CHAPTER XIV.
Tampa Bay Hotel, One of the Modern Wonders of the World—Its Architecture, Furniture, Works of Art, Decorations, Tapestries, Paintings, Inlaid Table and Three Ebony and Gold Cabinets from the Tuileries, a Sofa and Two Chairs once Owned by Marie Antoinette—The Dream of De Soto Realized—A Palace of Art for the Delight and Joy of Those who are in Health, and an Elysium for the Sad and Sorrowful.
THE following account of the Tampa Bay Hotel, from the pen of W. C. Prime, is taken from the New York Journal of Commerce:
“The most charming book in all the world of literature is the collection of tales known to common fame as the Arabian Nights. Their charm consists in the total freedom from all restraints of verities, of either probabilities or possibilities. Events occur in dreamlike succession, and transformations take place with such delicious swiftness and ease that, if you read the story as you should, with forgetfulness of self, and without any of the folly of critical judgment, you are removed into another world than this—a world of refreshing liberty, wherein thought has no bounds and imagination flows in glorious revelry.
“That which the unknown Saracen story-teller created in words and fancies, this late nineteenth century seeks to create in reality, by the aid of wealth and steam and electricity. It does not succeed. But it comes so near to success that we may wonder and admire, and for a moment at a time we can forget that the result is artificial, not natural, and that it is a miracle of human invention which dazzles and astonishes our senses. All this by way of introduction to my letter....
“The scene changed suddenly. The train emerged into a blaze of electric light. By this blaze of light you could see, high in the air and stretching a thousand feet to right and left, bright domes and minarets, appearing and disappearing with all the swiftness of magic. It was bewildering. A few steps lead into the blinding light of the grand hall of the new hotel, a wilderness of all that is gorgeous in works of modern art. Rich furniture in gold and ebony, velvets, tapestries, grand vases of porcelain, massive figures in pottery, bronzes in groups, small and of life size, oil-paintings, works of masters, etchings, engravings, carvings, in short, countless examples of the most costly and superb art productions of the age, under a flood of light from a hundred electric bands; all this bursting on the gaze of the traveller at the end of his journey, it forms what may well be considered a modern artificial approximation to one of the transformations in dreams of the Saracens.
“It is not to be denied that this Tampa Bay Hotel is one of the modern wonders of the world. It is a product of the times. It illustrates the age, the demands of the people, what they enjoy, and what they are willing to pay for. I have no space to enter into a description of it. It would require a guide-book for a full description. ‘It is splendid, but it is incongruous,’ said a friend. ‘Why should it be incongruous?’ was my reply. ‘It is a hotel, not a private house.’ There is, nevertheless, a sufficiency of uniformity in the building and decorations, while the general principle of the furnishing is in harlequin style, which is most pleasing to the mass of visitors. Each work of art (of which there are hundreds and hundreds) is chosen by some one who has exercised taste of high order. The objects are good, each worthy of examination. The many large tapestries are costly, and are fine works. The paintings are of extraordinary rank. There is no more striking feature of the furniture than the table porcelains. These are exquisite works of ceramic art. The plates are of infinite variety. You may have your beef on a very charming bit of French porcelain, your salad on a reproduction of an old Vienna plate of semi-Saracenic pattern, your ice on one of the little plates designed by Moritz Fischer, and copied elsewhere, your coffee in a very perfect repetition of one of Wedgewood’s simple and lovely bordered cups. In fact, there is no end to the variety of these lovely porcelains. And just here I may add, that the cooking and the service are unexceptionable. The table is of the very best class, and equal to that of any hotel in the world. This, too, is miraculous, in a new house at this remote point.