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Story
May 9, 1870
The Evening Telegraph
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
What is this article about?
A correspondent reports from New York on May 9, 1870, highlighting the severe lack of fire safety measures in city hotels, particularly those on Broadway, urging guests to consider precautions like fire escapes and rope-ladders amid the risks of high-story buildings.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
From Our Own Correspondent,
New York, May 9, 1870.
Dangerous Hotels.
How many of the hundreds of hotel guests who wend their way in elevators to bed-rooms on the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth story brood on their way up on the chances of a fire during the night? How many of them satisfy themselves that there is a fire escape? How many of them are perfectly certain as to their being a satisfactory number of buckets? How many of them bestow a thought upon the engine and the hose? And is there a traveller that carries a rope-ladder in his valise? Yet a few such precautionary thoughts and pains as these might be well, for the hotels of New York are poorly off in respect to all the artifices by which fire may be extinguished or escaped.
Without mentioning the inferior hotels, which are scarcely better provided than basement houses in this respect, those of Broadway are alone quite sufficient to make their guests dread going to bed. Committing oneself to repose under such circumstances seems scarcely better than committing oneself to the flames, and the arms of Morpheus and of the fire-fiend become almost identical.
New York, May 9, 1870.
Dangerous Hotels.
How many of the hundreds of hotel guests who wend their way in elevators to bed-rooms on the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth story brood on their way up on the chances of a fire during the night? How many of them satisfy themselves that there is a fire escape? How many of them are perfectly certain as to their being a satisfactory number of buckets? How many of them bestow a thought upon the engine and the hose? And is there a traveller that carries a rope-ladder in his valise? Yet a few such precautionary thoughts and pains as these might be well, for the hotels of New York are poorly off in respect to all the artifices by which fire may be extinguished or escaped.
Without mentioning the inferior hotels, which are scarcely better provided than basement houses in this respect, those of Broadway are alone quite sufficient to make their guests dread going to bed. Committing oneself to repose under such circumstances seems scarcely better than committing oneself to the flames, and the arms of Morpheus and of the fire-fiend become almost identical.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
What themes does it cover?
Misfortune
What keywords are associated?
Dangerous Hotels
Fire Safety
New York Hotels
Fire Escapes
Rope Ladder
Broadway Hotels
Where did it happen?
New York, Broadway
Story Details
Location
New York, Broadway
Event Date
May 9, 1870
Story Details
Correspondent warns of inadequate fire prevention and escape provisions in New York hotels, especially Broadway ones, advising guests to consider risks in upper stories without proper escapes, buckets, hoses, or engines.