AUTO CHASE MAY RESULT IN POLICEMAN'S DEATH

Washington Times
December 6, 1902

Refused Quarters Until Identity Is Learned

FRANKFORT, Ky., Dec. 6.—An automobile party consisting of Mayor Tom L. Johnson, his son and his driver, had trouble getting accomodations in Frankfort Thursday night.

Young Johnson, dressed in rough hunting clothes and a leather auto cap, entered the Capitol Hotel, bespattered with mud and asked for rooms, saying that his name was Johnson. The night clerk sized him up and told him the house was full.

Then Johnson tried another hostelry. There the night clerk had a conference with the manager and he reported the house as full.

Young Johnson walked out into the snow storm, and as he turned from the lighted lobby, said, "I reckon they take us for a set of tramps, and I don't blame them."

By this time the hotel people learned whom they had turned down, and there was a wild scramble to retract and explain. The best in both hotels was soon at the command of the Johnson party and they stopped where they first sought shelter.

Mayor Johnson and party have been through Kentucky on a hunting and pleasure trip and left for Louisville yesterday.