French furnishings;
cream enamel beds. cane-backed;
spindle-legged dressing tables, before
which 1t was impossible to dress; peril
Gus chairs with raspberry compilations.
Through all these changes Martha
Foote. in her big. bright twelfth-door
room. had chung to her old black wal
nut set.
The bed. to begin with, was a mas
sive. towering edifice with headboard
that scraped the lofty ceiling. Head
and foot boards were fretted and
carved with great blobs representing
grapes and cornucopias. and tendrils
and knobs and other bedevilments Of
the cabinet makers craft. 1t had been
polished and rubbed until now 1t shone
like soft brown satin. There was
monumental dresser. too. with liver
colored marble top. Along the wall
near the windows was couch; a
heavy. Wheeling. fat-armed couch
decked out in white rufiied cushions.
I suppose the mere statement that, in
Chicago, ILL.,. Martha Foote kept these
cushions always crispy white would
make any further Characterization
superfiuous. The couch made you
think OF a plump grandmother OF by
gone days. beruffied white fichu
across her ample. comfortable bosom.
Then there was the writing desk: a
substantial structure that bore no re-
lation to the spindling rose-and-cream
affairs that graced the guest rooms.
- he solid sort Of desk at which