The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-10-16
1HadE]944
NEW YORK
sY NORTH CALLAHAN

mere u out. leu A$atHcH, oDAC
youne hotel executive and author Of
the book, "Hotel Promotion" which
Harpers is bringing out, once had q
trying experience. While promotion
director of one of New York's big
ger hotels, he hit upon a plan to
impress his boss. It seems Ted was
convinced of the honesty of his hotel
employees and wanted to prove it. So
he hired a man to register at the
hotel, get a and put tAe help
to a test. The stooge was to send .
pair of pants, to be pressed. with
80 cents in the pockets; try to get
a bel l. hop to place a bet
on a ave horse; and offer the
maid a quarter to let him take away
two of the hotel towels. All this was
calculated to bring honest results.
But when Nathan was ready to an
nounce the results to the boss here is
what he found; the 80 cents dis
appeared from the pants pockets; the
the bet was placed on the horse and
it won the race; the maid only ac-
cepted the two-bits for the towels
but told the "guest" that for SO
cents she would let him take the bed
sheets.
900
Recently while at the beach near
the appropriately = named town Of
Pleasantville, New Jersey, / noticed
two red-haired girls drawing portraits
of people there. They had set up their
easels in the sand and we're chalk
ing up good likenesses of passers-by
who stopped a few minutes and pos
ed. For each picture, the girls were
then given any amount up to a dol
lar the object thought it worth. But
these artists had their problems, I
learned from talking to one of them.
She said that all humans think they
look better than they actually do.
And yet these young painters whose
main trade proved to be women,
strived to be realistic. One lady who
was posing looked something over
middle age. She gazed intently at her
growing likeness on the paper, then
said in a fairly low tone, Cant you
make me look a little better? I get
those wrinkles for nothing, but I
pay for looking younger"
This week was registering time in
New York. Believing that it is the
privilege of every citizen to cast
this ballot. l dropped in to register
at the local booth. It was to be Q
simple process, l understood. But
when the officials learned it was to
be my first time to vote in New
York, they somewhat apologetically
said the law required me to take .
literacy test Since this is a legal
requirement, i tried to be cheerful
about proving that I could read SO
mounted the stairs to the test room.
There a kindly school teacher gave
me the quiz which consisted Of
reading a paragraph and answering
questions from it such as "What coun-
tries were at war in 1912" and
"Who wrote the Star Spangled
Banner"" Gratified at my success in
passing the quiz, / chatted with the
teacher and learned that many COL
lege graduates make errors in it and
some persons, especially those of
foreign extraction, fail it and are
not allowed to vote. Whatever it re-
quires, / believe that being allowed
to cast your own free vote is worth
it.
rood is a common talk topic in
this city. When l lived in a small
town, eating seemed almost taken
for granted. OF course mention was
made OF it around mealtime and a
lot OF talk went on about great pic
nc spreads and the keen delights of
dinners ON the ground" and such.
But folks just seemed to realize
they were going to get good food
regardless Of whether it was at home.
at . neighbor's friendly table or il
the corner restaurant. Here, l am
amazed ct how much people talk
ABOUT eating. Hardly an evenings
visit goes BY without some one re-
marking that he has found a good
place 70 eat at such and such an adj
dress or he at last knows where Q
can lind good CLAIMS or that the one
place IN New York where they cook
good steaks is at so and SOS chop
mouse After q deluge of such re-
commentators, the newcomer
doesn't know which place is best SO
ENDS up by dropping in at the auto
mat or at the handiest restaurant
again Many Gotham cafes advertise
Dinner from 70 cents" This is mis-
leading, ] have found, for usually
IN such cases the only thing below
a dollar on the menu is the very or
binary item which heads the printed
ilst. Maybe my problem is that /
Just miss those biscuits my mother
used to make.