The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1895-04-26
A GRAND ENTERPRISE
IT'S ORIGIN AND SUCCESSFUL DEVEu
OPMENT DUE TO A WOMAN.

L
That Is Not q Charity Nj. A.
Fisher and the Home Hotel-Its Found
ing, Policy and Guests.
A modest little card tackled to the
front door of handsome brick house in
st. AIMS avenue, hear One Hundred
and Thirty fifth street, announces to the
world the existence Of hotel Which
embodies a woman s idea and efforts in
| tightening the burdens of other persons.
Among refined and congenial surround
ings the guest of this house, which is
called the Home hotel and is open to
both men and women, may have cozy
room and good fare for very little more
money a week than an orchestra chair
at a theater costs, and if she happens to
be struggling against fate with an empty
pocketbook she may have the same ac-
commotlations for nothing at all until
fortune smiles
Yet tho hotel is not q charitable i'll
stitution a more valuable possession
than money is required to give you en-
try there. You must have brains, and
they must be brains, moreover, that are
refined and polished by education and
culture for the hotel is conducted for
authors, musicians, teachers and men,
bers of other professions who find tenn
porary, difficulty i'll wringing dollars
from an unappreciatiye world, and for
those who are incapacitateo by age OF
illnessE from earning money
A courtly old gentleman opens the
front door to tho needy brainworker
who comes for the first time and bows
the caller into tho parlor, with the in
formation that Miss Will attend
her presently. A very pleasant first i'm
preston of the hotel is received while
waiting here. These parlors seem in
stinct with informaiity and sociability.
The plain. substantial furniture; the
piano, with its loose and apparently oft
turned sheets of music; the we'll thumb
ed magr!incs and books, the portraits
and onSrayings. combine to remind ono
of an old fashioned country house
where hospitality and simplicity dwell
and oatentation has 10 place.
The door opens softly, and sweet
faced woman enters. In q manner full
Of charm and tact she asks the necessary
questions, and the caller is invited to
come again on y certain day. Mean
while her credentials are carefully i'll
vestigatcd. If the result is satisfactory,
warm welcome awaits her on her sec
ond visit, and she becomes one of the
little company whose ambitions in art
or literature have not yet been realized
or are worn out wish the efforts of a
lifetime She pays whatever she can af-
ford, from 81 week to 81, and sympa
thy and material aid where possible,
are extended to her III her work.
Professional persons over 90 may be
come life guests by the payment of $500,
which is raised by relatives or Il churcl
society, and sometimes by the patron:
of the home, There are at present abou
so guests i'll the four connecting houses
] to which the hotel has been enlarged
: They are not all without means. 4
n number pay full rates for board ant
live in the hotel because of its society o
q clever, interesting persons and the at
mosphere Of refinement and hOmellness
The founder of the hotel and the pres
ident of the association, which include
o among its members many prominen
S New York men and women, is Mis-
: Mary A. Fisher.
!, "Our hotel, :" as was told to a report
g Ell in visit there, Occupies a field G
usefulness all its own. There are au
thors' and actors funds and charitabl
organizations but we do not feel tina
n we are conducting a charity. We al
re simply providing home for brainworl
for,
,r bilious educated persons whose presel
( means might not otherwise enable the1
to live amid congenial surroundings.
GA beautiful house III Hampstead
England where governesses, grown ol
in their profession, could live out the:
lives in peace and restfulness, suggeste
m the idea of the hotel to me- And afte
O. ward, here in New York, it came to II
le again with striking force. In a wretcl
T. ed room in q tenement house l found 4
q, aged musician and composer in his la
=, illness.
"-'Don' send me to an almshouse
9 he begged. Let ME die here. am use
G. to the cold, and those old bundles
lie music, pointing with trembling fiji
Ill ger to horude shelf above his bed file
IN with his manuscript music, are con
n panions. They are like children to me
~. con another occasion friend wante
,u. some writing done and publisher re
commended an author and his wife WI
40 wrote for livelihood. In East Elevent
IT, street, amid almost squalid surroun
e ings, we found these cultured peopi
lis They wero called successful writer
Id their special field being biography al
10 history, but they accepted the wol
of eagerly, on any terms We asked !
M questions. Mono were necessary. II
~ pinched look on their child's face al
eu 1' their own pallor told the story of priv
~, tion.
is. "rhese and similar experiences ope
an cd my eyes to the great need of hot
is like ours, and after many discourag
to ments | started. 1t was eight years al
m. years that kave given me wealth
* experience and shown ne somo of t
strangest and most pathetic phases
I Al l. Il.