Business, as I have said, was driving and I had procured a young man by the name of Thompson to assist the artist in finishing up pictures. He was really a fine young fellow, and his father had a large photograph gallery of his own, in which Aleck would have continued to work had he so chosen. But he took a notion to see something of the world, and so came out to me, where he could knock around a bit and at the same time draw good wages for a fair amount of labor.
As a rule I stopped at pretty good hotels, where, however, I generally secured fair rates. Shortly after Aleck joined me we were in a town where we had to accept a lodging place that was far from satisfactory. The house was tolerable, considering, and I had obtained pretty good terms, but the landlord was one of those extremely stingy, miserly fellows that are repulsive to everybody and gives one a pain to be thrown with. He was so stingy it even seemed to hurt him to give change. I honestly believe he was the original introducer of the fad of using a wart on the back of his neck for a collar button. He kept one of those characteristic hotels so familiar to all traveling men, and in the office there hung a sign something like this:
Single Meals, 20 Cents.
Day Board, $3.00 Per Week.
Drummers, $2.00 Per Day.
The landlord was not only mean and miserly, but he was given to the use of strong drink. It was told as an actual fact that in one of his drunken fits he walked out of his room, leaving his latch key on the table. The door locked behind him and when he was ready to return he climbed over the door, through the transom, and secured the key. He then crawled back into the hall, through the same hole, unlocked the door and staggered in.
Some of his transient guests once played a good joke on him, which gave him a great deal of free advertising.
At that hotel prunes were served as a dessert three times a day and thirty days in the month. A crowd of traveling men were sitting at the dinner table, discussing various topics, when the landlord walked in. One of the knights of the grip called to him:
“Say, landlord, we have made a wager here, and you are the only man who can settle it.”
“What is it?” said mine host.