The New York herald., 1868-04-29

G external proprety: volume, In fact, might be
written on the vicious ana vitiating tendencies OF
the lodging house system ana it Is really wonder
that some person with both tie time and patience to
developed thorough expose OF its manners and
morals from actual statistics There is not the
slightest d9usnor can there be in the mind Of any
minor vice, immortality and ill-breeding which in
fects the city is due to the want of anything ike
restralpng nnuencesA at home; for the lodging house
ha6itoe has really kome and is little Better than
gentee vagrant and itnerant, subject to every
living and falling under adequate counteracting
social influences This subject however is one for
ncena IN ana CT s snd
hotel hot life proper, which is scarcely better
and business economy. Without exception, people
who subsst in this way fall into habits Of uxsous
greater extent OF what Is termed the European
plan OF living out OF which the lodging house system
has been developed. Twenty years ago hotel on
York city fifteen years ago as a mode Of living it
received very little patronage; ten years ago the
system had not become at all general and 1t not
until late 1860 that the system BECAME general
~ popular. The first attempt to carry out this sys
In Houston street, which was then considered an eX
ceedingy arstocranc street. For year or more this
was the only house OF the kind in the CITY, ana
mostly frequented by stylish foreigners TO the for
eign element, in fact are largely due the general
prevalence and popularity OF the system which was
not as extravagant t9en as 1t Is now, though even
then 1t was far more expensive than regular board.
The system strengthened, however and waxed more
universal from year to year. principally by Of
its convenience and partially no doubt by reason Of
s irregularity and want of restraint; since, under
it, it was quite possible to know nobody and be
known by nobody, desideratum to class OF rather
irregular young men who mad no liking for regular
& habits TO this SYSTEM therefore-whch beges,
logical consequence, irregularity OF morals-New
York Is indebted for a great part OF the petty dis
and it Is to be hoped that a reform and return to
regularity of habits may be in some way brought
about.
Unfortunate as the system is in its effects upon
public morals, and indeed, upon manners, there
seems to be no remedy for 1t just now; nOne in fact
until easy egress to the suburbs shall have been
opened, for people must abide somewhere, and very
few indeed afford to be economically particular.
1t requires in fact some little capital to start In life
in this city upon economical principles, and very
few ever succeed in amassing the little capital which
is necessary. A handto-mouth system Of living I'm
hotels and lodging houses is the consequences; and
this being system which from its eXpensiyeness
entails itself there Is really no hope for persons with
short sort OF Promethean existence, IN which,
bound to the rock of daily wants, one is compelled
keepers, and renediless poverty. With all these
arguments against it the system is however, on the
It, bee Sus Hr 3 Wiz b s G
long as it shall be impossible to live out Of town in
consequence of insufficient means Of transit.
The failure of the great Central Park and Fifth
Avenue Hotel PROJECT, which to have eliminated
in the largest hotel ever erected in this city, Fifth
Avenue, opposite the Park, seems to have put tenn
porary stop to the erection OF first class hotels
high up as Fiftynnth street. though the time Is no
doubt near at hand VIII en- the Park will be the great
hotel centre Of the city and when the hotels
scattered along Broadway Will have dwindled into
comparatively second class institutions. The pro-
ject doubt prematurelv set foot, but was
nevertheless based upon sound business principles,
which will be carried into effect with profit when
the great lines OF cross town travel shall have been
pushed further northward. The time is, indeed,
not very far distant when the great arteries OF
passengers who now landed at the Jersey
City ferry will be landed as far north as
HOboken and Weehawken-a procedure which
will be necessitated by the development of jersey
City as centre of business and great commercial
sub-city of New York. The Hudson River and Har-
lem Railroad termini viii also, in due season, be
pushed northward, and the cOnverging centre OF
travel will be located considerably further north
than nova result which will necessitate the build
ing of vast hotels where only smal. affairs exist now,
a. well as in the comparative abandonment OF the
present locations. Results like these being only gues-
t0ns of time, 1t is hardly strange that attempts
should be made, and are being made, to secure more
norhery locations by those engaged in the business
should travel somewhat i'll advance OF public neces-
sity Oversangline spectators will anticipate and
break and be washed ashore pecunlary corpses, and
ten years after more sober business men will succeed
upon the very base which the speculator abandoned,
just keeps pace with the public want while the specu
lative radical breaks by anticipating it.
One point may be noted en- lodssaRt. The number
OF first class hotels at present in operation in this
city is quite inadequate to meet the demand of the
y @ oe OF Of the secod cs e e
doing most OF the business and Mt rates which are at
lively few first class establishments. Four dollars
per day for board is no uncommon price for second
class hotel though SO SO is far more common and
represents the general average for board In second
class houses where tdbe d'h6te Is offered. on the
other hand, in second class houses kept on the
European plan II is quite impossible TO escape an
expense OF from 81 90 to So per day. with the
most rigid economy-an expense quite equal to the
demand OF first class hotel with table d'h6te. A
good room at OF these institutions Is afforded for
81 per dayscarcey less; and, with meals at restau
rant prices SO Is easily consumed, even with toer-
IN fynf
with the travelling public that first class hotels are
on the whole less expensive than second class ones
luxurious in accommodations and far more
wholesome In matters of diet. In first
hand, il is next to Impossible to live for less
than from So TO 81 per day; and board for board,
dish for dish, 1t Is more expensive to live a the res
taurant prices which prevail in these quarters than 1t
Is to pay IS per day at first class establishment
the old plan. The reasons for this obvious With
the general habits. OF luxurious ana stimulating diet
common among travellers, the bare cost OF meals at
hotel restaurant frs water averages at from 81 so
lodging room, which is from s2 to any number OF
dollars extra. depending always upon the story. On
the rst story ~ per day Is not considered an ex-
travagant price Tor single room; double rooms from
50 TO So, while on the next story may perhaps
secure single room for 50 CO. and any succeeding
story for little less, bringing rooms In the attic to
cost OF from 81 80 TO ~ per day II is not uncommon
for good liver Don rirdnt In the Partisan sense
luxury OF living on the European plan while the or.
binary guest can hardly pass muster at less
pense tnan 80, which IL less than the actual average
OF ones bills at these establishments. AT q second
class hotel on the European plan $50 per week is
barely sufficient for The support of one person. AT
first class hotel OH tie same plan one may expend
$40 per day. and never he able TO make out wherein
ne mas been eXtravagant. In fact, the probabilities
are that the unfortunate who has expended his $50
per week has not been particularly cXtravagant; the
extravaganza consists In the system and not In the
Individual. Economy and the European plan have
no affinity the FOR the other and the mistake Is I'm
so supposlng. To amassa fortune suddenly and with
out any great risk there Is no more Immediate way
plan; and this Is the more evident when Il Is taken
INTO account that the average cost of the materials of
living per capita Is not In excess of 81 per day FOR
an exceedingly wholesome and nutritious det--a
proposition the truth or which has been over and
over demonstrated by comparative statistics. TAX
ing the whole population ooNcw York together, the
average or the raw material Is about sixy-six cents