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OldWaldorf Bar Days
ceeded in convincing the disputants that New York was
a closed town for shooting just then, and that there were
better places to settle quarrels than the Waldorf Bar.
In
justice to the ability and services of another, one
must add that the fame that accrued to Joe Smith was
more than once a sort of "transferred epithet." On call
for many years was one of the most efficient detectives
I have ever known-,--another "Joe." His last name I
shall not give, because anonymity was one of his most
effective aids in running down crooks. Often it happened
that after the world had been told that some thief who
had plied his trade at the old Waldorf, or had menaced
one or more of its patrons, had been caught, and thus
had increased Joe Smith's chest measurement several
inches, it would be discovered that the other Joe had
done the work. Several times I protested to the latter,
and often asked him to let me tell of some of his experi–
ences- which, I believe, would make some of the thrill–
ers current look like bed-time stories. But this was the
invariable answer:
"Oh, hell! Joe Smith likes that stuff and I don't. He
pays me; let him have the .credit. Why, if you were to
tell anything about me, it would put a crimp in all my
work."
And I stilrthink the· anonymous Joe one of the most
effective sleuths that have ever run down hotel pests.
Sometimes occurred in the room minor disturbances
of a harmless chat'acter, when practical jokers would
select a victim for their fun.
There was the case of a Mr. Jones- his first name is
lost to fame - who came m one day and innocently
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