St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-04-12
Our New York Letter.

A $3,00O,000 HOME FOR THE POOR
CURIosITIEs FROM UNDER THE BROOK
LYN BRIDGE-EX-PREsID GRANTS
CHAPLAIN.
NEW YORK, April 5, 1873.
To the Editor of the Caledonian:
The central event of the week here
in point of Importance, was the compile
ton and opening of A. T. Stewards
Women's Hotel, which has been slowly
building during ten years past, at the
corner of Fourth Avenue and 33rC
street. Everything being finally il
readiness, the enormous structure was
brilliantly illuminated early on Tuesday
evening, and Mrs. A. T. Stewart waited
in an elegant little parlOr fitted up es,
pecially for her use, to receive the three
or four thousand guests who had re-
ceived formal cards of invitation, tt
this inspection. The management, how
ever, soon learned that they had reck,
Oned without their host in attempting
to open the building for a chosen few
Immediately upon the doors being
thrown back, an immense and indis,
criminate throng of the curious surgeC
in, elbOwing the greatly scandaliZeC
ticket holders, and taking possession o.
things generally. 1t is estimated thai
in the course of the evening, about
thirty thousand people pushed ant
struggled through the hotel, inspired by
the uncomfortable desire of seeing fol-
| themselves the true inwardness of this
great white pile which for years past has
stood closed and silent as the sphynx.
The ''Women's Hotel" is an eight
story, iron building, 200 feet square
covering fourteen lots. A hundred feet
square is devoted to an interior court
which, being provided with fine foun-
tain and paIterres of flowers, will in
some measure take the place of pleas
ant outside surroundings. On the out
side, above the store floor, there are 1868
windows looking into the street, all be-
ing provided with inside blinds. There
are 352 windows looking into the court
yard. The lower story is cut up into
thirty eight stores, and the remaining
ones contain the parlors, Office, dining
and reception rooms, library for the
free use of guests, containing over 2, SOC
volumes, kitchens, ETC., beside 500 sleep
ing rooms. The furniture and carpets
are very handsome, and the place is ex-
pected to accommodate about one thou
sand women. The building is consid-
cred to be absolutely fire-proof and is
self dependent for water and gas, there
being a full set of water pumps and ia
cilities for manufacturing an abundant
supply of gas. Two sumptuous eleva-
tors furnish easy communication be-
tween the floors, and over two thousand
gas jets furnish illumination by night to
the mammoth caravansary which has
cost all complete, in the neighborhood
of S3,000,000.
This enterprise has been very gener-
ally and variOusly misunderstood. The
prevailing impression seems to have
been that Mr.. Stewards idea was to pro-
vide home for working women, which
should be charitable institution, free
or nearly so. This misrepresentation was
pleasant enough while it was procuring
the gratuitous advertising which has
been given to the hotel all through the
years of its construction, but now that
it transpires that the scheme is largely
business one, that the terms of the in
stitution are to be comparatively high
and the rules for its government rather
strict, a general hue and cry is raised
against Mr.. Stewart and his executors
1t is true that only the higher class o.
working women can live in the house al
its present tariff, but it is also true thai
this class are the ones to best appre-
ciate its comforts, and that there are
plenty of them in New York to fill il
full. 1t is, however, an experiment af
ter all, and experience only can fix it,
value. So far, believe, about two hun.
bred applications for admission have
been accepted.
The plots of ground on which the
foundations supporting the New Yorl
approach of the Brooklyn Bridge are t.
rest, are situated in the very Oldest par
of the city, and the buildings which hav,
just been removed from them were
some of them, fairly tottering with age
Excavations for the foundations referred
to have been begun, and the ancien
soil which the sun has not shone upor
for two or three centuries, is proving az
rich in curiosities as the work of tn,
mound builders in the West. A scor,
of suggestive relics have been turned NJ
there within few days. Among then
were three old bayonets nearly eaten VI
with rust, and found close to a humble
OF cannon balls. The bayonets evidently
had belonged to Queen Anne muske
at the time of the English occupancy o
the city but the cannon balls belong
probably, to the days of the redoubta
BILE Dutch Governor and DirectOr-Gen
eral WOuter Van Twiller.
More curious still, however. was tn,
finding, within stones throw of tn,
cannon balls, Dutch pipe and a piec,
of tile. The former was probably tn,
property of some respectable burgher
and could it have photograph attach
ment in its prime, what tales it nigh
relate! The tile evidently belongs t,
the same period as the pipe. On it is still
to be traced the figure of Bel and th,
Dragon. Near by was another pipe
clearly of Indian manufacture, and som,
pieces of wampum, or seawan, for
long time the only circulating medium
in use between the Dutch and Indians
Near the wampum, but on an uppe
stratum, were several bricks of yellow
clay. These are of Holland manufac.
ture before brick kilns we're establish
ed on Long Island, by Governor Stuy
vesant, in 1861, ships were loaded will
bricks burned in Holland, and at frs
every dwelling was modelled after thos,