Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-27
NEW YORK'S HOTELS
Modern HostelrieS Are of Gil
gantic Proportions.
SOME ODD GUESTS
JOHN II. BRAKES EXPENSIVE
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.
Women Make War on Overcrowded
Street Cars-News and Gossip
Of Gotham.
SOME ODD GUESTS
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Va 0VlAdm.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK. December Is. 100.
The proprietors and lessees Of the smaller
hotels are wondering what they are going
| to do for guests when all Of the vast hos
telries now building or projected in New
York are completed and ready to throw
| open their doors. The great modern hotels.
with all of their luxurious features. inev-
| itably get the business. Guests Of the solid.
ell-established hotels-it only takes about
| ten or fifteen years for hotel to become
old-fashioned in New York-resist the
temptation to desert the hostelries at which
| they have registered for many years only
for certain length of time. Then they
succumb to the impulse to enjoy the supe-
| rior luxury of the huge twentieth century
INNS and their rooms in their old favorite
hotels know them no more. 1t is so every
where-and not less SO in Washington than
elsewhere, if one is to Judge from The
| Stars list Of the stopping places Of notable
legislators, which indicates many changes.
Travellers making their first visit to New
York make their headquarters at the most
famous among the new hotels, never think
Ing or putting up at the solid. old estab-
| lshments that. comfortable and well con-
heard OF throughout the country nowadays.
as they once were before the beginning OF
the period which produced the modern sky
scraper. There are certain times during
the year when all OF the hotels in New
York. the small ones-smaH only in a COM
parative sense, 1t should be said-as we'll
as the huge ones, are crowded; but the
gigantic establishments are filled to their
limit adj the year round. The less magnii-
cent hotels cannot thrive upon the semi
annual or quarterly visits of the vast
and. with their old patrons gradually but
certainly deserving them for the ornate
taverns, their proprietors are in a guam
dary. and their situation is bound to be-
come a great deal more acute when the
tremendous hotels now going up are ready
to entertain guests.
New Hotel Enterprise.
The Pennsylvania railroad Is going to
spend nearly 500, 600 in the construc-
ton of a tunnel beneath the North river
from Jersey City to Broadway and 42d
street, New York, to spare its passengers
the trouble of crossing the river on the
ferry, and Is going to undertake, 1t is
pretty we'll understood, the construction of
the largest hotel on earth at its New York
terminal Three squares Of enormously
valuable ground around that terminal have
ALREADY been bought up by the railroad for
the purpose. The plans for the building as
already mapped out. will make the new es-
fabllShment colossal affair. One l1esita tes
10 mention In figures the thousands of
guests which the new hotel is to be de-
signed to accommodate. and the building is
10 embrace. besides number of maenifi-
cent tneaters. an amphitheater that will
dwarf the great Madison Souara Cor5on
and roof garden that will make ALI Other
roof gardens in the world look like SO many
Playing pavilions for children
Inc drlft uptown of the hotel districts has
been so rapid in recent years as to mystifv
even the stoutest supporters of the claims
OF upper Manhattan for hotel PURPOSES IT
seems like far cry from the day when
the oid Astor house, away down Broadway
below the City Hall, was the fashionab le
hotel of New York, and yet 1t was maintain-
ing Its position as such right up to a quar-
ter OF a century ago. Then the next long
Jump was made to Union Square, and the
man VINO owned or leased a hotel on 18th
street, eighteen or twenty years ago con-
sidered himself fixed for life-eyen the ac-
tors r1alto then extended only from l4th
10 80 street Then the hotel center moved
along up to from I'D to about 9th street
and when the Gilsey House was built at the
corner of Broadway and 10Th street the
proprietor was soemnly warned by his
friends that he had gone too far uptown
and that his venture was certain to proye
losing one. Since then the hotel center
has moved in swift jumps, until now II is
above 42d street
Character of the Guests,
1t is not to be imagined that all of the
guests Of the great hyphenated hotels al
ready in existence, or even any considerable
proportion Of them. are Of the class con-
versationally denominated as swell" There
are suites of rooms in some of these hotels
that cost $1,000 day to their occupants.
but on the top floors of these splendid tay-
erns there are many small rooms that can
be had for the small sum Of 81 per diem,
These rooms are especially devised for the
~ 1rr1nd 4fi af 4 hot
people who like to write their letters to the
home folks on the stationery of swageer
New York hotels. and who wouldn't mind
1t if they were located a mile up in the air
SO long as they gained the stationery priyi-
lege. 1t is a matter of interest to note that
the tiny rooms of this sort in the giant
hoStelries are for the most part occupied
by women-milliners and dressmakers from
small towns enjoying the event of their
lives. visit to New York, chiefly ANY
tradesman in New York will unhesitatingIy
give credit to a customer who orders goods
sent to a swell hotel There is no particu-
lar reason why they should be more willing
to give credit to such guests than to any
other occupants of hotel rooms throughout
New York, but they do. nevertheless.
There thousands of people in New
York however, who do not even care to go
to the expense of engaging little 81 room
in order to obtain the privilege of using the
stationery of these great hotels. They sim.
ply walk into the writing rooms of the no.
tells and wait their chance to stuff their
pockets with the gilt-stamped letter paper
and envelopes Of the hotel and the big no.
tells have to stand for the loss literally of
tons of stationery in this way. Several of
the hotel managers have now put capable
and husky guards over the writing room
stationery. and the individual who attempts
to pilfer paper without being able to give
these guards the numbers of their rooms
when. of course. the petty thieves "ain't
got no Sech numberS''-finds himself hustled
into the outer air with great suddenness.
Buying Christmas Gift.
A big. notwithstanding man, with
grayish hair worn quite long. and a mus
.tache of the same hue and rosy skin,
strolled into very high-grade jewelry es-
Establishment upper Fifth avenue a few
days before Christmas, nodded to the pro-
prietor, who advanced from the Office to
meet him. and said:
81 want to get some sort of a little trinket
as Christmas gift for my wife,
II have been expecting you sad the
proprietor of the store. Here is something
I think you will likeII had you in mind. in
fact, when L brought it over from Amster-
dam with me last fall
The jeweler took a case out of his safe
and opened it. Lying upon the little cush-
ion was diamond. shaped almost like a
lore NM hum n nd