The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-03
"A 42-Story Hotel Planned.
 TalIest in the World
"AL' ADAMS TO BUILD 1T
Made HIs Start as the Policy King. MT. cowan,s Dream and a Search for Diamonds
 In America.
BY sEwELL HAeeARD.

New York, September 2--Plans are un- derway here for the greatest of all mod ern skyscrapers. It Is to be hotel build ing fortytwo stories in height to stand on site near the new terminal station of the Pennsylvania railroad in Manhat- tan, the excavating for which is now going on.
 The plans comprhend the erection of a structure twice the size of the Chats worth, at the foot of West Seventy-seeond street, which with one exception Is the largest apartment house in the world, and about 500 feet in height. Its room capacity will be one and half times as great as that of the Ansonia, at Seventy third street and Broadway, the largest apartment house in the world. There will be accommodations for 220O guests, with 300 single rooms with baths attached. The plans call for all the modern devices. such as wine refrigerators and private safes. In the basement there will be plunge seventy-five feet long by twenty five feet broad. The dining room will be On the first floor, with roof garden Tor summer use.
 Architects have long considered a build ing of this height practicable, but the cost would be so enormous that It has never been figured out how sue ha structure could be made to pay. The forty-two story hotel building. for which plans have been drawn will cost in the neighbor- hood of $5,000,000.
 The man who proposes to attempt this mammoth undertaking Is Albert J. Adams. an iron-Jawed gentleman who has performed greater feats than the erection of a forty-two story hotel building, but in an entirely different line. Under the name his parents gave him, Albert J.," he will be scarcely recog- nized but call him plain "Af Adams and everybody in New York and lots of folks outside will know of whom you are speaking. If you want to know some thing about his history you can get 1t at the nearest police station. Most of Mr Adams great feats had to do with foilng the police and they know him pretty we'll although he amassed vast fortune before he was ever trapped. '9p Adams Is the ex-Policy King Of New York. For years he was actually the sole packer of the game here and had an inter s,t in the traffic in other cities, among them Philadelphia and Baltimore.
 The anti policy society after years of
  Adams to Sing Sing for short term. The minute sentence was pronounced upon him he quit the policy game. He had already taken up real estate specula- tion on a small scale and he continued to enlarge his operations even while in prison From Sing Sing he directed his business affairs almost as easily as he could have done from an office In Wall street He was @ millionaire when he went to the penitentiary and he came out with his fortune doubled.
 Then came about the only reverse he has experienced except that when he fell into the hands of the police. MT. Adams ventured into Wall street among the bulls and bears But the ex-Policy King be- came neither of these. He was lamb pure and supple and after settling up for his experience he got out.
 In the meantime the Adams family had also sustained reverse. They bought cottage at Newport and made a dash for the social North pole. They found the road just as cold as Fiala found the path to the real pole. Repulsed in his assault upon society and stocks Mir Adams again turned his attention to real estate and, according to all reports. the discovery of the Log Cabin mine could hardly have proved more profitable to him.
 hotel Is the property in West Thirty second street where once stood the House of All Nations,' which was built by Adams and was long the most famous place in the white light district.