The morning times., 1896-01-23
MUST HAVE FIRE ESCAPES
One Arrest Made Under the
New Line Of Action.
THREE OFFENDERS NAMED
Proprietors of the ArnO, the American
House and Hotel Lu wrence 10 He
Arraigned for NOn-COm plia nee With
the LAVA Fight Over the Com
structiOn of the Statutes.

The law as to fire escapes is about TO have
legal construction which will set at rest
all differences. OF opinion as to whether
lessees or proprietors of hotels are respon-
sible for the absence of such provision for
the safety of guests, and on other points on
which there have been disputes relative
10 the law.
Three hotels have been designated TO be
brought into court to answer for declining
TO comply with the general law of fire
escapes, although the specific charge il
each is not the same. The hotels are the
Hotel Lawrence, the Arno and the American
House.
License Inspectors Melton and Donovan
swore out the, warrants against Samuel
Gassenhcilner, proprietor of the Hotel
Lawrence. The warrant was served last
evening. Up to a late hour last night the
warrants had not been served in either
of the other cases.
ON TECHNICAL GROUNDS.
The charge to be main ined against them
is the keeping OF a hotel without first hay
ing obtained their license, and under the
provisions of the act or March ., 1895, the
assessor cannot issue the license until
they shah have complied with the require
ments OF fitting up their place of business
with fire escapes and other incIdentals to
the escapes.
The offense to he prosecuted is in falling
20 pay the license tax and not In running
the hotel without license.
The original law on the subject is:
That every person liable for license
tax, who may fail To pay the same before
engaging in the business for which the
license may he required, shall, in addition
To the license tax imposed, pay fine or
penalty of not less than So nor more than
$50 for each offense, to be imposed and
collected as provided in this act.''
LAW IN OTHER CASES.
One of the acts designates the owners
are responsible for the compliance with
the law, but the amended act of March,
1896, is:
That il shall be unla wful to issue
license to the lessee or proprietor OF any
building in the District of Columbia used as
a hotel. factory, mandatory, theater,
tenement house, hall or place of anlise
mcnt. or other building used for business
for which a license is required, unless the
application for such license is accompanied
with certificate of the inspector of build
ings that such building is provided with
fire escapes, stand pipes, ladders, lights
and alarm gongs and descriptive notices.
LINE OF DEFENSE.
lt Is understood That there VIII De a
fight made by the hotel lessees and pro-
prietors, but what their line OF defense
will be is not known. Mr.. Gasseheimer
rendered his money for the hotel license
last week and it was declined. The case
against Mr.. Gassehemer IL for the alb
seDce of fire gongs as referred to above,
the hotel being provided with fire es-
capes.
Tue tender of the money in this case
may possibly be construed as in the re-
cent case of IgHatius Nau. The prosecu-
ton against him was brought under the
same section, aud the court of appeals he'd
that as he had rendered his money for
his license fee and it had been rejected
because there was an act OF Congress
prohibiting the sale of liquor within one
mile of the Soldiers Home. he had not
failed to pay the license tax, but that the
tender was compliance with the law.
The court here reversed the police court.
In the American House case it appears
that they have already received their
liquor license.