Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-05
POSTER ADVERTISING
Clamor in New York Against
Subway Displays.
PUBLICITY OVERFLOW
AMERICAN PRIDE IN WEALTH
DISPLAY ILLUSTRATED.
Hotel Bookings for One Days Lodg-
ings at $125 Per Day-Election
Night Frolic-Dinner Fad.
PUBLICITY OVERFLOW E
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
NEW YORK, November 4, 1904.
There Is, after all. dormant sense of the
artistic, or at any rate, an instructive
shrinking from unnecessary ugliness, among
the people of this town. The ferocity of
their protests against the eye-searing ad-
vertising placards on the walls of the SUBJ
way stations helps to prove this.
They are making and maintaining a pow
erful clamor against this sordid PROCLAMATION
of the genuinely beautiful subway stations.
The exteriors of the stations were tiled in
restful neutral tnts. The thing had the
double merit Of being attractive to the eye
and sanitary, the latter point being a con-
sheraton of great deal Of Importance in
connection with Il railway system operated
under the street surfaces.
1t was the intention of the rapid transit
commission that all subway station adver-
Using should be barred, and that the artis-
tic exteriors of the stations should remain
unmarried by the f1aring posters and plac-
ards that make riding on the L roads
GRIEF and nuisance to persons possessed of
an innate aversion to what has been called
the bullying insistence of poster advertis-
ing.
But there was a hitch somewhere. and
when 1t was untangled the company oper-
ating the subway was discovered to be on
top of the rapid transit commission in the
advertising matter. The company is said to
derive an income of a pat million a year by
leasing the subway station advertising
privilege to certain New York advertis-
ing firm The advertising people had their
timber all in readiness by the day of the
subway opening. and now the stations are
riot of placards that screech the merits
of breakfast foods sloppy novels that can
only live through booming, corsets that look
like 1nquis1torial instruments of torture
carriers that suggest the Moulin Rouge
union underwear in all of the wretchedness
of pictorial demonstration and so on The
restful tiles of neutral tints have been hid
den out of view by these awful jumbles of
discOrdantly-colored posters, and in whirl-
ing past the stations you have a feeling as
If some vengeful enemy had squirted the
contents of a handful of paint tubes in your
eyes.
Vulgarity Of Display.
When we do not dissent altogether we
are accustomed to grudgingly admit that
there is any such thing known in this coun-
try as the pride of wealth or snobbishness
And it is only when we are forced into a
corner that we make such a reluctant and
unwilling admission.
One of the things that thus puts us at
bay is the smiling report of the manager
of a great new hotel that was recently
opened in New York
There is a sumptuous room in this hotel
that rents at the rate of 1925 day. 1t is
the most expensive hotel room in the United
d
deal more money per diem In hotels in New
York and other cities, but no one room that
costs much.
This $125-a-day room was widely adver-
tised and talked about when the great new
hotel opened it's doors. 1t was pictured in
the New York Sunday newspapers, and
described down to the last detail. Word
as to that room went all over the United
States.
We asked the manager Of the hotel the
other day how he was making out with his
$125-a-day room.
We'll" he replied "if you want to oc-
cupy it for day so you'll have to give
me at least four months notice. 1t Is al
ready booked, for one-day terms, for that
period Of time, and bookings are coming
in from all parts of the United States every
day"
That hundred and quarter per day room
hasn't been vacant single day night
since the hotel opened. The people who
occupy the room for a day are splurging
visitors to New York who simply want to
have the name" of having staked them
selves to a one-room shelter at the rate of
S125 for twenty-four hours occupancy of it.
Some queer looking customers are said to
have done their one-day terms in the ROOM
and not a few of them looked as if they
were far from being able to afford the
extravaganza. according to employees Of
the hotel. The majority of them hail from
far and obscure points throughout the
country They are all extremely anxious
that their receipted bill from the hotel shall
gorgeous room cost them the pat hundred
and a quarter, from which one may reason
ably suppose that when they reach their
homes they have the receipted bill framed
and hung in their parlors.
Election Night in New York.
The genial manner of the New Workers.
In watching election returns clearly shows
how purely superficial their interest in the
outcome is. There was a time in the his
tory of New York when the police depart
ment made herculean efforts to keep the
downtown streets of New York cleared on
election nights and respectable persons
were warned to remain indoors on election
nights II they didn't want to have their
heads smashed. That was in the day of
of years standing were broken, even among
men who had no substantial interest in
the outcome of an election. but who stuck
to their political colOrs with vehemence
and violence that could only result In their
estrangement from friends who did not
view the political situation in the same
light that they did.
New York on election night, particularly
on the night of a gubernatorial or presiden-
tial election, is one of the sights of the
world. The teeming hundreds of thousands
of men and women in the streets are al
most unbelievably genial. They are out
for good time, and they are not bothered
in the least as to the outcome as shown on
the bulletin boards They simply do not
while Importance hinges upon the result,
no matter how it goes. Even the ground
lngs and ignoramuses of the election night
assemblages exhibit sort of uncouth skep-
ticism as to the purpose and intent of all
political transactions. The final result is
received with just about as much genuine
feeling as the result of buletined prize
fight.
The Progressive Dinner Fad
The progressive restaurant dinner is go
ing to be one of the cold-weather fads of
New York A lot of folks possessed of
plenty of time and money are already eat
ing progressive dinners, and the scheme
will have taken strong hold on this now
elty-huntng populace before the snow fies
The thing began at the flag end of last sea-
son, but now 1t is being revived in earnest.
At first the progressive dinner had moth
ing to do with restaurants 1t was a de-
vice invented by some ingenious society In
dividual for the relief of the burden upon
hostesses and to enable people with great
many dinner invitations to make the din
ner rounds rapidly and without devoting
much time to each establishment.