GOSSIP FROM SAN FRANCISCO.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 260, 9 November 1878, Page 5

GOSSIP FROM SAN FRANCISCO.

(Auckland Herald Correspondent.) San Fbancisco, September 30. THE PALACE HOTEL. The Palace x3 a large building, perfectly square. On every side are bay windows to every outside room, numbering, in all, 400. The structure is seven storeys high, and fireproof in all essential points. The walls and partitions are built of stone and* brick, laid in cement, and banded together with iron. There are three minor courts, the centre of one being 144 x 84, covered with glass at height of building, with carriage and promenade entrance from tue street of 44 feet width, and having a circuhr driveway of 54 feet diameter, that beiu£ surroifnded by a' marbletiled promenade and a tropical garden, glowing with exotic plants, statuary, r.ml over-play of fountains. This, whan lit, at uight by eloctric light from the ceu'tv, and hundreds of gas lamps which surround every gallery, there being 6ix looking into tho court, makes, altogether, a fairy like scene; the top storey gallery having also pedestals, bearing all descriptions of the most rate and beautiful plants. Let us get into the elevator, and lake a trip up' to the roof. Is if, not quite a curiosity this roof, wiih its huudreds of narrow zinc ohimneye, all marked' and numbered ? You eo» it looks somewhat like a liitle city of ita u lf. The galleries on which you walk will carry you all round, and on every side, there is a magnificent panorama to be seen for miles. The Grand Hotel looks' like a baby beside the palatial pile on which we stand. Tiio palleriop, having a raij on eich side, extend in different tracks all over the huge roof, being several feet above it. Now, I think, I will go ; down. The corridors are spacious and handsome; ell covered with; crimson carpet- | ing; and here, on the first floor; are the drawingroom?, three ia number, en suite. The Gratis exquisitely draped ia blue satin, bordered with black satin also. On each side the fireplace are 6pacious doorways, heavily curtained with tho Hume beautiful material, white silk fringe aettiug off the whole. Walk

through, and here we find an immense apartment, furnished in crimson satin. • bordered with black and browo, pna ; magnificent fringe as a'garnitura,. The ... same doorways on this side are draped ' tot match, making thus double curtains. „ The inlaid imrroaa, in polished wood and gold, are noticeably. . beautiful. Cboae. through two more doorways into, a smaller rpp^j^drapeflj.in^B.i^niaifck. satin and black, relieved by goldoolofptl.Lfringe,, the door draperies rriatdhmg again. 'A more beautifur effefet can hardly be realised. ,'.',. '.^fclera. are i^irijsjq^'!' [ rooms in the :building,J ail, bea.atifq!^ '!, furnished, that you know -we' should v be tpo tireH to look at them all. Oq every floor you will find a watebman, a plate' pantey with i(8 occupant,, an -an-.'j nupriiatorj with a. servant in constant < attendance, also a tube . receptacle fot letters, for postbffice,- all leading to the main letter-box in the general office,; a pneumatic dispatch tube, by ..which < message j . and parcels can be in- ; Btantanepußly sent tp ! any point on tha diflereni -fluor-— rsevery suite 'bf foionii having^ its own btttb T rQpm, single, qnea' the 'same. The whole mechaiiiam. of the jhotel. is worked by elepSrieiiVj 'with ; - a/fire apparatus Vcjn 'iß.y'ery.^dTV^yTiiata' 1 ' jis 1 also the watchman's, 6011-ta,la -indjioajv 'tor^ 'which) rdpona nhis:i entice proceed- 1 ibga 'daj^ an'd nigbt, pi complete fife alarm ' jguafd'js/c.o'Wfc^ room aud ..passage ;a thermostatic b^lp,; Iby which dny extra degree of : haatfi' e^isttiig'.wiH 1 be announced' at ! the general offide', upoo a ' dial' tiiaf exact locality, beven elevators and. seven stairways complete this casual house/ Now we we* will descend to the lCwer regions) which are hot, as all such regions are supposed ;io be. Goiaa into the laundry where they wash, dry, search, and iron your clothes in four h'our,^ J. \Tpau l aee thpre^ jn 'a'lf, seveuiy Ghinamen at work, with a fair sprinkling of ladies to overlook.. Look at that Mong,ol,~he turns a-whple wheelbarrow of soap, into thei boiler to make the suds j from thence the frothy element is dispensed into the huge washing troughs, .three \iu. number, wijich are worked ;by ateam.; the clothes Washed in each, rinaed, and wrong, still by raachiti'er.y|£beu dried in five minntea in the hot'ai.rxpomf ., long look. You obgerye-iß^ide of panels in the corridor; pail one out by the little brass ring you see.—it is a huge clothes-horse, full of sheets 1 and small clothes from top to bottom, having four rails each ; these panels are quite close to each other, and within is a vast 1 room filled with hot air. The ironing is done in another room by enormous hot rollers, which iron dozens of plain clothes in an incredibly short space of time, A man need not have more than one shirt at & time if he likes at the Pa'.ace— he has only to give his garment to a waiter, at 8 in the morning, and it comes in at half-past ready to put on. There are ninety waiters on the premises, all colored, and very nice intelligent men they are. The laundry being ou the basement floor, we may now wulk up a small 'flight of staira into the kitchen, leaving behind all the wonderful steam apparatus for heating water, cooking, washing, &c, and aa immense store-room, which is simply a store oa a faitr-eizad scale. la the kitchen are thirteen fat cooks, sleek und shining, dishwashers in a like proportion. On long tables are set steampipes, keeping the viands hot. Steam, in fact, rules the cook's dominions, — pipes every where; copper urns, holding coffee ami tea by gallons'; ; hot recesses tilled with countless dishes ; hot boxes for drying the silver — everything hot and strong, with rows of open windows however, and plenty of oxygen floating about. Now walk through the kitchen to a ro3tn where you see the waiters busy preparing the different dishes, and from this roon the door opena into aa immense dining-room, lit by, 192 j sis of gas in twelvo gilt gaseliers, which light up with effect 200 well-appointed tables, and here we will sit down, and diae off the best of everything. - Ob, I quite forgot all about the first-class arrangement of the butcher's dominions. Next the laundry, rouad the shop, are iinenen so boxes. Open the !ida and you will see tin dishes full of chops, • steaks, roasts, chicken, 1 fijb, — everything ready for the demands of the famished up > above. There are altogether 3 10 employees in ibis little town, at the head 'of' which is Mr George Smith, obei of ' the finest business men on the eoaat— anywhere, : indeed. Walk into the j'lace, and Mr Smith knows you at a glance, and all about you an hour/ afterwards. He keeps tbiataighty institution going like cloqkworkj and woa to man or wocqsq

who does anything they should not do. Well, I think we may go home now, quite satisfied that this grand hotel, which i*B owned by Senator Sharon, tbe largest hotel owner in America, is worthy of record.