1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

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 [ 92]