The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-05-13
TAYL0R'S HOTEL
The Old Building Has
Sheltered Many Queer
Guests.
BORN OF LOTTERY LUCK
Its Owners Prosperity Lasted
Twenty Years-Some His
torical Facts.
rFrom the New York "Press."l

From the New York @Press.''l
They were talking about Taylor's Hotel,
for many years Jersey City's most ia
nous structure, and which is to be torn
down this summer to make way for a
modern skyseraper. Said the J~erseyman:
There were four Taylor brothers. Noah,
Tom, Jack and Bill. Their father was a
workman in the Jersey City pottery. He
died, leaving he family penniless. The
widow started a little store and all the
boys got jobs. Jack, the brightest of the
lot, was fond of shooting, and so good a
marksman that he became famous for his
big scores at pigeon Matches. Policy play
ing and the sale of lottery tickets were
then carried on lawfully and without con-
ceaiment everywhere, and Noah, who had
no special talent for anything in par
%ticular, was mighty glad at twenty-five to
earn his living as. a runner for John
Batey, who kept a policy shop not more
than a block or two from where the hotel
now stands. Batey's office manager, Tom
Green, had a habit of working off left
over tickets on the employees, and one day
insisted that Noah should buy the last
ticket of the bunch then on sale.
Taylor objected. He had seen thou
sands of tickets sold, but he had never
known ticket buyers to get ahead of the
game. Besides, the price was $16 he
had only So. Green said he would trust
Taylor the other s14 and fairly forced the
ticket upon him., sticking it into the
young mans vest pocket just as he was
starting to a pier end, to get the news of
the drawing. In those days, as old timers
remember it, numbers of the winning tick
cts were telegraphed to New York from
headquarters and from New York sig
nailed to Jersey City by a sort of wigwag
system much like the one used by the
United States Signal Corps in the war
with Spain.
Iaylor got to the pier a little ahead of
time that day, and as he stood waiting
for the signals he fished the ticket out of
his vest pocket and looked at the num-
Der. 1t was 21362. AS he read it he
thought what a joke it would be on Batey
and Green if that number should draw the
capital prize, due to come out that day.
Just then the flag began to wave and he
began to a k down the first numbers
signaled, which, according to custom. in
dictated the big prize. Slowly the flag
waved back and forth, ard Taylor wrote
down 2, There was a little more wig
Wagglng and he added the figures 10.
More ~Waying-then 81. He could hardly
believe his eyes. He got out his ticket
again and compared its number with the
hgures he had written. They were the
same. He had drawn the capital prize.
He didn't wait to take any more wigwag
signals, but rushed to Batey's shop as
fast as his legs would carry him there and
told the news.
"Of course, there was some doubt in
Batey's mind at first, but h figures
were ali right, and in due time Taylor got
his money. l have been told it was $50. 500.
and it naturally changed Noah's life
completely. He was a good hearted chan
and the first thing he did was to remem-
Der all his friends. He didn't exactly
throw his easily won wealth away. but
he did squander a lot of it in loans, big
and Little. to his c~ronies. Some of them
paid but more didR't, and if Taylor
hadn't called a halt they'd nave borrowed
him poor again in a few weeks.
After a little foot over his good for
tune, Taylor bought three or four city
A~S0 80 III SlICClt Jill d lew
hundred feet from the river, and said he
was going to put up a hotel. Nearly
everybody said he was crazy. The lots
were low and swampy and apparently
not at all suited for a hotel site, but Tay-
Tor believed his scheme was all right and
went ahead. When finished the hotel was
one of the finest buildings for its pur-
poses to be found anywhere. and it be-
gan to make money the day it was open
ed. Noah put his brother Jack in to run
it, and Jacks prominence as a pigeon
shooter made it popular with sportsmen
from all quarters. Noah provided good
places for the other two brothers also.
He devoted his own energies to having
a good time and making himself popular.
Meanwhile everything he or his brothers
touched seemed fairly to turn INTO money,
and it wasn't many years before every
one of them was rich, and Noah's wealth
was estimated at half a million sure.
"Noah's prosperity lasted nearly TWEEN
ty years. He won the prize, I think, in
1858. The hotel was finished in 1859. A
year or W afterward he went into poll
ties. He hrst became an Alderman, then
an Assemblyman and then a State Sena-
tor. His majorities were big every time
till he ran for Congress. Then he was
beaten, and from that time on he had no
luck in either politics or business.
sit was politics that downed him. He
was the most liberal candidate Jersey
City ever knew. He had a big barrel,
IND whenever he was in the running he
knocked the bung out. He used to give
his workers s., $40 and 500 apiece all
round every day or two, and as many as
wished were privileged to live at the ho-
tel. One year he bought handsome suits
of clothes for them all. They were ccs-
tom made and of the best matedial,
b~roadcloth for the coats and vests and
"doeskin" for the trousers, and all cut
alike, the coats being long frocks, such as
we would now call Prince Alberts. You
could spot Taylor's friends on the street
by he dozen, for their coats were the
and the best fitting to be seen
anywhere.