New Britain herald., 1930-09-30

New York, Sept. 3o.-All my life, save a boyhood period of living with my grandmother, I have re- sided in hotels. So after a fashion l have grown up with bellhops and watched many flower into merchant princes, theatrical prod ucers, stage and screen stars and bootleg kings.
 Following recent experiment in housekeeping, which is perfectly dandy thanks, the feature most missed in. the new regime is the bell hop. He had become as neces- sary in my life as the telephone. He was the eternal soother of that mys- terious abstraction we call the hu- man mind.
 He brought the mail, newspapers, kept unwelcome visitors away, air cd the dog. tipped off the latest dirty book, below stairs whisperings and often had a hot 20 to 1 selec ton at Belmont or Havre de Grace. In my case he was often not only friend but counsellor.
  your experienced bell hop. His wits have been sharpened on the flag stones of experience. He knows his whatever the reigning vegetable is. And in his seasonal migratory flights to Havana. Palm Beach, Tia Juann he learned to know people. Not many fool him.
 I may have been fortunate in my contact with bell hops but l have yet to run across one of the fra ternity who was disloyal or have I ever caught one in a dishonest act. They have had innumerable chances to steal clothes. money and jewelry. with little chance of detec- ton. But they never have.
 Bellboys have been entrusted with extremely important missions with out single tumble. There Is one unforgettable instance. During an after midnight holdup in a hotel lobby bell boy risked his life to shove me into an elevator and slam the self-locking doors while guns were pointed at his red head.
 But when you leave the bellboy's world his interest dies. Today ran across one who had laboured in three hotels where I lived. I told him of my new manner of living. He listened In obvious boredom, ex- haled a deep drag from his cigar cite and commented: "Yeah?"
 o, yes, I almost forgot. One of the problems in non-ho otel eXis- tence is what to do about stationery. Anything to make 1t tough for Mo Intyre! Incidentally. fellow thieves, there is swell stationery at the new Pierre's, gold embossed and smart address, but the house dick has the tenacity of a hound trailing a cov- cred wagon.
 For many year the Gibson House in Cincinnati was my stationer. But one day - indeed practically over night-they made you ask for it from the room clerk and while they lost a customer the Sinton won one.
 Fervid gestures were made by lit tie shops on Broadway to keep go- ing during the lowest days of the summer depression. A fierce win- dow card in flaming red near the Winter Garden announced: Come in. select your wants. pay what you please. We ask to live." The frank ness attracted many passersby.
 An economist calls the worst sag of the srmmer-and can you handle it?-a mere hypothetical hiatus" But I prefer the observation of the hardware merchant in our town who wrote me last August: Pros perity 4 getting no further than you can kick a barrel"
 Nothing is quite so disarming as flattery. This morning on the war path l visited a dry cleaning estab- lishment that not only had torn most of the buttons off a suit but TT III C