The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-07
GOOD THINGS OF TODAY
WE ARE PARTICULARLY BLESSED
BY LIVING IN THIS AGE
Pity for Our Unfortunate Ancestors
Who Could Not Live at the Waldorf
or Use Long Distance Phones
Wonders of the Age to Come

How seldom any of us pauses to
consider the great advantage of living
in this age, when discovery and in
vention have made it possible for us
to do and have anything we please.
/. We take everything for granted and
whether we travel or remain at home
our thoughts seldom bark back to an
age when our ancestors found life diff
f1cult at best. In travelling, for in
stance, it is now possible for a woman
to go round the world with perfect
safety. Conductors and other rail-
road officials are in most cases very
courteous, and see that women pas
sengers are taken care or, and the
systems of long distance phone and
telegraph make it possible for one to
be reached anywhere on trains or in
hotels In the large and expensive
hotels one can ring a bell and get
anything from a house and lot to
pitcher of ice water Going OUT TO
hnd ticket office to purchase trans
portation is no longer necessary. Ring
the bell at the hotel and you can buy
your ticket and check your trunk with
out leaving your room, and not only
check to the city to which you are
going, but straight to your hotel. The
system IS so perfect that all anxiety
about baggage can be eliminated. AL
though only the other day a st. Paul
man. who went to New York and was
stopping at the Waldorf, found when
he arrived at his room that he had
the suit case of an actress full of
cosmetics, instead of his own. He no.
tilted the office and left the suit case
that was not his and by the time he
got to his hotel in Philadelphia, his
own bag was awaiting him. Very few
III the large hotels are run now on
e American plan; consequently one
dust have full pocketboek to live at
the hotel as we'll as to stop there. 1t
is said at the Waldorf in New York
that hundreds of people use the sta
tionery Of the house who have never
slept under its roof. They like to give
the impression to their friends that
they are there. The Holland house.
which is patronized by the fastidious,
is also used in the same way. The
writer heard of a Washington girl
who annually comes to New York for
good time, takes a room at the Hol-
land, while her mother and aunt are
In cheap room round the corner The
mother of the girl occupies her room
with her at night, and both live at
table d'hOte round the corner. 1t is
pleasant to many wOuld-bes to be able
TO say L am stopping at the Holland
or the Waldorf" There seems to be
more of that kind of ridiculous snob-
berry in the Easrs han in the West
one can now get a room for two dol
lars a day at the Waldorf, and if one
is willing to shop round" for meals,
expenses can be well kept down St.
Paul people patroniZe the Waldorf and
the Holland quite extensively, and 1t
seems pretty we'll known in New York
that the best is good enough for West
erners.
The people of this age have become
spoiled by SO much luxury 1t is pleas
ant but enervating, and one wonders
what will be demanded and come next
Thinking by machinery is about the
only thing left. If the shades of our
forefatherS are cognizant of terrestrial
affairs they must regret their inability
to return and take a spin on the ave-
nue. in well appointed auto or live
at the Waldorf for a short time. One
pities ones ancestors, who were de-
prived of travelling in limited trains,
or using long distance telephones.
What an effort life must have been,
and yet doubtless they looked back to
more remote period and blessed the
powers that be that they were not as
others had been. On the other hand,
1t is quite within the possibilities that
a hundred years hence posterity will
look back upon us with plying gaze
and be sorry we could not have known
an age when-without doubt-the at
mosphere will be navigable, and cleo
tricity, at present in it's infancy, will
have produced ways and means Of
which the finite mind of man does not
now dream. But the twentieth century
is good enough for