Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1915 — Nothing Under Father Knickerbocker’s New Dome [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nothing Under Father Knickerbocker’s New Dome

NEW YORK. —If somebody said to Father Knickerbocker: “There’s nothing under your dome," it wouldn’t be slang and it wouldn’t be a lie. It would be the truth. This big and foolish city recently spent $16,000,000 on

a 40-story municipal building. It cost about twice as much per cubic foot as the handsomest private skyscrapers. Long after it was started, work on the higher Woolworth building was begun; and long before it was anywhere near completed, the Woolworth building was humming and bussing with busy clerks and stenographers, bank presidents and lawyers. Moreover, the municipal building isn’t completed yet and apparently never will be. The upper 15 stories

are an utter waste, abandoned to bats, rats and stray felines. Father Knick, indeed, has nothing under his Wg, ugly dome with the gilt angel at the top. Be can’t find the $5f,000 to $90,000 it would cost to put this 15-story trifle in order. , , .. With the budget up to $212,000,000 no place can be found for this item, although there are several municipal offices in private buildings in the neighborhood, for which the city is paying good rentals. The 15 stories form the tower above the larger main structure. They ■were originally intended for the standard testing laboratory of the city. But the intelligent gentlemen who located the laboratory here forgot the well* known fact all high buildings vibrate and sway. The teeters, when shown their assigned quarters, simply laughed and asked for the cellar. They couldn't have the cellar because the hew subway was running