The herald., 1894-08-09
A HOUSE OF FREAKS.
THE QUEER WtiiMS OF AN ECCENTRIC
RESIDENT OF CHICAGO.

He Has Money to Spend and Pays It Ont
For Work Upon a Hotel which Il Altered
as Often as Once Year, but Which Has
Never Been Occupied.
On q certain west side street there
stands big white four story building.
One would say 1t was an apartment
house were it not that it seems to be
empty. But each spring and fall signs
Of life invest the place. Workmen in
blue overalls and jumpers come in
gangs. Wagons drive up and unload
lumber, bricks and mortar. Windows
and doors are opened, and the ears Of
the people in the vicinity are greeted
with the sound Of hammer and saw.
Were this building to be destroyed a
landmark would disappear, and were
its owner to die Chicago would lose one
of its characters.
Possessed Of an ample fortune, this
man, who may be called Colonel Per-
kins, gratifes some Of the queerest
whims which ever burdened mortal
man or caused mirthful public no end
of amusement. This building is the OBJ
ject on which the colonel works his own
sweet will, and it's interior has probably
worn more different aspects within the
last five years than any other building
in this city.
For heaven only knows how many
years the colonel has intended to open a
hotel Once always and sometimes twice
every year workmen are engaged, ma
terial purchased, and for a few weeks
great hustle and confusion go on within
the white walls. Partitions are torn
down and put up, painters and paper
hangers change the appearance of the
rooms, and great renovation is effect
ed. This goes on for perhaps month.
Then suddenly the workmen are called
off, doors and windows are closed, and
the house is apparently empty for
months. About the time tho people are
becoming accustomed to the deserted
appearance Of the, place the workmen
again appear and tear out what they
had put in.
The colonel spends from $500 to &c.
900 every time he gets the workmen
into the house. AS you go into the
building you first notice a great oak
staircase leading from the main hall.
Years ago the colonel was in Vienna.
In some old building there he saw a
staircase with painted panels and inlaid
tiles and scrolls and gimcracks of one
sort and another in it. He was entrance
ed and determined to have counterpart
of it in his new hotel, which he would
open for the Worlds fair year. When
he came home, he hired workmen, and
part of them he put on the staircase.
The men started to work with sandpa-
per and pumicc stone to take off the old
paint and varnish. The colonel stopped
them. They must scrape it with glass,
he said. The foreman tried to explain
that they could do it quicker and better
their way, but to no purpose. 1t would
not do. 1t must be scraped with glass.
He was paying for that staircase, and he
was going to have it done his way. So
the men got pieces of broken glass and
began to scrape. From morning till
night half dozen men scraped and
scratched away with bits Of glass. They
finished the work in time, but the sum
which it cost the colonel was some-
thing prodigious.
Then he concluded that furnace in
house was poor idea, so he had that
taken out and the registers stuffed up.
He said when he opened his hotel he
would furnish the guests with candles,
and they could have stoves if they chose
to pay for them. The cheapest room in
the house was to be 50 day.
Personally Colonel Perkins does not
like running water in room. There
fore he has had it shut off in his room
and o basin set in the stationary bowl.
A pitcher Of water sets on the floor.
This oddity's bed, or rather the way it
is placed, is the queerest imaginable. If
a person were to walk suddenly into
this mans bedroom, he would rub his
eyes and wonder where he was. Sus-
pended in the center Of the room by
chains from the ceiling is the colonel's
bed. He reaches it by means Of small
stepladder, which he had built for the
purpose. The reason he assigns for hay
ing his bed placed in this singular posi-
ton is that the air ciroulates better up
there. How the circulation Of air could
have any bearing ON the case is not
easily seen, as the transom and every
window in the room is nailed shut with
big spikes
The blankets on tho bed are Of the
finest silk. These he sends TO Boston to
be cleaned, whore no also sends his
trousers every month to DO pressed.
One time during an annual campaign
Of repairs the colonel concluded the
mattresses and pillows needed reilling
and the chairs and sofas needed new
upholstering. Instead Of sending the
things out to be fixed he had men come
to the house. The mattresses, pillows
and furniture were all ripped open, and
the contents he had the men pile in one
room. Half way to the ceiling was a
heap Of hay, corn huszs, curled hair
and excelsior, and there it remains to
this day, or at least a part Of it is in
that room. a portion, through careless
ly opened doors and windows, has been
blown through the rest of the house.
Tho frames Of tho furniture also had to
be all scrapcd with glass, and the cost
was something like three times what
t17.,o