The Republican journal., 1898-05-26
Typical New York Places.
A Monster Building That Is a Village
In Itself.

Monster Building That Is a Village
In Itself.
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, contrib
utes to The Century Magazine a
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 town itself It nearly covers the
space of an entire city block. Thirty-two
elevators serve the persons and the wants
Of its denzenS and their visitors, and
they carry some forty thousand passengers
each day. The great business concern
which owns it fills a whole floor, with
halls as big as churches, and regiments OF
clerks. On the other floors live many
another big company, and many an in
dividual doing bic 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. | wonder some
times what my grandfather would have
thought OF it. No one in New York did
business in bigger way than he. sending
his famous clipper ships to encircle 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 / can remember how
small and plain was this office, even at
much later day, with the bowsprits 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 to-day walk about on
polished marble floors; the government
has given them post office just for them
selves; big library and a restaurant ex-
clusively serve the the lawyers among
them; another restaurant generously
serves whomsoever may wish to eat; there
are rows of shops in the huge, barrel
vaulted main hall; there are BARRIERS
rooms and bootblaeks' 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,
except the domestic affections, C.. rch,
and "a theatre. 1t seems rather surpris-
ing, indeed, that missionary chapel has
not been started in one of its corners and
a roof garden for daytime performances
up on the hilltop called its roof. But up
on this roof you may find the bureau
which breeds our weather for us, and
down in its underground stories, in the
very entrails of earth, you may confident
ly 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, and whether your share of it be
large or SMALL your needs can be exactly
met. You may hire safe so little that
diamond necklace would almost fill it, or
so big that it is a good sized room, and
It's rent means the income of a good sized
fortune-seven thousand dollars or so per
annum. Narrow lane after lane is walled
Ply 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 stor-
ed There are rooms full of trunks, and
| remember big one with the sweat of
steam glistening on its walls and ceilings,
which was filled full and heaped and pill
ed 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 uncOunt-
able riches we see marble floors which
can be lifted by levers so that they lie
against the bases of doors impregnable
without them, and vents 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 magicians had returned, with
conspicuous modern improvements. Of
course there are rows and rows of little
cabinets where Cr@sus may handle his
wealth very privately, and fine large wait
ing rooms, too, all shut in by gates and
bars and pass words ''The ladies' wait
ing room is great convenience said
the gray coated guardian one day. ''When
gentlemen bring their wives down town,
and have business to do elsewhere, it's a
nice place to leave them n.'' SO it is;
but if it is much used for this purpose, |
hope that it's niceness, not it's terrific Sc
curity, determines the fact.