The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-22

to be given up to the correspondents are
finished IN cherry and are reached by four
passenger elevators. Each of these rooms
will be supplied with beds and tables and
all conveniences for writing, and in no
room will there be more than two beds or
four men. Some of the newspaper men
will have rooms to themselves and the
prices have been fixed according to the
number in room. The price of a room
with one bed for one person will be ~;
less if two occupy a room with one bed in
It. and still less if there are four in a room
with two beds. The rates range from 81
to $2.25, and are very moderate consider
ing the time and the place. There will be
q restaurant in the building and teie-
graphic arrangements.
s Another matter which the press COM
mIttee has taken up is the providing a
corps of tested stenographers and type
writers for the correspondents. Many of
the best newspaper men of to-day do not
white at all. They dictate their reports 10
shorthand men or directly to the type
writer. The press committee are now
testing the pretty typewriter girls of ST.
Paul and here, and they are also expert
menting with the various shorthand men,
30 that correspondents who want such
assistance can be supplied with efficient
help on application 20 the committee.
In company with the Hon. II. @. Evans,
of the national Republican committee, and
Colonel McCrory, took look this after
noon at the hall whore the convention is
to be held. It is not far from the hotels
and is reached by the electric cars aud is
within few minutes walk from the rail-
sway stations. The building itselfi is worth
notice. 1t covers nearly three acres of
ground and has within half an acre a base
area equal to that OF the capitol ut WASH
ington City. It is built of brick and stone
and its walls are from two TO four feet
thick. If you will imagine a great gray
H.. -, ne 4x<f E..E xex-
OF the average city block of eight
stories, with n square tower at one
corner and with hundreds of great win
dows in three rows, one above the other,
along its sides. you viii get some idea Of
the outside of tho Minneapolis exposition
building in which the national conven-
ton is to meet In the center of each side
you must put great door. and other doors
from point to point along tue lower
stories. You must imagine hundreds of
flags floating from its roof and from its
towers. You must drape bunting over the
doors and along the windows and on the
wooden stairways leading up to the sec
ond story on every side, and you get a
better idea of the hall rs il is today and as
II will be within two weeks when the
thousands will occupy it.
The interior arrangements are now about
completed. The hall proper is on the Sec
ond floor, and it consists OF full acre Of
space built up inside the building and
entered by about two-score entrances.
This hall is in the form of a square with
seats rising from central space of about
half an acre. backwards on the four sides
until they reach the wall. Above these
seats there is a wide gallery which also
slopes upwards with its seats in tiers, so
that the view of every man in the hall cam
not be obstructed by the people in front of
him. The hall will seat about 1000 peo-
pie. The seats are wooden chairs arranged
in sections and numbered. These chairs
are nailed to boards, and there is about
three feet of space allowed to each spec
tator. The acre Of space in the center is
for the delegates, and this is seated with
opera chairs, and in the orchestra circle
back of these are seats for the alternates.
Around the space reserved for the dele
gates is little wooden fence three feet
high, and directly in front of the delegates
there Is q rostrum OF the same height
extending out in the middle per-
haps six feet into the delegates space.
Upon this arm of the rostrum the nomi-
mating speeches will be made, and directly
back of it will be the seat of the president
of the convention. At the right and left
are the quarters for the working newspa-
per men. There are enough seats to ac-
commodate about 300. The newspaper
men will write on poplar tables, and each
man will have plenty of room. There
will be pneumatic tubes connecting with
these tables by which dispatches can be
shot down into the telegraph offices, and
the telegraph arrangements are already in.
The acoustic properties of this hall are
perfect. 1t was here that the great Chris
tian Endeavor convention of year or SO
ago was held, and large number of the
speakers at this convention were girls.
who read their reports in an ordinary tone
of voice and were heard in every part of
the hall. At my request, Mr.. Evans. the
national committeeman, spoke standing
from the rostrum in an ordinary CONVEX
sational tone, and his voice could be heard
in the galleries up against the wall.
The hail is perfectly ventilated and
of about an acre directly over the dele
gates, and this can be raised here and
there so far as to give perfect ventilation.
The lighting is an important matter, for
it will be remembered at the convention
that nominated Hayes some trouble arose
with the gas. which prevented the conven-
ton from meeting at night, and thereby
brought about Hayes nomination. The
situation was such that Blaine would
have surely been nominated, and Secre-
tary Charles Foster told me not long ago
that il was the failure of the gas that made
Hayes president of the United States. It
is not generally known, but this failure
was not accidental but intentional, and
the man who was in charge of the hall
made a misstatement in regard TO the
situation. There is no chance of such a
thing happening at Minneapolis. This
hall is lighted by electricity, and there are
more than 100 incandescent lights and
$50 arc lights in the convention building
In addition To this the hall and building
are equipped with gas, so that il one thing
fails the other can be turned on, and there
can be no fraud about the lights. The
building is thoroughly fre-proof, and the
exits are such that IT could be emptied in
six minutes If fire should break out
There are twenty-eight staircases leading
to the galleries, and about the only wood
work in the building is that which has
been put up to make it available for the
convention.
The construction of this building will
give you some idea of how they manage
things in the Northwest. 1t cost $315 900,
and it is one OF the largest and most per-
manent exposition buildings in the world.
1t Is thoroughly solid. and a large part of
the Interior and the rioor beams are of
iron. The floors are three inches thick,
and there are three sets of floors. There
are altogether about seven acres of floor
space in the building. and il IS. all told q
structure which in Washington City or
New York would consume from six months
10 two years in building. 1t vas bnilt
here in eighty-four days. Minneapolis
took n notion i'll January, lSS6. that il
would have an exposition. aud on the fol-
lowing May the cornerstone was laid and
number OF advance agents were sent out
hy the town 10 Europe to gather up art
works and other exhibits. Before August
was well under way the building was
done, and by the last of that month the
exhibits were IN and very fine art c0llec-
fion had been brought here from Europe
The exposition VIII be held this wear. be