May 27, 1913 A new hotel in Paris; story of a poor man

I'm late with this, but it's a marvelous story--so read on!

Earl Redman writes: 

On 27 May ‘Abdu’l-Bahá moved to a new hotel on Rue Lauriston where He was forced to rest for several days. The hotel food did not suit the Master so the Dreyfus-Barneys and Ahmad Páshá cooked for Him at their homes, though He asked them not to do so.

            As always, the poor were just as attracted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as were the rich, but didn’t always have the same reception. This wasn’t due to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, but to those around Him. At one of the hotels the Master stayed in while He was in Paris, a poor black man came to see Him. The man was not a Bahá’í, but was completely in love with the Master. When the man tried to enter the hotel, someone told him that the management of the hotel did not want him there because ‘it was not consistent with the standards of the hotel’. The man was forced to leave. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá learned of this, He was very unhappy and called for the person responsible, whom He immediately sent off to find the rejected man and to bring him to His Presence. Said the Master, ‘I did not come to see expensive hotels or furnishings, but to meet My friends. I did not come to Paris to conform to the customs of Paris, but to establish the standard of Bahá’u’lláh‘.[iii]