The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1849-05-24
The Summer season-Watering Places
Folly and Fashion-Common Sense and

Enjoyment.
Now that the warm weather is at hand, all those
who can afford it-and not few who cannot-are
medtatipg an expedition TO the country. Some
desire to escape for season from the dust and tur
MOL Of the city, and seek amid the cool shade of
the greenwood, little repose for soul and body;
some wish to invigorate their exhausted energies
by healihful exercise on the sea shore; and some
20 10 plunge into new scenes of dissipation, vice,
and fashionable folly.
Great preparations are, Of course, in progress at
the principal watering places, in order to present as
many attractions as possible to vsiters Saratoga,
which had rather lost caste within the last few
years, is brushing up for vigorous campaign dur
ing the approaching season. There is terrible
amount of rubbing and scrubbing and washing
and painting, and repairing and swearing, going
on abeut these days in that dusty village of anti
scorbutic celebrity. Biscuits and brandes, cigars
and tobacco, pickles and playing cards, have been
sent on by the cart load. Immense quantities of
wine, of all descriptions, from the most delicious
that dazzled the eye OF an experienced blbber,
down to the lveliest trash that ever maddened the
brain of a green horn, have been forwarded to the
various hotels. Brooms busy in the ball rooms;
and the hay lofts and garets will soon be in readi-
ness for the benevolent purposes Of colonization"
The fountains bubble more brlskly than ever, as if
aware of the coming advent of headaches and
scrofula. All along the streets Of the village, the
signs of returning animation discover the mselves;
and the storekeepers, porters, walters and boot
blacks, lift up their hands IN rejoicing, and almost
rub out their eyes with delight, as they think of
the approach of the harvest.
AT Newport they are equally busy. Hotel keep
ers, keepers, ostlers florists, runners drivers
bailils consables, pettlfoggers publcans, and all
sorts Of sinners, in that famous resort of fashion,
French BARRIERS, and trippery, are ready to swallow
everything that to the wharf In the shape of
a steamboat, with all Its contents, from the biggest
pork merchant down to the smallest portmanteau.
The proprietor of the Atlantic House, has had his
parors painted in fresco, at san EXPENSE"
and, with his rivals, is determined to do business this
summer in style perfectly astounding. Bathing
in the surf is to be more romantic than ever
game suppers and gambling will be attractive as
at any past season, the supply OF canvass-backs
and blacklegs being at all times equal to the de-
mand Fashion will, as usual, strut, and sweep,
and rant, and rustic along the corridors, and up
and down the staircases, and through the drawing
rooms and parlors Nice young men, with scented
hair and enormous jewelry, will patronze the
and desperate mammas, awfuly over-dressed or
hardly dressed at all, will again grace the saloons,
as they wriggle through the polka, and
'Wage dire combats with tn Adamite race"
Meanwhile, they are not idle at numerous deli
cious rural retreats throughout the country charm
ing secluded spots, where the polka is all unknown
and French BARRIERS and fancy cOstumers are among
the profoundest of mysteries. All along the coast,
81. = Ac
and New Jersey, are to be found many delightful
and peaceful places Of resort, at which the only
impairment intruder to be met with is stray mos
quito Here congregate, in little parties, just large
enough to be agreeable, some of the most respec-
table people in the country, entertaining proper
horror of crowds, and the pretension, emptiness,
Stiffness, vulgarity and mpudence of such "exclu-
sives'' as astonsh all the walters at the Newports
or Saratogas of the pseudo-fashionable world
Charming and healthfxl walks and rides through
shady lanes, or on the rivers bank-plea.ant little
quadnlle parties in the gentle moonlight Of sum-
mer's eve-a ngng in mountain srcams-unpre-
tending pic-nics in the quiet woods-these, and
other modes of enjoyment, to all of which the
charm of good feeling, purity, and unaffected grace
is given, make up the pleasures ut those retired
and unobtrusive summer retreats. At several Of
these rural retreats, there medicinal springs of
more or less value and efficacy in various chronic
disorders, and whose heathful waters are not dis
turbed by the turbid tide Of fashionable vice
and folly.
Nor are the great masses of the people-they who
indeed realize to the fullest extent the blessings of
this glorious land, the favored home of human in
dustry-without their means of summer enjoyment
The suburbs of our own metropolis present many de-
lightful resorts, which the exclusives" as they
call themselves, studiously avoid, as " low and
vulgar" but to which many of the best of our
citizens betake themselves in the intervals of their
honorable toll on Sunday. When the members
Of that bastard aristocracy, which affects all the
little airs of an exclusive circle, imagine that
they are worshpping their Creator, in magnii-
cent temples, reared, mayhap, from the pro-
ceeds of successful fraud, or are suffering
the pangs of indigestion in the heated parlors
of some fashionable hotel, thousands and thou
sands of industrious, comfortable and happy men
and women, superior in every respect to those who
scom them "the vulgar" are enjoying them
selves, nationally and quietly, at other of
those beautiful retreats which are to be found in
our neighborhood. We have never seen, in any
country, more agreeable spectacle than that pre-
sented at Hoboken, for instance, on a Sunday in
the summer The picture of competence, content
ment, decorum, and happiness, which is thus pre-
sented, is nexpressibly agreeable, and affords one
of the most satisfactory evidences of the excellence
and beauty of our republican system, under which
industry, in all departments, reaps its full reward
and enjoys its appropriate honors.
Thus then, sweeps along the great tide of human
existence virtue and vice, wisdom and folly, sub
stance and shadow the true and the false
STEAMSHIP OF WAR UNITED STNrEs-This splen-
did specimen of American naval architecture, lies
off the Battery, where she attracts the observation
of all who visit that beautiful promenade. We I'M
dts. nd tla.i Lxds L,s.a h..a.s s....a, - c