The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-02-14
TYPICAL NEW YORK PLACES
A MONSTER BUILDING THAT Is
A VILLAGE IN ITSELF.
The Diversified Industries That Are
Sheltered by Its Roof-A Great
Safe-Deposit Vault and Its I'M
pregnable Defenses.

Mrs Schuyler Van Rensselaer, con-
tributes to the February Century
paper on places in New York" in the
course of which she says: If you enter
one of the largest office-buildings and
go up and down and around in it, you
will see that it is not mere house,
but almost a town in itself II nearly
covers the space of an entire city block
Thirty-two elevators serve the persons
and the wants of its denizens and their
visitors, and they carry some 10000
passengers each day. The great bust
ness concern which owns it fills whole
floor, with halls as big as churches,
and regiments of clerks. On the other
floors live many another big company,
and many an individual doing Dig
business of this sort or of that; and
their number will not amaze you as
much as the luxury with which prosaic
tasks of money making now surround
themselves. l wonder sometimes what
my grandfather would have thought
of ii. No one in New York did business
in a bigger way than ne, sending his
famous clipper-ShipS to enclrcle the
world and traffic in a score OF ports
Yet when my father began to clerk
for him, the first of his duties was to
sand his office floor; and L can remem-
Der how small and plain was this Of
fee, even at a much later day, with
the bowsprit of vessels almost poking
themselves in at the window as they
lay along the border of South street
The people who dwell in the typical
office building of today walk about on
polished marble floors; the government
has given them a post-office just for
themselves; a big library and a res
taurant exclusively serve the lawyers
among them; another restaurant gem
erously serves whomsoever may wish
to eat; there are rows of shops in the
huge, barrel-vaulted main hall; there
are BARRIERS rooms and bootblacks'
rooms, and so forth and so on You
can almost believe that man might
live in this building, going forth only
to sleep, and be supplied with pretty
much everything he need desire, ex-
cept the domestic affections, a church
and theatre. 1t seems rather surpris-
ing, indeed. that a missionary chapel
has not been started in one of its COR
ners, and a roof-garden for daytime
performances UP on the hilltop called
it's roof. But up on this roof you may
find the bureau which breeds our
weather for US, and down in its under
ground stories, in the entrails of earth,
you may confidently leave it your
wealth to guard.
Truly, the steel-clad burrows of
SlCotl Sd---QCPOSil COIlpdHS AOph "a
paciouS enough to contain all the
wealth of New York, and whether your
share of it be large or small, your
needs can be exactly met. You may
hire a safe so little that a diamond
necklace would almost fill it, or so big
that it is a gOod-SiZed room, and its
rent means the income of a good
sized fortune-$7, 900 or so per annum.
Narrow lane after lane is walled by
tiers of these safes, as streets are walled
by house-fronts; there is a second
story below the first, and there are
other places where other things than
gold and silver. precious papers, and
jewels may be stored. There are rooms
full of trunks, and l remember a big
one with the sweat of steam glistening
on its walls and ceilings. which was
filled full and heaDed and piled with
bales of shining cream-colored stuff
raw silk, costly and also perishable,
needing to be kept perpetually moist
lest it lose its pliability.
When in this treasure-houSe of I'M
countable riches we see marble floors
which can be lifted by levers so that
they lie against the bases of doors i'm
pregnable without them, and events
which can throw curtains of scalding
steam down upon the head of any one
who may try to tamper with them, it
seems as though the days of Oriental
HdSlcldnS ndu returned, WIN cOnSplcu-
Gus modern improvements. OF course
there are rows and rows of
little cabinets where Croesus may
handle his wealth very private
ly, and fine large waiting-Iooms,
too, all shut IN by gates and
bars and passwords. THE ladies'
waiting-room is a great convenience"
said the gray-coated guardian one day.
When gentlemen bring their wives
down town, and have business to do
elsewhere. it's Il nice place to leave
them in So it is; but if it is much
used for this purpose. l hope that it's
niceness, not its terrific security, de-
termines the fact.