HOW TO STOP EM.
HOTEL GUESTS WHO SWIPE
LINEN AND BRIC-A-BRAC.
THE BANE OF THE BONIFACES.
SUSPECT EVERY MAN, WITH OR WITHOUT BAGGAGE.
Members of the Missouri-Kansas Hotel Men's Association
Relate Their Grievance Because of
Souvenir Collecting Guests.
It was late yesterday afternoon. The Kansas-Missouri Hotel Men's Association was nearing the close of its annual session at the Midland hotel. Discussions of various kinds, following papers, were had.
"Any unfinished business?" asked Charles Wood, of Topeka, proprietor of the National hotel.
Mit Wilhite, famous in Kansas because he runs the Mitway hotel at Emporia, and because he is one of the biggest baseball fans in North America, and usually runs a team of his own during the summer to entertain himself, caught the chair. "There is a question that I want to ask of this convention," he said. "My wife has asked me to solve it. I can't. What do you do when guests at your house swipe towels? We have lost just an even six dozen since October 1. What in the name of Charles Cominskey do you do to get them back or get some sort of redress?"
There was a shout of laughter from all over the hall. The 100 or more dellegates appreciated the situation. They just threw back their heads and shouted.
Allen J. Dean of htis city is president of the association. "I can give you a dead certain relief," he said. Name it, shouted Wilhite. "I'll pay you for the prescription."
"Buy six dozen more," answered Dean. Then there was more merriment.
It's a funny proposition," said Dean, "a mighty funny one. Just last week I got a big package from a town in Wisconsin. I opened it and found a sugar bowl, of an old colonial style that we used about six years ago. Accompanying was a letter but unsigned. The writer said: "I have been attending revival meetings, and have experienced a change of heart. I herewith return to you a sugar bowl which I took from your hotel when a guest there a number of years ago. It is with me a matter of principle."
"But over at the Hotel Baltimore we had a strange experience. A guest there bought a new trunk, had it taken to his room, filled it with all the stuff from the room that he could cram into it, blankets, carpet, rugs, dresser scarfs and knick-knacks and he got away."
"The Bellvue-Stratford hotel has a remedy," said a member. "On every floor is a glass lookout. A young lady is placed in each one of these day and night, and can see, without being seen, all persons who come and go. When a guest leaves a room an inventory is immediately made of the room, and if anything is missing, the guest can be caught before he gets his bill paid at the office."
"In my hotel at St. Joe," said George Boone, "I had some gas stoves. One day I missed the silver ornament from one in room 11. I found that the occupant had just checked out, but that his grip was still at the check stand. It was not locked. I opened it, took out my ornament, but it back on the stove and closed up the grip. That guest never stopped at my hotel again."
"I got an envelope here a few days ago," said Frank Miller, of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas eating houses. "It contained $5. The note was unsigned, but the writer said he owed me that much for something he had taken. I never knew what it was or who took it."
And so they related experience after experience, but the final verdict was in harmony with that of A. J. Dean: "Go out and buy; six dozen more. That is the only sure remedy."
The meeting opened yesterday morning. Mayor H. M. Beardsley made the welcoming address. Reports of officers and a great deal of routine business was transacted. Frank Miller and D. C. Smith, of Kansas City, read papers. A number of other papers were read from members on the programme, who were unable to attend. The delegates will be here over tomorrow, and are down on the programme, as printed, "For good fellowship."
The banquet was held last night at the Savoy hotel. James A. Reed was the principal speaker. A programme of vaudeville from local theaters was put on.
