A Maxinkuckee Waiter  

WAY OF THE WORLD,

Was Once Their Equal and Declined to Serve, Them

In the Capacity of a Waiter—A Maxinkuckee Hotel Story.

'Summer resorts find it hard to get and retain help," said a Logansport citizen who spent the summer a Maxinkuckee.

Waiters are scarce and cooks who will work are as hard to find as violets in December.

Lake Maxinkuckee is no exception to the r ule and Charley Kiefer, who has had charge of the Bay View house for the season, has turned gray with worry over the question.

Not long- since there applied to him for a situation a seedy individual who was given a position as waiter in the dining room.

He arrived in the. evening, probably in a freight, and the next morning he waited upon the guests. No one of the many Indianapolis people there recognized him. It was a merry party that sat down to dinner that day

The new waiter came in and took a good batch of orders, but he staggered slightly as he went out.

The guests continued to talk and laugh. Only a few had noticed the confusion of the new waiter and no one recognized him. Oneyoung lady had been a school companion of his, but she had forgotten his face and laughingly said to a friend, as the young man stumbled out: "Our new waiter seemed to be badly rattled. Stage fright, I presume."

The guests waited but the young man failed to return. Kiefer was summoned and he started out to see what was the matter. He found his new help sitting on a bench near the lakeside, with his head buried in his hands and the tears running down his cheeks.

Kiefer began to admonish him, but he was interrupted by the remark: "My God, Kiefer, I can't do it. Why, I used to go to school with some of those folks—-used to visit their homes. Our families were friends, and to think of me waiting on them now."

That afternoon the young man left. He is a member of one of the leading families of Indianapolis, and has two uncles living there who are prominent in both business and politics.

His father was the black sheep of the family. After acquiring a good fortune he ran through it, and now he is not worth a cent. At one time, however, he moved in the best society and but a few y ears ago he left the city. His son says that the last time he saw him he was trying to pawn his watch in order to get a drink.

Logansport Pharos - 31 august 1894