The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-02-16
TYPICAL NEW YORK PLACES.
Monster Building That Is . Village In
itself.

A Monster Building That Is . Village In
itself.
If you enter one of the largest Office
buildings and go up and down and
around in it. you viii see that it is not
q mere house, but almost a town IN it.
self. It nearly covers the space of an
entire city block. Thirty-two eleva-
tors serve the persons and the wants OF
its denizens and their visitors, and they
carry some 10000 passengers each day.
The great business concein which owns
it fills whole floor, with halls as big
rs churches, and regiments of clerks.
On the other floors live many another
big company, and many an individual
doing big 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 sur
round themselves. I wonder sometimes
what my grandfather would have
thought Of it. No one in New York did
business in bigger way than he, send
ing his famous clipper-siips to encir-
Gle 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
remember how small and plain was this
Office, even at a much later day, with
the bowspirts of vessels almost poking
themselves in at the window as they
lay along the border of South street.
The people VINO dwell IN the typical
office-buildings of to-day walk about on
polished marble floors; the govern
ment has given them post Office just
for themselves; a big library and a
restaurant exclusively serve the law
yers among them; another restaurant
generously serves whomscever may
wish to eat; there are rows Of shops in
the huge, barTel-vaulted main hall;
there are BARRIERS rooms and boot
blacks rooms, and so forth and SO on.
You can almost believe that a man
might live in this building, going forth
only to sleep, and be supplied with pref
ty much everything he need desire, ex-
cept the domestic affections, church,
and theater. 1t seems rather sur
pTising, indeed, that q missionary chapel
has not been started in one of it's cor
ners, and roof-garden for daytime per-
formances up on the hilltop called its
roof. But up on this roof you may find
the bureau which breeds our weather
stories, in the very entrails of earth,
you may confidently leave it your wealth
to guard.
Truly, the steel-clad burrows of a
great safe-deposit company look
capacious enough to contain all the
wealth of New York, ard 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 fit it, or so big that it is
good-sized room, and its rent means
the income of good-sized fortune
$1,000 or SO per anGuEl. 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 I remember a big one with the
sweat Of steam glistening on its walls
and ceilings, which was filed full and
heaped and piled with bales of shin
ing cream-colored stuff-raw silk, cost
iy and also perishable, needing to be
kept perpetually moist lest it lose its
pliability.
When in this treasure-house of IN
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 vents
which can throw curtains of scalding
steam down upon the head of anyone
who may try to tamper with them, it
seems as though the days of oriental
magicians had returned, with con-
spicuous modern Improvements. OF
course there are rows and rows of little
cabinets where Creesus may handle
his wealth, very privately, and fine large
waiting-rooms, too, all shut in by
gates and bars and passwords. 'The
ladies waiting-room is a great con-
venience," said the gray-coated guard
ian one day. when gentlemen bring
their wives downtown, and have busi-
ness to do elsewhere, it's a nice place
to leave them in" So it Is; but If it is
much used for this purpose, 1 hope
that its niceness, not its terrific secur-
ity, determines the fact.-Mrs. Schuy-
Ter Van Rensselaer,, in Century.