St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-26

lCopyrighted, 1896, by Frank G. Carpenter)
ST LOUIS, April 24-For the next two
months the eyes of the people of the United
States will be on ST. Louis. Within less than
eight weeks $50. 900 Republicans will be COM
ing here from all parts of the United States,
and the newspapers will be loaded down with
the descriptions of one of the greatest con-
Ventions of our history. The probable size
of the crowd increases daily. Already the
best quarters at the big hotels are taken,
and applications for accommodations are
coming in by the hundreds. The question as
to how the city will take care of the crowd
is, in the minds of many, serious one, but
1t seems to me that the arrangements are
such that there will be room and to spare.
ITS ACCOMMODATIONS.
St Louis is bigger town than is generally
supposed. Its citizens now claim popula
ton of more than 600 900. and this number is
scattered over a territory more than sixty
square miles, of more than 240 160-acre
farms. 1t is a city of homes vast num-
ber of people own the houses they live in,
and I am told that hundreds of these homes
will be thrown open to accommodate the
now being made for the purpose. The COM
mittee of arrangements and the Business
Mems League have a bureau of information
at the exposition building, where all who will
take guests are now registered, and quarters
are already being apportioned to such as ap-
ply for them The work is being systemat-
ically done. Each house is Investigated be-
fore it is registered and if tn 'e is the least
suspicion of being anything else than place
of good character it is rejected. Fixed rates
of board and rooms are to be charged In all
cases. and these are given in to the bureau
at the time of application. Good quarters
with board at private houses be gotten
for about So per day and the economical man
who wishes to attend the convention and
bring his wife had better apply for the pri-
vate house quarters than to go to the big
hotels which will be more expensive and
which will be jammed from cellar to garret
ST. Louis has beautiful suburbs. 1t has one
of the largest park systems of the world,
and its 300 odd miles of electric car lines
will bring one in few minutes from any
part ofthe city to the convention hall.
ST. LOUIS HOTELS.
+ The st. Louis hotel accommodations are
larger than generally supposed The city
has a half-dozen frst-class houses and
score or so of second-class ones. Before get
ting the convention the Business Mems
league called at the principal hotels and
made contracts with them that they were not
TO increase their rates per day. They will,
however, put four persons and upward in
single room, and the man who does not want
&c i0bh bhOpc 1,in how tn tn lyaar fhoy,
out. The rates for single persons at the best
hotels will be from So to 81 per day. The
ordinary small hotel room will be expected to
hold four, and would hence cost
from $12 to $40, according to it's location.
large room, big enough for three double
beds, would hold six, and will cost the man
who wants it all alone $50 per day. Most
people expect to double up, however, at such
times, and parties of four, six and upward
are being made up over the country to take
rooms togsther-each paying about 81 day
rate. Not a few men, however, are engaging
whole rooms and paying SIS day and more
for them.
Among the finest of the hotels are the
Planters, the Southern, the st. Nicholas and
the Lindell. They all centrally located
and all near together. These hotels will COM
pare favorably with the hotels of any city, of
the United States. The Planters has $50
rooms, and at least 1900 people will be crowd
ed into it at the time of the convention 1t
will have a number of headquarters, and
some of the delegates have already secured
rooms in it. Among others who have already
contracted for quarters at the Planters are
Frank Hiscock, Tom Platt, Chauncey Depew
and Hamilton Fish, which leads to the belief
that 1t will be one of the centers of the
New York crowd. 1t will have also Matt
Quay, Tom Lowry, H. Clay Evans, j. Hub
bell and John C. New. 1t will have the Penn
sylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri,
Montana, New York, Kentucky and Indiana
headquarters, and will be one of the chief
centers of presidential scheming. It's rates
will be from 81 to 81 per day per person, and
many 81 man will sleep a cot in the
halls.
The st. Nicholas is the swell European ho-
tel of the city. 1t has seventy rooms and it
will crowd about 800 persons into them. The
Lindell will accommodate about 800 guests at
50 and upwards, in 237 rooms, and the La
Clede 600 guests in about $50 rooms. All of
these will have. state delegations and dele
gates There are also a number of smaller
European and American hotels in the neigh
borhood, containing from so to $50 rooms and
in other parts of the city perhaps a dozen
Eood-szed hotels.
HEART OF THE CONVENTION.
The center of the convention scheming and
plotting, however will be the Southern hotel.
This has the Mckinley, the Allison and the
Reed headquarters. The greatest number of
rooms has been engaged by the Mckinley
men. Mark Hanna, McKinley's manager at
Cleveland has engaged thirty rooms the Tip
pecanoe club, of Cleveland, has the old res
taurant, the largest of all the rooms, and
while I was in the hotel the other day l saw
Mr. Hahn, the Ohio national committeeman
giving directions to the fitting up of Nc
Kinley headquarters in big room just off
the hotel office. Thomas B. Reed has, 1 am
told, the best rooms in the Southern. Col.
Joe Manley engaged them in advance of the