New York Globe-Telegraph

The **New York Globe-Telegraph** is a newspaper published in New York City, New York. It is the city’s most popular newspaper, bringing the latest news to New Yorkers. It is owned and operated by Cornelius Endicott II, the second richest man in the city.

## Transcripts

***Please* *Note: Some of the transcripts are incomplete, due to text being blocked in photographs.***

### Monday, January 25, 1892

#### HOTEL HIGHTOWER GRAND OPENING

Hightower’s Masterpiece Opens At Last

January 24, 1892 New York City, NY - Tower above Manhattan, the glorious Hotel Hightower has finally opened its doors to the public after three years of construction. Harrison Hightower III, the ‘Dragon of Park Place’, reportedly conceived this hotel as a personification of everything he stands for: Beauty, Power, Elegance, and Excellence. The hotel and the man who built it are both prime examples of the…

#### PARADE DOWN FIFTH AVENUE

The Grand Opening Celebration began with a parade down Park Avenue. It was an exotic event, featuring music and costumed peoples from various countries of the world. The parade began with an impressive float depicting a massive globe of the earth. The globe was impaled with a glittering sword with Hightower’s emblem on the hilt. Occasionally, the globe opened to reveal and shining pearl inside behind held by a beautiful lady in a diaphanous white gown. Close behind followed a marching band from Colonial Indian. After that, a Chinese dragon snaked its way down the street to the accompaniment of exploding fireworks. This was followed by Belly dancers from Arabia accompanied by a small orchestra on a stand, pulled by Arabian horses. This was followed by a group of Arapaho Indian ghost dancers and drummers. These, in turn, were followed by acrobats from Indonesia, chanting Maori warriors from New Zealand, and elegantly dressed geishas from Japan. It was quite a strange collection of people, who reportedly had been brought from the far corners of the world for only one purpose: to march in this parade.

The final grouping of the parade featured Hightower, himself. He was preceded by a large group of men dressed in their traditional African garb, shivering in the freezing air. They banged wildly banging on drums and doing a most amusing dance. Many of these men appeared oddly frightened, perhaps overwhelmed by the awesome sights and sounds of Manhattan. Behind this group of villagers followed Hightower, grandly riding atop a giant African elephant, wearing a glorious white uniform and pith helmet with a tall feather waving in the wind. Hightower’s elephant was surrounded by an honor guard of tough looking men, dressed in jungle coats, carrying rifles and flags with Hightower’s double-H emblem. More than a few women are reported to have fainted at the glorious sight of Hightower on top of that Elephant, his gleaming white beard shining in the sun.

Four brass bands from different boroughs were assembled around the hotel, all playing the ‘Hightower March’ as he arrived. The sound was nearly deafening. The New York Police had quite a time holding back the crowds for Hightower’s arrival. He rode up to a podium and gave a speech that was nearly drowned out by the cheering throng. “People of New York, with my own two hands I have created this magnificent edifice, which I now give to you, that you may share in my greatness!” Hightower cut the ribbon across the threshold with his cutlass and stepped inside.

#### A GLORIOUS CELEBRATION ENSUES

The Elite of New York society and its financial community gathered last night to celebrate the Grand opening of the Hotel Hightower.

Invited guests started arriving in their private coaches as soon as the streets were clear. These were the social elite of the city, including Mayor Chaplin and the city council. Also on hand was President Benjamin Harrison, although he reportedly went straight to his room and slept through the night. Every famous face in New York could be seen, except for Cornelius Endicott II, the second richest man in New York, who reportedly was not invited. The guest list was so long that the Hotel was filled to capacity. The staff face the monumental task of serving everyone with the efficiency and courtesy that Hightower demands.

In the evening, a grand ball was held in the Atlantis Ballroom, with music provided by the impresario Joel N. Cicero and his world famous orchestra. The finest ladies of society proudly exhibited the latest fashions, and danced the Hightower Waltz with their elegantly attired husbands. After 11 pm, the women retired to bed, leaving the men to hold a special late event. Although reporters were now allowed into the event, we’ve been told that it was an intimate and sedate affair. Harrison Hightower reportedly told humorous anecdotes about the construction of the hotel, and shared stories relating to the acquisition of various artifacts in the hotel. This morning some New York newspapers are reporting scandalous rumors of dancing girls and drunken revelry. Allegations that the evening degenerated into a orgy of drunken lewdness are strongly denied by the Hightower staff. We believe that the rumors are exaggerations and lies, invented by Hightower’s business rivals (primarily Cornelius Endicott II) to give the Hotel a black eye. Hotel Hightower is surely the finest hotel in America, and perhaps the world. If you plan to visit you should know that the rooms have been booked solid for the next two months, so make your reservations early.

#### A RIOT ALMOST SPOILS THE PROCEEDINGS

Poor planing was partly responsible for a small riot that followed. It began when invited guests began to present their invitations at the door. Thugs and rowdies who had infiltrated the crowd moved forward intent on getting into the celebration. A scuffle ensued and the throng on the streets followed the rowdies and within minutes, the crowd pressed through the door and filled the lobby to capacity. They gawked at the elegant interiors, knocked over valuable lamps, and tried to force their way onto the main elevator. Harrison Hightower and the New York Police eventually evicted the crowd from the hotel, but the streets were so blocked that carriages of invited guests couldn’t get through. It took an hour, but finally the police broke up the small riot. In the confusion, some of the parade marchers were forgotten. Groups of them, still dressed in exotic outfits, were seen wandering in the cold park all day, apparently lost, confused, and unsure of their next destination.

### Tuesday, December 19, 1899

***Warning: This article may contain outdated and offensive language***

#### HARRISON HIGHTOWER RETURNING FROM AFRICA

Harrison Hightower III’s Congo River Expedition

*PUBLISHER’S NOTE: “We hope you will enjoy this thrilling account of Harrison Hightower’s recent expedition. We received this story by express delivery only a few days ago, sent to us directly from Harrison Hightower III Himself from Africa. You can almost feel the beat of the jungle coming off the page!”*

Early next week, around December 28th, Harrison Hightower’s yacht is expected to return to the New York Shipyeards. On December 31st, New Years Eve 1899, he will hold a grand celebration parade down Park Avenue, which will end at Hotel Hightower, where an exclusive party will be held. The exact plans have not yet been made public, but we will share them with you at the first opportunity. We hope that you will be on hand at the docks on the 28th to cheer his triumphant return from Africa! And if you’re lucky, you may even catch a glimpse of the amazing and mysterious Shiriki Utundu!

#### A JOURNEY THROUGH DARKNESS - By ‘Tiger’ Harrownashio

Eighteen months ago Harrison Hightower II embarked on the most challenging expedition in his life as an explorer. It was to be an epic exploration of the Congo River basin, one of the most dangerous and untamed regions in Africa.

The Congo River is a vast, mosquito infested waterway, over two thousand miles long, which penetrates dense jungles and steaming swamps deep into unexplored regions of the Dark Continent, through lands that have been forgotten by time. Hightower had heard many a spine-tingling tale, but was not afraid. He’d been in Africa before. He’d endured hardships throughout East Africa and outwitted the clever tribes on the crags of Victoria Falls, but nothing in his previous voyages had prepared him for the dangers that awaited him along the steaming, crocodile-infested waters of the Congo.

January 1899: New York City was covered in snow, but at that moment Harrison Hightower III stood on the dock of his private yacht, “Hightower’s Pride” as it steamed towards the port of Loango, French Congo along the west coast of Africa. The air was so hot and wet that the men looked like they were boiling alive. But Hightower laughed. “Back up, Boys. It’s bound to get hotter before we’re through.”

The Congo has a fearsome reputation and in spite of progress, it is still one of the most dangerous rivers in Africa. Although there is a French colonial presence along the coast, upriver areas are still under the dominion of hostile native tribes, many of whom practice primitive rites beyond the imagination of civilized minds. Hightower listened unmoved as the French colonial administrator begged him to abandon the expedition. “Zere is unrest upriver, Monsieur Hightower. Mon Dieu, it is much too dangerous for you!” But Hightower was determined to press on, no matter the cost in money or lives. He quickly assembled a small army of men and soon they are paddling a convoy of canoes deep into the Congo Free State.

He was accompanied by his valet Mr. Smelding, eighteen armed henchmen, three photographers, a cook, a translator, and thirty native porters. But his most important companion was with him as well: his indomitable will. The goal: to seek rare artifacts and precious works of African art and rescue them from the savages who hoarded them in squalid seclusion. Hightower’s motto: “Primitive art is wasted on primitive people.”

It proved to be an arduous journey to say the least. Native tribes assaulted the expedition from both sides of the riverbank, frightening away many of the porters and causing an equal number to lose their lives in grisly ways. By May, two thirds of the expedition were gone, and he hadn’t acquired a single artifact, because wherever they went, the hostile natives attacked without mercy. The expedition was quickly becoming a fiasco, and several times the men begged Hightower to turn back. But as always, he was driven out of his relentless determination to wrestle victory from the jaws of defeat.

July 16th: Hightower’s dwindling expedition found themselves paddling for their lives upriver, with an angry tribe in hot pursuit. Arrows were falling all around. Spears the size of flagpoles caused men to cry out in horror. Screams echoed from the pitiless jungle walls. Fierce, chanting natives in war canoes were gaining on Hightower’s men All seemed lost. But at that moment, Hightower noticed a twisted tree near the mouth of a tributary. A pair of green glowing eyes had been artfully painted onto one of the…

Intuition gleaned from twenty years of adventure, steered his men up that tributary, and once they’d passed beneath the eyes, the angry natives broke off their pursuit.

Hightower’s interpreter recognized the green eyes, and fearfully said they were now in the territory of the feared Mtundu tribe. Mtundu means “mischievous” in the local dialect, for they are known to work black magic mischief against their enemies. The interpreter begged Hightower to turn back. But with the angry tribe waiting for them downriver, there was no choice but to press onward. They paddled their canoes up the ominous tributary, through festering forests that were sickeningly overgrown with vivid green moss.

The men were overjoyed when the people of the Mtundu tribe welcomed the expedition with open arms and friendly faces, and bade them to come to their village for a celebration. They cautiously asked Hightower to extinguish his cigar for they did not allow fires in their shabby little village. Their chief, a jolly but primitive fellow named Kijanji, was particularly...

During the ensuing celebration, Hightower learned that the Mtundu tribe was protected by an ancient little idol called Shiriki Utundu, which they kept on an altar at the center of the village. It was an ugly little thing carved from wood in an ancient time and covered with shards of metal and nails, which were supposedly pounded into it by a tribal shaman in order to make it work the ‘black magic’. He also learned that Shiriki Utundu was one of the most valuable and important idols in the entire region. Other tribes were constantly trying to sneak in and steal it. It would be quite a prize for an antiquities collector.

Hightower was beginning to find the idol irresistibly fascinating. It was so ugly it was almost beautiful. He asked Chief Kijanji if he could hold it, and the chief reluctantly allowed him to. The two of them even posed for a photograph with the idol to commemorate the moment. And the moment the idol was in Hightower’s hands, he knew that it would be wrong to give it back. It deserved to be enshrined in Hightower’s African art collection. Hightower wanted to be fair, so he tried to purchase the idol with beads and...

Chief was no longer smiling. He furiously snatched the idol out of Hightower’s hands and placed it back on its altar.

Hightower had been given no choice but to take the idol by force. On his command, Hightower’s henchmen drew their hidden weapons, fully prepared to battle their way out of the village. But the tribe merely stood there staring silently and expressionlessly as Hightower took Shiriki Utundu again from its altar. The ragged metal shards on the idol cut Hightower’s hand and although the Chief seemed to smile at the sight of Hightower’s blood, he didn’t raise a hand to prevent the abduction. The eyes of the villagers were filled with hatred, but their rotten toothy mouths were all...

Primitive people, in his experience, did many strange and inexplicable things. The interpreter said the idol might be cursed, but in the following days, they discovered that Shiriki Utundu was a harbinger of good fortune. The tribe that had pursued them earlier saw Hightower holding the idol aloft and immediately tossed their weapons in the river. They took the expedition back to the village and gave Hightower everything he asked for. The idol had the same effect in every village the expedition visited subsequently. Hightower roped it on the prow of his canoe and was welcomed with open arms in every tribe up and down the vast Congo River. By the time he was through he had collected…

### Monday, January 1, 1900

#### HARRISON HIGHTOWER DISAPPEARS AT ‘TOWER OF TERROR’

Hotel Hightower Closed to the Public

New Yorkers are still reeling after the shocking events at Hotel Hightower last night. What began as a joyous celebration ended in sadness for many Manhattanites.

11:59 pm - All day long people had streamed into the city on elevated trains and streetcards, to join in the general throng in the streets as they celebrated the impending turn of the century. They were standing on rooftops, dancing in the park, crowding onto balconies and stopping traffic as they began the exuberant count-down of the last few seconds of the nineteenth century, eager to welcome in the twentieth century with cheers, toasts, and choruses of “Auld Lang Sine”.

The last thing anyone had expected in those last festive moments was for the Hotel Hightower to explode!

#### THE NEW YEAR BEGINS WITH A BIG BANG - DISASTER AT THE HOTEL HIGHTOWER

A Mysterious Disappearance

Many of the revelers in the park across from the Hotel Hightower were looking directly at the Hotel at the moment… attracting everyone’s attention. At the stroke of midnight a blinding flash of light illuminated the windows of Harrison…

Arched windows on the facade of the tower exploded outward with a spine tingling boom, which echoes the lengths of the city from the Bronx to the Bowery. This mysterious electricity, which was green in hue, is reported to have lingered a few seconds after the blast, making strange crackling noises. In the horrified silence that followed, onlookers heard screams from the ninth floor rooftop patio, the so-called “Gardens of the Sun”, which are immediately below the main tower. Falling glass and debris from the tower’s facade had rained down on the unlucky revelers up there. Moments later…

#### A NIGHT OF TERROR

But of course, the most startling event in the hotel concerns Harrison Hightower III, the enigmatic millionaire who built the Hotel Hightower and lives in it whenever he isn’t traveling the world in search of new artifacts to decorate his hotel. He was initially reported to have been in the hotel’s main elevator at the time of the disaster. The cables to that elevator were cut by the blast, and it was heard to plummet fourteen stories, smashing to bits in the basement. Thankfully his body was not found in the elevator, so either he escaped or was not on the elevator in the first place. He has not been located, but it was… at night and he...

Fortune only a few small fires were started and quickly put out People on the street helped with the evacuation as much as they could but in the… terrifying moment… knew what would happen. The building might collapse at any moment, so guests were allowed to return to their rooms to retrieve their personal belongings.

After the various… and about the hotel were complete, the City Fire Department ordered the doors chained until the cause of the explosion could be discovered.

Most of last night’s injuries were caused by the general panic. Forty-two people were trampled in the chaotic rush but all of them have survived, though a few with extensive injuries… towers were standing on the foyers near the windows as they exploded. Five of the people dashed to safety in time, but one man was still on the foyer floor as it collapsed under him…

### 1912

#### HOTEL HIGHTOWER MUST BE DESTROYED

By Manfred Strang

The city of New York is under a devilish threat and only by the demolition of the famous Hotel Hightower can the city avert more tragedy. I have gathered…

Ever since the mystery-shrouded disappearance of the very wealthy owner, Harrison Hightower III, the hotel has remained shuttered. There is mounting evidence that…

### July 20, 1912

#### HIGHTOWER

By the New York City Preservation Society and Miss Beatrice Rose Endicott

For thirteen years Hotel Hightower has loomed over New York, abandoned, bolted up, inaccessible. Its great, shattered windows give it an aspect of sadness and despair.  Its saloon and halls, once filled with music and laughter of the elite, are as empty as a tomb. I have grown  up in its shadow and considered the Hightower to be the grandest achievement of a former age. As a young woman I danced in the Atlantis Ballroom to the Hightower Waltz. It has been my dream that one day its doors would reopen to throngs of smiling guests, and its windows would again pulse with light and life.

## Trivia

* The printing building can be visited at the American Waterfront, though it’s only a facade and can’t be entered.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B\_w76LXjahN/
2. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyindiana/38977355112/
3. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mishakitty/5222716416/
4. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BvOB8pHhXPG/
5. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/downtownblue/4696377794/
6. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/79761301@N00/23837625153/
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 *Tower of Terror: The Mystery*
8. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CCn4XWfjBHs/