The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-11-22
Moderate Prices.

GUS reasons are aSSlBneu lOT tHe idCe-
among others, that multitudes of those
who usually frequent them went to Eu-
rope in the spring. Still, ifthis be true,
the question remains undecided whether
they did not go to Europe in order to
get more pleasure and profit out of the
same amount of money that they would
be obliged to spend here-nay, wheth-
er they did not go to save money. In
deed, we are inclined to think that the
lack of patronage at the hotels, and the
enormous deportation of our wealthy
population, are both owing to the high
prices demanded at our watering places
for genteel fare and accommodation. If
a man can have the benefit ofa sea-voy-
age and delightful summer in Switzer-
land what it for would cost him to make
a tour of one of our principal watering
places, he will be very apt to pack his
trunks for the foreign trip; and we must
honor his good taste and good judgment
in the matter.
While the mammoth hotels and high
priced places have mourned over their
slender patronage, the second-class
houses have generally been full. At
Saratoga, the small hotels and boarding
houses have had guests in plenty. The
boarding houses and farm-houses in all
directions have had an abundance of
summer visitors. The truth is, we sup
pose, that business has not been good,
money has been scarce, and the people
have studied economy. The expensive
hotels can only be supported during
periods of easy and large money-making,
and the moment there comes a pinch,
they feel it. They are keyed too high,
even for the average American high
life. They never make too much
money in the best seasons; and when
the bad seasons come, they either make
make none at all or lose. Who it is
that goes on building from year to year
these large and costly establishments
we do not know, for nearly everybody
who NEEDLES with them loses by them.
They cost immense sums, they burn up,
or they fail to pay rent and dividends.
The permanent hotels of the great
cities are built and furnished at the cost
of millions, in which families pay from
five thousand to ten thousand dollars a
year for board. We may say here that
much of the economy practiced in the
summer is owing to the absolute impos-
sibility of living at reasonable price
in winter. Whether one live at hotel
or buy or rent house, it matters not
The reason why the great hotels are
prosperous in the city is because fami-
ly can live cheaper in them than at
housekeeping. If we seek for the
reason of this, we find that only a certain
grade of building and furniture are con-
sidered respectable. Respectable life
genteel life-is all on an expensive scale.
A man with an income of less than ten
thousand dollars a year cannot support
his family and entertain his friends in
style that would be considered genteel
much less, generous.
Our whole American life is keyed too
high. If man go into business, he
will not be content with either a mod
crate business or moderate profits.
Everything must be on a large scale
business, living, hospitality-every-
thing. The hotels are like the rest, and
their proprietors expect to make fortunes
in ten years, and many of them do it.
There rao1lx Sooroc ~ bo M ro,aoo4ol1a
place for respectable family of moder-
ate means. The low priced hotels are
not genteel; the low-priced houses are
either unfit to live in or are in mean
localities; and thus the great need of
the time-respectable homes for respect
able men of moderate incomes-is un-
provided for. If the Saratoga hotels
should reduce their prices to $3.50 or
$500 per day, and give their guests
plain, wholesome fare, minus the splend-
or and the music, they would not only
be crowded, but they would make mon
ey. If nice three-dollar hotel could
be established in a respectable quarter
of New York, it would be crowded from
years end to years end, and give re-
munerative income to all connected with
it. Ifplain, comfortable houses could
be built in districts now unoccupied.
for which their owners were willing to
take fair rent, people would not be
driven by thousands, as they are now,
either in hotels or into the suburban
towns. We have now in New York
only the rich and the poor. The mid
die class, who cannot live among the
rich, and will not live among the poor,
and take the risk of living among the
vicious, as all do here who live among
the poor, 60 out of the city to find their
homes. So the words "To Let" stare
upon US from the windows of multi
tude of houses, which many would take
at fair rent, but which nobody can af-
ford to hire. Real estate is very high,
and considering the scarcity of money,
wonderfully firm; but a change will
come sooner or later. Our greatest
fear is that it can only come through
great commercial disaster, involving
the overthrow of all existing prices, and
another beginning at the bottom of the
ladder.-Scribner's Magazine.
Dom Piatt, to be happy, must have
his joke. Here is what he has to say