AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE'S STABLES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3584, 6 January 1883, Page 4

AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE'S STABLES.

A PALACE OF LUXURY AND SrLENDOUE. The New A'ork Tribune says:— As the dwellings of modern Americans of wealth have developed into palaces, so the stables of rich owners of horses have become build-in'-S fitted up in a manner that surpasses m costliness and elegance the horses of a majority of the people. Pressed brick brown stone and marble, costly woods and plate-glass combine to make the millionaire s stables a place of luxury and even splendour. Maud S. aud the other trotting wonders in which AVilliam H. Vanderbilt takes pride are housed in a manner befitting the pets of the richest man in America. A Tribune reporter visited Air Vanderbilt'_ stable tit Fifty-second-street and Madison Avenue recently, and was shown through the building. Entering from the office the Wsitor found himself in a spacious room. It was just after dark, and numerous gasgets we're burnin_- round the walls, the light streaming through the porcelain globes, each ornamented with a broad band, m the centre of which was a horses head. Walls, floor and ceiling were all of polished wood, cherry, ash and black walnut being arranged in strips and panels in a way that hroua-ht out the beauties of each to the best advantage. In one place a long mirror reflected the line of sombre and stately coaches opposite, and in another a case of nickle-plated bits, on a background of black velvet, hung glittering on the wall. A set of Fox's English hunting scenes, and oil portraits of Aland S. and Fullerton, in heavy gilt frames, relieved the bareness of the a"sh walls. In the corner, on a platform of cement, a stableman was washing a light waggon which had been whirled over the road "that afternoon behind Aldino and Early Rose. The stable implements which lay around him flashed in the gaslight with their heavy mountings of polished brass, and the pail in which lie dipped his sponge -was decorated with a big brass monogram. There was no scent of the stable in the air. The noises of the horses in the stalls a few feet away could scarcely be heard through the thich walls and the heavy doors of blackwalnut and plate glass. Only the man at work on the waggon in the comer and the long line of coaches against the wall gave the large, well-proportioned and really elegant apartment any appearance of connection with a stable. ' There is no loud noise, no confusion and no dirt in this big hall at any time. Even when some famous trotter comes into the stable, fresh from some new exploit ou the road,_ or the" stout coach horses conic in champing their bits_ and rattling their harnesses heavy with silver, the wheels of the light waggon or the heavy coach roll on a broad strip of carpet stretched diagonally across the floor, and there is no din or tumult. Looking into the harnessroom large cases, with fronts of plate glass extending on all sides were seen. The walls of the room above the cases .were of plate glass, and the light from the courtyard streamed through" in a flood upon the shining black and the gleaming silver of the harnesses. Here were till sorts of harnesses, from the plain affair whose only ornament was the monogram of Air A'anderbilt, to those iv which the leather was almost hidden by a profusion of heavy silver decorations. At the command of Mr Phelps, the superintendent of the stables, two grooms rolled back two immense sliding doors, and a dim-lit apartment, roofed by a dome of glass, was entered. Up and down the centre, ou the hard cement floor, were ran"'cd a row of light vehicles, and around them extended a tan-bark track. This is called the '• walking track," and here the horses are exercised. The red pressed brick walls of this place were hung with pictures of hunting scenes and celebrated horses which, with their bits of colour showing in the semi-obscurity, produced a pleasant and striking effect. The most interesting part of the "stable, however, was devoted to the horses. Here the light from numerous gasjets showed long-lines of box-stalls of light and polished wood, trimmed with black walnut. Beyond was a line of open stalls, where stood the powerful carriage horses. Even here there was no unpleasant odour, nothing but the smell of the clean staw with which the horses had been bedded down for the night. Near the door leading into the courtyard was what appeared to be a boxstall, "but winch, uponthedoor being opened, was seen to be a bed-room. Here every night sleeps one of the hostlers, in order to be oue hand if auythinggoeswrougwith the horses. In the partition dividing the room from the main apartment burned a bright light encased in glass. It was half in the sleeping-room and half outside, the light filtering into the sleeping-room through a green Daze curtain drawn over the glass on that side. At night, when all the other fights are turned out, this one is kept burning. Air A'anderbilt's stable was begun in 1879 and finished in October in the following year. It cost $.00,000 without the land, which is said to be worth at least as much more. The materials of which it is constructed are pressed brick aud brownstone. It has a frontage of 75 fecet in Fifty-second-street and 100 loot iv Madison Avenue. All the rooms are spacious and the appointments of the finest. The box stall occupied by Aland S. is 20x21 feet, and the others, though not so large, are still of good size.