“It is not to be denied that this Tampa Bay Hotel is one of the modern wonders of the world. It is a product of the times. It illustrates the age, the demands of the people, what they enjoy, and what they are willing to pay for. I have no space to enter into a description of it. It would require a guide-book for a full description. ‘It is splendid, but it is incongruous,’ said a friend. ‘Why should it be incongruous?’ was my reply. ‘It is a hotel, not a private house.’ There is, nevertheless, a sufficiency of uniformity in the building and decorations, while the general principle of the furnishing is in harlequin style, which is most pleasing to the mass of visitors. Each work of art (of which there are hundreds and hundreds) is chosen by some one who has exercised taste of high order. The objects are good, each worthy of examination. The many large tapestries are costly, and are fine works. The paintings are of extraordinary rank. There is no more striking feature of the furniture than the table porcelains. These are exquisite works of ceramic art. The plates are of infinite variety. You may have your beef on a very charming bit of French porcelain, your salad on a reproduction of an old Vienna plate of semi-Saracenic pattern, your ice on one of the little plates designed by Moritz Fischer, and copied elsewhere, your coffee in a very perfect repetition of one of Wedgewood’s simple and lovely bordered cups. In fact, there is no end to the variety of these lovely porcelains. And just here I may add, that the cooking and the service are unexceptionable. The table is of the very best class, and equal to that of any hotel in the world. This, too, is miraculous, in a new house at this remote point. “I may sum up a sketch of the hotel in a few words. There is nothing cheap, nothing inferior in it. Money has been freely expended in the purchase of the most costly objects, in all departments of art, for furniture and decorations; good taste has been exercised in the selection of these objects, and they are brought together in lavish profusion. The building is vast in extent. The grounds around it have been rescued from savage nature and reduced to order and beauty. The river is in front and Tampa lies across the river, which is narrowed to less than three hundred feet wide. Some hundred palmetto trees have been transplanted to form a grove near the river. Orange blossoms in neighboring orchards fill the air with their odor. Pineapples grow in luxuriance. To one who knew this spot as I knew it years ago, the gorgeous hotel and its surroundings may well seem the creation of a dream.” Mr. Henry G. Parker, in the Boston _Saturday Evening Gazette_, writes: