Each floor had a separate
clerk and corps of attendants, and nobody could gain admission to any of
the apartment floors except the occupants and their guests.
All of the apartments of the hotel, from the magnificent "Royal Suite"
to the single bedrooms of the transients, were furnished in the most
luxurious manner possible. Costly draperies, priceless paintings, and
exquisite furnishings of every description, adorned the drawing-rooms,
ball-rooms, foyers and restaurants. Statues of ancient personages
ornamented the different hallways, while the carved marble and woodwork
seen everywhere showed splendid workmanship. Sweet strains of music from
the orchestras stationed in different balconies could be heard in most
any part of the building.
Seated on either side of the long, commodious corridors, on lounges
overhung by palms and tropical plants of various descriptions, were men
and women of the fashionable set, who represented the largest portion of
wealth of the community.
The women with their low-cut gowns, highly perfumed, and weighted down
with jewels of every kind, formed a brilliant spectacle that was
bewitching and bewildering to behold. They vied with one another in the
display of their gorgeous gowns and jewels, with the desire to impress
upon each other thereby the wealth they possessed and the position they
held in society. In fact, wealth seemed to be the predominant feature of
their whole existence.
Beautiful young women scarcely out of their teens, could be seen paying
all of their attentions to decrepit, bald-headed old men of apparent
opulence, while on the other hand, young and athletic looking men were
courting women old enough to be their grandmothers.
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