The New York herald., 1869-06-06
Our Summer Watering Places W.. Tho
Tour Of Europo.

Tour Of Europo.
Four steamers left this port yesterday for
Europe with something more in each than the
average passenger list-the City of Paris and
Virginia for Queenstown, the Dacian for Glas-
gov and the Main for Bremen. The heavy
tide of summer travellers from this country
for Europe, which fairly set in with the Paris
Exposition Of 1867, is hardly diminished;
indeed, from this source we may say that the
immense sums of American money scattered
over the British islands and over the Cont
nent, from Paris to Rome, have been heavily
increasing every summer since the suppression
Of our late Southern confederacy. Here we
have one of those marvellous changes in the
old order of things effected by the steam
engine within the period Of the living genera
ton.
But why should our fashionable people, or
sensible summer travellers in search of health,
retirement, pleasure or information prefer the
tour of Europe to the tour of the United
Statess 1t is because they see more, learn
more, enjoy more and have something more to
talk about on their return from the trip to
Europe than from the widest circle of our
American watering places. 1t is because from
June to September or October the expenses of
an excursion in first class style inside the
United States exceed the costs of the
grand summer circuit of Europe in
the free and easy style of the American abroad,
notwithstanding the difference between our ma
tional bank paper and Bank Of England notes.
At this rate, when we get back to specie pay
ments or the specie standard, our summer
caravanseries will almost be deserted, and
those of Europe will swarm with American
| citizens of all classes, races and cOlOrs It
may be said that this is all fair; that in these
summer distributions of American money over
the Old World we are only returning the inte
rest upon the great debt which we owe it; that
but for the Europeans America would he to-day,
| as it was four hundred years ago, vast howl
| ing wilderness Of savages and wild beasts.
| True; but still the main question to the hotel
keepers concerned is, Why can we not make
our places as cheap and attractive, in substan-
tial comforts, at least, as the summer resorts of
Europe2
But, far as they are behind the real require
ments of the age, with all their fuss and fine
feathers, we think that, after all, our home re-
| a pretty fair season this summer. To most of
our fashionable moths and butterflies Saratoga,
Lake George, Newport, the White Mountains,
Niagara and the st. Lawrence, &C., have be-
come an old story. Nor is the South sufl-
cently reconstructed to draw yet awhile any
material accessiOns from the North to Old
Point Comfort, or the Virginia springs,
or to the mountains around Chattanooga,
or to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. They
must wait yet little longer for their good
time coming. The inhabitants of Manhattan
Island and its surroundings are especially
favored with convenient summer recruiting
places Of all descriptions, varieties and de-
grees, along the Hudson, the Sound, the sea-
side of Long Island, around Staten Island and
along the Jersey coast. If, for its elegant
cottage establishments and appointments and
surroundings, Newport bears away the palm
in modern improvements, Long Branch, but
two hours distant from the Battery, is still the
place for New Yorkers whose ruling idea is to
make pleasure subservient to business. Nor
is the time far distant when that pretty combi-
nation Of hills and valleys, woods and fields
inlets and the roaring main, known as the
Jersey Highlands, will attract its summer
| squatters from Europe. And there are but
| few Of the inhabitants of this city who know
that on the summit of the Palisades, opposite
| the Park, we are on a plain covered with ex-
tensive forests almost as wild as the woods Of
the Alleghanies.
1t is understood that General Grant will
devote month or two, beginning before the
end of June, in reconnaissance of our
summer resorts, inland and seacoast and will
try our various healing waters in their inside
and outside applications; and that if delayed
at Washington till July he will probably begin
at Gettysburg and its lthia spring, made
famous for the healing of sick and exhausted
soldiers. A call or an expected Call from
General Grant will be a windfall to the local
ity concerned; and as all the desirable Offices
have been given out he may reasonably count,
everywhere, upon the pleasure of taking his
afternoon drive and smoking his evening cigar
in peace. We think it likely that they will
have him at the Boston Peace Jubilee; for, as
his motto is "Let us have peace" he cannot
very well decline it as offered in the grand
hubbub of the ''Hub."
Returning to our text, ''Our Summer Water
ing Places VS.. The Tour of Europe, we con-
clude that as the capacity of the Atlantic
steamers is limited, the bulk of our summer
birds Of passage will, after all, remain this
side the water; that the hotels which study
most the travellers comfort and have least ia
I do with the mere froth and Gummery Of
fashion And ths pluckins of pigeons will Be
most prosperous, and that the places which