The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-09-22

With the storm Of the last few days the sea.
son of 1861 at the watering places saw its close.
AT a few of the summer resorts the sweetness of
the season was drawn out through the past few
weeks of September, but its finale has come ut
length Not even the hotel keepers will regret
Che event we have here recorded. The season has
not been at all brilliant, and It ends as duly and
with as little eclat as it began. Beyond the
short, bright episode Of Mrs. President Lincoln's
sojourn on the Jersey shore, we have had to take
very little notice of the watering places this
year. The extortons Of the landlords have
tempted us in vain. In vain have we been re-
minded Of ill-kept tables and walters who ought
to have been Assemblymen or Congressman, 80
accessible are they to bribery and so inaccessi-
BILE to anything else AT Lake George the
stockholders of the hotels have interfered, as
usual, with the comfort of the guests but we
have been deaf to appeals upon the subject. The
acutely pointed stick which we had prepared for
the watering place banditti of this year is re-
served for next summers gang. Jenkins has
laid by for another season his stock of red
blue and gold coloring, his tawdry rhetoric
his well worn SMILES, his inevitable scraps Of
old poetry. The game, this year, has not been
worthy the chase.
War, like time tries all things, and 1t has
tried the watering places pretty severely.
Many of the most pretentious resorts have, like
Belshazzar, been found wanting. The war
panic struck down the imperous sceptre of
Fashion, and during this season people were
not forced to so to Saratoga or Newport, or to
any other place, to which Jones used to go be-
cause Smith went, and not because he liked it,
but were allowed to summer it just where they
pleased The result was that many genuine
summer resort, before almost unheard of, sprang
into q sudden and deserved success, and that
Old-time haunts of fashion, but not of enjoy
ment, were deserted and abandoned. How en-
tire this abrogation Of the rule of Fashion was
may be judged from the fact that even at Sara
toga and Newport ladies not only wore their
last years dresses, but actually wore the same
dresses several times at the same placed This
war Of ours is to revolutionize politics and poll
ticians; to make the government stronger; to
make the nation greater; to make business bet
ter and better conducted; to make US all more
economical, prudent and steady-why may it
not revolutionize Fashion also, and substitute
the rule Of "do as you like" for that of do
as your neighbors dc" We shall all be bet
ter, happier and more comfortable for the
change; and now that Fashions sceptre is
broken let us never allow it to be mended.
This revolution, in the comparative attend
ance of the more pretentious and the more de-
serving summer resorts, is the popularity and
the moral of the season. At Saratoga the wait
ers fairly outnumbered the guests, and you
were surprised to find that the whise-aproned
attendants made their visits more frequent
than angels, and came to you without the usual
bridge Of gold or silver. From this fact judge
the whole case. Saratoga was deserted
village. Nor did Newport fare any bet
ter. Its fine SEQ bathing went for nothing,
and the Prince do Joinville arrived too late to
make the place popular. The White Mountains
held up the heavens, Atlas like, with scarcely q
visiter to disturb their solitude. The Philadel-
phians Stunned Cape May as they would the
malaria, and the Robinson Crusoes of hotel
keepers found no strange footprints upon the
sands of the beach. Sharon, which is very
proved during these twenty years, having al
ways made pretensions to exclusiveness upon
very small capital Of deserving, was exclusive
enough this year, for no one went there except
invalids, and these, as at Wiesbaden, very WISE
ly stopped at the hotels about the sulphur
springs, so that they might benefit by the medi-
Gated air both night and day. All these and
all other watering places pretending to be
first class" the public left severely alone, and
they had their pretensions for their pains.
On the other hand, most of those summer re-
sorts which have hitherto been more pleasant
than fashionable were surprised to find them
selves crowded with the very best sort
of visiters The Catskill Mountains were
much frequented, and the hotels there were
found to be excellent Beautiful little villages
about the Green Mountains had an unex pected
and unusual influx of pleasure seekers. Man
chester, for instance delightful little hamlet
at the foot of the meuntains-was well filed,
and its hotels, especially the Equinox, were
comfortable and we'll conducted enough to salts
fy all guests.
Long Branch, too, was attended by numerous
fashionables, who Hocked thither in the train of
Mrs. Lincoln, and to be near the person of her
republican Majesty endured the combined nui-
sances Of Jersey hotels, Jersey landlords, Jer-
sey eatables and Jersey mosquitoes, and even
wrote letters to their stay-athome friends de-
claring that they really liked the place. The
force of comparison and of aristocratc tenden-
cy can no farther 60.
This change from; fashionable resorts to real
pleasure and health-giving summer haunts will,
we trust, be permanent On all hands it is adj
mitted to be change for the better, and,
now that 1t is inaugurated, it ought
to be perpetuated. If we are to have our
Brightons, Isles of Wight and Balmorals, let us
select them with some reference to consistency
of location Our Saratogas can never become
anything but American Baden-Badens, and
Baden-Badens are not good either for the morals
or the pockets of their frequenters. Let springs
be given over to mvalids, and let pleasure