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Show m m w mm open during Christmas week and for New Year's eve, and has been made the largest and probably the most beautiful grill room In the I'nited States, a creditable original of the college Inn Idea upon which billions of dollars have been lavished. With the fclchcn and bar It occupies the entire basement of the big hotel bulM-Ing bulM-Ing a quarter of a block. The old and the new worlds were searched for suggestions that would aid lncpr-rying lncpr-rying out a scheme for decoration and comfort. The decorations are of the Elizabethan period, with slivered oak paneling to the celling, which Is of Ivory, the severeness ot the white relieved re-lieved by bright colored, small frescoes. fres-coes. About, the walls are enameled wood shields representing all the prominent English and American colleges, the decorations which have been copied so widely. Along the south wall there Is a row of booths like those of old English corfee houses which were frequented ami made famous by Thacheray, Ben Johnson Sheridan. Sher-idan. Dickens and other literary' and theatrical celebrities. There are two entrances, one off the main entraneo to the hotel on Clark --et wnd Hie other from the lobby. The main entrance Is of beautifully carved oak and pothle windows with heraldic designs In loaded glass. Open-In? Open-In? off the grill ro m are seven private pri-vate dining rooms, wlt'a nccommoda-' nccommoda-' tlons for from six to twenty-four per-t per-t persons. Each of these rooms has Its individual decorative scheme, every I detail carrying out some special pe-! pe-! rlcd. In fact, there Is vastlv more ' study and work put Into the decorat- he scheme of the new college inn ! than visitors realize, but the general ' effect Is one of warmth and frlend-. frlend-. Ilncss, and thaLwas the Idea that set the college Inns to blossoming so piofusely, even where the decorations are but cheap and superficial. CHICAGO, IK'C 2. Not all lamenls for "the old fashioned New Year's" have ceased, but the new sorl th New Year's eve Joy parties which eun-e In when the epidemic of "college "col-lege Inns" broke out evidently has the dear departed New Year's Igno-mlniously Igno-mlniously on the run. ,"Oo-oo-oo." a histrionic star with stentorian olce Inquired of several J hundred sympathetic and responsive I celebrants last year. "Oo-oo-oo. why-f why-f does New Year's eve come but once i a year?" He paused, there was a hush and he added, confidentially: "When there a-e niore college Inns 'twill come oft-ener." oft-ener." But he was wrong, the country is speckled with "college inns" galore and nil Borts, from Seattle to Jacksonville, Jackson-ville, Fla., and from New Haven to Lafayette, Jnd., and to Milwaukee, yet New Year's continues but an annual occasion, one of mellowness and merriment mer-riment beyond any other of tho year as witness the champagne record. The spread of the college Inn, not only to college towns and cities north south, east and west, has In fact been a startling phenomenon. New York, though It lifts . Its eyebrows disdainfully disdain-fully when onyone mentions the possibility pos-sibility of anything new originating in the west, has fallen in line with Milwaukee, Mil-waukee, Lafayette, and the other cities cit-ies which have college Inns. Whatever What-ever tho relation may be between the ebullient celebrations ot New Years eves and the college Inn no, not colly gin the number of safes that beur the name and seek the reputation reputa-tion Is legion. From New York to Lafayette Is a big Jump In point of population, but the Hoosler college town has a better Imitation of the original than the eastern east-ern city, and Its college atmosphere I much truer to the. standard than the Gotham cafe. Milwaukee has reproduced repro-duced In detail the Chicago original and the Cream city's copy is the nearest near-est approach to the original "college Inn" of any of the many Imitators, some of which are poor counterfeits. They will be poorer counterfeits by comparison when the Chicago prototype proto-type move6 into its handsome quarters la the new J3.000.000 Hotel Sherman during Christinas week If New York and Milwaukee and Lafayette and the other cities which have college inns want to keep up with Chicago, ythey will have to go some. The "college Inn" Idea, like other successes, came suddenly. Juseph Ble-feld, Ble-feld, having secured control of the old Sherman houe was Impressed with the need for a grill room that would be something more than a mere place to eat He thought If ho could make the place more attractive without with-out being cold and formal he would be a benefactor both to that part of the jibllc which must eat In hotels, and to hlmstdf. In talking It over with his son. Dr. William Belfeld, the latter suddenly advanced the Idea of calling the grill the college Inn, and redecorating It to carry out as well as possible, the name. This va done, college flags nnd colors wx-re used in the redecorating redecorat-ing scheme, a few stalls were put In at one end of the grill room, partitions parti-tions and other things that made for formnllty were eliminated, and the college inn was a success from tho start. The reason ascribed for thG widespread success of the idea is that It revolutionized the old way of looking look-ing upon cafes as more eating' places and Introduced a more cozy, neighborly, neigh-borly, cordial atmosphere, without sacrificing any Individual rights or tastes. People liked the colors, and the spirit of the college Inn. Tho New Year's evo receipts for the last three years of the old college Inn w ore; 190i; SlO.Un" 1907 5 1 2.01MI $13,000 So successful In fact, waj it that when It was decided to tear down tho hotel and erect a. modern ltfteen-story i hostelry, the collego Inn was not closed clos-ed but carefully moved to temporary ' quarters In Clurlc street. It has b?en ' doing business In the smaller quarters while the handsome new structure was being erected at Clark and Randolph, Ran-dolph, on the site which has been occupied oc-cupied by five hotels for seventyflve years. The new colle-ce inn will be |