Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-09-12
NEW YoRK,s MIDAIR CLUBS.
Novel Feature of Business Life in the
Great Eastern Me-
op01is

Mr.. Cleveland Moffett, turning from
the consideration of steeple-climbing,
bridge-building and other Careers of
Danger and Daring" devotes an Illus
trated article in Century to an account
of what he calls the Mid-Air clubs of
New York, which are used principally
by business men as lunchrooms.
Suppose we leave our toll of the
morning, our business scheming. and
try what the mid-air clubs can do for
US. A few blocks above the post office
rises the Central Bank building, a gray
granite mass piled up 16 stories over
the street and capped by a wide cornice
SC high that, why, when you look up
at it-bend your head farther back
it seems to sway out unsteadiiy. We
shall be lunching presently just above
that ~cornice!
1T is better already, as we turn into
the marble-columned corridor; the
outer dazzle is subdued; and as the
rapid car bears us upward we feel a
welcome downrush of cool air. There
is no stop-this is the members car;
and nine, IL, Is, here we are in the
Arkwright club, one that is we'll worth
studying.
and first for a table in the south
west corner of the large d~ining-room,
If we may secure one, for here is the
finest outlook. big place, as spacious
as a ballroom and borne up imposingly
by white columns; walls finished rest
fully in green-that is, what walls
there are for on three sides we look
out over the city through continuous
windows with single panes five feet
square! Now turn to the left. then
slowly to the right. All! splendid,
isn't it? We are so high that all else
seems beneath US, and the view sweeps
free from river to river, and far down
the bay.
There is the Brooklyn bridge with
strings of doll ears trailing over it.
There are the spindle piles of Newspa-
per row., once counted lofty. And
straight to the south cuts the deep.
gloomy canyon of Broadway. a narrow
cleft between gray and red precipices.
in the depths of which We can make
out the silent wriggling shapes of men
and horses. Away to thenorth stretch
es the wide Hudson, and on a
CiCdI ddN we Gan 1O1IO" II IO1
Grants tomb yonder down through its
spreading mouth to the mass of Staten
Island. And see the river craft! What
quiet pleasure there is in watching
them, the drifting barges, the laden
schooners, the fat ferry boats plying
in and out. with white foam streaking
their wake, all comfortable, one feels,
out in the cool, wet river. There goes
a liner steaming lazily-one of the
ocean racers says the waiter, who
knows them all by their tunnels. Yes.
even the walters yield to the charm of
this place, and one of them stayed his
table setting long enough to tell me
how it ft,s him with awe, sir, every
evening when the u dips suddenly
in golden splendor there behind the
Orange mountains. And he described
the look of fairyland that the Jersey
shore takes on with all the electric
lights twinkling along its water front.
What a contrast, l reflected. between
this man with a soul above his napkin
and walters down on the street who
never see the river or the hills. who
never do anything but hustle plates in
red-hot rooms and bawl out orders!
This Arkwright club (named, OF
after Sir Richard of spinning
jenny fame) does for men in the whole.
sale dry goods trade what similar clubs
do for men in a dozen other trades.
There are the Drug club. the Wool club
the Hardware club, the Merchants;
.lub, the Aldine association, the Mid,
day club, the Transportation club, the
Fulton club. the Business Woman'S
club, and various others. all unique in
this, that they have been lifted to the
top of very high buildings"
ROMANCE OF A RANKROOK.