Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1895-05-07

A 1,esidcnec For Needy Professional Work
ers That L. Not Chnrity-MIss N. A.
Fisher and tho Home Hotei-Its Found
ing, Policy end Quests.
A modest littlo card tackled TO tho
front door OF a handsome brick house in
ST. AIMS avenue, near Ono HCndred
and Thifty-ffth street, announces TO the
world tho existence Of O hotel which
embodies a woman's idea and efforts in
tightening the burdens Of other persons.
Among refined and congenial surround
ings the Eucst of this house, which is
called tho Homo hotel and is open to
both mcn and women, may have q cory
room and good faro for very little more
money week than an orchestra chair
ct a theater costs, and If she happens TO
he struggling against fate with an empty
pockotbook she may havo the Same ao-
oommodations for nothing at all until
fortune smiles.
Yet the hotel is not a charitable in
stiiution. 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 mom-
bors Of other professions who find tom
porary difficulty in wriDgipg dollars
from an unappreciativo world, and for
those who arc inoapaoitatod by ago or
illness from earning money.
A oourtly old gentloman opens the
front door to tho moody brainworkor
who comes for tho first time and bows
the caller into tho parlor, with tho in
formation that Miss ---- will attend
her presently. A very pleasant FIRST i'm
prossion Of tho hotel is received while
waiting hore. Those parlors seem in
stinot with iuformality aud sooiability.
The plain substantial furniture; tho
piano, with its loose and apparently oft
turned shue,s Of music; the we'll thumb
ed magazines and books the portraits
aud engrayings, combine to remind ono
Of an old fashioned country house
where hospitality and simplicity dwell
and ostentat;on has no placo
The door opens softly, and a sweet
faced woman enters. In manner full
of charm and tact she asks the necessary
questions, and the caller is invited to
como again ON q certain day. Mean
while her credentials are carefully in
vestigatod. If the result is satisfactory,
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 nre worn oct with tho efforts of a
lifetime. She pays whatever she can af-
ford, from 81 week TO So, and sympa.
thy and material aid, whore possible,
are extended to hex in her work.
Professional persons over 05 may be-
come life guests By the payment Of $500,
which is raised by relatives or a church
society, and sometimes by tho 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 tho hotel because Of its society Of
clever, interesting persons and the at.
/ mosphcre Cf rafuemont and homelinoss.
Tho founder Of the hotel and the pres
ident Of the association, which includes
among its members many prominent
I New York men and women, is Miss
Mary a. Fisher
"Our hotel, " as was told to a report
er in yisis there, occupies field Of
usefulness all its own. There are au-
/ thors and actors funds and charitable
I organizations, but wo do net feel that
we are conducting a charity. Wo arc
ef,.,.t.. .,.,..fQfvr, a I,-,-r fo, I,,.~fs,xro,lr
1 ers who hayo earned rest, aud for am
bilious educated persons whose present
means might not otherwise enable them
to live amid congoninl surroundings.
"A beautiful house in Hampstead,
England, where governocsos, grown old
in their profession, could live out their
lives in peace and Tostfulnoss, suggested
the idoa Of tho hotel to me. And after
! ward, here in New York, it came to me
again with striking force in wrotch-
ed room in a tenement house found an
aged musician and composer in his las;
I illness.
Don't send no to an almshouse,
ho begged. Let mo dio here am used
to the cold. and those old bundles Of
music, pointing with a trembling fin
ger to the rude shelf above his bod filled
with his manuscript music, are COM
panions Thoy are like ohildron to me.
"On another occasion friend wanted
some writing done, and a publisher rec.
commended an author aud his vito who
wrote for livelihood In East Eleventh
street, amid almost squnlid surround
ings, we found these cultured people.
They woTo called successful writers,
their special Geld being biography and
history. Lut they accepted tho work
eagerly. On any terms We asked no
quostions Mono were necessary. The
pinohed look on thoir ohild's face and
their own pallor told the story Of priya
tion.
''Theso and similar experiences open
Oh my eyes 90 the great mood Of hoto
like ours, and after many discourage
monts l started. Il was oight,yoars age
--yoars that havo given mo a wealth oI
experience aud shown me some OF th'
strangest and most pathetic phases o
humun nature Around my table have
gathered geniuses who We're half mad
coiiused by the luxuTianco OF their owl
idcas inglorious Millions who were per
haps too far ahead Cf their times to gail
recognition; young persons Of arden
ambitions which have since been real
lied in some cases; noble men aud WON
on who lacked but one qualification
that Of getting money. Among tho sad
dqst cases are tho widows who alto
years Cf comfort and uiluenoo ara throWI
on their own resources without irainin.