The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-23
NEW YORK TOPICS.
DRIFTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF
THE METROPOLIS.

Passing of a Famous Restaurant
From Its Old stand Uptown TO the
Realm of MaGnincence-Hard Luck
for BIN the Button Man-The Sit
uatiOn I'm Wall Street.
New York. Feb. 22.-Nobody can
1 doubt that we are going to turn the
city upside down and inside out for
the edification of Prince Henry. If all
the plans offered for his amusement
and entertainment were carried out, he
would have to spend the rest of his
natural life on Manhattan Island.
Every variety of organized Hyphen-
American wants a chance at him Irish
American, Swedish American, Ger
man--American of course Cthough
them he has rather snubbed), British
American-even Chinatown wants to
make a feast of lanterns and joyanca
of fire-crackers in His Teutonic High
ness honor. Pending the Princes ar
rival we are doing the best we can
for his advance guard, the officers and
crew OF the Hohenzollern, now at Ho-
boken. Crowds flock to see her every
day, and Admiral Won Baudissen
stretches courtesy to the point of
WEAKNESS in receiving visitors The en-
trance to the pier was blocked yester-
day by a crowd that took every opDor-
tunity to cheer the Kaiser's men. There
Is no doubt that the crew of the Ho-
henzollern will enjoy life while here.
thirty kegs of beer are delivered on
board every day. AS there are about
tnree hundred men aboard the royal
yacht, this is key per day for every
ten men. One able-bodied keg of Amer
lean beer may be depended upon to
land a ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of longshore-
men In the police court next day, the
kaiser's German sailors will probably
put away their huge allowance with
out any deleterious effects. Such a COL
lection of Vikings as those fellows are
mas never before come to this BORT.
Huge, blonde, bearded, rudy giants.
they are superb set of men. Nav
their beer do them good!
me announcement that Prince
i1enrys only acceptance of private
hospitality will be a dinner at the
mouse OF young Cornelius Vanderbilt
mas not been verified at this writing
II Is reported with great detail, how
ever, uhat the Kaiser wishes his
brother to accept the hospitality of a
representative American family and
has selected the Cornelius Vanderbilts
because he knows Mrs. Vanderbilt.
One can hardly expect the Emperor of
Germany to be up in the complications
OF New York society," but the Corne-
llus Vanderbilts as a representative
American family" leave something to
be desired. What they represent would
be hard to say: certainly not the Van
derbit connection, for Cornelius the
elder bitterly opposed the marriage of
Cornelius Jr. Grace Wilson, and the
90
marriage. Moreover the couple are
very young to be selected for so sig
nal social honor, and there will be
heart-burnings among their elders.
However, If the report of the matter
proves true, young Mrs. Vanderbilt, at
whom many of the Four Hundred
have looked askance, will have made
the social coup of the year.
AS I write this, the world outside is
dim and gray with what promises to
develop into one of New York's few
and far between, but disastrous bliz-
yards. While many other parts of the
country have been suffering from
heavy snowfall, the metropolis has
rejoiced in a winter of clear skies and
sunshine. Now it looks as If back pay
ment of bad weather were coming in
Our well-meaning weather bureau
gave us no warning of it, but by mid
night OF Sunday, when the snow. had
been falling for less than an hour
the street car companies realized that
something out of the ordinary was in
progress and began to hustle for men,
New York awoke this morning to find
drifts waist-high in many of the
streets, few cars running, all trains
/ late, and even the elevated roads far
behind schedule. DR.. Woodbury.. head
of the street cleaning department.
/ had hundreds of extr men out early.
at work That is. they were supposed
! parody of labor l have never seen.
Most of the extras were
husky looking fellows, but they acted
! like consumptives in the last stages.
| They would flourish their shovels Ian
| guidly, take a tablespoonful of snow
from one place and deposit it in an
| other where it wasn't needed, then
turn their backs to the gale and pant.
If we are to depend upon them we
shall be showed in by tomorrow, for
| the storm shows no sign OF abating.
| And snowblockade in this city is
no joke. 1t means business brought
/ almost to standstiH, hundreds OF
thousands of dollars lost to the stores,
| theaters and hotels, perishable freight
and express hopelessly blocked. and,
worst of all. the cutting off of much
of the city's food supply and a con-
sequent increase of prices that means
hardships for the poor. One amusing
feature is the sudden rush on the
wholesale oyster market. The last
serious blizzard held up all the oyster
sloops and many high class hotels and
restaurants were left without the sue
I culent bivalve. They don't propose to
/ be caught short Of the market again,
and with the indications of blizzard
/ troubles before their eyes this morn
/ ing, they sent their agents scurry-
/ ing to buy heavily in advance.
Another landmark has gone the way
! of all landmarks in this city of
change Martins, or as it is better
known. the Cafe Martin (giving the
French pronunciation. if you please
was only seventeen years old, but it
was an institution nevertheless. The
cheerful. old-fashioned building at
Ninth street and University Place be-
came. after Martin. a Frenchman
from Central America took il over as
a hotel. the only high-class restaurant
in this city. II prospered from the
first. the French alone being its only
patrons Then IL became known as
the "real Bohemia" that phantasm
which the gullible New Yorker un-
weariedly pursues from disillusion TO
disillusion. This reputation means al
ways "A rush of patronage for a time
anyway. The Martin kept it's patron
age because its wine cellar was excel
lent, and its dollar-and- quarter ia
BILE d'hote the best thing OF the kind
TO be found. There was curious
rider" 10 the table d'hote proposition. .