The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-01-21
THE RECKLESS LUXURY OF MODERN
HOTEL LIFE.
What Money VIII Do in an Up-to-Dste Hos
telry for the IMAM Who Would be King"
Even for Few Days.
BY GRACE MAReARET GOULD.


The most obscure man in the most
obscure corner of the United States
to-day may live even better than a
king-while his money lasts. If be
would be king for a time, let him
come to New York and put up at
one of the latest expressions in hotel
extravagance--the man g e m e n
will do the rest. His widest dreams
of luxury will be obliterated by the
surprises he experiences. The hotel
of today is adapted to the multimil-
lionaire, and he requires, as matter
of course, the luxuries which the
most powerful monarch in the world
might envy in vain.
This is no exaggeration. Limitless
money is back of the great New York
hotels, and it is spent without limit.
What then are some of the sur
prises which money can give to the
one seeking regal luxury?
He can live in apartments hung
with gobelin tapestries and spread
with the most costly Persian rugs.
He can eat from a solid gold
service.
He can breathe filtered air, from
which every microbe has been taken.
He can battle in perfumed water.
He can regulate the light to bis
mood.
He can sleep in a bed of carved
tulip wood-an art treasure, an heir
loom from an old French castle, mar
velously carved, and hung with silk
after ancient style, yet representing
the latest ideas in comfort and ease.
He can eat What can he not
eat? The worlds bill of fare is at his
disposal.
He can be attended by a retinue of
trained servants who anticipate his
every wish. And incidentals There
is no modern convenience which is
not at hand and in exactly the right
place.
His clock is regulated by Washing
ton observatory. He talks through
private telephone, and xecutes
business over a private wire. He
has all the comforts not of home, but
of the world.
At what cost is all this indescriba-
BILE luxury furnished? It is only
possible to give few items out of
an unlimited expenditure of time,
thought and money.
One of these hotels cost seven
million dollars.
The decoration of its royal suite of
six rooms cost seventy-6ve thousand
dollars.
The plant to filter the air cost
three hundredthousand dollars.
The tulip-wood bed from the old
French chateau cost ten thousand
dollars, and SO did the piano which
adorns the adjoining reception room.
The solid-silver fittings for each
bathroom in the hotel cost twelve
hundred dollars.
The paintings, marbles and bronzes
which decorate the house represent an
expenditure of half a million and,
on the other hand, each door-knob
in the hotel cost ten dollars.
The daily amount of money spent
for flowers is at least FIVE hundred
dollars.
There is a servant and a half for
every guest, and some guests may
have half a dozen if they wish.
What, then, will it cost the man
who would live like a king to enjoy
these more than regal luxuries?
To occupy the royal suite for a day
costs one hundred and twenty-five
dollars. But this is without any
thing to eat. Food suitable to be
served on gold service by retinue
of liveried attendants comes high.
For instance, one portion of turkey
costs FIVE dollars; and cantaloup to
begin with is one dollar portion,
and the grapes to end with are one
dollar and fifty cents. Green-turtle
soup is one dollar and twenty FIVE
cents a portion, and simple little
salad two dollars. What would game
cost? 1t might leave some change
from a ten-dollar bill, but nothing
worth talking about. One small
portion of grouse, for example, costs
three dollars and fifty cents. Does
one care for cup of tea? He can
have it and welcome for sixty cents.
Suppose some bucolic longings come
to our friend from the country. The
butler looks dumbfounded at first
when he asks for buttermilk, but
money can do anything, and SO he
gets glass at the cost of forty cents.
And fees-they are always with him,
or rather they are always going away
from him. The merest page would
be insulted by ffty-cent piece,
though he might be willing to accept
FIVE dollars-on account.
1t is safe to say that to live like a
king in one of these New York hotels
will cost the one in search of that ex-
perience at least two hundred dolla.s
a day, and cheap at that.
Times have changed, indeed, in
New York City, and money has
changed them. Less than half @
century ago, when the Fifth Avenue
Hotel was opened at the ruling rate
of FIVE dollars a day for room and
board. the judicious held their hands