The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-08-03

From the letters whco sppea' in ou- columns
to-day, from Newport and other OF the fashions
bic watering places, it would appear that the
hope. enter,ai, ed 'hst the approach of August
would bring ia the usual number of visiters have
proved unfourde The season for each and all
o. those places is now an irredeemable failure,
and there is reason to telieve that the pecuniary
lossee INQUIRED from it will prove the ruin Of
many Of the establishTn' n 70 which have not the
eooG fortune 10 be backed up by capital. With
the vast expenditure concentrated in couple
Of months in what are called fashionable hotels,
it lie easy to conceive that q check of this sort
must prove disastrous in the extreme Armies
of walters, cooks and psrveyors cannot be sus-
tanned upon unfulflled hopes; and as these are
what the hotel keepers have been living upon for
the last six weeks, it follows that those whose
previous profits have not been sufficiently large
to provide against euch a contingency must 60
to the wall. 1t is to be feared that their number
will be largely extended. by the fact that the
spirit of speculation induced many who are
known to have saved q little money to invest it
in additions ID their establishments, or
in entirely new buildings, IN the expec-
tation that they were to make their fortunes
by an unusual influx Of visiters this season
In Saratoga huge wings, in themselves large
enough to accommo date regiments, have been
added to several Of the already overprown hotels;
in Sharon Springs Newport, Cape May and other
fashionable haunts, the came fact is observable;
whilst coincident with it we bear only of empty
se;t 20 10
and out Of the way mountain retrests, where
they can be safe from the INVASION of snobbery
and the extortions of greedy hotel keepers. The
consequence of such state Of things is obvious.
Ruin must fall upon all those who have not had
the good sense TO perceive and anticipate the
crisis which the growing extent Of these evils
has Brought upon them.
We are truly sorry for these people. They
cannot, with justice, he blamed Tor taking advan-
tage of the temptations held out to them by silly
people, who, in their appetite for ostentation and
display, have spoiled both the landlords and their
servants, by not only yielding ready assent to
every imposition practised upon them, but by as
sisting to dupe others. The hotel keepers have
gone on the principle that fashion and aristOcra-
tic fastidiousness are exotics that could be Guilt
waited to their profit, and they have accordingly
done everything in their power to further the
foolish projects Of those persons who set them
selves up as leaders of public taste We think
the experience of the present season will serve to
convince them that all such pretensons are foreign
to our nationalhabits and opinions, and that per-
sons who indulge in them will only expose them
selves and those associated with them to ridicule
and contempt Basing Interpretations on such
unsubstantial grounds as fashionable prestige and
support, and seeking to make the general public
pay for the vanities and follies Of our parvenue
aristocrats, it is not surprising that the fashion
able hotel keepers at the watering places should
suddenly find themselves reduced to the dilemma
in which they are now placed.
Out Of evil, however, cometh good. The les
son is q severe one, and it is already producing
its fruits. There is a noticeable improvement, we
are told, in the manner in which many of these
establishments are conducted this season. The
landlords are more obliging, the servants more
attentive, the accommodation better. and it is
possible to get something to eat without feeling
the walters at every meal. But this is not all
that is required TO retrieve these houses in the es
timation of the public, and to enable them to
struggle successfully against the competition
which the inducements of European travel and
the attractions Of our wild mountain scenery hold
out They must be prepared to make radical
change In all the other details OF the system on
which their establishments have been hitherto
carried on. II they win not reduce their prices
to something like reasonable standard, II is
clear that they will soon find themselves
without any patrons at all. People will not be
satisfied to pay for the miserable accommodation
which they get at such places, sums that would
enable them to travel luxuriously over the con-
tinent of Europe or explore the classic regions of
antiquity. We are asked how this is to be done
in view Of the enormous expenditure of these es-
Establishments. The answer is simple one: Resort
70 the remedy that in the same difficulty would
be applied TO any other commercial enterprise:
cut down the expenditure TO point which, with
reasonable prices, will leave fair profit TO the
proprietor. This can be done by beginning with
the table, which we contend is in the majority Of
cases too varied and elaborate for healthfu diges
ton. A return to the simple but wholesome tastes
Of our forcfathers would make well developed wo-
men and muscular men Of the bloodless and sickly
looking specimens of humanity who are compelled
to visit these watering places whilst IL would en-
able hotel keepers to dispense with half the number
of servants whom they are now compelled to en-
poy, and reduce the rates of board 10 nearly half
what they are at present. These petsons are as
well convinced of these facts as We are, but they
have not the courage to make a beginning. We
can tell them that they have many more such
seasons as the present in store for them, unless
they manfully meet the difficulties in the manner
pointed out.