Konkle

Tossed in jeopardy on the prone sea, or waiting in anguish by a sick-bed while a human spirit wags and gutters in the draught of death, men pray rashly, and implore with extravagant promises the mercy of the Deity. If Christ will deliver them out of their peril, they swear to burn every evening a tall candle before His Mother's shrine; if he will let their darling live, they will erect a church to his glory. The sea grows calm; disease leaves the wracked body. Men smile, and forthwith forget both their anguish and their vows. Not so Oscar E. Konkle, President of the Realty Sureties, Inc., of Manhattan.

In 1913 his son, Howard Konkle, was stricken with lockjaw. "If he lives," prayed Realtor Konkle, "I will work for the rest of my life to make money for the missionaries." The youth survived.* Last week his father announced that he will build a 5,500-room hotel which will tower 800/- feet above Manhattan's street level. Ten % of the profits derived from this remarkable edifice will go to missionary work.

No occupant will be permitted to smoke on the premises. All occupants must buy at least $500 worth of stock, and sign the pledge. No Sunday newspapers will be read in any of the 4,500 bedrooms.

On the main floor there will be a three-story auditorium for undenominational Church services, and a bank, to be known as the Missionary National Bank of New York.

Thirty elevators will assist the goings in, the comings out, of the missionary guests; a swimming pool will assist them to approximate godliness; twelve roof gardens, laid out in perennial shrubs and beds of hardy flowers, will enchant their leisure; the maximum charge of $21 a week will cover board, two meals on week days, three on Sundays, radio service, hospital and gymnasium privileges. The building will cost $14,000,000.

* He is now at Colgate University, studying to be a medical missionary.

/- Eight feet higher than the Woolworth Building.