This house is down-town, where the men need it. It is large enough for 1,500 men to sleep in, and for each to have a comfortable room to himself.
The house is to be heated throughout, and there are to be elevators to take the men upstairs. The arrangements for washing and bathing are splendid, there is any amount of hot and cold water, and a laundry, with all the newest arrangements for washing and drying clothes quickly, where the men can go and wash their own clothes, and have them clean for the morning.
There are also comfortable rooms, where the men can read and write and play games. All the books and papers and games will be ready for them in the rooms, for it is Mr. Mills' wish to make the lodging-house a home to the men, so they may find their amusement at home, and not be tempted to go to saloons.
All they are to be charged is twenty cents a night. For this they will have all the comfort, warmth, and cleanliness that a man could wish for.
There is to be a restaurant in the house, where the lodgers can buy their meals. Their food will not be given them for the twenty cents, but it will be made as cheap as possible, and will be of the best kind, and cooked in the nicest way.
It is to be hoped Mr. Mills' experiment will be such a success, that many others will follow his example. This lodging-house is on Bleecker Street, and work is already commenced on it.
A sailor who has just come back from Japan brings word that sixteen American sailors are in prison in Siberia for trying to kill Russian seals, and carry away their fur to market.
The story the man tells is that in October, 1895, the American schooner Saitans was cruising in the Okhotsk Sea, off the Siberian coast. Some of the men landed on an island, and while they were ashore a heavy gale sprang up, and, to save herself, the Saitans put out to sea, leaving the men behind.
They remained where they were for five days, and then they were found by a Russian man-of-war. They were accused of trying to catch seals, and were sent to prison for five months.