Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-06-22
SUMMER RESORT ON STILLS.
Contract for Building a Hotel Out In the
Atlantic Ocean.


NEW YORK, June 2O.--A few days age
party went on a tugboat 10 the Cholera
Shoals, about ten miles off the Ions
Island coast. and left a flag floating
from a buoy which was anchored In the
water. On Wednesday it was announced
construction Of an enormous hotel upon
iron piles Mr.. c. NJ. Coen is at the head
OF the enterprise. The hotel is to bs
called the Atalantis The first building
will be 26ox2S0 feet In size. and II Is ex-
pected will be ready for occupancy by
next season. 1t is expected that the
lighthouse part of II Will be In use by
next fall or winter.
The building, 1t is said. will have an
enormous hall, which will contain many
thousand people, and there will be rooms
for many guests. The fact that the hotel,
II 1t should really be built. is just beyond
the limits OF the United States has given
rise TO a good deal of speculation. In
conversation with a New York Sun re-
porter recently a sporting man said:
This thing may be a sanitaripm. for
all know, but IL strikes me that That big
arena there would be a mighty good place
for a prize-fight. PriZe-fighting Is getting
TO be uphill work nowadays, with the
increasing stringency of the laws, and II
people will travel thousands OF miles from
New York to see a good fight they could
afford to put up literally TO have that
fight within few miles from home.
There is a deep suspicion in my mind
that IN the penal code Of Atalantis there
viii be no penalties attached to the par
ticipation in or management OF boxing
exhibitions"
Now here's another consideration. In
a few years there won't be big open
gambling place anywhere. Monte Carlo
franchise runs out in a few years, and
then the man who makes his living by
breaking the bank will nave to go TO
work unless a new place Is found. "A
place like Atalantis, that Will run itself
to suit itself, would be a pretty good sort
Of spot for the location Of new Monte
Carlo Don't understand me as meaning
that the men who are behind all this in
tend to put their island TO any such use.
j know some Of them, and l don't be-
lieve they are the Kind of men who
would care to go hto that business, even
though II would pay tremendous profits
But what IL they get an offer from some
man so great that II would be folly 10
refuse it?'
No less interested than the sporting
men are the lawyers and politicians. The
latter see in the new nation interesting
political complications; new post-office
and custom-house arrangements, possibly,
and, II Atalantis is successful the posi-
bility Of scores OF other toy nations built
upon sand and rising from the bottom OF
the sea, with a corresponding multiplied
ton of Offices. As to the lawyers, they
can see unlimited possibilities ahead.
why, just consider" said small but
brilliant legal luminary, what a place
for inconvenient witnesses. A half-hour 4
trip and there you are all safe under
the protection Of a foreign flag. Then IL
a client gets into any little difficulty he
can take a trip for his health out there
and stay until the thing blows over.
It's cheaper than Canada and more con-
venient: all the comforts OF home, you
might say. should say that one OF the
things Atalantis could get along best
without would be an extradition treaty.
Mr.. Coen. the prospective proprietor
disclams any intention to engage In any
such business. He said:
1--WE shall do nothing In Atlantis that
could not legally be done in this country.
The form of government will be modelled
on that Of this country, but will differ in
some details"
1t does not seem to have occurred IA
the gentlemen engaged in this interesting
discussion that should Mr.. Coen's do
minions become troublesome II would be
"A comparatively simple thing for the
United States to "anneX" it. unless. in,
deed. 1t should place itself under the pro-
lection of the Sugar Trust.