Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-09-12
THE AMERICAN HOTEL.
Where .Congregate the Disseminated
and Unthrifty.
Some Big Ventures aud Foolish In.
vestnents In the Hotel Busi.
ncss-New York,s Houses
summer BuslneSs.
["Gath's" Enquirer Letter. ]


for housekeeping and thrift for plain board
ing. they are like birds in a cage AWAY,
tempting Others to come to the hotel to live
and yet always DESTROYS themselves TO gel
back again to some substantial life. At the
hotel You not only ge. all the news. but al
the scandal II becomes the snoozing and
boozing place for the young fellows around
the toun. who there tell their old stories and
cultivate the barkeeper, and have often oh.
served that the barkeeper is the favorite
guest in the hotel You can see young mill
ionaires, or expectants that way, leaning on
the bars telling their private family life To
the bar-keeper. Liquor encourages ccnvivial
intercourse, and the bar-keeper here il like
the bar -maid in England-some one to make
love TO when ali other social intercourse Is
frustrated The bar-keerer wears such a
nice white apron, such a spotless shirt has
his hair frizzed every morning, is dainty
abou. his shoes, he juggles the crystal
glasses so deity that he would seem to be
what the ladies call such a refined man.
When a man has got hollow stomach looks
pale and weak from his secret exec sses, and
has finally not much Of anything but a soft
address, destinations and good suit Of clothes,
he gets tie ne Of being $50 refined"
1
ferior in the matter Of hotels, while others
are too well provided There are good
many hotels in this country, with some great.
unwieldy. rickety old house put up in the
speculative day, too big to keep clean, its
furniture dropping To pieces, and still there
Is the elevator running like the worm that
never dieth. When the cook is undergrad,
| the laborers mutinous. the chamber
nil .v,p, tl,x. fuli
down, you can Gepcnd on two things
beiny steadfast, the harkeeper and the
elevator boy. They will ride you mp
stairs. whatever else they may do unjustly D.
you Some of our hotels. erected in the
proper manner 10 meet real want, continue
t, he profitable all the tire These are often
fatal examples IA multiply hotels where they
are not wanted The Fifth Avenue hotel in
New York produces rent of about $3.50. 900
yeai 1t was built some time before the
rebellion. The proprietor had ready money
and good credit, and he bought piece Of
ground hardly matched on the globe and put
up this line house. and has always had re-
sponsible tenants, most of whom have made
money.
Hotels require to III ,et demand rather
than to make one Paran Stevens was the
most fortunate American hotelkeeper, he
cause he knew the business and had capital
and credit at the very time when we were
stepping out in hotel enterprise, SO as to en-
rouato; new wave in intercourse. Yet
Stevens made some foolish investments The
Victoria hotel, AS it is now called in New
York. was put up under the name of the
Steve Is house, to be series Of apartment
residences. The ground and building cost
Elhn MN nm
and nov it has had to be RACED to be regullr
hotel AT 50 much day. should think it i'm
possible that on such valuations as the above
it could make reasonable interest. The
Brunswick hotel, opposite the Victoria, has
been built up by steward from the Hoffman
house. 1t cost great deal of money and
charges very high prices, yet several times
has been in hard condition from want Of
real cash The st. James, which Mr.
Sprague, formerly of Cincinnati, and
Mr. Connor the theatrical manager
took together mt rent Of $4,000
higher than ever paid for the same property
before, has just retired Mr.. Sprague, who re-
ceived, understand. so 900 from Mr.. Con
ner for his third interest in the lease This
property was tuilt up by Walton in the days
when he was successful in betting, and prob
other person 1t is one Of the best hotels i'll
New York, but the rent is too high. The
great hotel called the Murray Hill house, pu;
up by an omnibus man who had a fat take
in Tweed's time, has found q tenant, and is
about 10 he opened. A large hotel is about
10 be erected at the Central park gates by
combination Of builders, and, to show how
nothing goes smoothly in this world. the
buildings for shorter hours Of work, so that
the contractors are menanced with ruin on
the one side OF short profits on the other.
The hest summer business in this country
now is Of the cheap kind There are but few
IS hotels left any where for country boarders.
The West End hotel at Long Branch gets IS
u day for some Of its rooms, but Saratoga
has been struck by blizzard. and while there
are, perhaps more people in the country this
year than ever knew, they are nearly all at
the chea hotels. Atlantic City and Asbury
Park are, perhaps, the two largest settlements
of summer character on the American
coast, and both are of cheap nature. The
average cottage at Atlantic City probably
costs less than $1,000 The best hotel the
Mansion house, charges about SIS a week for
board When we get the water all pumped
very glad to keep most Of these hotels for
$3.50 day, which was considered a high
price before the rebellion. At that figure
stopped As late as 1852 at the best hotels in
New York city, and they made more money
than they do now at $3.50 day.
The huge, overgrown hotels which were
built in war times at a high cost are, as a
rule, closed. The Stockton house, At Cape
May. cost the West Jersey railroad more
than halt million dollars II was built, like
many of these hotels 10 draw railroad travel
Labor at that time was So and 81 day Last
year il lost $40, 900 to the railroad, which re-
solved this year TO shut it up unless 1t could
earn something that would not come out Of
the railroad dividends Having failed to do
20 it WAS closed at the middle of July. The
big hotel at Rockaway built by Ben Smith
has never been opened at all. The Coney
Island hotels have been doing poorly. But
the little houses run ON moderate rates arr
making living, and that is about all that
nature designs the average hotelkeeper &c
do