The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-06
sPxRxT or THE II
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-CompiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph,

PERILS OF OUR SUMMER RESORTS.
From the N. Y. Sun.
Many persons among the thousands who
are now daily leaving the city for their sum-
mer vacation will never return to it alive;
and of those who do not return, many will
lose their lives through want of precaution
against the peculiar dangers of our summer
resorts.
There is al the large majority of watering
place hotels q peril to which ladies in par
ticular are exposed-that of being burned to
death. Where there is no gas, either can
dies or kerosene lamps are usually the means
of light; and the incautious use of these often
leads to the most terrible results. Young
ladies, in preparing for a ball or some other
evening entertainment, not unfrequently
place the light on the floor or on q low stand.
to enable them the better to see while dress
ing. The thin and airy material of a summer
gown is swept by hasty or careless move
ments into the flame. Firmness and pre-
sence of mind are almost always wanting on
the part of those who witness the occurrence.
The unfortunate girl, lacking all intelligent
aid or guidance, wildly rushes forth into the
moving air she should avoid, and the flames
enveloping her are famed by it and blaze on
until she falls a helpless victim, soon to die
an agonizing death.
One has only to read the newspapers to
know how often such an accident occurs. We
have already noted several this summer, and
we can recall many cases of q like nature in
past years. Near Providence, last year, at q
pleasant little resort on ~Narragansett Bay, a
charming young lady lost her life under
almost the identical circumstances we have
mentioned; and the tragedy was accompanied
by evidence of a heartlessness in the exist
ence of which it is difficult to believe. The
inmates of the house, together with those
persons from the other places in the vicinity
who had come there to the dance, went on
with the ball, while, as they knew, the poor
girl, in q room not far from them, lay RAPIDLY
breathing away her life.
Perhaps the greatest peril to which, in
their summer vacation, young men are liable,
is death by drowning. Naturally this danger
is greatest at seaside resorts; although at such
places the means and appliances likely to be
at hand for saving drowning persons are
always greater than on inland waters. But
in many of these drowning accidents an OBJ
scure agent, of which little is likely to be
said, plays an important part.
Take, for example, a large yachting party.
The little squadron is at anchor at one of the
numerous convenient harbors in the neigh
borhood of New York. Balls are given at the
hotels of the place in honor of the Yachts
men. The summer boarders flock to the
vessels during the day, and perhaps take short
seward excursions in them. During all this
f~estivity and enjoyment a good deal of wine
is consumed; and possibly even stronger
stimulants are tasted. And when a number
of these young fellows go swimming, and in
some inexplicable way one of them is sud
denly drawn beneath the water and drowned,
perhaps pulling under another with him as he
sinks, every one speaks of the cramp, but no
one says anything about the glass of whisky
which he drank just before he went in. Is
there one of the party who does not think of
it?
1t is unquestionably true that a large pro-
portion of accidents similar to that which we
have described are due to the use of stimu-
lating drinks. Many a mother has seen her
son brought home dead, and has never known
what was the true cause of his sudden death.
She ascribes it all to inexplicable fate, and is
spared the terrible conjecture of the truth.
The horse runs away and his driver is killed;
the pleasure boat is capsized and one of the
party drowned; or some one of the thousand
conceivable accidents occurs and results in
death, which is seldom attributed to the right
cause. And the danger attendant upon the
use of such stimulants is nowhere greater
than at the summer resorts, which are fire.
quented only for pleasure, and where young
men are apt to be far more reckless than at
home.
Let those who are leaving town, then, re-
feet on these dangers, and the many others
which will suggest themselves, before they
start; and let them steadfastly resolve to
guard against them.