The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-03
QUITTING HOMES
 FOR HOTEL LIFE
 TO ESCAPE COLD
New Workers Flee From Apartments For Warmth
 of Hired Rooms.

New York. Jan. 3-Unprecedented cold, combined with coal famine, has brought misery to shivering thousands, but, so the copybooks say, every cloud has a silver lining. In the situation which has existed Il New York for the last week practi' ca1ly all of the silver lining material appears to have been cornered by the hotel men
 New Years celebrations were less lucrative than in previous seasons, it is true, partly due to zero weather, but oh, man, how the warm, comfy suites and rooms have been gobbled up!
 Not that business hasn't been good all the while, but the fact is that the last four days in particular appear td have been the best, from the stand point of the room clerk, that the hos teleries have enjoyed in quite some time
 Insufficient heat these days is not confined to the poor and low1y, but has reached into the $500 apartment as well as the $10 flat The differ ence in result is that the occupants of the former have fled to a hotel for temporary refuge, while the poorer classes have had to endure their quarters in the best way possi- ble
 Bu as there are many who can af- ford to pay rent for one place and live at another, there has been a con- siderable flight to the hotels. Fact | is, several popular hotels reported last l night that they were turning 'em away"-a condition which has exist ed several days.
 What will become of the unhappy transient if New Workers continue to 1 flock to the hotels in such numbers is one of the problems for the future to solve. Not only have whole fami1- ies moved in state into expensive suites at leading hotels, but the com mon garden variety of a room-with-a- bath-for- r-so-much-and-a-hal accom- modations, usually reserved for the travelling public, have been allotted to eager New Workers.
 Suburbanites apparently are with standing the situation better than residents of the metropolitan area. l Suburbanites are nearer a consistent l coal supply for one thing. although some are reported to have fled to city hotels because of, defective furnaces or some similar ai1ment which, while not unexpected to commuters, is de- cidedly unpleasant in conjunction with the record breaking low temper atures.
 Practically all New York hotels pro- tected themselves to meet any coal emergency and hence have been able to supply a full measure of heat as usual.
 Only one of the hotels at which in quiry was made last night failed to report a considerable influx of New York patrons driven from their homes or apartments by insufficient heat.
 The Hotel Majestic reported that the increase of patronage because of families leaving their apartments to escape from the cold has been taxing the capacity of the regular suites and even the rooms reserved for tran Isients for the last several days.
 The McAlpin reported that it had been compelled to turn away a. mum ber of applicants. At tho Manhattan it was said that the capacity was taxed Saturday, Sunday and Monday and that city patronage still was un- usually heavy. a large number or Brooklynites being particularly men toned as guests.
 The Bi1tn1ore. Vanderbilt. Astor, Imperial, Breslin, and others also re- ported that thev were sheltering many New Workers who were exlled rom their own homes by the cold.
 The more modest family hotels or course also are besieged by refugees from chilletd homes