American Notes BOSTON

When Boston's legendary mayor James Michael Curley was leaving city hall late one night, tradition has it, he observed cleaning women scrubbing the floor on their hands and knees. In memory of his mother, a scrubwoman, the next day Curley provided the women with long-handled brushes so they could perform their chores standing up.

Curley's ghost must have had its Irish up last month when Boston's posh Copley Plaza Hotel ordered its maids to turn in their sloppy mops and go back to cleaning bathroom floors by hand. Outraged maids filed a labor grievance and threatened a walkout. Last week, under pressure from the hotel workers and other unions as well as the National Organization for Women, the Copley backed down.