Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-07
!ence of TIE EVENING Straw.


FLAaLER AND HIS HOTEL ESrERPRIsE.
Correspondence of TEE EVENING srSr.
NEw YORK, December G.
Now that you have had local scrimmage
during the week over the Presbyterian stand
ards you may be more in the mood 10 appreci-
ate the intense feeling that moves Presbyte-
rians here with regard to the same subject.
Rarely has the church been so wrought up by
any theological discussion. One of the great
events of the week was the annual meeting OF
the Presbyterian Union in the assembly rooms
of the Metropolitan Opera House. Four hundred
members of the Union sat down to the dinner.
and as many more tried in vain TO get tickets.
But the attraction was not one of carnal appe-
tite much interest in the after-dinner
polemics. DIR. Briggs and DIR. Patton were
expected TO speak for and against revision
respectively. Both acquitted themselves ably
of course, but it was plain to see that much as
President Patton's hearers admired his keen
thrusts their sympathies were rather with DIR.
Briggs. As if to ratify his position. the two
important presbyteries of Philadelphia and
Buffalo voted for revision that very night, and
judge from the reception of the committees
report at the Washington presbytery that that
body stands ready to follow suit. NewYork mas
alread pronounced strongly for revision, an d at
an ad journed meeting of the presbytery to be
held next week it may take even more adj
vanced ground by urging the denomination to
form ulate a new and simpler creed.
THE LAST OF THE HASGISGs.
The executions yesterday and today will prob
ably be the last by hanging in this state for
long time, and, perhaps, forever. That saucy
rough who precipitated his own fate some years
ago by declaring that hanging was played out
was simply like so many other famous men,
little ahead of his age. Hanging is about
played out, but, unfortunately for murderers
1t does not follow that the death penalty is
abolished. On the LIST of January the new law
of execution by electricity goes into force, and
the ruling of the courts in the Kemmler case
has destroyed the hopes of those who thought
the method would be construed by the judges
as cruel and unusual in the constitutional sense
Of the term. There is something so revolving
In the taking of human life, even for necessary
ends, that the community has felt shudder
at the two executions, but if ever men deserved
to bangle at the end of a rope these two young
toughs did. Both were of that type of born and
bred and hardened criminals, the proper dis
position of whom constitutes one of the most
battling problems of civilization. Thescareer
of Carlton, who was hanged on Thursday for
the murder of Policeman Brennan was typical
Its vicious development was symmetrical and
finished logically on the gallows at twenty
eight From the chronic bad boy and young
street nuisance he formally entered on his
| career of crime by brutal assault. then did
time" for petty larceny in the penitentiary,
Immediately took his third degree for grand
larceny, and served out a sentence in state
prison, and then in orderly progression reached
his climax by shooting policeman, who was
arresting him for robbing and maltreating an
inoffensive stranger, l had occasion two or
three days ago to visit Sing Sing, and through
the courtesy of the prison officials went all
over that vast stone and iron cage and watched
the fifteen hundred felons at their dismal
routine. A few years ago Carlton was there as
an obscure and unnoticeable youth marching
in lock step or engaged in some drudgery, like
his pallld AMI sullen neighbors At the proper
day the IRON doors swung open and he went
back to freedom and civilization-to rob and
maui and murder and soon to be himself slain
by the state in self-defense. Today there are
fourteen hundred and thirty-seven inmates of
Sing Sing, and perhaps it is not uncharitable to
say that twelve hundred of them will leave
prison only to prey on society and threaten it
again until they are once more put in the
states cages. What can be done with these
human zebras?
NEW sPUNR OVER THE WORLDS FAIR.
We are plucking up more hopeful spirit
about tn at worlds fair. There was a time when
the city was about ready to shrug its shoulders
and let the whole thing go by default, but now
that we have raised the S5,OOO,OOO and Con-
gress seems to still be open to solicitation and,
in general, the lamp still holds out to burn, as
it were, we are finding due supply of spunk
After a long deadlock between the MAYOR
and the trustees of the Metropolitan Museum
OF Art and the Museum of Natural History over
Sunday openings the sabbatarians have carried
the day. The mayor took the ground that
they shouldn't have the recent appropriations
made to extend their facilities unless they
opened on Sunday. The trustees said they
wouldn't open on Sunday any way, and now
the corporation counsel tells the mayor that
they must have the appropriations whether
or no.
The German opera is in full blast; the Sara
sate-d'Albert combination has stormed the
town, the divine and only Patti is here for an
other farewell season, and the aldermen have
said the hand organs may come back to town.
Who shall say we are not a musical people?
MR.. FLAGLER's HOTEL ENTERPKIsEs.
The report that Washington is to have a
grand hotel to be owned by the oil king, ]. II.
Flagler, has excited some interest here. The
incidental landlord feature to this wealthy
merchants life is rather amusing. His friends
joke him about it, and when they ask him for
his serious explanation he on his side waves
them Off with joke. He tells them that il is
permitted and even necessary for every man to
make fool of himself in some way, and in his
case it happens to be hotels. Mr.. Flaglcr, the
hotel landlord, is however. as far from a fool
as Mr.. Flagler the oil king.
was talking yesterday with Mr.. Carrere of
the firm of Carrere & Hastings, the architects
who built for Mr.. Flagler the unique and superb
Ponce de Leon hotel and L asked him how it
was that the Standard Oil potentate had turned
his thoughts to the hotel business as an ayoca-
ton. MIR. Carrere said that it was due to an
accidental train of circumstances Mr. Flagler
some years ago was visiting a personal friend
in Florida and he noticed, like every one else
the utter inadequacy and crudity of the accom-
mediation for visitors from the north Having
invested in a tract of land at st. Augustine he
suggested to his friend that they build hotel
upon it. The proposition was agreed to, and
MIR. Flagler turned to his friend an old COM
rade in the war, Mr.. Carrere, for designs. Mr.
Carrere is one of the boldest and most original
of American architects, with perfect zeal for
the more striking forms of the renaissance and
oriental constructions. With the help OF his
partner he had soon prepared sketches for the
grand hotel, much as the tourist now beholds it.
Mr.. Flagler's imagination was fired, and he told
his architectural friends to go ahead and work
out their palatial design regardless of expense.
The pace soon grew too hot for Mr.. Flager's
partner in the enterprise, and he hauled out,
leaving the other the sole owner.
1t is not necessary to enlarge upon the sue
cessful realization of the architects project
Mr.. Carrere tells me that altogether the hotel
represents investment of 81 DOC, 900, but that
in spite of this vast outlay 1t has proved profit
able experiment. The first year it netted if
teen per cent dividends or profit. Last year,
owing to q combination of adverse circum-
stances, such as the mild winter, the yellow
fever, the political excitement and other causes
the hotel did not do SO well financially, though