The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-06-30
Why NotP

WAJ @N0es
With the While Mountains on one side and
Casco Bay on the other, why should not Port
land be one of the most attractive places OF
summer resort, in the United States? The
annual tide is already flowing through our
railway stations; why may not Portland be
come the terminus for many converging
routes Of summer travel? Why should Sara
toga and Newport be the Only candles toward
which these swarms of gilded insects futter
and strive?
There is no doubt whatever, that those
Americans who have travellei-and every
body goes to Europe now-are becoming more
and more wearied of the old familiar haunts OF
summer fashion, and their less fortunate
friends who have only read of Baden-Baden
and Carlsbad, are beginning to sympathize
In their WEAKNESS with some show of rea-
son. it is not merely, it is not at all, an a6ec-
tation, which leads men who have seen Euro
pean watering places in the height of the sea-
son, to confess that as yet America has moth
ing to compare with their boundless fertility
of resource Tor amusement. A busy, practical
race, we have hardly as yet realized the full
sense of the honely proverb, which tells us
that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy" With the tanning of continent on our
hands, three Pacific railroads in contempla-
ton at once, and other gigantic undertakings
in progress, we have hardly felt like taking
time to rest. A vacation Is something which
belongs, we are apt to think, to school boys,
college professors, artists, and the like unprac-
tical creatures.
by and by we shall get over our hurry. We
are going little more slowly now. When we
can take time to eat our dinners quietly and ap-
preciate the absolute necessity of summer
rest, we shall seek about finding it in more
reasonable way. At present throngs of Amer
leans rush annually to Long Branch, and what
do they find there? Suppose" said New
Yorker to his wife, who had proposed visit
to one Of these festive places, Suppose, my
dear, we move up into the garnet for week or
two, and cut off the water and the gas-won't
it do Just as WELL" The arrangements at the
American watering places are not made with
view to the comfort of the guests but to the
profit of the hosts-who justify the etymology
of the designation, hOstes, enemies of man
kind. The smaller the rooms, the greater the
number of guests and the receipts. This is
simple arithmetic but unsatisfactory to the
victims.
What is worse yet, there is no organized
system of amusements, into which the pleas
ure seeker may fall without effort. His pic
mics must be engineered by his own efforts !;
the dancing is in a narrow. crowded hall; and
what is left, but daily drive over familiar
track? In England, Beau Nash made the for
tune Of Bath century ago, by inaugurating
special assemblies, with limited number of
selected guests and ample room to live and
move. At Baden-Baden there is a complete
and instruments in Europe are drawn to- Ba-
den-Baden In summer, as they are drawn to
Paris in winter. Conversation rooms" fine
promenades, and bands ofmusic to perform in
the open air, are other means and appliances.
That American town, which favored by ma
ture, has the enterprise first to attempt some
thing in this way, will secure precedence
which it may long hold. We have the White
Mountains and the bay; we have promenades,
afording two prospects utterly diverse, and
each in It's way of surprising beauty 1--WE have
an endless variety of charming drives. Why
can we not have the rest? Why can we not
have the hotel on Middle Street finished p
Why can we not have an opera house, not too
large or costly, but adapted to our own wants
and trife more? While Boston has provid-
ed and Bath is talking of public baths, free to
all corners, why is it impossible to take dip
in the sea. decently and properly, without go
ing outside of the city limits? People do not
care 70 go down to some remote beach, and
sit upon the rocks, dumbly meditative. With
in reach of all the attractions of solitude and
seclusion and silent rest, they are glad 10 find
also the sparkling current of life and gaiety.
When we have water-supply for our city,
when we have hotel on suitable scale, when
we have an opera house, is it too much to
hope that the natural advantages of our city
by the sea may be supplemented by art, and
that social attractions may detain the flying
crowds of tourists who now note in passing,
the cooness of our shady streets and the beau
ty of our bay and shore? Somewhere along
the Atlantic coast, the growing wants we have
described, will be supplied. Why not here?