MIDLAND'S GUESTS
SEEK OTHER HOMES.
MANY OF THEM HAVE LIVED
THERE FOR YEARS.
Thomas R. Morrow and Alexander
Butts, Who Have Grown Gray
Under Its Roof, Among the
Homeless Now.
The A. J. Dean family moved out of the Midland yesterday, and the house isn't officially a hotel any more. Mr. Dean, one of the owners of the Baltimore Hotel Company properties, which included the Midland, took his family to the Hotel Baltimore. Mr. Dean took along another asset of the company -- Mrs. Lillian Harris, the cashier.
Miss Harris has been cashier in the front office of the hotel ever since the Deans took the property She goes to the Baltimore as cashier, after a three months' vacation. Mrs. Harris's home is Cameron. She will go there, and, later, visit in Colorado.
When the Dean family got out everybody made ready to move. The old hotel had guests who have lived there for many years and all have been forced out into the cr-o-o-l world. They are all lamenting the closing and some even have been moved to verse. Here's what Dr. J. W. McClure of Sedalia, a frequent guest for years, left with the cashier when he paid his account yesterday:
Dear old hotel, farewell, farewell;
I leave you now to bat and owl,
And the rodents' night and lonely prowl,
To festive board and gilded hall
Adieu, adieu, farewell to all.
The accompanying $10 note was graciously accepted by the cashier, who charged off the doctor's account and pasted the near-poetry in her scrapbook.
Big Jim Adams of Ardmore, Ok., pays his board and room, of course, but has been looked upon as official entertainer in the lobby of the old hostelry. Adams, who is so great physically that no man dare deny him, declared last night that he would not move until thrown out, and Chief Clerk Randolph graciously invited him to stay as long as he pleased.
But the other regular guests will be seeking homes. For instance, there is Judge Thomas R. Morrow, of the law firm of Lathrop, Morow, Fox & Moore. He has been in the hotel fourteen years. He announced yesterday that his effects would be moved today to the Lorraine.
F. R. Gregg, one of the best-known characters about the lobby of the hotel, hasn't yet found a place to cache his grip. Gregg is a Rock Island engineer, and has lived in the Midland in the same room for ten years.
H. B. Prentice, banker, goes to the Densmore to live, and the other regular guests yesterday followed his lead by seeking new homes. Alexander Butts, a newspaper writer, whose face has been familiar in the lobby, hasn't found a stopping place. Neither has Charlie Lantry nor T. H. Gilroy.
J. A. Fleming of Uncle Sam oil fame, sat dejected at his dinner last night, thinking over the list of possible apartments, and Max Hoffman, the spiritualist, looked just as dejected in another corner of the cafe. He hadn't located either.
L. B. Lamson, the man who invented dairy lunches, and Dr. P. T. Bowen and R. T. Campbell of the "Katy" will go out at daybreak this morning looking for new quarters. The transient guests got cold feet and began to pull out yesterday.
The hotel company has taken care of most of the employes. Thomas B. Bishop goes to the Densmore and T. E. Randolph to the Hotel Baltimore. Miss Barbara Stuber, who has been assistant cashier in the private office, goes to the Royal hotel at Omaha, and John Clemons, A. J. Dean's private cashier, goes to take a similar place at the Hotel Baltimore.
