"The Kansas City Journal" (Missouri) Tuesday, May 5, 1903 BRINGS THEM BAD LUCK Most hotel clerks dislike to see the register closed. Some of them would say that their desire to have it remain open is in order that it may be ready for the signatures of guests. But there are other clerks who don't mind telling the real reason. It is because they have a feeling that it is unlucky to close the register. It is a sort of superstition just as other people have against doing things on Friday or beginning a journey on the 30th day of the month. Hotels are not more given to superstition than are people, although there is no room 13 in most of them. While the superstition is not generally well known among people who travel, it does not often happen that a clerk is compelled to rush to the desk in order to prevent a guest from closing the book. That is what happened at one of the big hotels yesterday, and it was because the absent- minded man would have closed the book. The clerk told of the feeling most hotel clerks have about the bad luck that will follow the closing of the register. It is a good deal like the mental attitude of the small boy who crosses his fingers when a cross-eyed person looks at him. "Of course," said the clerk, "I do not think it makes any difference. In fact, I am sure it don't -- but I never allow the book to be closed during my watch if I can beat the other fellow to it. Hotel registers are to be written in, anyway, and a man can't write in them if they are closed." ====================================================== neirbo7