Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-08-05
LETTER FROM sARAroGA SPRINGS.
A Plain Quiet SeasOn-Dec1tne Of the
Eashf0nable Elements-Disnay Of
the LaudlOFds-C Commodore Wander.
bflt, Etc.


Correspondence Of The Evening .S,ar.l
SARATOGA, August 4. 1873.
1t has been the fact as well as the impression
that one season at this "Queen of the Ameri-
can watering places is but the type OF the
other. This season, however, must be the ex-
ception that conclusively proves the rule
While the hotels constantly become larger and
grander from year to year, and the opportunity
for that fashionable display, which has grown
SO luxuriantly heretofore by what it has fed
on, has thus increased, there is at the very
turning point Of the summers heighth a most
marked absence of that "gloss of satin and
glimmer OF pearl" which usually stand out
amid the glttering generalties Of the hitherto
undertaking fashionable world. Not only to the
old hdbiue is this contrast apparent but 1t is the
first remark Of the casual visitor. Said Miss
Grundy-the veritable Miss Grundy-the other
evening at the promenade concert which Jubi-
lee Gilmore gave on the piazza of the Grand
hotel, "There is no dressing at Saratoga this
summer" As q plain matter-offact l sug-
gested that there was more covered by dress
than formerly, that there was less of the deco
lettf style, as it is called, and less exposure OF
the shoulders, thus showing that in one sense
at least there',Ods dress than usual. But
in the fashionable sense it is true enough that
there is none Of the former display Of fashion
this year. While the hotels have at last become
comfortably filed, though weeks behind the
usual period, and their spacious colonnades are
full of promenaders with every variety of sum-
mer toilettes the tasteful is uppermost every
WHERE Swiss is above the satin, the ruffie
hides the ruby, the Whtby has taken the place
Of the diamond, aud in ball or dining room the
"grasshopper bend" and the new kink of
"scolloped hair' rifle the surface only of the
new departure. There are bleached blondes
and bright hrunattps uyho
against the current, 1t is true, but their hair
"scollops"-shaped like the bottom of skirt as
have seen 1t at the street crossings-parted on
the forehead with glycerine, and their ''bends''
that take the shape of the grasshopper on its
jump are restricted to the ir:le of heir origin
and some days disappear altogether.
How this revolution in society could have
been brought about, for it is not confined to
Saratoga as the only summer resort, without
any previous purpose of concentration, puzzles
Gradgrind, the landlord, whose long experience
has made him quite ready with ''facts," and
has actually dazed Lilykid, the blooming hotel
clerk. New Workers say that it is the large
European travel this year that has made the
watering places so fat and unproftable; but /
do not always find that reason accepted. Others
declare that there is a reaction going on from
the rich and rank outgrowth of the late war,
and that the American head, turned for a time,
is finally seeking the American level of true
republicanism and that follies of so called
fashionable life are on the down grade. Bush
ness men are full OF figures in their explana-
tons, and insist that retrenchment is following
a very dull business season and discounting at
the same time future that is by no means
bright. But let the situation explain itself. 1t
troubles no one but the watering place land
lord and those dependent on his following.
SarafnCa is hiu with fha n van
built q six-story new hotel-the Grand, which
furnishes silver door-plates for the seasons
guest-and it will by next season have com
pleted. at a cost Of q million dollars, the new
United States hotel. The stockholders expect
a cool hundred thousand dollars q year interest
on their money before any profits are carried to
the lessees, a financial sum quite impossible OF
solution in the face of the revenue from the
season Of 1873 STILL the building, which will
inclose five acres, is nearly up to the second
story. This hotel, as well as all of the large
ones, find very active competition in the face
of the immense capital of A. T. Stewart, who
owns the Grand Union, and who also proposes
to enlarge that building by next season. II is
already believed to be the largest hotel in the
world. Some idea Of its immensely may be
formed by the following statistics Street
frontage, 400 feet; length Of piazzas one mile;
halls, two miles; carpetng, twelve acres; marble
thing, one acre; number OF rooms, S24. The
dining-room will seat twelve hundred people
The building covers and incoses seven and a
quarter acres. The new Grand hotel, or Grand
Central as it is sometimes called, has $50 rooms,
twenty five stores under it, and is as repete as
a city hotel. Gilmore's band of jubilee fame
furnishes it with music at a cost of a hundred
dollars day. mention these figures to best
illustrate the rivalry of these monster affairs
Yet some of them resort to small means to make
a few dollars. Congress Hall rendered a COM
plimentary reception the other evening to CO..
Hartranft and suite, of Pa, and charged do
lar to attend it. Those who like to look in or |
the chidress' hops are required to pay dollar
Commodore Vanderbilt is, as usual, spendin- |
his summer here. He looks in fine health auI |
handles team on the Lake road with as much |
ease as he would q thousand shares of MIGHT |
gan Southern. He received the news of the |
terrible accident to the Saratoga special ex- |
press the other afternoon coolly as if one of |
his old-time and disgraceful ricketty depots |
had been merely burned.
Among the Westinghouse here are Prof.
yelling and daughter of Columbian College, |
ex-Mayor Berret, Mrs. Clark Mills and Miss |
Eva Mills. (the latter sung in concert at the |
Grand Union last week, on the occasion of the |
debut of Miss wadsworth, y Hon. VIM. Stickney
and family, Mr.. and Mrs H. s. johnson, Mr.
and Mrs. L. G. Merriam, Mrs. Snead and Miss
Austine Snead, Hon. E. c. Ingersoll and others.
Hon. S. s. Cox and Mrs. Cox and Senator Fem
ton are among recent arrivals.
The second race meeting commences to-mor-
row. The July meeting has been very success
full, though there are some growls of jockeying
on the last day.
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN IN MARYLAND
Inc notes OF the approaching fall campaign in