The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-19
MILLIONS FOR THE
 SAKE 0F SENTIMENT
Old AstOr House Will Not
 Be Torn Down
IS FAMOUS LANDMARK
Block on Broadway Is of Enormous Value, But Building Will Be Left as a Monument to
 the Astors
By ROBERT LEE CARTIER

By ROBERT LEE CARTER
 New York, March 1s.-Let 1t not be said that New York's multi-milionaires are not moved by other sentiment than the chase of the almighty dollar.
 A striking instance of the falsity of this charge has Just come to my notice. And New York is to profit by it.
 For some little time circumstantial ru- mors have been current that the old Astor house was to be pulled down and on It's site great office building was to be erected
 The Astors have definitely decided now that the famous old hostelry, one of the most noted landmarks In New York, shall not be torn down, but shall be held as monument to the Astor family.
 In coming to this conclusion they make Q heavy sacrifice of money for the sake of sentiment. The block on which the Astor house stands, Broadway, between Barclay and Vesey streets. is enormously valuable, and the income from a great skyscraper erected there would be many times greater than that received from the property, but the present building will re- main, improved somewhat, but practical ly the same old Astor house which for the generations was the heart of New York. Leases have been renewed and the matter Is settled.
 It Is no exaggeration to speak of this famous hotel as having been the heart of New York The very site on which the Astor house Is built Is historic. Here lived for a
 while Napoleon's famous lieutenant, Jean Victor Moreau; John Jacob Astor, the founder of the family. and Alexander L. | Stewart, for years called the richest | man in New York.
 | The hotel was opened in 1S36 It had cost | S3o0,OOO. an enormous sum in those days, and was for many years one of the show places of New York It has never lost it's | place as one of the solid, substantial hos telries of the city.
 | History has been made in the Astor
 house It was here that Henry Clay | received the notification of his nomina- | ton for the presidency in 1844 and it was here eight years later that Webster was
 informed of his deteat for the Whig | nomination and retired broken hearted
 to his home in Marshfield
 | Black Hawk the famous Indian war l rior, watched the crowds from the Astor house steps and thus had it borne in on
 him that the pale face could not be con- cuered.
 | The old registers of the Astor house | read like roster of the great ones of America. Presidents, statesmen, war
 riors, princes, men and women of world
 fame in letters and of the stage have
 made this house their homes while in | New York.
 Andrew Jackson, who was president when the hotel was opened, was a guest,
 so were Presidents Pierce, Fillmore, Tay-
 Tor. Van Buren, Buchanan, Lincoln and
 Garfield. Jefferson Davis, head of the | Confederacy, made it his headquarters when in New York and every president
 since the civil war has ''partaken of the
 hospitality of the Astor''
 It was here that King Edward of Eng
 land, then Prince of Wales. was a guest
 and he was not the only royalty enter | tained.
 The names of the Prince de Joinville and of Grand Duke Alexis of Russia
 also appear on the register.
 Among Americas great statesmen be-
 side Clay and Webster who have been entertained at the Astor may be men,
 tioned Choate, Dauglas, Seward, Weed. Greeley, Sam Houston, John c. Calhoun, Literature is repre- scented by such names
 as Dickens. Thackeray. Irving. Hallick,
 Willis, Hawthorne, Bryant, Whitman. Cooper, Poe, John Burroughs and host of others.
 Such shining names of the stage ap-
 pear as those of Lester Wallach, Dion
 Boucicault. Edward Forrest, McCready,
 Fanny Ellsler/ Jenny Lind, Rachel, Lou | ia Payne.
 | War is represented by the names of
 Zachary Taylor, old Rough and Ready" 1 Winfield Scott, David Farragut, Porter Worth. Butler Hancock, Grant, and a | splendid galaxy of great soldiers and | sailors. In fact. there are few names | in American history after 1886 which du | not appear on these registers. | Not alone New York, but the whole
 country, is to be congratulated that the
 Astor House is to be kept as 1t Is. What is the value of a woman's heart? What balm may be applied to the wound | ed feelings of tender soul who discoy- | CTS suddenly that she is not as much
 engaged as she thought she was? | Ten thousand dollars is the current
 market quotation on heart balm. as dis closed by two verdicts for that amouns rendered by sympathetic juries in New York recently.
 | In the first case, that of Miss Hen- | rietta French, a South Dakota girl, who sued David H. Decker. Jr., civil engi- | neer of this city. for breach of promise of marriage. Justice Erlanger announced | that he would entertain a motion to set | the verdict aside as excessive But when 1 we consider that the young woman, who must possess at least normal intelligence. | had to receive and answer letters begin
 ming My ownty donty darlingest. swee. | honey bunchums, we may not agree with the view of the learned court. | The other blighted young woman is | Miss Fanny Libenau, to whom a jury in | the city court awarded $10,0O0 for injuries tn tar a ina tod