The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-10-03
A SHORT CRUISE IN
THE CURTIS BUILDING
By Dudley C. Barrow.

Philadelphia, Oct. 1.-Facing the
square, wherein is marked the spot
on which the colonial independence
declaration meeting was held in Phil
adelphia, there now stands the great
est existant monument to the publish
ing industry-the immense and sump-
tuous home of the Curtis Publishing
Company, publishers of the Saturday
Evening Post, the Ladies Home Jour
nal and the Country Gentlemen.
We all admire bigness in business.
The great steel industry, the gigantic
packing houses, the automobile plants
of enormous output, all compel our
admiration through their very enor-
nifty but it is not mere size which
makes one admire, above all, this
modern wonder of the publishing
world.
The chances are that if its agents
are counted, the army of employees
of this gigantic institution would out
number those of any other single
business organization, but, as said,
it is not in respect to size alone that
one pays just tribute to this modern
genii which has its touch felt in one
tenth of the homes of the United
States.
In visiting the home of the Curtis
Publications / did so with a feeling
that there is the greatest single hu-
man institution, if not in the world, at
least in the United States.
While other business institutions
may operate on just as large a scale
in dollars and cents and also employ
armies of people, one cannot help but
realize that those other institutions
supply humanity's material needs
while this, the trumpeting voice of
genius, in thought and the world
wide canvas of the generations
greatest in art, supplies men with
that which is needed more than mere
bread and the material comforts of
/ this world.
The Marvellous Building.
The immense Curtis building
almost instinctively writes it palace
/ seems to bear out in every detail the
( impression one gets from the publi-
cations es-thoroughness re-
fiinement, studied thought for the bet
terment of humanity.
The guides who take you through
the building are educated, courteous
not studiedly but naturally so.
/ They are gentlemen-and it does not
require an assayers' test to pick gen
tlemen from amongt he thousands one
meets in attendance at various places
today. These men typify the organi-
zation they represent.
viii not go into details of the
elegance of editors and directors
rooms which embody such noteworthy
features as gorgeous mahogany and
hand-carved English oak furnishings
and doors; true copies of world-re-
nowned paintings by Rembrandt and
other worshipped masters of palette
and brush; priceless, genuine Chi
nese rugs, more than 200 years old.
One rather expects to find such as
these where the big men of business
gather but it was in the rooms which
had heard were provided for the
other employers that chose to spend
most time.
The Girls Quarters.
Nearly two-thirds of the great
army of employees housed in the
building are women and girls. The
comforts provided for them include q
welfare room, hospital, a kitchen
marvel in its neatness and clenli-
ness-ice plant, where all the ice con
sumed in the building is made from
distilled water, recreation hall, large
dance hall, about forty by seventy.