A MILLIONAIRE'S HOMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 36

A MILLIONAIRE'S HOMES.

' It has taken the work of more than 3000 skilled men and an expenditure of

something like a million pounds sterling to make ready the great French Renaissance palace which Mr Charles M. Schwab, the steel magnate, will soon occupy. It is an impressive and princely reeidence — j a picturesque and feudal exterior — and sheli ters the most elaborate and comfortable living arrangements known to modern science. It is an amazing union of the age of steel and electricity with the most picturesque and free periods of French art. Down in the vast cellar is the machinery which governs the physical comfort of this most remarkable house in the world. Three immense boilers furnish power for three large dynamos. The great electric keyboard connects with 2000 outlets and more than 5000 lights. The ventilating;, inlets and outlets of this gorgeous mansion are set at the tops and bottoms of the rooms, and are concealed by ornamentation. The old air is drawn from the bottom and forced out at the roof through special ducts. As the seasons change from warm to cold the air will be alternately admitted to the rooms by the upper and lower inlets. So great is the intake of air through tho underground tunnels that the atmosphere of every room will change ten times an hour, night and day. A separate fan supplies the servants' quarters. All the lights, | too, are set in coves, behind mouldings, l and otherwise kept from view, the illumination being by- reflection, save in. a few places where lights are set in full sight for the sake of particular effects. As one enters the house through the great bronze doors of tho main entrance and passes along the main hall, with its rich stained-glass ceiling, the staircase, with the broad sweep to right and left and chapel, recess beyond, appear in view. The ooor is of rare woods, bordered with mcsaic3. The woodwork is of carved mahogany, picked out in gold. At the left is a mantel of Siena marble, and there ! are lunettes from the the brush of Albeit ' Mantelet, representing the ' Renaissance" I and " Faith and Charity." Opening off ! the hall at the right is tho Louis XVI drawing-room. Aside from the white enamel and gold furnishings, the features of this room are the painted allegory of Eden appearing on the ceiling and two tapestries representing Boucher's " Love Messages," woven in America by French a-rtists, from carloons prepared by Arthur Thomas. Just across the hall, opposite the drawing-room, is the library, attractive in its walnut woodwork and old red i canvas walls. At the rear of the library j and facing the south is the Louis XIV j dining-room. Its old carved mahogany, I gilded bronze, antique green marble and dark furnishings form an attractive setting for its rare tapestries, which were exhibited .' at the St. Louis Exposition. Everything ! j about the table, chairs, napkins, china and j silver, is made from a special design in j j the Louis XIV style. Th*e dining plates, ] intended for about 30 guests and forming ! only one small item of the table furnish- i ings, cost about 10-OOOJoI. The lace oiirtains throughout tho house, all of which were made in special designs, also cost about lO.OOOdoI. i The private apartments of Mr and Mts ' Schwab occupy the entire front of the second floor. In the north corner is Mrs Schwab's bedroom, which is in Louis XVI style, with blue brocaded walls. The ceil- i ing paintinsj of this room represents . "AJornintr Music." Mr Schwab's bedroom, * which is in t':e same style, has pale gr^en ' silk walls, and its ceiling painting re-pre- ' senrs "The Awakening of the Cupids.'" . Between ihe two rooms, and connected with each, is a little library in Louis XVI ! style, its woodwork cf green enamel :nid , its walls of old rose damask. At the rear of each bodrconi there i* a larso dressing room in Louis XVI srvl<>. oeilinc; naintincr in Mrs Sohwab'3 dro'ainpr '(-"m is " Toilet of Cupid." and of Mr Sehwab'< room an allegory of " Consolation." From each dressing room there opens an iOval bathroom, having an oval bath, domed ic-eilinc. and walls of sky-rose marble, i Each bathroom, in turn, opens on a .'.u-Qe stone balfonv or outside terrace The Francis II siitincr room, with its elaborntp mahogany furniture and green-tinted walls, constitutes another feature of this floor. There is a larpre grvmnasium and nlso a Rwimminf pool in tho basement of the house. The latter is equipped with every conceivable appliance to render a boMi or plunge refreshing, and on the roof there is a sun oarlour and a roof garden tor ; sc in summer. The house has three elevators, operated by e'ectricitv. One of these is for the u.=c of the family and guesM: the second, on the opposite side of the house, is for fhs servants; nnd the third is at tho roar for freight. Thero are aUo sfnarafe stairways for guests and servants throughout the building.

Postal Troubles Settled — Correspondents and patients are informed that letters, also remittances, for Messrs Freeman and Wallace may in future be addressed to them a? originallv — namely. i<~> the "Electro Medical Institute, Elizabeth and Bathurst streets, Sydney.