Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-30

Special Correspondent of The Herald.
NEW YORK, Sept. 25.-Commerce,
style and the mad chase for the al
mighty dollar have converted hundreds
and hundreds of stately mansions of
New York into shopping martS and
boarding and lodging houses. Many
proud old palatial homes, formerly oc-
cupied by the aristocracy of Manhat-
tan, whose ancestry dates back to the
old Dutch settlers, have had their
beautiful carved stone steps Supplant-
ed by store fronts bearing the signs
of the butcher, the baker, and the can
dlestick maker. Owners Of the big,
tall brownstone fronts are disfigured
with furnished room signs, and every
other basement is occupied by small
merchant. This remarkable revolu-
tion has taken place within g. few years
and the "400'' is gradually leaving the
district on the west side from Twelfth
street to Thirtieth in keeping with
their wealth, which has multiplied dur
ing the past decade. The passing away
of the prestige of the mansions is in
deed a most pathetic evidence of the
fight of time. Some of the former
homes of the rich which are now de-
voted to boarding and lodging houses,
remind one of a thoroughbred horse
grown old, rickety and emaciated and
great parlors of the mansion, with
their high ceilings adorned with costly
stucco work, seem full Of echoes of
old-time dance music Their massive
and jingling chandeliers, still proud
and grand in their coat of verdigris
and decay, look as if they might tell
fascinating stories of the fetes and
other social functions of thirty or fifty
years ago, when they were new and
i'm oil 40
doors and the massive baluStrades of
the mansion, now contaminated by the
greasy hands of the great unwashed,"
were once the pride of the liveried
servants. who kept them glistening.
The beautifully carved stones which
are in a state of disintegration are
Clipped here and there and faded
walls and ceilings are often disfgured
by cheap papers, but these spacious
halls, alcoves and dressing rooms make
one envious of those good old days
when New York folks had plenty of
room and plenty of time and plenty of
comfort.
Handed a Lemon? Listen!
THE business man who is OCCASION
ally handed a lemon should simply
smile and pat himself OH the back"
said the proprietor of the Murray Hill
hotel the other day. "Why, almost
everything that l touch since l en-
gagged in the hotel business feels like
lemon. Every week enough are sold to
me to supply an east side church picnic.
Guests sometimes deliriously hand out
the sour fruit to the boniface, but 1t
is the attaches and help that deliver
the lemon on the Wholesale plan. The
walters are the bone of contention at
all the New York hotels. They are not
satisfied with tips, some of them, but
they will deplete the larder If not
watched Some time ago l put two
checkers i'm the kitchen to see that the
viands were disbursed with a profit to
the house. We found that much of the
food that was taken from the kitchen
could not be accounted for. Then, ac-
cidentally. a spotter found that three
of our best walters had rubber pockets
IN the inside of their Jackets. In these
pockets they carried chickens. steaks
and whatnot to their favorites in the
dining room, got big tips in return and
We're making more money than the
hotel That is only one way which the
lemon is served me-"
The Remittance Man
The remittance man is one of the
most important and interesting char
acters to the many subdivisions Of