"For which
reason," added the landlord, "it would be well for you to come in and be
at hand a quarter of an hour before the times I have mentioned." When I
had dined and supped and slept, I saw what a loss to Pittsburghers was
the closing of the Economy hotel; for the Harmonists live well, and are
substantial eaters in their German fashion. Nor was any ceremony omitted
because of the fewness of guests; and old Joseph, the butler and
head-waiter, who, as he told me, came to serve here fifty years ago, and
is now seventy-eight years old, attended upon my meals arrayed in a
scrupulously white apron, ordered the lass who was his subordinate, and
occasionally condescended to laugh at my jokes, as befitted his place,
with as much precision and dignity as when, thirty or forty years ago,
he used to serve a houseful of hungry travelers.
Later in the afternoon I discovered the meaning of my landlord's
warnings as to punctuality, as well as the real use of the "Economy
Hotel." As I sat before the fire in my own room after supper, I heard
the door-bell ring with a frequency as though an uncommon number of
travelers were applying for lodgings; and going down into the
sitting-room about seven o'clock, I discovered there an extraordinary
collection of persons ranged around the fire, and toasting their more or
less dilapidated boots.
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