Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-10-10
"a MODERN BIG HOTEL
ms CAPACITY, IT'S luxuRY AND ITS
ENORMOUS EXPENSES.
Public and Private Dining Rooms In
Which Over Ten Thousand Persons
May Dc Served Daily-It Ii Practi-
cally Town Under One Roof.

4 race III WHICH tney nave pictured entlfe
communities living under one roof and
yet each family still retaining its priya.
cy. Writing of facts, George Barry Nal
Ion in Ainslee's Magazine tells some
surprising things about modern big no.
tells that shelter persons numerous
fenough to form fair sized village. He
says:
"If one Of New York's big modern no.
tells could be whisked to the country and
spread out in village formation the result
would be model proprietary town Of
about 5000 inhabitants. One half Of
these inhabitants would work in relays
K night and day for the comfort and en-
tertainment Of the other half, whose OBJ
/ legation would be the payment Of the
bills, which in the aggregate would rep
resent, in addition to the running ex-
penses and perhaps 100000 year set
aside for the proprietor's profits, the in
terest on $4,000, 600 invested in land.
buildings and furnishings.
MANY cities cannot muster tax list
Of $15, 0O0, 600, so that this town would
be conspicuous above oil others for
1 wealth. and in completeness Of the de-
tails that make the material side Of life
/ a joy it would be unrivaled. Some Of its
4 houses would be constructed for one fam
! lily exclusively. and others would be ar
ranged in single rooms and in suits. All
!; would be furnished in the most luxurious
fashion. In the central warehouse Of
the towns steward would be found q
4 80 %. 4
cuisine than in any public market in the
world. There would be row OF cook
shops, each devoted to the preparation
OF special course. ranging from the
soups and entrees and roasts to the
pastries and coffee. There would be
half dozen big banquet rooms and BALI,
rooms, several music rooms and well
appointed theater or two.
THE town would have of course tel
egraph Office, complete telephone sys-
tenn and some means of rapid transit to
every house. Enormous boilers would
supply the heat, and IN electric light
plant would furnish the illumination.
There would DO an ice plant large enough
to manufacture fifty tons day. There.
would be silversmith, blacksmith and
tinsmith shops, electrical repair and ma
chine shops, florists, hairdrcssing rooms
for men aud women. Turkish baths, up
holstery and furniture shops, decorators.
and seamstresses, q steam laundry, a
messenger service, printing Office, a
wine cellar, with half million dollars
worth Of choice vintages, and q club
house, with billiard and reading rooms
and cafes.
THE town would be policed day and
night by dozen private detectives, and
it would have q we'll trained fire depart
ment. There would be bank, over
whose counters would pass millions OF
dollars each year, aud central execu-
tive Office, with scores Of clerks and
bookkeepers and auditors.
The proprietor Of this town would ass
sume all the housekeeping cares OF his
500 tenants and many OF his 1900 enc
ployees. He would provide amusements
and act as the court OF last resort. It
would seem as IL the man who was rash
enough to attempt the management of
such town, stalking his fortune on the
issue. must necessarily fail, but as fair
illustration it is not oyerdrawn. Its par
allel 10 found in compact form. with no
features missing and many added, in the
modern big hotel that has reached the
highest development in New York.
Neither the bigness nor the com.
plcteness OF . big hotel is appreciated by
the patron who finds his interests salts
fed with the accommodations which 1t
furnishes. he knows in q general way
that it may be a dozen stories high and
several cellars deep and that the thcl-
sand or more guests are attended by
servants on every hand, and when he
pays his bill he believes that the charges
are exorbitant. b
Zone Of these hotels, which differs
from the others chiefly In degree, repre-.
sents an investment of 5,000,0 600. The
], 400 bedrooms and $50 bathrooms in 1t
are so constructed by series of inner
courts that each opens to the outer air.
1t has several concert halls and theaters.
three great bathrooms, and, in addition
to its public dining room. where during
horse show week. for instance, 10000
people are served daily. it has series of
private dining rooms which are arranged
for from ten to a thousand persons.
in the largest ballroom in this hotel
was given one night last winter q public
ball, attended by $500 people, to whom
.supper was served, and on the same
evening in other parts of the hotel were
In progress two concerts. o dinner OF an
association OF 800 men and dozen
smaller dinner parties in private dining
rooms. each isolated SO completely that
no one Of the 1900 regular guests need i
know of 1t.
statistics are not very entertaining,
but there are some stories of hotels thar
they alone can tell, and that of the sup
plies is one of them. For instance. dur
ing given year one of these big hotels
spent for meat 100000; for poultry,
$113,O00; for vegetables, $4,000; for
fruit, $4,000; for eggs, $4,000; for
butter $4,000, and for the flowers
used in decorations. and there are flow
ers on the tables every day, $4,000.
The initial investment in silverware was
$3.50. 900, and, with the losses that char
itably are credited to the souvenir craze
and the general wear and tear on table
service, about $4,000 year is spent in
keeping this supply up to the hotels
standard.
Zone New York hotel that suffered
severely from the souvenir spoon and
salt cellar mania adopted several years
ago the plan of notifying guests that
each waiter was responsible individually
for al articles on his table and would
have to make good any loss. This re-
duced the taking OF spoons to robbery
of the waiter instead of the hotel, and
even the souvenir hunter has some con-
science about such theft. In the big
gest OF New York hotels $4,000 year
is spent in replenishing the linen, and
looms in Belfast are busy the year round
for it. The expenses of the other hotels
for repairs are proportionately as large,