The times., 1899-03-19
An Unnecessary Sacrifice.


The lessons conveyed by the Windsor
Hotel fire are obvious. They are printed
in large type, for the most ignorant and
Indifferent to read. They are intended not
only for hotel managers and proprietors,
and for the municipal government of New
York, but for the public. They should re-
ceiye the earnest attention of every man
and woman who has read the news of the
disaster.
All reports agree that the hotel was a
death-trap, unprovided with adequate
means of escape in case of fire, poorly con-
structed, and built of infammable mate
rial. 1t was an old hotel. dating from the
years of insecure finances and soap-bubble
speculations in New York-1s72 and 1873.
While the two lower stories were OF fairly
good material, the upper stories were of the
fiimsiest construction, owing to financial
difficulties in which the builders were in
volved. The walls of these upper floors
were of thin laths and plaster, and the
whole building was thereby made into a
huge tinder-box. That such structure,
whose nature was known, should have
DeeQ dilOWtu W tuOlt iudu a
quarter of century, housing hundreds of
guests every night, is one of the most un-
accountable pieces of criminal carelessness
in the history of New York AT the time
of the Paris Bazaar fire things were said
about the heedlessnesss of the French char
acter. but 1t does not appear that the
Windsor Hotel, which corrupt inspectors
ftn fndt nf ha
public had allowed to remain in one Of
the crowded districts of a metropolis, was
SO very much better. II was practically
certain that at some time or other this
hotel would burn down, and that many
lives would be lost. 1t was one of the
best known taverns in New York, and
merely on account OF it's reputation would
always be likely TO do good business. 1t
would, therefore, be a profitable invest
ment for anyone INSCRIPTIONS enough to
take II. There would have been no chance
of its being torn down to make way for
improvements; it was not that sort OF
building
As It happened, the end came by fire.
and since that result was almost inevita
the confagration did not take place at three
o'clock in the morning instead of the after
noon. In the case of night fire the num-
ber OF lives lost would probably have
reached away up in the hundreds. The
affair would have been more like one of
those horrible old Druid ceremonies, in
which victims were huddled into huge
wicker cages and burned TO death, than
like anything that ought to happen in a
civilized community.
There is no use in mincing matters in an
affair OF this sort. The scores OF lives lost
in the Windsor fire were sacrificed to a
disreputable set of heather gods which
have held their place in American life quite
long enough. The chief of them is the
great Moloch OF Public Indifference. This
deity requires some hundreds of victims
toll TO the creature because he does not
think that bis family will be called upon
to furnish the sacrifices. The second
heather god is the Juggernaut of Unbridled
Greed. He is the cause of half the sicken-
ing railway accidents which happen, be-
cause lit costs too much to make travel
safe. He killed some thousands of our SOL
diers in the war with Spain by dumping
them into malarial holes and feeding them
on spoiled food; he furnishes most of the
electric car accidents. and the victims of
death dealing trades. and the pestilence-
breeding tenement house is his temple.
The third deity is sort of high priest of
the other Two, with ambitions in the di-
reetion OF becoming their equal. He is
the Shiny Crocodile God of Official Corrup-
tion, taking toll OF all who come within
his reach, as the crocodile, protected by
heathen tradition. lies in wait at every
river ford in some parts OF India 1t takes
more than telegraphs, and newspapers, and
railways and colleges, and big. handsome
churches to make a nation civilized. AS
long as the people give half their allegiance
TO the things which make for peace, and