The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, December 14, 1928, Page 12

By ALLENE SUMNER (NEA Service Writer) Washington, Dec. 14.—If you ask them, as not so many people do, hotel employes, chambermaids, ele- vator boys, waiters, porters and floor clerks, aren’t so all in an ecstacy: about the return of the native con- gressman and senator from his great open spaces as might be expected. No man is a hero to his valet, they say, except about the time he decides to give away all his old suits, and by the same token, the men “on the hill” seem in highest regard by “those who serve them” at the time of departure rather than arrival. Washington hotel employes know the genus congressman—his habits, customs, prospects, even more than one might think, for at least 50 per cent of these temporary residents of the capital live in hotels during the congressional term. ee A larger percentage of representa- | tives live in hotels than senators, which, considering minimum hotel rates of $30 a week for every mem- ber of the family, and average rent- als of $50 a week, seems strange, till one begins inquiring about house and apartment rents. Then one understands why Mr. Congressman flocks to the hotels while Mr. Sen- ator has his house. Hotel employes list their causes for dissatisfaction according to their own jobs. Elevator boys, for in- stance, say that their speed is ap- preciably decreased after the con- gressmen return, and that lesser mortals who are just as anxious to get to the coffee shop or the barber shop get grouchy and blame the boys. “They're so gabby,” one vaseline- haired sheik confided. “They’re al- ways seeing somebody they know just as the elevator stops, and they have to rep to talk before getting in. Then they go through all this monkey business of jockeying around, trying to decide who'll get aboard first.” ‘ * * Chambermaids display a becoming reticence but indicate that they could “write volumes” if encouraged. Causes of complaint seem to range from the congressional custom of always kicking the sheets up from the bottom of the bed, necessitating a complete bed overhauling every day, to charges even more heinous. “I suppose they have so much on their minds that they can’t sleep quiet like other pepole,” one naive maid philosophized, “but they don't use their ash trays either.” “It’s because they come from such funny Places and ain't so used to hotels,” supplemented the desk lady who had brought Rose, the chamber- maid, up for moral support in the interview. “Now their women folks are queer, too. We’ve got one here who never has had her hair bobbed because people have always told her what beautiful hair she has. When she has an appointment down in the hair shop she goes down in the ele- vator with those two braids of hair swinging like horsetails, and if some- body says ‘you don’t see hair like that these days!’ she thinks she’s drawn a swell compliment.” iar It seems, too, that the wives of the men on the hill have the same an- noying habit of trying out their lip- stick shades on the wall paper as* have lesser ladies. “And they expect so much for the same money as other folks pay!” one waiter confided. “If you have a special dinner with choice of sweet otatoes with pork chop or roast ef with creamed potatoes, they al- ways want to know if they can’t have the sweet potatoes with the roast beef.” Head waiters look bored at the very mention of the congressional inmates. There seem to be about 20 in the city’s swankiest hotel. The head waiter has served the world’s great. His pedigree extends back to grandfather who baked cakes for ‘apoleon. His conversation bristles with rissole, saute, aspic en jellee, canape, and he talks of terrapin and squab and caviar as lesser mortals murmur “ham an’.” Pierre, which isn’t his name, for he refuses to be quoted, says that he has never met a congressman yet who got through a meal without missing on his manners at least once. “Some of them know enough to dip their soup away from their face,” he confided, “but they’re the ones who use their salad fork for the oysters and seem to think the oyster fork’s a toothpick. If they know enough to keep their entree and salad forks straight, they’re sure to use their coffee spoons for dessert. But then—” he ended magnanimously, “few folks know how to get through a meal right in this country, any- way.’ That’s why I like to see the poe set come in. No fooling ‘hem on knives and forks!” Poor congressman! Nobody seems to love him! a [_IN NEW YORK i _IN NEW YORK | New York, Dec. 14—A great army of old men and women shuffle across the, confused pattern of Man-| d hattan’s daily life. 3 You meet them hanging wearily from subway straps. You meet them before dawn, carrying scrub pails and brooms to their scenes of labor. You meet them at the corner news- stands, huddled in overcoats. You meet them aebiing up and down the crowded stree‘s with sandwich signs upon their backs. But wherever and however you meet them, you are likely to say to yourself: “Old man and old ‘woman, what are you doing here? How does it pappen that you are caught in a city that has little place for the old and broken? Why don’t you get away?” 3 And before the question is framed, you know there is no answer. What answer there might be can be read in their faces. Watching them, as I have watched them, you may be re- minded of old dray horses being whip, down the cobbled streets; old horses that strain and tug lod along ever so slowly. Watcl them, as I have watched them, you sense a listlessness, a blank weari-ess, a dejection, hope- Jessness; a human living within a shell and looking blankly out, with- out much interest and with less hope. Te would be pleasant to find des- pair in those faces, too! But they tomeihing drastic, por the faces upon faces of those it haunts. Nt aca of old men and \vomen are beyond expres- sion. on geek blankly, dully ahead y 8 le passing be- fore them, "hie has become a wear- eal ietiring. Only the shel porns hy 7 - i " In New York there is also an 6f old men and women who re- flect the ease and Juxury that is theirs. None in all. the metropolis is bet- and at 5 ter ed ittended. The old men are handsome fig- as they step spryly up the ave- on a Sunday morning. Their steel-gra- huir is set off by the are sy Sag) round, their ht and their carriage erect. swing gold-knobbed They have the confidence of 3 they have of tall top hats; their} P°! cars, driven by liveried chauffeurs. Often their white hair is bobbed and their attire of the latest Paris mode; again, they reflect the aristocracy of the naughty nineties. Along Fifth avenue the club win- lows reveal groups of whitehaired men in natty afternoon attire, slouching comfortably in easy chairs as they scan the Wall Street columns, Or ’ou’ll meet them in the heart of the Wall Street belt, brisk- ly swinging into office buildings. In all New York there is no great- er contrast than that between the folk who are pour and the folk who are rich, I remember one day coming up- on two bent and broken sandwich men who stood in mumbling con- versation before the window of a smart Fifth avenue club. And in the window stood a frock-coated old man, swinging a gold knife in his hand and staring out at them as if fascinated by contemplation of their plight. It seemed to me that he must have been saying to himself: “There, but for the grace of God, stand I.” : GILBERT SWAN. (Copyright 1928, NEA Service, Inc.) ° a i AT THE MOVIES | (ee en ELTINGE THEATRE Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, wandering through mysterious grot- toes, amid weird r umm ini shadows, and secret tra hurl the heroes of “Rookies” into the black depths, are making their bow in a new and very hilarious type of comedy at the Eltinge in “Detec- tives,” showing Saturday. It is a straight mystery story with all the thrills of the crook drama at its best—and the comedy is intro- duced when Dane and Arthur, as a “hick” house detective and a bellbo: who aspires to be a second Sherloci Holmes, blunder innocently into one tense situation after another. CAPITOL THEATRE “Clearing the Trail,” Hoot Gib- son’s latest starring production for Universal, is entertaining local fans at the Capitol Theatre. The picture is she kind that bas yao ives oo pular, containing the pro} jlend- ing of thrills, comedy “ype It is reported to be one of his best in FLAPPER F, G) Cup oF BLACK COFFEE A LITTLE STIMULANT = AND TRS RESTLESS MAN wha ONTINUE TO DISTANT PARTS ~ MILES~ MILES = MORE MILES bij, NON CANNE ly “Y ‘AND Vy sr Wai, “SOME NEW PEOPLE T MET AT MRS. BORING'S BRIDGE PARTY BROUGHT LOOKING NEW CAR — SIMDLY A BEAUTY | WELL ~ IFITBN MR. AUSSTINN DOING HIS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING= SHOPPING HEAVENS POP I DIDN'T NOTICE. I WAS SO THRILLED WITH THE GORGEOUS POWDER.’ BLUE - UPHOLSTERING, AND Te BODY - WELL ;T TOUGHT I'D LOSE_MW' MIND OVER IT. A STUNNING PURPLE ITH POWDER: BLUE HEELS. HAF WE EVER GET : ER CAR 1" £4 fn ure ee DOING YouR EARLY -EH?, YOU'RE susT TNE PERSON Alans HIs- IWANT TOSEE) ire ASKING UGH ORDER . E'NE TRAMPED OTEN MILES ALREADY- f WELL - TLL Tey JUST : U IE MORE PLACE HEY, “TH’ Boss WANTS “Te SEE YOU FER Ye SUGGEST FOR MARY SHAT ANYTHI THAT WOULD PLEASE HER SHE Motto \ WANT TO GET HER SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY =) (NHEELS TO MATCH THE D UPHOLSTERING 2 ° CAN'T Ya SEE | GOT ,MY HANDS FULL! By Blosser |.