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Lern to spel — reed this

Melvil Dewey became famous for creating the Dewey Decimal System for library book classification when he was a 21-year-old student at Amherst College in 1872.

However, Mr. Dewey was famous here, as we all know, after he built the Lake Placid Club as a summer resort in the late 1890s. It was transformed into a year-round facility in 1904.

“He imported 40 hickory skis from Norway, he introduced the hardiest of his Club members to the bracing satisfaction of cross-country skiing, tobogganing and ice skating and Lake Placid became a winter resort.”

Reforming the language

Then Dewey founded the “Spelling Reform Association” and as the old saw goes, his guests could hardly read when they finished their vacations at the Club because all the brochures, menus and activity sheets were published in Dewey’s reformed language.

Luckily, in my meticulous files, I found one page out of what appears to be a 1920 employee handbook describing what the Club looks for in the character of those applying for jobs … The top of the page reads — “simpler spelling.”

“We are delujed with applications for both summer and winter engajements. From them we try hard to select those who wil best fit our peculiar conditions. As we ar open all year, we hold many of our staf and so hav to employ for summer and winter midseason only enuf to care for the extra gests then here.

“We lay great stres on the fact that our staf is a big family with relations very different from those in resorts and hotels. This makes it doubly important to select from the mas of applicants those who will simpathize with the unusual standards which the Club tries hard to maintain. Unless forced to do so from inability to find enuf workers for some emerjency, we will not employ those who use tobacco, or who are profane, vulgar, dirty or lazy, any more than we would those known to be dishonest. Employees found to hav these vices, we drop first, and then retain those whose habits suit our surroundings. Applicants must be honest, earnest and willing to do their part toward Club success according to its plan. For mere manual labor (digging ditches, sawing wood, etc.) we sometimes hav to employ others, but we wil not hav about the Club or in our permanent employ any whom investigation shows to be unworthy.

“The public recognizes Lake Placid as the most famous resort in America for winter sports, and its fame as a leading mountain resort in summer grows yearly. Placid is so preeminent in climate, skools, senery, libraries, churches, good roads, amusements, etc., that thousands of people each year think they would like to work for a few months in the most attractive place on the continent. On our side, we ar always glad to make a place for anyone very specially adapted to our needs and to drop the poorest of those staf, which runs from 300 in dul times to 900 at hyt of summer.

“No one should come who thinks our standards ar mere talking points that can be disregarded. One who disregards or violates Club rules, specially one who comes with the spirit of the beggar, showing by his manner that his purpose is to solicit tips, is sure to be dropt from our roll and sent home discredited. We hav applicants enuf so we can chose a hyer grade with too much self respect to solicit, even indirectly, petty gratuities.

“While, as in all clubs, tipping is strictly forbidden, instead of the usual rule of Christmas box distributed pro rata, all our members ar told they ar quite free, at the close of their visit, to giv money or other presents to any of the staf whose services hav specially pleasd them. This is purely voluntary, but in fact each year many of our yung people working their way thru collej get very substantial aid from those voluntary gifts bestowed in a delytful spirit of friendly interest instead of being like alms to a beggar.

“So many hav been told of the larj amounts given by welthy people in summer hotels that they think this is a lejitimate source of income. No one with that idea should come to the Club, but those with hyer standards of self respect ar quite likely to get as much or more money because their spirit is so much appreciated by our members.”

The Club was a incredible resort with its own United States Post Office, a chapel with six Tiffany windows with one signed by Louis Tiffany; shops, offices galore, a huge auditorium, dining rooms, golf courses, farms and a skeet range … not to mention all the cottages, huge laundry and other out buildings.

Many folks may not know this but the site of the Olympic ski jumps was originally the site of the Club ski jumps. Those two wooden ski jumps were the first demolition job preparing for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

I went to work at the Club as an employee of a Madison Avenue public relations firm, Weintraub & Fitzsimmons, and when their contract expired I was hired by the Club to take over the PR slot. I was later named general manager by owner John Swaim and then held that post when Key Bank foreclosed on the property. The big shots at Key Bank said, “You must know where all the skeletons are buried.” I sure did.

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