Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22
A GREAT OLD TOWN
Some Of the Queer Things One Sees
in New York.
NO INTEREST In FIREPROOF HOTELS
Lucky Youth Who Has Made a
Fortune on the Races.
COLUMBIA AND SHAMROCK
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
NEW YORK. July 81, 1s99
II any American city stands in need of
treatment for infirm and sawed-off mem
DRY, here it is. When the Windsor Hotel
cohflagration burned lot of people alive
a few months ago, New York almost lost
its voice in crying out against scores of it's
pubic hostelries that were known to be
fire traps. The general howl about made
quately protected taverns in New York
was something fierce. The town seemed to
be on the point of rising against the pro-
prletors of hotels who were known to have
neglected for years to properly safeguard
their guests. Some of these proprietors
were not even to be permitted to furnish
their plants with fire escapes and to install
other appliances tending to insure the
safety of their patrons in case of fire; their
hotels were to be RACED to the ground as a
punishment for the previous omissions of
their proprietors. One newspaper printed
a list of thirty-eight well-known New York
hotels which it claimed were finder boxes
and fire traps, and frenZiedly demanded
that the whole bunch of them should be
forthwith leveed to the earth and volleys
hred over them The fire commissioners
talked big of the awful things they were
going to do to bonifaces who had neglected
to safeguard their guests with proper APP
pliances for exit in case of fire: they had
little list" they said. and what they in
tended to do to the hotel men whose names
appeared on that list was a-plenty. The
manufa cturers of fire escapes stood by for
a boom in their business that would force
them tC run their plants day and night.
The boom hasn't yet happened. Nary
hotel has been RACED to the ground. The
yell is all over. The fre-trap matter has
been shelved by the newspapers that were
ha mo- n jr,Ct fey ch
months ago. If lfe-saving appliances have
been tackled on to hostelries that have
for years been notorious as fire traps,
they of the invisible sort The fire
commissioners are not "sayin' a word
The whole controversy has collapsed like
a busted toy balloon. 1t is all eminently
New Yorkish. When the Hotel Royal. at
the corner of 10th street and 9th avenue,
consumed several scores of human beings
about eight years ago there was the same
ferocious cackle and clatter about ire
traps in New York, and that was the end
of it There is always the likelihood of a
terrible hotel holocaust in New York; but
they grow a-weary of a subject over here
in short order, and don't want to discuss
it any more. Experience doesn't teach
New York. Nothing teaches New York
There is nothing extraordinary about this
1t stands to reason that a community that
knows it all can't learn anything.
Betting on the Yacht Race.
A number of the bookmakers have al
ready chaked up odds on the forthcoming
international yacht race, and men who nave
no sentimental interest in the contest, but
who are 'out for the cush,' as it is eX-
pressively put over here, are putting down
their money even before the Shamrock's
departure from the other side The extent
of the general confidence in this neighbor-
hood that the cup will be held by this
country is indicated by the betting. Inc
Columbia is the favorte at odds Of 40 to
on, while he hoakna kerS offering
60 to 30 against the chances of the chal-
lenger. What is decidedly more to the
point word has been received here that the
English LAYERS of odds have put up the
same figures on their states. and that the
non-sentimental bettors of Britain are TAX
ing large gObs of the Columbia end OF it at
the same odds on as those which prevail IN
the American books-Io to 100. 1t should
be stated. however. that the English bet
tors who go after the money, and who do
not permit national pride to stand in the
way of their picking up wealth, nave played
the American boat in the last two races
for the international trophy. This does not
alter the fact, though, that shrewd English
men who bet for the money there is in 1t
are of the opinion that we've again got
better boat than the challenger The writer
has been to the pains to ask half A dozen
Of the best-known yachting men hereabout
their opinion of the outcome of the con-
test between the Columbia and the Sham
rOck-and it should be said that New York
yachting men are a pretty cautious lot,
some of whom have been known to root
against themselves"-give the chances Of
their adversarieS a great deal too much
Weight-that is to say, every man to whom
the question was put Which Will VIM? has
replied The Columbia can't lose Yachts
men over here are having all kinds of fun
over the solemn secrecy attending every
movement of the Shamrock, especially the
tall fence that was built around the chal-
lenger when she was locked the other day
at only goes to show what a prodigious
opinion Sir Thomas Upton must have of
US said one of the yachting men. Il sup
pose he fancies that, We're the dimensions
and all the other facts concerning the
Shamrock to become known on this side,
we'd be able to throw a duplicate of his
boat together while the original was cross
ing the sea. 1t also shows that he is of the
opinion tina. he has pretty good craft.
We all hope he has. There'd be no sport in
thrashing n poor We've got a pretty
nice boat in the Columbia, and We haven't
cooked up any Italian opera conspiracy to
keep the Britishers from finding out all
about her, either"
Getting Ready for Dewey.
AS the Olympia draws higher this end of
the world the preparations for the big New
York blowout in honor of Dewey are TAX
ing on renewed activity. A prominent New
York official suggested the other day that.
in view of the $15O,000 appropriation taken
out of the New York treasury for the en-
tertainment of the great sailor, it would
be only fair that seats accommodating from
10000 to 10000 persons should be provided,
free of charge, for persons who would be
unable to pay for admission to the stands
along the line of the pageant. The prompti-
tude and unanimty with which the sugges-
ton of this official was Squelched by the
gentlemen who have the affair in charge,
together with the dishing out of the $780,
900, was amusing. At the last meeting of
the committee in charge of the celebration
one of the members thereof threw the whole
outfit into panic by rising up and say
ing:
Surprising Dewey doesn't land here at
all? He's not absolutely on record that
he's going to bring the Olympia into this
harbor when he first sights his native land