The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 3, 1926, Page 10

By BASIL G. KALFIDES, S often is the case with the hotel waiters, I was out of work walking the streets of New York looking for a job. For a hotel wait- er can lose his job for any little reason you may imagine, for scratching his head, for lean- ing against the wall after the rush is over, for speaking to the guests or for not doing so, for not smiling to the guests or for doing so, for saying good morning to the guests or for not doing so. ; The slogan of the hotel owners is: “Right ‘or Wrong, the Guests Are Always Right.” So you can imagine what the waiters have to struggle against. They have to deal with cranky old. bourgeois _ ladies “who will kick even in heaven,” as an Irish waiter remarked ‘to me one day. They have to deal with young ‘sophisticated intellectual bourgeois boys and | girls, most.of whom are vegetarians, and will ask for anything except things that are on the ,bill of fare. They have to put up with the swell-headed bourgeois women who will call ' up-captains, head waiters, maitre d’hotel, and * managers to complain about the “service,” just to make a show and to feel the power they possess and how important they are. The waiter is sacrificed on the altar of the conceit and false pride of a nervous bourgeois woman. For all those things and for a million other reasons it is customary and normal for a hotel waiter to be out of work—to be on the road most of the time. AS I was walking in the center of the great metropolis of wealth around the hotel zone near the Grand Central high class apart- ment hotels at. Forty-ninth street and Park avenue, in New York City, my friend Gus, with whom I had worked in many places, hurried towards me and with a smile on his face told me: “Come on, get ready, there is a chance for you in the hotel where I work in the room service. I spoke to the head waiter about you and he told me, ‘All right, bring him around and I will see how he looks.’ You have to have a new full dress suit, he told me, and the " trousers have to have black silk stripes’ * The head waiter is very particular—he wants first- class service, you know. Also, you have to have five or six clean stiff front shirts and French military collars. You have to have pat- ent leather shoes, for he always examines our shoes. They have to be shined at all times so you save trouble by wearing patent leather shoes. Have everything prepared so that you can start to work right away.” So I took the street leading to Seventh ave- nue where the second-hand clothing stores are located, looking for a full dress. I had about fifteen dollars in my pocket, and I had to be very careful how I spent the money to make it last till I got the job. Therefore, I was very cautious in buying the full dress and all the paraphernalia that goes with it. I went to a second-hand clothing store and asked for a second-hand full dress. The storekeeper asked me if I was going to use it for dancing pur- poses, or if I was a waiter. I answered him that I was a working man, a waiter, and he un- derstood. He brought down from the shelf different kinds and sizes of dress coats. ‘Mil- lionaires wore them before,” he told me; “they cost hundreds of dollars, but you can have any one you choose for twenty dollars.” I told him once more that I knew the game and I offered him ten dollars. After a formal deliberation, he agreed and we closed the deal. - Next I had to get some stiff shirt fronts, cuffs and military collars for which I spent about three dollars. I did not have to buy any patent leather shoes, for I happened to have them from the previous job. : NEXT morning, with the waiter’s panoply in my suit case, I started for the hotel. I went thru the delivery door, the employe’s entrance... As I went in, the timekeeper asked me whom I wished to see. Thé house detec-. tive was standing just like a dragon staring at me with a suspicious look. ~«i toldv-him I wanted to see the head waiter. ‘The detectiverasked“me if I was looking for a job. I answered him, “Yes Sir,” ‘ He called the head waiter on the telephone and the head waiter told him that I could go down ‘to see him, Accompanied by the de- tective, I went down two basements. On one side’ was the baggage room where all the trunks of the guests were piled up in big rows. I read different labels of hotels pasted on the trunks, Paris, Berlin, London, a alia vie Se A i am Raa ue ay Heaven and Hell in New York Hotels Beach, San Francisco, Tokio, Pekin, Bombay, | her apartment. He gave us the order ona Alexandria, and all other countries of the world. Two Irish porters worked furiously tak- ing in and shipping out the trunks of the trav- eling bourgeois guests. As we went forward we passed the laundry where the work was done exclusively by wom- en working at a frantic speed trying to keep up with the machine, folding napkins, table- cloths and Bed linen as they came out of the mangle. A big cloud of steam coming out of the wet clothes as they were ironed out, filled the room so that you could not distinguish the working women in the laundry. You could only hear the voice of the forelady, “Hurry up, hurry up!” It seemed to me like a holy picture, picturing the descent of the god of the capitalist in a cloud of smoke, preaching the gospel of the speed-up and_ exploitation system. We went up one stairway, and we were in the office of the head waiter. ..~ The head waiter, a tall, thin fellow, with a mephistophelian. smile greeted me, “Good morning.” His Mechanical smile which he in- herited as a habit trying to look pleasant to the guests betrayed his real self, an unscru- pulous slave driver. He asked me the follow- ing questions: “Where did you work before? Do you speak good English? Are you married or single? What nationality? How much do you weigh? Do you drink? What religion do you believe in? Are you a union man? Answer me why you quit your last job and how long you work- ed there?” And different other questions to none of which I answered the truth. For if I had told the truth, I would never have gotten the job. After this cross-examination, he told me that I could start to work that night at five o’clock. They had several big parties, and he needed help anyway. He told the detective to take me up to the office to sign the contract. I went into the office where a young girl had the contracts ready. She showed me the dot- ted line where to. sign, .I did not know what the contract said, or-how much the wages would'be-or how.many hours I.would work or would get a day off a week or none at all. I would not dare to ask such questions or read the contract for they would be sus- picious that I might be a revolutionary work- er, a union man. ~ I learned later from my friend, that the con- tract which I signed says that the boss has the right to discharge you any time, but if you want to leave you have to notify the boss a week before. That the wages were ten dol- lars a week and two days a month off. The workers who wanted to get four days a month off, had their wages reduced to eight dollars a week, : After the contracts were signed, I got my waiter’s badge for which I paid one dollar, and fifty cents for the key of my locker. After all this red tape the detective took me down to the locker room where I put my clothes. I went out with only fifty cents in my pocket, after I paid for my clothes, badges and keys $14.50 out of my whole capital of $15.00. I RETURNED at five o’clock and went straight to the floor where all the waiters were. gathered. One of the waiters came in with an order from the head waiter: “All waiters and bus boys in the grill room. The head waiter is going to lecture.” : We all gathered in a circle around the head waiter who gave us a lecture on how to be clean and courteous to the guests. “Your faces,” he said, “look terrible. You have no smile in your face. What’s the matter? You don’t get enough sleep or something? I know you are all working hard and long hours, but that has nothing to do with your being cour- teous and smiling once in a while. If you have troubles at home with your wife and children, leave them home or around the corner before you. come to the hotel. Don’t bring them in. The guests want a pleasant man to serve them. They don’t want to know your troubles,” After this brilliant lecture he started a gen- eral inspection, inspecting our hair, ears, fin- ger nails, fronts, cuffs, clothes, and shoes. A captain with a blue pencil was following him, and he dtew two crossed lines on every shirt front, which he thought was'not clean enough. So the waiter had either to change his front or not work at all, Then he divided us into different groups to serve different parties. I and two other waiters had to serve Mrs, Van Nice, Palm|der Parasite, who gave a party of sixteen in of paper as follows: Amandes Sale’s. Celery and Olives. Canape du Caviare, Hoes D’Oeuvre Speciale. Consomme grenadin en tasse. Filet de Sole Anglaise Veronique pommes Pariah enne. Petit pois francals, Quails en current jelly. Pommes Anna, Artichoke Hollandaise, Petit pois mouveaux. Pear coronation salad, . : Fromage Assortie, Camembert, Roquefort, Port du Salut, Cream Cheese. Baked Alaska or Profit Rolls. Demitasse, Wi Toast Melba, ! é “We, the three waiters came together, studi the order well and we divided the work so we could get as good service as possible. O waiter went to get the table and set it in the room. I went to get the gold plates, the silver and the glasses. The other waiter went to or- der the stuff in the kitchen. In ten, minutes all three of us were up in the apartment fixing the table. The maid gave us an order not to put any linen on the tale because her mistress wanted to put her own gold embroidered table cloths and napkins which she valued with pride at ten thousand dollars. A pet monkey which was sitting by the lux- urious fireside watched us working furiously following every move we made. The walls of the dining room were covered with precious Persian rugs. In one corner was the statue of Buddha and in the corner oppo- site some holy’ vestments, antiques, of the By- zantine time. The head whiter rushed up with two bus boys loaded with cracked ice and glasses of different shapes and forms, cocktail glasses, champagne glasses and cordial glasses. He di- rected the setting of the table. In the mean- time, he put the champagne, the private stuff that the hostess had; on ice; atid’ started ‘Shak-" ing the cocktails. Mrs. Van der Parasite emerged from an ad- joining room to supervise the setting of the table. She gave all of us waiters the once over, holding a pair of lorgnettes in her hand. She was not satisfied with the appearance of the waiters. She did not like my face and complained to the head waiter why he did not have Theodore, a young pleasant looking Greek, and very obedient servant. “I pay enough money,” she said, “and I must have what I want.” ‘ And she was right. Today the hotel wait- ers have to sell not only their energy and pow- er, but their appearance and looks are also a commodity on the market. { The head waiter with a pleasant diploma way pacified her and told her that Theodo was off that day. IN a few minutes the guests started to come. I dashed down to get the Caviar which we served in the Reception Room with the cock- tails. The other waiter brought up the Hors D’Oeuvre appetizers which were prepared with much art and skill to please the guests. One cook was working all day to fix the Hors D’Oeuvres. Everything was ready, and the hostess called everybody and seated them in their proper places at the table. Before the guests sat down we turned the lights out and we lighted some blue colored candles so as to give a mysterious and romantic atmosphere. _Two waiters passed around the Hors D’Oeu- vre, while the other one came up with a hr¢ge electric heater in one‘ hand and a table in fle other, bringing in the consomme. He | under the heavy load and heat of the heater. The perspiration was pouring down his face and the heavy dress but added to the heat. I helped him take down the table. An expres- sion of relief was apparent in his face as he muttered: “It’s a) great life if you don’t weaken.” ‘ I and another waiter went down to get the next course. It was in the zenith of the rush time. All the dining rooms were filled. The waiters swarmed in the kitchen just like a colony of ants around a sugar bowl, carrying their orders on_silver platters and covers to serve their masters. The chef was hollering the orders in French and in a loud tone so he could be heard from the deafening noise that was made by the dishwashing machine and ' = rogerecr noe ae ¢ costes oOo paoewy 7 oem room str ec act cftantoddatet ARP HOOD Mona Set Ftd rei — © Dem >» & Beeeant ame aS LS tts