He was a highly agreeable youth, this chap. Always "wore" a
silver-headed cane. I'm sorry to have to say that he is now in jail.
Yep! You see, he had many attractive qualities, but dependability was
not a feature of his equipment. However, his is a resilient nature, and,
fortunately, he is an epicure by temperament. I was rather distressed,
myself, when I heard that he was in jail; and other of his friends that
I met also were decidedly disturbed about him. One day one of them got a
letter from him (it was in France, you know, that he was then in jail),
a bubbling, delightful letter (just like the youth), in which he
declared with much gusto that the jail he was in had the best menu of
any jail in France.
But about hotels. Oh, yes!
I always like those huge, brown-paper laundry bags they have hanging up,
pressed beautifully flat, in the rooms, closets or bathrooms of hotels.
You can't roll up your laundry all in one wad and thrust it into one of
these bags, because this would tear the bag. The way to do is to put in,
for instance, first your collars, then, say, your sox, follow perhaps
with your shirts, and so on. In hotels of the very first water, you have
observed, a neat little pocket is attached to the outside of the bag,
into which you have the fun of pinning your laundry slip, all
elaborately made out.
Next thing, of course, is to get your laundry started on its way. And
here come up a view of the nice nuances of hotels. You gotta watch your
Ps and Qs in these matters or you're likely to get a black-eye at your
hotel. All right in a modest sort of place just to holler down the
telephone for a boy. Then you say to boy, waving hand toward objects:
"Laundry to go down, suit to be pressed, hat to be ironed, shoes to be
polished, letters to be mailed," and so forth. Boy gathers up
miscellaneous collection of articles and proceeds upon these divers
assignments. Presto! Nothing further to detain you.
But suppose you have gone in for a little more class in the matter of
your hotel--Statler, or something like that. Then you find much more of
a ritual to life. To accomplish your existence requires thought, a clear
head--and time. You pay the penalty of the dignity of pomp and
circumstance. No large, off-hand, free and easy manner about sending up
a boy. The "operator" knows nothing of boys. In the matter of your
laundry you may request her to connect you with the "bell captain,"
through whose agency (but not otherwise) a boy may be procured. One
message. In the matter of your suit you may request to be connected with
the "valet service." Message two. And so on.
Then you sit you down and await the procession. Or, if you prefer,
contemplate the spectacle of life by looking out at the window.
You fee Buttons. Lapse of time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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