Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1917 — SILVER IS TAKEN [ARTICLE]

SILVER IS TAKEN

Guests Cost Big Hotels Fortunes Every Year. Managers of New York Hostelrloo Declare They Must Replace Hundreds of Thousands of Dollar*’ Worth of Valuable*. Are people who live in hotels less honest than those who stick to their own home and fireside? The stewards of the big New York hotels, who each year spend hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing missing silverware and furnishings, say they are. The ravages of souvenir-hunting guests as well as college boys and girls with a fad for collecting hotel silver, together with the wear and tear of the regular routine business costs each large hotel between $600,000 and $700,000 a year. The hotel managers hold their guests responsible for the loss of silverware stolen by employees, saying the servants just Imitate the guests. In addition to the losses through souvenir-hunters thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of small tableware, oyster forks, butter plates, spoons and bread-spreaders are overlooked and thrown away. The hotel refuse is carefully examined before it leaves the hotel and an average of half a barrel of ware is recovered each day. But in spite of all precautions a good deal is thrown away. The next most costly item of expense is in the china and glassware. It eosts one hotel more than sloo,ooo'' a year to keep itself in these two items of tableware. The linen item In one of the Fifth avenue hotels cost $95,000 when the hotel opened last year. Since that time more than $20,000 has been used to replenish the supply. All of this linen comes from the north of Ireland. The war has made it Increasingly difficult to get the right quality because most of the best flax in the world came from Belgium. In the same hotel $12,500 was spent for candle and lamp shades before the hotel was opened. In the past year $7,000 has been spent for new stock. As the shades range in price from $1 to S2O it is easy to see where the money goes. A small detail in the annual budget of a hotel is matches. In spite of the fact that electricity is used exclusively,2o,ooo boxes are needed each month. And soap! Last year one hotel used 28,420 cakes of soap. ——r A monster new hotel is being erected in New York and the purchasing agent has been very busy laying in supplies. As a sample of his purchases the following may be mentioned : 160,000 pieces of silver in one day, costing $243,000; 18,000 sheets and pillow cases; 60,000 towels for rooms and 18,000 for the restaurant department He is going to buy thousands of beds, chairs, desks, hatracks, bookcases and other furnishings before he is finished, and in addition he Is in the market for baby carriages, toothpicks, cooks’ caps, bath mats, sates and about ten dozen other things.