ABSTRACT
To the French-named guest house, the Hotel de France, in the city of K. on the German border, there came a fashionably dressed young man. He sported a Napoleon III beard and his newly grown whiskers protruded like a rabbit s. His appearance and his conduct were that of one of the nobility. He mixed Russian and Polish together and no one realized he was Jewish. Religious bigotry and racism are not part of the make-up of most hotel porters and they do not care whether a guest is a Jew or a non-Jew, for all they are concerned with is money. When they see a well-dressed man, they know that he is wealthy and will tip liberally, and they greet him royally. So, when they saw a fashionably dressed man arriving at the Hotel de France, the porters were eager to greet him, and they competed to wait upon the young guest, and do his chores. A bare half hour after he had arrived, the head porter brought the guest register to him, and said very politely, “I am sure it has not escaped your attention, Your Excellency, that, in the name of the government, the police of the city have instructed us to record in this register the names of all guests who come to stay in our luxurious establishment. Therefore, Your Excellency, please may I record your name, family name and city of origin. It would also be most kind of Your Excellency if you would give me your passport, as the chief of police of our city has instructed us.”
