A WOMAN’S HOTEL

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2026, 11 March 1907, Page 4

A WOMAN’S HOTEL

The olnbornto experiment initiated in Now York four years ago of running a big liotol sololy for tho uso of women has proved a dismal failure. Tho hotel, which was christened tho Martha Washington, was financed by such well-known capitalists us Mr J. D. Rockefeller, Mrs Russell Sago and Miss Holon Gould, and it furnished accommodation for over six hundred women. But though it was always filled, it never repaid ono iionny of tho money expended on its erection and equipment. Often tho paying guests who found accommodation there liavo been on tho verge of a striko, and at last, just prior to tho Now Year, matters came to a head, and tho indignant inmates presented a momorial to tho shareholders, sotting forth their grievances. Tho principal 'counts of the indictment wore that wine-jolly had not boon served at Christmas, and had been retused for tho New Year’s dinner; that Edith Wharton’s celebrated novel, tho “House of Mirth,” had boon excluded from the hotel library; that only tiny pieces ot pie wore served; that rolls wore charged at five cents extra; that tho steward owned an automobile, and was a relation ol the hotel manageress ; that the head waitress was too fat; and the liouso dotective was too inquisitive. Tho manager’s defence roused a storm of bitter dobato. He replied to the charges seriatim: ’That wine-jelly was not served because the Martha Washington was a temperance house ; that tho “House of Mirth” was excluded because it was immoral, as was shown by the fact that the heroine smoked cigarettes; that rolls were charged extra because, if given free, the guests breakfasted on them alone; that tho steward did not own an automobile; that the head waitress was efficient in spite of her proportions ; and that the house detective was necessary to investigate the disappearance of hotel property. Tho debate that ensued lasted for several hours, and ultimately the meeting of philanthropic shareholders decided that a hostelry for women alone was not a paying investment, and was liable merely to provoke a spirit of bickoring rancour. Consequently, the Martha Washington is to bo leased out at the earliest opportunity as an ordinary hotel. Mere man has, of course, simply sat and smiled at the experiment, content to subscribo to the doctrine of Mr Haldane MeFalo that it was "a forsaken wasto of women.”