The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-14
SARATOGA SPRINGS.

THc Hotels. the Women, and the FASH
ions, the Morning, Noon and Even.
Ing of Life RL a Great Watering
s Place-'-MOrrisSey, the Gambler, and
the Famous Scarlet Women.
". SARATOGA STRINGS, Aug. 10.
The Columbian Hotel which was de-
stroyed by fire last night was reputed
10 DO "Slow." 1t had no bar and allow
ed no wine at dinner; but, instead,
gave you psalm tunes on the piano and
prayer meetings inrtlle parlor. 1t rings
u great bell up and down its halls carly
in the morning to wake you, and
brought you beef steak in large chunks
on your breakfast, plate. It pretixed
Grew" to numerous names on the
pages of its register, and in the white
nproned Individual who carved the
roast mutton at dinner you recognized
the long-fdced man who beguiled you
into the omnibus on your arrival. It
was II famous resort for persons whose
.penmanship would drive Spencer crazy,
and Mt its tables there was much dis
cusston of baptism and regeneration, of
sermons and theological Schools, Yet,
after all, one might have dropped into
a much worse place than the Column
plan. II was quiet and cleanly and
home-like. stopping there, you were
out of the crush and the crowd, and
nothing hindered you from doing just
as you pleased.
The Union, now standing in undis-
puted supremacy, is Il world in itself,
and Major Leland is its creator and
preserver. 1t fills three sides ola great
square, accommodates sixteen hundred
guests, and has the largest and pleasant
est dlntng-room In the United States.
The clerks treat you as though you had
given them personal offence. You are
always put in n room on the fourth
floor, except when you are sent up to
the fifth, There is an immense piazza
III front, and in tho rear are balconies
overlooking the most charming of
shaded lawns. You are made to feel
that it is great favor to enter the
dining-rOOm, and the table gives you
the New York dishes, got up in the New
YORK style, and emitting the New York
odors. The parlOrs are cool and roomy,
and in them you can see as much bad
taste and oyerdressing in n day as you
Will see in Boston in n whole week. It's
bar-room is convenient and we'll fur
nished and upon it's grounds opens the
back door of II quiet house i'll which
you can eight the tiger" free from all
impairment observation. In word,
the Union is one of our model American
notes.-the dreariest of abodes for n
barrie civilization. Yet you might do
worse than go there. a back room
looking down into the little park en-
closed by its three sides, and the Opera
House gives ample compensation for
long travel and sore discomfort; and
you shall search far and wide before
you lind such another field for the
study of human nature as it's piazza
and parlOrs.
The season, everybody tells the late
conner, has not been success in any
good sense. The Lelands have made u
little money-AIorrissey and his gang
have made great deal. In former
years, say before the war, the hotels
were like bee-hives in summer and sent
out swarming colonies into all the lanes
and pleasant alleys. This year, with
nakedness and vacancy where the Con-
gresS and the United States erewhile
stood, none of them have been full ex-
cept during the week of the races. And,
my good masters, that fulness had bet
ter have been emptiness-so say the
Lelands, SO say the villagers, so say all
respectable persons. For when the
pimps and thieves and Jockeys and
gamblers and blaclIlegs OF high and low
degree, do much abound, decent men
and women find ease and comfort and
pleasure elsewhere.
There must apparently be n fight for
Saratoga next SESSION. Morrissey made
a.great show of virtue this year, and the
Scarlet Woman with her prancing
horses and elegant carriage and aristo-
cratic SupperS was finally driven off;
but her sisters and the "tiger" train in
the same company, and with another
June she and they are sure to appear
again, and he will be forced to give her
space for her revels. The result is inc
vitable-to this complexion it mnst
come ut last. What then? The Union
hotel and its patrons against the gam
bier and his ally-to this complexion, /
say, it must come at last, for Saratoga
is not largo enough for the two parties.
Let us hope, let all men and women
with whom virtue and chastity are not
by-words, hope that Lelands may win
the day.
1t doesn't much matter, as 1 have al
ready said, where you stop in Saratoga.
Perhaps l should have added, if YOU
are man; though, even for women,
life is much the same at all the hotels.
l make half Il concession in favor. OF
woman, because there are more wo-
men, and consequently more tOilettes
to examine and criticise, at the Union
than elsewhere. Therefore, sir, if YOUR
wife is fashionable or wants 10 be
thought fashionable, go to the Union
and SO shall you have peace and avoid
curtain lectures.
Why do women pretending to have
taste in dress wear gold bracelets at the
breakfast table? And bracelets and
beef steak are the measure of half the
life one sees at Saratoga. It's true, and
pity It's tits true; for therein do we
prove that our boosted culture is no
better than savage ignorance. or
course bracelets ut breakfast foretell
fitting hoops for croquet, full dress for
morning promenades, and a dreadful
horror of waterfalls and cascades and
frizzles and tags and tails and long
trains and low-tlde dresses in the even
~ HI II
Ofcourse they put jenkins into ecstacy
of glOritied delight. OF course they
make the great hall of the Union a
paradise of bliss" when there is u
dance. But is jenkins our best type
of manhood, and is q ball the end of hu-
man existence?
Saratoga, one would say, exists for
women and not for men. 1t is the wo-
men who dress and elaborate and grow
smart in arti1ice-the men lounge and
smoke and wear grey trousers and
skirtleSS sack coats. The one class
"takes it easy"-for the other there is
the barber and the last style in trim
ming. The men are mostly elderly or
from misunderstanding partners and
croquet partners are in such great, de-
mand that eligible young gentlemen
have been at a premium, l am told all 4
the season. The women are various,
various. 1t hurts ones
heart to see so much life wasted, and
you are glad to recall through what
countless channels of womanly will
and endeavor the Sanitary Commits
sion's fountain was kept full for four
long years. Let me not be unchartita-
BILE. Doubtless some of these over
dressed. creatures, lounging this even
ing III the parlors of the Union, have
earnedthe right SO to do if they please
by laboriouS service "for three years or
during the. war;" Handkerchief FASH
ion rules them with iron rule, robs
them OF youths heritage of simple