The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-24
CHAPTER M.
DIR. Won HERZLICH EXPOUNDS THE
HIGHTOWER HOTEL AND GER
TAIN ALLIED PHENOMENA.

DIR. Won HERZLICH EXPOUNDS THE
HIGHTOWER HOTEL AND GER
TAIN ALLIED PHENOMENA.
The Hightower Hotel is by many observ
ers held to be an instructive microcosm of
New York. more especially of upper Broad
way, with correct proportions of the native
and the visiting provincial With correct
proportions, again, Of the money making
native and the money-spending native male
and female. A splendid place is this New
York; splendid but terrible. London for the
stranger has a steady-going, hearty hospi-
tally. Paris on short notice will be cozily
and coaxingly intimate. New York is never
either. 1t overwhelms with its lavish dis
play of wealth, it stuns with its tireless,
battering energy. But it stays always aloof,
indifferent if it be loved or hated; if it crush
or sustain
The ground floor of the Hightower Hotel
reproduces this magnificent, brutal indiffer-
ence. One might live years in its mile or so
of stately corridors and its acre so of re-
splendent cafes, parlors, reception rooms
and restaurants. elbowed by thousands,
suffocated by that dense air of human
crowdedness, that miasma of brain emana-
tons, and still remain in splendid isolation,
Here is every species of visitor; the money
burdened who stop here and cultivate an
air of being blase to the wealth of polished
splendors; and the less opulent who stop"
cheaply elsewhere and venture in to tread
the corridors timidly, to stare with honest,
dropping jawed wonder at it's marvels of
architecture and decoration, and to gaze
with becoming reverence at those persons
whom they shrewdly conceive to be social
celebrities.
This mixture of many and strange ele-
ments is never at rest. It's units wait ex-
pectantly, chat, drink, eat or stroll with
varying airs through reception room, corri-
dor and office. 1t is an endless function, at
tended by all of Broadway, with entertain
ment adversely contrived for every taste by
a catholic minded host with a sincere desire
to please the paying public.
Isn't it a huge bear garden, thought"
asks Taunton Oldaker of the estimable DR..
Won Herzlich, after the two had observed
the scene in silence for time.
The wise German dropped olive into his
Rhine wine. and gazed refiectively about the
room. Men and women sat at tables drink
ing; Beyond the tables at the farther side
of the room, other men were playing bill
lizards. 1t was o'clock and the tide was
high.
1T is yet more" answered the doctor. I'm
my prolonged studies of natural phenome-
ma this is the most valuable of ali which
have been privileged to observe"
He called them 'brifiletGhed' and
"awbsairf" with great nicely. Perhaps his
discernment was less at fault
Having continued the doctor, granted
myself some respite from toll in the labo-
ratory at Marburg. / chose to pleasure voy-
age, to study yet the social conditions
in this Noteworthy land. l suspected that
much tiredness of travel would be involved.
Yet here 1 find all conditions Whatsoever
here In that which you denominate bear
garden. They have been reduced here for
my edifca ton, yes? But your term Is a term
of inadequate comprehensiveness. 1t is to me
more what you call beast garden, to In
clude all species of fauna. Are there not
here moths and human flames? are there
not cunning serpents crawling with apples
of knowledge to unreluctant, idling Ewes,
yes? Do we not hear the amazing converse
of parrots and note the peafowl negotiating
admiration from observers? Mark at that
yet farther table also the swine and the
song bird; again, mark our draught horses
who have achieved a competence, yes? You
note also the presence of wolves and lambs.
And, endly, mark our tailed arborean an
cestors, trained to the wearing of garments
and a single eye glass. May L ask, have
you bestowed upon this diversity your COM
pletest high attention? Hanh!'
This explosion of the doctors meant that
he invited and awaited some contradiction.
AS none ensued, he went on:
For wolf and lamb 1 direct your atten-
ton to the group at yonder table. l noticed
that you greeted the young man as he en-
tered-a common friend to then-Mr.
Bines, with financial resources incredibly
unlimited? Also he is possessed Of an unex-
perienced freedom from suspectedness of ul-
terror motives in others-one may not In
English as In German make the word TO fit
his need of the moment-that unsupported
ness, l repeat. which has ever characterized
the lamb about to be converted into nutri-
loose gentleman
with wide-brimmed hat and beard after my
own, somewhat, yes? He would dispose OF
some valuable oil wells which he shall dis
cover at Texas the moment he shall have
sufficiently disposed of them. wolf he is,
yes? The more correctly attired person at
his right, with the beak Of hawk and lips
so thin that his big white teeth CLEAN
through them when they yet shut he is
what he calls himself a promoter. He has
made sundry efforts to promote myself.
conclude promoter is one other fashion of
wolf-saying. The yet littler and yet younger
man at his left of our friend the one of soft
voice and insinuating manner, much re-
sembling a stray scion of aristocracy, dis
closes to those with whom he affably ac-
quaintS himself the location OF luxurious
gaming house not far off: he will even con-
sent to accompany one to its tables; and still
yet he has but yesterday evening invited
me the all-town to see.
LAS a scientist, l remind you, I permit
myself no prejudices. / observe the work
ings of Unconditional law and sometimes
record them. You have a saying here that
there are three generations between shirt
sleeves and Shirtsleeves. | observe the pro-
cess of the progress. 1t is benign as are all
processes. have lately observed ii in Eng
land There, by their law of entail. the same
process is unswifter-yet does ii unvary. The
poor aristocrats, almost back to shirtsleeves,
with their taxes and entailed lands. seek
for the money in shops of dress and bonnet
and ale, and graciously rent their castles to
the but newly opulent in American oil or the
diamonds of South Africa. Here the pos
terity of Mynherr Knickerbocker do like
wise The ancestor they boast was a toiler,
a market gardener, fur trader boatman,
Woodworking, simple-wayed, unspending.
The woman ancestor kitchen-gardened,
spun, wove and nourished the poultry Their
descendants upon the savings of these la
bors have forgotten how to labor them
selves. They could not yet produce should
they even relinquish the illusion that to pro-
duce is of a baseness that only to consume
is noble 1 gather reports that few retain
enough of the ancient strain to become
sturdy tradeSmen and gardeners once more.
Others seek out and assimilate this new
richness, which, in its turn will become i'm
poverished and helpless. All, what beautiful
showing of evolution
See the pendulum swing from useful
perjury to useless opulence. Why does il not
halt midway, you inquire? Because the race
is young. Ach, a mere two hundred and
forty million years from grandfather
grandmother amoeba in the ancestral mo-
rass, What can one be expecting? Certain
faculties develop response to the pressure
faculties no longer ensue. Yes? Withdraw
the pressure. and the faculties decay
SightlesS moles, their environment demands
not the sight; nor of the fishes that inhabit
the streams of your Mammoth cave. Your
aristocrats between the sleeve-of-the-sh.-t
L. Tia. IT,.