Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 411, 24 March 1904, Page 7

Traveller.

EXPERIENCE IN A HOTEL. fj£2> VIENNESE gentleman-it would fl£s be cruel to give hie name-had to JSum travel a short time ago to a town _ -i v inStyria to attend the funeral of his aunt. He reached Graz in the evening, and had to spend the night in a hotel before he oould continue his journey next day by an early train. ~ 1 K° r f « oi ?? to bed he put his trouserS and boots outside the door of hia room in order that the 'boots'might olean the one S S"fi ft? other early in the morning, S|o?up thCm * 6ady Wh ** He we s called, as he had directed, at an extremely early hour, next morning, and w»s considerably surprised not to find his boots and trousers ready for him outside the door. After waiting some time he rang for the 'boots,' who soon appeared, and informed him that he had brought theartiqlesin^uestionand.laid s them on the threshold some time before He could hardly be convinced that Herr X had not already taken them inside. The ohamber-maid was next summoned, but Bhe, too, could not explain the disappearance of the things A search was started high and low, but nothing was found; and finally the conclusion was forced upon everyone that these very necessary articles must have been stolen by some hotel thief.

, H ?? X Jf aa now in the greatest perplexity. What was he to do P la half an hour he had to be at the station. If he missed the train, he would be too late for his aunt's funeral,, and would thereby bring upon himself the resentment of his uncle—a rich and cbi'dless person from whom he flattered himself he had legitimate expectations. .Buy. some other boots and trousers ? Quite impossible, at that early hour; it was Sunday into the bargain, and no shops were open. Go he must, at all costs, but in his scanty attire he dare not even venture beyond the door of his room.

All he could do was to hold it half-open and exhaust his vocabulary of abuse in swearing aloud at the hotel and its staff, from the manager down to the porter. Finally, attracted by the noise, the hotelkeeper himself appeared on the scene, and endeavoured to calm Herr X/s rage, in order that the other guests in the hotel might not be awakened by the uproar "he was making. '-

Bat; Herr X, was act easy to appease, and at last the hotel-keeper proposed to him that he should pat oh a pair of his own black trousera and boots If Herr X. would do this, even though they might not be a perfect fit, he would at least be able to continue his journey. What could Herr ; X. do but accept this offer j and though he was a tall and slender man, and the hotel-keeper was very stout and short, he put on his trousers, which did not even reach his ankles, but were un-L necessarily big at another part of his anatomy, forced his feet into boots far too short for him, and so hobbled, painfully distressed and cursing, to the Btation. He felt himself a hideous caricature. However, he caught the train and reached his destination in time to join the funeral procession, though there was no time or opportunity to borrow other clothes and change. He had to walk behind the coffin at the aide of his uncle in the comic guise. The bystanders he' heard jeering openly at the strange figure he cut, but this and the wondering glances he intercepted from other members of the family troubled him less than the long-drawn-out agony he was suffering from the prolonged walk in excruciatingly tight boots. When at last the grave was reached the tears which he shed plentifully when the service waß being read had their origin not only in his grief for his beloved aunt, but also in the horrible pain of his cramped toes—though no one, of course, knew this but himself.

The young man now assured his friends —and it may well be believed—that when he related afterwards to his uncle all. that had happened, the rich mau was profound! j impressed with his heroism Herr X.'s chances of being the sole heir of the old gentleman are supposed to be far better now than before he lost his boots and trousers,