Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-03
LIFE in MID-AIR.
HOMES OF MILLIoNAIREs ON THE
EIGHTH FLOOR.
Rosalind May Draws Another Picture of
Apartment Flat Life in New York
The superintendent.

most skyward apartment dwellings he
sinks out of existence. He is replaced, as
TO general care of premises and brain ex-
ercise, by high-minded and altogether
genteel parsonage, styled "The Superin-
tendent" or "The Manager" whose baser
avocations and menial duties are per-
formed by individuals called "porters."
The Superintendent sits all day, or is
supposed to sit, in an important looking
Office convenient to inquiring parties from
the street, or to tenants as they pass in
and out. Thence be is law-giver of the
little world around him. A prime and
serious duty is to see that door-opening
boys or men NAV be serious like unto him
self and remain silently within their own
proper domain, viz: certain radius con-
tiguous to their own doors. Since, let it
be understood, that parties who live in
these strictly frst-class and invariably
high-toned fats, are presumed to be SO
paralyzed by their good fortune, that alb
solute helplessness results. They are not
expected even to open door for them
selves.
But wandering back to the serious and
genteel Superintendent, let me add that
sitting in state, he receives and answers
appeals from people who want to come in
and equally from people who want to get
out. In plain English, he looks after the
renting of apartments, elects any vain
glorious persons who, having taken rooms,
should not be able to pay for them, and
lastly, listens to and judges of complaints
on the part of tenants, either against other
tenants or the premises they occupy.
Patiently must he sit and hear of broken
window-cords, cornices defaced, paint
rubbed off or scratched, of ranges that re-
fuse to work, of wash-tubs that won't
wash, of waste-pipes that decline to waste
these and all major and minor ills which
arise and confront him from morn to eve,
he must do battle with and overcome.
Patiently must he touch a silver-toned
bell and, sending messages, make all
wrong things grow right. Patiently must
he listen to complaints of porters, scrub
women, elevator men and boys and work
men. Patiently must he bear the bur-
dens of from 10 to 130 families and their
attendants upon his shoulders. The
smallest strictly first-class flat house have
in view contains Is families, the largest
1S0, and of them, in particular, more here
after.
Patiently must the Superintendent first
inspect and then genteelly forward all
mail matter to each and every one within
the limits of his domain, and within his
august bosom must remain concealed the
family secrets of which suspicion may
thus be given. A model Superintendent
is by turns dumb as an oyster or eloquent
as Demosthenes.
This superintendent of mail matter be-
comes obligatory, in consequence of the
absence of bells or boxes at the outer doors.
Either are supposed to infringe on the dig
nifed seclusion which distinguishes dis
tinguished flat apartments from those not
distinguished. In place of bells, quite ele-
giant reception rooms conveniently near
entrances are placed at the disposal of
tenants, in O. Ter that they may safely and
genteelly dispose of unwelcome visitors.
The DE- gers of too near approach are
thus warded off. Time is given for
family council as to whether or no the
family may be at home, or any single mem
Der OF family may hold council within
his or her breast as to the moral turDitude
of flo. There are families who deliber-
ately and in advance face prospective tbs,
and give orders that visitors Of all ranks
be invited into the reception room and
made to sit there until requested to come
up or 90 away. Other families take
chances, and their visitors then must enter
blindfo'ded, as it were, and throw them
selves on the good offices of the elevator
boy or man, who, the desired floor attained,
points genteelly in the right direction.
Thus helped on, the visitors proceed as
directed, and the touch of a bell brings
response. In the estimation of not few
residents, the higher they may go the bet
ter. Fifth, sixth, seventh floors may be
passed, and on the eighth the visitor may
pause and draw a long breath before the
elegance of millionaire's home.
Away up in mid-air it is a home. A
hall, broad as a narrow street, separates
him from his kind. Measles and scarlet
fever have no chances Of reaching prospec-
tive young milGonaires through shafts,
since shafts are abolished. The million
aire may dwell in unapproaehable seelu-
sion and not only from his windows, but
from his own especial balcony, look down
on moving specks of humanity as they
walk or recall the mice of Cinderella's
chariot, as ordinary humanity drives by.
This at the front, while at the rear an
equal perfection of detail attains. The
dumb waiter is transformed into passen-
ger elevator running by steam and tended
by man. Upon this highway do perpet-
ually ascend and descend tradespeople of
every sort. The bawling of orders is un-
known. Specially detailed clerks walk
bodily in and write down orders and they
are filled in the same silent and satisfac-
tory manner.
The largest flat apartment-house of the
city is a combination of eight houses, un-
der one general government, and contains
unitedly accommodations for one hundred
and thirty families. Everybody knows of
The Navarro Flats" or, as this e pluI'ibus
unum is termed, "The Spanish Flats" be-
cause rejoicing in successive names such as
"Cordova," " Valencia" Barcelona, y
"Saragossa," etc. Every visitor to Central
Park observes them, as beautifully they
dominate that green expanse.
Each of the houses has its own two en-
frances, -eHe-at the rear, the other at the
front yet truly speaking there is no rear,
since the frontage on Fifty-eighth street is
as mich a frontage as that facing the Park,
on Fifty-ninth. Sixteen door-opening
bows ofic1ate; sixteen elevators run day
and night, and an army of employees,
numbering from ninety to hundred per-
petualy smooth rough places and tgura-
lively strew roses in rich mems paths
Eight watchmen lone for each house, are
inclosed within those well-guarded walls
at night. while continually traversing the
spacious court yard within or the eneom,
passing street without, a specially-detaIled
policeman completes the good work TIL
daylight breaks.
For this and more, the one hundred and
thirty families pay rents running from
$4,000 per annum to $1,000. according as
their apartments vary in number or eligi-
bilIty of location; yet the fact that an
average of sixteen to one house is made,
gives strong evidence of how New Workers,
even when living handsomely, may crowd.
As may be imagined, the Superintendent
here has enough to do. His business
apartment is spacious and handsomely
fitted up, and is located at one end, whence
bv hidden ways not known to the outside
world, he penetrates from one building TO
another, as his presence may be needed.
The care of sixteen d0or-opening BOYS