Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-08-25
LETTER FROM SARATOGA SPRINGS.
Correspondence! Grab Game and the
Crowds-Hay Making in Sunshine-The
Saratoga Club House-Effort to Purchase
It-0dds and Ends Of the Season-Per-
sonal-Etc.
Correspondence of The Star.l

Correspondence" said Sydney Smith, "are
like small clothes before the day of suspenders-
it's impossible to keep them up"-unless you
keep your hand in, he might have added in his
impatient humor. The Professionals even who
advertise here in huge posters that their respec-
tive journals contain ''an the exclusive news
and gossip of Saratoga Springs" have been
obliged to resort TO imaginary balcony and por-
ticO scenes, TO mythical accounts of Irritation
walks, and to general pretension OF knowledge
of the undercurrent of the fashions and folies of
watering-place life. As a general rule these
letters may be classed more among the follies
than the fashions Of this Saratoga season. 1t is
the purpose of this screed to glance merely at
the surface-things, and to say, despite the cool,
damp days of July so dispiriting TO the pockets
Of the proprietors of the huge caravansaries that
line this Broadway, and TO the Golfers of the
indescribable thousands who get fat when the
dog-star grows in the ascendant and Sirius is
ruler of the sky, that Saratoga has last touched
the highest pointof all its greatness and is reap
ing its reward in the most golden of haryests
For the last two weeks all of the hotels and board
ing houses-and their capacity is about fifteen
thousand persons-have been literally over
whelmed, their reading rooms, billiard tables
and ball rooms being strewn with cots, while
hundred private residences have laid tribute to
the hotels in furnishing outside accommodations
where some of their wicked guests will cease
from troubling the dainty clerks and the weary
may get some rest. There have been longer
and on the whole more profitable seasons, but il
is agreed that Saratoga was never more crowded
The mammoth piazzas-the Grand Union now
claims mile of them-are respondent allthe day
and half the night long with the gloss OF satin
and silk and the glimmer of diamond and
pearl, and Broadway and Lake avenue present a
metaporphosed picture Of Central Park with its
oaparisoned horses and phaetons and landaus.
But, after all, how severe in its application is
aye ancient adage of making hay while the sun
shines!' That boy Jim Fisk told about be-
fore the Banking and Currency Committee of
the House who was so mean that he was not con-
tent with stealing from the top shelf his mothers
only bottle of currant wine, but took the shelf
and the nails also, and then kept on reaching, had
not that indescribable gift of grab which char
acterizes these Saratogians when the season is
upon them in its fullest flush. The livery men
have nearly doubled their prices since last sea-
son; the omnibus lines, without letting you know
the rates, charge you quarter to ride to the
races and half dollar to come back while some
Of the horses that took you there are like the
one Mr.. Pickwick spoke about, which was seldom
taken home on account Of weakness, because he
always fell down when he was took out of the
cab; but when he was in it, Z" we bears him I'D
very tight, and takes him in VERY short, so
that he can't VERY well fall down; and we get
pair Of precious large wheels on, so ven he
does move, they run after him, and he must go
on-he can't help it.''
At the table it is quite impossible 10 get any
thing to eat without literally fleeing the walters
who also do a thriving business in serving
dishes not on the regular bill of fare. This is
an abuse, however, common enough everywhere:
but it has startling proportions and realities in
dining room that entertains two thousand
guests at a single meal, and where mankind will
stand less imposition than most anywhere else.
Then, the wisp-broom nuisance deserves a no.
tce-for it is great nuisance. When you
arrive, covered with dust, from the train, two
stalwart colored men generally seize YOU by the
collar, as if intending to take you TO the station
house, and soon envelOp you with a cloud. That
is well enough; but after that look out for a
threadbare coat, for these Dusterers will seize
you at every turn, when you 60 to and come
from your meals, when you go TO the elevator or
the newsstand, or the Office, in or out of the
hotel. By actual count, 1 was brushed nine
times from the Office to the dining-room and
back. AT the usual rate of compensation, thiss
would have added quite two dollars to a day.
board; then add ten cents apiece for the New
York papers, and other incidentals too numerous
to mention, and you have in the course of a day
long list OF petty annoyances, for which you
pay quite roundly. The bright, bracing, COOL
crisp air, part of the season not so crowded
and a judicious use of the Saratoga waters,
compensate, however, quite fully for these tri-
fies that ought not to be allowed to make up the
human sum in our recreating hours.
Another spasmodc attempt has been made by
some of the residents and regular visitors OF
SARATOGA IN Opf Of ha I'm
famous club house-this time by purchase.
MorTissey has fixed his price for the house and
furniture at quarter of a million of dollars and
thus far the subscription has reached sixteen
thousand dollars Mr.. NJ. will probably retain
his place-which has now cost him over two
hundred thousand dollars-and Saratoga will
tail to obtain this palatal establishment for its
proposed free library and reading room. Since
last year the building has been enlarged by an
addition almost as extensive the East Room
OF the White House, and superbly furnished and
decorated. This large room is wholly devoted to
the various games, though there are on the same
floor two parlors on each side of the main hall,
thirty by sixty feet, and a dining-room and
restaurant a hundred and twenty by forty. AT
night, when the establishment is ablaze with
light, IL is thrOnged with sight-seers, ladies and
boys only being excluded. Hundreds who never
play cent are anxious to get a peep at its
gided walls as the most desperate gambler
At ten O'Clock nearly every game in the estab-
lshment is in full tide and yet everything is so
quiet that ordinary conversation is hardly con-
Quoted above a whisper The rooms are noise
less the foot falls on their velvet floors and
their dreamy splendOr fills with the presence
OF anything but the abode of those whose stems
finally lead TO something down below.
1t would be quite a task, even if | were CONNIE
tent, to speak OF the balls and hops in detail and
the fashion in dress which they display. Both
are certainly elaborate enough, and so much a
matter of show have the toilets become that
the guests of the various hotels range themselves
in columns half dozen rows deep 20 see the
procession pass, with all its brilliant features
through the pariors and corridors to the ball
room. When the visitors of the lesser hotels and
boarding houses come to the big hotels TO see tbe
sights, the crowds on ball nights are immense
The ball at the Congress on SATURDAY. night was
remarkable, il Is said, for the appearance. even
thus early, Of half dozen new fan Partisan
dresses.
Colonel James Fisk, Jr., and his 9th regiment /
stan In glittering uniform, headed by his band Il
came into town one day last week. After tast9
ing several Of the springs, the hero of the late
gutter-snipe war pronounced Saratoga ga
distilled fraud" and left the next day To
participate in the battle of Bennington celebra-
uon. His band, however, gave a concert i'm the
Union Hotel park in the evening to an audience
OF several thousand, and it deserved and re- II
ceived all praise, for the famous Levy on the
cornet was worth coming far to hear
Commodore Vanderbilt is, as usual, one Of
Saratoga's visitors, but bends under the weight l
or old age and the cares OF his immense fortune i
now estimated at one hundred and twenty mil |