Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1895-04-17
AGRAND ENTERPRISE
IT'S ORIGIN AND SUCCESSFUL oEvEL-
OPMENT DUE TO A WOMAN.


A Residence For Needy Professional Work
ers That Is Not = Charity-Miss 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. near 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 q coy
room and good fare for very little more
money week than an orchestra chair
ut theater costs. and if she happens to
be struggling against fate with an empty
pocketbook she may have the same ac-
commodations for nothing at all until
fortune smiles.
Yet the hotel is not charitable in
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 mem
beers Of other professions who find tenn
porary difficulty in wringing dollars
from an unappreciative world, and for
those who are incapacitated by age or
illness from earning money.
A courtly old gentleman opens tho
front door to the needy brainworkcr
who comes for the first time and bows
the caller into the parlor. with the in
formation that Miss 49, will attend
her presently. A very pleasant first i'm
preston Of the hotel Is received while
waiting here. These parlors seem in
stinot with informally and sociability.
The plain, substantial furniture; the
piano, with its loose and apparently oft
turned sheets Of music; the we'll thumb
ed magazines and books, the portraits
and engravings, combine to remind one
of an old fashioned country house
where hospitality and simplicity dwell
and ostentation has no place.
The door opens softly, and sweet
faced woman enters. In manner full
of charm and tact she asks the necessary
questions, and the caller is invited to
come again ON certain day. Mean
while her credentials are carefully in
vestigated. II the result is satisfactory,
q warm welcome awaits her on hor Sec
ond visit, and she becomes ono of the
little company whose ambitions in art
or literature have not yet been realized
or are worn out with the efforts Of n
lifetime. She pays whatever sho can af-
ford, from 81 a week to 81, and sympa-
thy and material aid, where possible,
are extended to her in her work.
Professional persons over 65 may be-
come life guests by the payment of $500.
which Is raised by relatives or church
society, and sometimes by the patrons
of the home. There are at present about
80 guests In the four connecting houses,
to which tho hotel has been enlarged.
They are not all without means. A
number pay full rates for board, and
live in the hotel because of its society Of
clever, interesting persons and the at
mosphere of refinement and homeliness.
The founder Of the hotel and the pres
ident Of the association, which includes
among its members many prominent
New York men and women, ia Miss
Mary A. Fisher.
''Our hotel" as was told to a report
er In a visit there, Occupies a field OF
usefulness all Its own. There are au-
thors' and actors funds and charitable
organizations. but we do not feel that
we are conducting charity. We are
simply providing home for brainwork-
ers who have earned rest, and for am
bilious educated persons whose present
means might not otherwise enable them
to live amid congenial surroundings.
"A beautiful house in Hampstead,
England, where governesses, grown old
in their profession, could 1.-Two out their
lives i'm peace and restfulnoss, suggested
the idea of the hotel to me. And after
ward, here in New York, 1t came to me
again with striking force In q wretch
ed room in tenement house found an
aged musician and composer in his last
illness
" Don't send me 10, an .almshouse.
he begged. Let mo die here am used
to the cold, and those old bundles Of
music. pointing with trembling fin
ger to the rude shelf above his bed filed
with his manuscript music, are COM
panions. They are like children to me.
ION another occasion friend wanted
some writing done, and publisher rec
commended an author and his wife who
wrote for livelihood. In East Eleventh
street, amid almost squalid surround
ings. we found these cultured people.
They were called successful writers,
their special field being biography and
history. but they accepted the work
eagerly, on any terms We asked no
questions. Mono were necessary. The
pinched look on their child's face and
their own pallor told the story of priva-
ton.
These and similar experiences open
ed my eyes 80 the great need of hotel
like ours, and after many discourage
ments started. 1t was eight years ago
years that have given me wealth Of
experience and shown me some of the
strangest and most pathetic phases Of
human nature. Around my table hsvo
gathered geuiuscs who wers half mad,
confused by the luxuriance of their own
ideas; inglorious Millions who were per-
haps too far ahead of their timea to gain
recognition; young persons OF ardent
ambitions, Which have since been real