The weak points are the openings which must exist in the form of windows. Much may be done in the way of providing wire glass, metal sash, shutters and automatic showers of water past the windows, but it is to be feared that absolute safety will hardly be obtained.

The results of the Baltimore fire may be summed up briefly by saying that in general the frames of the tall buildings were little injured, so no collapse occurred. The wall coverings, when of stone, suffered much from spalling, but brick stood well. Floors of terra cotta were in many cases much injured, while concrete showed up well.

Many people consider the skyscraper as a nuisance which should be prohibited by law, and there are many considerations which appear to support their claim. The single tall building does not much affect the light and air of its neighborhood. Its owner is able to receive vastly greater returns from his land than would be possible with the ordinary height of building. The tenants of the tall building have good light, plenty of fresh air and often a magnificent view. These advantages are lost when the first structure is surrounded with buildings of a similar height, and the streets and lower stories are likely to be very dark, gloomy and unsanitary. The effects of the tall building upon the value of property is to raise the value of the land, and this demands the tall building, if it is to earn returns on its high valuation.

There were in one spring in New York, 64 skyscrapers in process of construction. The effects of the multiplication of these monsters is already felt, and attempts are being made to place restrictions on the height to which structures may go. If a street running east and west were lined with buildings 300 feet in height on the south side, and if the street were 100 feet wide, the sun would shine on the north sidewalk only a few days in June in the latitude of New York. From September 21 to March 21, no sunshine would strike lower than the fifteenth story.

It seems plain that private rights to utilize as much of the space vertically above the land as pleases the owner, should be surrendered to the city, in the interest of all the people who must use the streets. In some cases restrictions have been

placed on the height of buildings, notably in Boston for the Copley square district, where 90 feet is set as the limit, and court decisions have caused one building to be lowered by one story.

Another feature of the movement toward very high office buildings is that of crowding the streets with the population which transacts business in these buildings. Many of the older cities were troubled with congested streets and inadequate transportation facilities when the business centers boasted only five and six story buildings. These centers are now adding three and four layers equal to the original layer, and are not increasing the street widths.

The result is that elevated railways, surface railways and subways cannot be provided fast enough to move the people who demand transportation. It may be that the limit of the streets to hold the people and of three and four story transportation to move them will set the only limit to the number and height of skyscrapers.

THE AMERICAN HOTEL.

BY WALTER A. WASHBURNE.

[Walter A. Washburne, author and editor; born South Framingham, Mass., 1874; educated at Chauncey hall, Boston, and the Chicago college of law; assistant editor of the World's Columbian Exposition Illustrated weekly; became news editor of the Omaha News in 1901; contributor to newspapers and periodicals.]

Within the last few years the hotel has become a feature in American life which has started sociologists to figuring and caused real alarm among those who dread the effect on the American family. The modern American, especially in the first few years after marriage, has become prone to take up his residence in a hostelry where he can be provided with all the essentials of an ideal home and without any of the worry and care attendant upon launching out into an untried sea, possibly with a bride whose housekeeping knowledge has been gleaned only from a few superficial lectures by her mother.

Undoubtedly, hotel life is not conducive to the raising of large families, and this is the point which has caused the sociologists alarm. It has been clearly proved, however, that no one realizes this drawback better than the American himself who most is interested, and as the family grows the almost invariable tendency is to establish an independent household. Comfort and every other consideration are sacrificed by the average American parent to the welfare of his children and it is not to be supposed that hotel existence would be permitted to stand in the way.

The term American hotel no longer represents the idea it originally did of a hostelry where the guest pays a fixed sum for rooms, meals and service, but it has come to be synonymous with perfection in accommodations. The old American plan, so far as the larger hotels are concerned, is no more, and the European system of charging for rooms and for each individual dish served in the dining room has taken its place. It was discovered that in the larger and costlier houses it was cheaper for two persons who could occupy one room to accept the European plan.

The hotel business in the United States, especially in the larger cities, has become, like almost every other large commercial enterprise, greatly specialized. The successful landlord, although his hotel is open to any guest who is respectable, nevertheless aims at the identification of it with some special clientage. This tendency is almost universal, although of course, it is easier of accomplishment in New York and Chicago than in the smaller cities.

The new development in American hotel structures and management began about fifteen years ago. It owed its inception to two or three disastrous hotel fires. These caused a demand for structures which would resist anything short of an earthquake or an explosion of dynamite. Fireproof buildings on the skyscraper order became the rage and it was difficult to supply the demand, which capitalists and hotel managers were quick to perceive.

Then began a competition among hotel owners to build and equip the costliest, most luxurious and the safest hotel structures. The result has been the establishment of American hotels where the wealthy can find luxury, and perfect service and artistic cooking; but, at the same time, the traveler of moderate means can find accommodation without too great a drain upon his pocketbook.

It costs immense sums of money to maintain these skyscraper hotels where service that is unobtrusive and yet instant and perfect is maintained and where the latest and best developments of American methods are the rule. The ideal of the management is the anticipation of every wish and the gratifying it with a minimum of display. What would appear extravagance, for instance, in waste of food is regarded as a necessity, for the highest grade of service cannot be maintained under any other method than that which in former days would have been considered an inexcusable prodigality.

The manager of a modern skyscraper hotel, costing anywhere from $3,000,000 to $8,000,000, and having a capacity for between 1,500 and 2,000 guests, occupies much the same position relatively, as the commander of an army. The hotel manager, besides being responsible for his guests and for the hotel, is commander in chief of a force of servants and em

ployees that is almost, if not quite, as numerous as the guests. He must have a knowledge of every important detail in the work of the many departments that come under his supervision, and his knowledge must be of a quality to enable him to decide instantly problems that constantly arise to confront him.

The modern hotel-as represented by the new St. Regis, and the Waldorf-Astoria, in New York, or the BellevueStratford, in Philadelphia-is conducted upon a system that extends upward and through every department, holding them together, with the manager at the head of all. Each department has its own head, to whom the employees of that department are responsible and who, in turn, holds himself answerable to the manager of the hotel.

Of the various departments of a hotel the one that naturally takes precedence is the kitchen. It is situated, usually, in the first of the two basements of the hotel and takes up a large area of the floor space.

The chef, whose salary in the largest hotels ranges from $6,000 to $15,000 a year, is in charge of the kitchen. In one hotel taken as an illustration the chef receives a salary of $10,000 a year and has charge of a corps of seventy five assistant chefs, who work in three relays of twenty five. Altogether, 1,500 men and women are employed in the kitchen and its various departments, who attend to the preparation and serving of the food.

The sub-chefs attend to the preparation of the various dishes, and an idea of the work that is done beneath their supervision may be obtained by a glance through the following list, which represents, only in part though, the supplies that are used every day in this hotel: Twenty thousand rolls; five thousand loaves of bread; twenty five barrels of apples; three hundred chickens; five hundred gallons of milk; six hundred dozens of eggs; five hundred pounds of roast beef; six hundred gallons of soup; five hundred gallons of coffee.

Flour, butter, sugar, salt, and the other commodities-to say nothing of the delicacies-that are required daily to feed the guests of this hotel would tax the utmost capacity of half a dozen ordinary grocery stores every day.