The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-01-06

laughed. Many hotels have O Sc
date and somber air. The clerk
at the reception desk, usually
dressed In funeral black, steps
forward, rubbing his hands with
the manner Of an undertaken
about to receive (and lay out) the
body-the body Of course, being
you. Still, she adores hotels.
She shivers (mentally) In the
coolest house; but in q hotel. even
In an inside, hall bedroom, with
the cold comfort Of feeble radia-
tor and bad plumbing, she re-
lakes blissfully. Something about
that room spells home to her as
no coy cottage could. She was
born with q hotel, as well as O
party complex.
REMEMBERS
FIRST HOTEL
So It is easy to see that hotels
and she were intimate friends
from scratch, until she could not
pay the bills. Reluctantly, she
would move on to another hotel,
II she could. She can forget re-
lations, even friends, but never
hotels. If she tries to, their re-
proachful ghosts rise TO haunt her
during the customary hours for
haunting.
She is still visited in the dark
by the shade of the first hotel In
which she ever stayed, the Hotel
Russell In Russell Square, Lon
don (lo08). It was q dank, sepul-
chral place which seemed to Inn
prison her like dungeon gates but
when she first entered the Hotel
Russell It was like entering the
Garden Of Allah-for her.
1t had shabby Oriental palms,
and, In the foyer, O noisy little
fountain whose insistent babbling
was the only sound In the still
ness, which, at that time, pervad-
ed middleclass hotels In the I'M
fashionable quarter Of London.
She hadn't begun to give parties
then, so she left Its peace invio-
late.
She had always rea dof Shop
heard's hotel In Cairo with O thrill
OF fascination. Oddly enough, she
didn't find O single thrill when she
finally became guest there. She
tried the Grand Hotel In Rome,
the Adlon In Berlin, and the Dam
ieli In Venice, but Claridge'S In
London gave her the first thrill
she had felt In O hotel In years.
BY this time she was quite expert
In judging notes.-the service, the
food, and the head walter.
MURDER
AND NAH JONG
She gave her first parties during
the years she stayed OF Claridge's,
aided and ahetted by Charles-the
maitre d'hotel. She introduced the
game Of Nah Jong TO London In
1923 OF Claridge's hotel. Also in
Claridge's, several years later, she
gave the first murder party ever
given In England. But she never
had very much fun there.
Finally she moved into the
Waldorf Astoria Towers the year
II opened, 1881, just after the de-
but Of the depression. The WAL
dorf-Astoria had packed UP Its
pre-war antimacassars, Its gilt
chairs and lace curtains, Its Pea
cock Alley and red plush portieres,
and had moved up TO 60th street
and Park avenue,
There she gave her famous
barnyard party. She had to have
trees with real apples on them,
even II the apples had to be PIN
ned on. She covered the enorm-
Gus chandeliers with hayricks.
She had clotheslines stretched
across the ceiling on which the
family wash was hung. She had O
COW that MIXED champagne on
one side and whisky and soda on
the other. She had O beer well.
She had stalls with sheep, real
cows, donkeys, geese, chickens,
and pigs and O hillbilly band.
1t was the biggest night Of her
life In n hotel,