Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-03-26
OR NEW YORK LETTER
A Great HOGeT-What IL cOsts-and
how 10 IL run-Beeeher BusIness.
A GREAT HOTEL.

To begin with, the hotel must, to make
it what it should be, cover an entire block
or the greater part of it. This is necessa.
ry.to get ventilation and light. And
even the four streets are not sufficient
for in addition, it has to have a court in
the center. Such a hotel will have from
six hundred TO one thousand rooms
the number depending upon the patron
age desired. If transient, custom IS what
is sought, the rooms are smaller, FOR you
can tuck single man anywhere, but if
families and permanent boarders are
wanted, the rooms must be large and
airy, and have bath rooms, etc., con-
nected with them.
Steam is always used for heating the
halls and public rooms, and all the rooms
must nave crates in them. A boiler tn at
generates SOO horse power is none too
large, for in addition to the heat reonir.
ed, power is necessary to rnn an eIsva.
tor and TO do the. work in the kitchen
and laundry.
The means of communication between
the rooms and the Office is the telepraDh
Wires run from each room TO the office
and all the guest has to do is to touch a
little knob and hall boy is AZ his
door in two minutes to execute his or.
defs. Some hotels have a code of sTg-
nails for the most common wants. so that
the order is given by telegraph, Thus.
one short pressure means ice water two,
nre; three, chambermaId one long and
Short breakfast sud so on
Now about the cost of all the conve-
nlences: The breakfast, dinner and tea
service cost $24 900 the chairs in the d.
ming room alone, cost q, ,290 the moroc-
co lamberquins in the parlOrs, cost s.. 600
each cornice and each window in the
dining room, cost 500 the mirrors alone
In the dining room hall, cost Sc, 600 the
iresco work in the dining hall, cost near
ly $4,000, &c.
| These are few of the most important
items-mere beginners as it were TO in
troduce you to the go rgeous figures of
the things that cost. When you want to
build hotel in New York you want
$780, 900 TO pay for the ground on which
it stands, 100000 to put into the build
ing, and nearly as much more to furnish
it. Think of the acres of carpets at 50
to $e per yard think of the thousands
OF chairs, bedsteads, sofas think of the
mountains of mattresses, bed linen an d
tOweling think of the great mass OF
crockery and glass ware, and the cost of
furnishing great hotel mounts up tre-
menuously. The depreciation in value of
the furniture OF one of these establish
ments amounts to $500 per year, the
one Item of broken glasses footing up to
$1,000.
A most perfect system necessarily oh
tains. The steward by long practice
knows exactly how much to buy, and
what, and the proportions. The room
clerks inform him in the morning how
many people there are in the house and
he knows the number of oysters that
number will require, and the number of
potatoes, and the amount of each kind
OF meat and all about it. The head cook
takes his order and the breakfast is pre-
pared SO accurate is this law of aver
ages that very little is wasted. Out of
one hundred people they know that SO
many will want baked potatoes. so many
boiled, and so many steWed, and so many
fried, and they are never out of the way,
One bill of fare, taken at random. an
nOnnces II separate divisions or classes
of edibles, s. e., soups. fish, boiled, roast.
cold dishes, removes, entrees, game, veg
etsbles, pastry aud confectionery. fruits
and deserts. There are 63 separate ar
ticles, embracing soups, kinds of fish,
8 OF boiled, 5 OF roast, z varieties of salad.
pate de fol grass with tuff1es, &c. 2 re-
moves, entrees, grouse and widgeon
duck. IA kinds OF vegetables, z varieties
ofpastry, &c, II articles under the head
OF desert. And all this based upon the
stewards calcula ton. It was all con-
summed and there was Just enough.
The wine cellar of one of the leading
New York hotels hold at present Is |
brands of champagne, kinds of AmerI-
can wine, 13 varieties of sherry, 4 of port.
8 of Burgundy, 16 of claret, IA of hook,
2 of Sauterne, and three of Moselle, while
the supplies of brandy, whisky, rum, ale,
cider, liquors, cordials, &C., would fit out |
several sample rooms"
The force necessary to run one of these
hotels, may be stated as follows Four |
book keepers, three room clerks, three |
package and key clerks, eight bar-keep-
ers, one engineer, thirteen firemen. ona
head cook, twelve assistant cooks, seven
ty walters, thIrtyfiVe chambermaids. forty. |
five laundry women, thirty five scrub |
bing women, thirty hall men, thirteen |
pOrters, two carpenters, one locksm1tb. |
and so on. In all ESQ men, and 100 wo. |
men are employed in the house, the pay |
roll footing up from $1,000 to $4,000 |
per month.
Of course the discipline is rlgid. Every
person must be on duty exactly on time. |
and every one of them IS bound to do |
his or her duty silently. They wear
noiseless shoes, and never speak unless
they are spoken tc. A complaint from a
guest IS equivalent to discharge.
The cost of provisions for one of these
hotels amounts in round numbers to S1.-
900 per day. One hotel in New York |
uses up $50 per day in pumpkin pies
alone in the season.
Otcourse the hotel proprietors in good |
times make money, for while the expens-
es are enormous, the receipts are cores
po ndingly large. If the house is full, the /
receipts ought to run very close to $4,000
per day for board alone, but it does not |
stop there. You pay for your own fires
at the rate of 81 per fire, and then there l
are the innumerable extras. fyou have
q meal brought to your room 1t is a 81
xtrs, and if you are bibulously inclined d
1t costs to indulge. The whisky you get
around the corner for ten cents, you yoav
twenty 1--WE cents TOR at the bar of YOUR
hotel, and so on for all other drinks and
the same may be said of cigars.
A Dlg source OF revenue is privileges"
The man who blacks your boots pays
roundly for the room he occupiez, and so
do the umbrella stand and the barber
shop. All these things are ne cessary to
the house, but they are extras, and the
proprietors don't give men the privilege
OF heecing the public for nothing.
Take 1t all in all, the hotel proprietor
has very soft thing of it. I Ishould like
to own a large hotel myself
BKEcHERIANA.
The Brooklyn trial pours out over the
country its regular quantity of swssh
each day, but what it is all about heaven
only knows. At the beginning Beecher
was on trial for the seduction of Mrs. Til.
ton, and the alienation of that lady from
her husband. But somehow all this has
changed. 1t would seem now thatthe
tables are turned, and that Tilton il on
trial for any number of offences. Thev
brought the President of Lecture Com
mittee from Winsted, Conn, 10 prove
that he was too familiar with q Young Ia
dY he had taken with him, and another
man from Bloomington, Ill, to swear
that he uttered rather tsO liberal senti- |
ments IN lecture there, and they have /
dragged in ain ost everybody to show |
that somewhere he has done almost eve. !
rythlng that is foolish and bad. Now,
what all this has TO do with the question |