The sea coast echo., 1908-03-14
NEW YoRks MiD-AIR CLUBS.
Novel Feature OF Business Life ia the

8
A Novel Feature OF Rusiness Life ia tho
Metropolis.
Mr.. Cleveland Moffett, turning from
the consideration of steeple-climbing.
bridge building and other Careers
of Danger and Daring" devotes an
illustrated article in the Century TO
an account of what he calls the Mid
Air clubs of New York, which are
used principally by business men as
lunch rooms.
Suppose we leave our toll of the
morning, our business schening, and
| try what the mid-air clubs can do for
us. A few blocks above the postoffice
rises the Central Bank bullding,
gray granite mass piled up 16 stories
over the street and capped by vice
cornice so high that, why, when yo1
look up at it-bend your head farther
| back-it seems to sway out unsteadliy.
| We shall be lunchins presently Just
above that cornice.
| 1t is better, already. as we turn into
| the marble columned corridor; the
outer dazzle is subdued; and as the
rapid car bears us upward we leei
welcome downIush of cool air. There
is no stcp-this is the members car:
and nine IL. 15 here we are in the
| Arkwright club, one that is well worth
studying.
And first for table in the south
west corner Of the large dining room,
| if we may secure one, for here is the
| ,,1o nc
a ballroom and borne up imposing y
! white columns; walls finished rest
! fully in green-that is. what walls
there are, for on three sides we look
out over the city through continuous
windows with single panes five feet
square. Now turn to the left, then
! slowly to the right. All, splendid.
isn't it? We are sc high tha+ all
else seems beneath us, and the view
sweeps free from river to river, ana
far down the bay.
There is the Brooklyn bridge, with
5! strings of doll cars trailing over 1t.
There are the spindle piles of News
paper row. once counted lefty. And
straight to the south cuts the deep.
gloomy canon of Broadway, narrow
cleft between gray and red preciEices
in the depths of which we can make
out the silent wriggling shape OF men
and horses. Away to the north
stretches the wide Hudson, and on a
clear day we can follow it from Grants
tomb yonder down through its spread
ing mouth to the mass of Staten ISL
and. And see the river craft. Nhaf
Quiet pleasure there is in watching
them, the drifting barges, the laden
schooners, the fat ferryboatS plying III
| and out, with white foam streak ms
their wake, all comfortable, one seeiS,
out IN the cool, wet river. There goes
liner steaming lazily-one of the
ocean racers, says the waiter, VIII"
knows them all by their tunnels. Yes,
even the walters yield to the charm
OF this place, and one of them stayed
his table setting long enough to tell
me how it fills him with awe, sir,
every evening, when the sun dips sud.
denly in golden splendor there behind
the Orange mountains. And he !e-
scribed the look of fairy land that the
| Jersey shore takes on with all the
electric lights twinkling along its wa
ter front What contrast | reflect
cd, between this man with soul
above his napkin and walters down on
the street who never see the river Or
The hills, who never do anything but
hustle plates in red-hot rooms and
bawl out orders.
The Arkwright club (named. of
course, after Sir Richard of spinning
jenny fame) does for men in the
wholesale dry goods trade what simt-
lar clubs do for men IN a dozen other
trades The are the Drug club, the
Wool club. the Hardware club, the Mer-
chants club, the Aldine association.
the Midday club, the Transportation
club, the Fulton club, the Business
| Women's club and various others, all
unique in this, that they have been
lifted to the top of very high build
ings.