The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-27
FROM $500 TO $4,000.
STRIKING INCREASE IN COST OF
HOTEL LIVING IN NINE YEARS.

| HOTEL LIVING IN NINE YEARS.
Less Than 10 Years Ago $4,000 Was
All That "a Man with Wife and
Maid Could Possibly Spend for
Food and Lodsins-Now He Can
spend Three Times That sum With
Ense-Interview With the Manager
of the WnIdorf-AstOria Hotel,
With Striking Figures Showing
Enormous Prices Paid for Board.
New York, Nov. 25.-We were sitting Ia
carved chairs, upholstered in tapestry. Al
our feet were stretched two tiger skin
rugs, whose ferceness of expression was
| almost lost in a look of vague astonish-
ment at the sp,endor of their surround
ings. On the walls were hung paintings
of renown Through a portiered doorway
was the dining room. massively elegant
and a smaller exit led from the drawing
room to a bed room furnished as a
queens chamber was furnished when there
were thrones in France.
One of the managerial staff of the big
Waldorf Astoria Hotel was showing to
me the beauties of the royal suite"
which has recently sheltered the visiting
princes of Belgium and Italy.
This suite costs 500 day." said Mr..
Thomas, the assistant manager.
Nine years ago the writer prepared an
| interview with one of the best known ho-
tel men in the metropolis in which it was
stated that $4,000 a year was all that
man and wife and maid servant could
spend in board and lodging in the highest
priced hotels in America, occupying the
most expensive suite of rooms 10 be found,
eating the costliest food on the menu and
drinking the most expensive wines. 1t
was presumed that the man was not a
glutton, nor a drunkard; neither did he
throw money away in extravagant tips.
He simply lived up to the limit, and $4,000
was the limit for mere food and shelter In
the most expensive hotel the new world
had. Let us see what 1t would cost to-
day.
There is more money to-day than
there ever was before in this country,
if one may judge by what is spent in
| hotels" continued Mr.. Thomas. big
fortunes are being made nowadays in
the money is rapidly being put into cir
culation. Ten years ago you very sell
dom saw two men on mans trap.
Now it is the rule. Men spend more for
food, for wines, for apartments, jewel
ry, theaters cost more, entertainments
are more lavish and the accommodations
in hotels have grown accordingly. Money
can't buy anything better than what you re
looking at. The furniture in this suite
| ba
improved. One is served now in a public
restaurant as he could only nave been
served ten years ago in his own home,
and in very few homes was the service as
nearly perfect as 1t Is now in most really
first-class hotels.
Mine years ago the highest-priced suite
of rooms in any hotel in this city cost
800 a week.
"Our suites cost from $40 day up TO
$40," replied Mr.. Thomas, land we have
large ones for families that run from
that figure up to $780, We have one suite
now occupied by a gentleman and his fam
lily which costs $SS per day. and that is
exclusive of food and service. Those are
ordinary prices for people of wealth who
demand the very best that is to be had
and are willing to pay for it,"
comparison of the present prices with
those of a decade ago offers a significant
and startling contrast. If the opportu-
nifty to spend money in hotels is fair
criterion of the prosperity of the times,
this country was never so prosperous as
it is now.
Nine years ago, as before mentioned,
the price of the costiest suite of rooms
in an American hotel was 500 a week. AL
lowing the man the most eplcurean tastes
consonant with reason and the chefs re-
sources his breakfast could not cost him
more than 50 a day on an average; his
luncheon, with wine, s., and his dinner
with wine SO. The board of the servant
was put down at SO week. This did not
take in tips, cigars, liquors except wines
or the entertainment of friends because
these expenses would be the same whether
the man lived at a hotel or at his own
house. The total expenses for six months
| which is all the time this man was sup
posed to stay in New York, may be sum-
married. as follows:
, | Breakfast, per week ..................S 81
, Luncheon, per week ................... g
Dinner, per week ...................... T
! Rooms, per week NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 100
Maids board, per week .............
-
= 1Otal OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 90
Total for six months ...............S611C
Now let us look at the prices of to-day
The same man takes the royal suite al
the Astoria for 800 a day. OF course this
. is a tribe large Tor man ana Wife, but II
is not even as large as a private house
, conducted in similar style would be- He
, would have his meals served in his owr
dining room. This would necessitate the
service of a butler furnished by the hote
at So a day. The board of the maid would
: be $25 per week. The breakfast woulc
, cost $3.50 (this is precisely the same mea
as was described in the interview nine
years ago.; the luncheon. with wine, woulc
be ST. and the dinner, with wine, S12. The
price of ordinary dishes has not advanced
TO this extent in the past nine years. bu
special dishes have been added to the bills