The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-15 00:00:00

SUiILIIER AND WATERING PLACES.

Zealots in the pursuit of business always begin to
complain on the approach of our burning solstice
about the dulness of trade and the consequent in-
jury which they can so ill afford to their pecuniary-
prospects. When a season has been uncommonly
bad such complaints may not be so very unreason-
able, but in general it is well to remember that they
are substantially childish and illogical. Only so
much business can be done in a year, and if the bulk
of this is transacted in the temperate months, it is
expectable that during the extremes of heat and cold
there should be comparative inactivity. The remark-
ab!e tumult and rush of American business life so
usual in spring and autumn is naturally succeeded by
periods of reaction, just as excitement of any other
sical kind is similarly followed by necessary repose.
The peculiarities of our climate m Lice such pheno-
mena not only inevitable, but highly salutary. It
is impossible for nervous ,mergics to be healthfully
kept at their normal pitch during, for example, such
weather as we experienced in the first week of June.
Nature at such periods imperatively demands rest,
and although there are various stimulative methods
for deferring the satisfaction of her claims she is
sure to exact a penalty for the postponement. If
our cities during the glowing ninety days of a New
York summer were indeed " gracious with tempe-
rate air, life might be ordered differently; but the
powers of the most vigorous and elastic droop and
grow flaccid under a burning sun, and health is more
important even than dollars, so that it happens fortu-
nately for all that business flags in July and August,
however it may seem hard for many to bear the depres-
sion at the immediate time. It should be a consola-
tion to the discontented to reflect that their business
year is to be measured comprehensively as a whole,
and that the duller things are for three monthS to
come the more active and prosperous they are likely
to be in the autumn which ensues. " Study to be
quiet," said St. Paul to the Thessalonians, and no
better advice can be offered at this season to our
own im?atient countrymen. The strongest and
fiercest animals creep at noon-day into cooling
shades to gather strength for battle and
foraging to come. We are coming now to
the high noon of our year, and can wisely pro-
fit by their sagacious example. By the sea-
side, on breezy hill-tops, in unbrageous valleys, there
arc nooks and corners without number where shel-
ter can be had and sweetly wholesome air be
breathed not to be found in crowded towns, where
bustling contact frets the spirit and the year's im-
purities poison the feculant atmosphere. The value
of rest at this season to a community like ours can
scarcely be over-estimated. It is true that many
urge they cannot afford the time, but we believe
there are few who cannot really do more in nine
months than in twelve. Those who from circum-
stances cannot be absent from duty so long must,
of course, regulate their action accordingly, re-
collecting that perfect rest for one month may be
better than imperfect rest for three. The situation of
numbers will not, unhappily, admit of their enjoying
the luxury of a country vacation at all ; but the faci-
lities for reaching our picturesque and healthy
suburbs are now so plentiful that even the poorest
may pass many of their hours away from the city,
and such should regard it as a bounden duty to do
so. Pure air and innocent recreation may now be
enjoyed by the poor and their children at dozens of
places within an hour of New York, and at prices so
moderate as to leave little excuse for foregoing
them. Central Park, Staten Island, the beautiful
heights of the Jersey shore, and other charming
resorts, are accessible to all who can spare a few
pence and the interval of non-working hours, and
the gain to health and spirits derivable from regu-
larly making such excursions is great and posi-
tive. In considering the growth of population
and the stringency of the times, we are led
greatly to regret that clean and' comfortable
accommodations, including a very wide range
in grade and price, and conducted on the
lodging-house principle, are not yet to be found
among us. There are multitudes of people of fixed
and slender income who are utterly unable to allow
themselves a trip to Newport, Saratoga, Cape May,
Nahant, or even to less fashionable watering places,
who, if such facilities were open as present them-
selves by the thousand at English resorts like
Hastings, Ramsgate, Brighton, or Deal, would
eagerly and profitably embrace them. Iu these
places apartments can be had of almost every con-
ceivable price, size, and location, and the humblest
are often as cleanly and comfortable as the most
pretentious. The rooms are paid for at a regular
stipulated rate, and the table is provided on their
own scale and at their own expense by the occu-
pants. Their menage thus being entirely within
their own control, and its details only known to
themselves, families can live as they please, at their
own hours and in their own way, expensively or
economically, without being tempted to ostentation,
or being obliged to conform to the habits, or be sub-
ject to the inspection of others. The advantages of
this system are very great. Many of the classes
which with us, through dread of the expenses of
fashionable resorts and a natural reluctance to
appear niggardly or straitened, remain in the
stifling city throughout the season, in England
regularly enjoy their yearly holiday at the sea-side
with as much pleasure and benefit as if their means
were unlimited. Especially for professional people
of refinement—the families of clergymen, lawyers,
artists, literary men, people who like privacy and
quiet, but who are unable to pay the cost at
which alone such desiderata can here be procured—
is the English lodging-house system a great
blessing. We have heretofore recommended its
adoption in our towns, and in the country during
the summer season it would be no less desirable.
The enforced uniformity, the distasteful publicity,
the obligatory associations of our American board-
ing-house and hotel system, apart from pecuniary
considerations, deters every year a greater number
of persons in this community from enjoying those
changes of air and scene which in this climate are
at least as essential as in any other. It is probable
at present that the great majority of American
families whose homes are in towns and whose in-
comes fall short of $5,000 a year, never visit the
seashore or interior country at all, for the reasons
wo have named. In England the reverse is un-
doubtedly the case, because of opposite conditions.
But, unless the plan we propose encounters dislike
for no better cause than that it is English, we do
not see why it should not be carried into effect with
similar advantages. What is needed is a large num-
ber of compact, well-built houses or cottages,
of various sizes and accommodation, built
with reference to the particular object in view,
at favourable localities. Such buildings are now
erected in hundreds every season at the Eng-
lish watering places. The writer, in a late
visit to three of those above-named, saw whole
streets covering what he remembered as open fields
seven years before, and was assured that the enter-
prises were very profitable. The English season is,
moreover, much shorter than our own, so that in an
important respect builders would hero have an ad-
vantage. We are persuaded that this subject is well
worthy the attention of capitalists, and the extrava-
gant prices now charged by hotels would do much to
give popularity and success to speculations based upon
it. It may be thought that Americans would be slow,
as has been hinted, to favour such a foreign innova-
tion, but the world moves, and, now that we have
so heavy a debt to carry, comfortable economy
should and doubtless would overcome even national
prejudice. But were it otherwise, the rapidly
increasing proportion of Europeans domiciled among
us would form an element of support for the plan
proposed which could be depended upon with con-
siderable confidence. Nothing can be more likely
than that, in the neighbourhood of the metro-
polis and in these days of uncleanness, poor quality,
and extortionate prices, any scheme offering to the
public a mode of living wherein cheapness and com-
fort could be made obviously consistent with any
desired degree of refinement would attract eager
attention and, if only for the sake of novelty, be
awarded a fair trial.—hound Table.

POSEN, July 12.---The Polish fraction of the
Prussian Parliament has just unanimously decided,
n a meeting held here, that their compatriots
should take part in the approaching elections for the
Reichstag.