Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-03-25
IN THE LOCAL FIELD.
THE BIG HOTEL OF THE FUTURE.

THE BIG HOTEL OF THE FUTURE.
II. l.. MerrIheId Of the Continental, New
York Has Some Fun with Herald
Reporter.
From an interview in the Herald.
"The day will come, and long before we
date our letters 1919, when the hotels in
this country will have improvements which
will make the guests feel that they have
nothing to find fault with. Certainly that
will be a great period-a surprising one to
the much-abused hotel keeper
f. l.. Mortified, president of the Hotel
Keepers association, looked very serious as
he uttered these words. "What will those
improvements be? Many, very many; but
lust now | will mention only one or two,
lest some hotels begin the new styles before
people are used to the change from one
system to another. Here's one, for in
stance The hotels will be so big in a few
years that when guest gets up, say on the
twenty-nnth floor, he'll find as he steps
out of the elevator that his room is quar-
ter of mile away, counting all the halls
and corners he'll have to travel through
before he gets there. Well, the halls will
be broad, and electric cars, light and airy
as wicker baskets, will pass along every
few minutes. All he will have to do when
he gets on his floor is to press button
the car will do the rest. 1t will whiz down
his way with its conductor at the wheel
like any cable car outdoors at present, pick
him up and-hes in his room before he
can say Jack Robinson.
"You smile. | don't, for I'm serious.
More than that, hotels will probably have
private elevators for every large parlor room
81, 81,
hind the age
Take space? OF course. But what of
that? The hotel keeper is supposed to be
the only man who must spend all he makes
to benefit his guests. He does not work
for living, like ordinary men. Not he;
his fate from boyhood is mapped out to do
all he can to make Others happy at his
own expense. But to resume. The private
elevator of each room will be soon followed,
if not accompanied, by pneumatic tubes
for trunks and baby carriages with the
babies in them, and smaller ones for letters
and bundles. More than that visitor
will, ! feel certain, he shot up through the
tubes after the guests have seen their cards
and piped down 'All right, send him up,
1t will be very stage like to see an apparent
closet door fly open quickly and the friend
of your better days in full dress and hat
step out as one does in and out of car
riage in street and greet You with a smile,
How are you, old mani or words to that
effect
"Then think of the way overtaXed tailors
can be avoided, too, by their customers
among the guests who have forgotten to
settle up. How? Easily. There will he
no hotel registry for the moment guest is
assigned to room he will probably walk
up to a machine, rattle over few keys with
a pen while writing his name, and Just as
he signs it it will appear on a card on the
inside of the proprietor's private Office.
Names are signed miles away now by wire
or dispatches. Well, hotel men are close
at hand in this signature business. hope
to live long enough to see all the improve
ments.'
Mr. Merrifield's eyes twinkled as he con-
cluded: -"When the Hotel Keepers asso-
citation next meets one of these great inn
provements is to be tested Which one it
will be don't know yet, but that the cleo
trio car in the Railways is a near future
event in hotel improvements is a dead GER
tainty.h