Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-09-09
LIFE IN A MODERN HOTEL
Some Features that Distinguish the Great
American oaravanIarieL
COMFORT or GUESTS is THE GREAT OBJECT
Problems Solved by Management Pre-
sent some Interesting Figures
i'm Detail and show Eject
of Organization.

NEW YORK, Sept. s.-With the coming
OF cool weather, the managers Of the great
New York hotels are making arrangements
for the season of dinners and banauets
The capacity of the modern house Of en-
tertainment is suggested by the fact that,
without disturbing the regular routine, u
Is possible to give a dinner In private
dining room or banquet hall 10 party
numbering hundreds Of people. Americans,
besides being the worlds greatest travellers
have In recent years mastered the art OF
dining, and those who cater to the wants
of the inner man in the large cities OF this
country know that their patrons, while
appreciative, are also exacting. Whether
II Is a breakfast given by woman's club
as an accompaniment to a lecture on do
nestle science, or an after-theater supper
party, the hotel man must have the ma
chinery Of his establishment running with
equal smoothness.
In the Way of suppers.
Mention of an after-theater supper sug-
gests a little party OF friends who can be
accommodated in one small room. and who
partake Of a few choice viands. But the
modern host is prepared to entertain thea
ter parties which may be equal to the
population of a good-sized town, and the
word supper" sometimes covers multi
tude Of courses. Last year for instance,
1900 men, members OF the order of knights
OF Columbus, sat down to what was proba-
bly, the largest after-theater supper ever
given In a New York hotel, or. 1t may be
safe to say, in any hotel in the wide world
The gathering filled both the large and
small bathrooms of the Hotel Aston the
100000 caravansary In Longacre Square
The supper on this occasion was
in reality, an eight-course dinner,
and the 100 were served in the space OF
an hour and a half. At the same time a
number OF other private dinners were In
progress in the same hotel. So important
Is this feature of the hotel business be-
coming that at the New Astor, on any
fairly busy day, from 800 to 1000 persons
are served in the seventeen rooms reserved
for private parties and banquets. It |:
often more difficult to arrange and carry
through these affairs than II Is to take
care of even a larger number OF individual
| guests People who are giving dinner am
supper parties very often do not know lonl
in advance Just how many persons the!
will entertain or just what they want. Blu
| the hotel people have a carefully worked
| out system by means OF which the informa
ton is made available as soon as II is OBJ
tanned. and when a party gathers in tn
room set aside for II everything is In readi
ness. even TO the floral decorations whicl
may not have been ordered until half al
| hour before.
other Bits of Hotel Life.
| But the giving OF banquets Is only on
feature of the hotel life Of the fall ant
winter In the metropolis. A hotel like tn
Astor, with It's 800 guest rooms and it
great dining rooms, shelters every do!
thousands Of people To care for then
means doing much more than providing
something to eat and place in which t