Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-11-13
Moderate Prices.

It seems to be admitted, on all sides,
that the summer was not q prosperous
one for the summer hotels. Various
reasons are assigned for the fact
among others, that multitudes of those
who usually frequent them went to
Europe in the spring. Still if this be
true, the question remains undecided
whether they did not 60 to Europe in
order to get more pleasure and profit
out of the same amount of money that
hey would be obliged to spend here;
nay, whether they did not go to save
money. Indeed, we are inclined to
think that the lack of patronage ut 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. # q man can have
the beneito of sea-voyage and q delight.
full simmer in Switzerland, for what it
would cost to make q tour of our princi-
pal watering-places he will be very
apt to pack his trunks for the foreign
trip; and we must honor his good
taste and judgment in the matter.
While the mammoth hotels and the
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 oil directions about the
country have an abundance of summer
visitors. The truth is, we suppose,
that business has not been good, mon
ey has been scarce, and the people
have studied economy. The expensive
hotels can only be supported during
periods of easy and large money-mak-
ing; and the moment there comes q
pinch, they feel it. They are keyed
too high even for the average Ameri-
lean high life. They mover make too
much money in the best. seasons; and
when the bad seasons come, they either
make none at all, or lose. Who is it
that goes on building from year to
year these expensive establishments,
we do not doubt, for nearly everybody
who NEEDLES with them loses by them.
They cost immense sums, they burn up,
CT they fail to pay rent and dividents.
The permanent hotels of the great
cities are built and furnished at the
cost of millions, in which families pay
from five to ten thousand dollars q
year Tor board. We may say here that
much of the economy practiced in the
summer is owing to the absolute i'm
possibility of living ut reasonable
price in the winter. Whether one live
at hotel or buy or rent a house it
matters not. The reason why the great
hotels are prosperous in the city is be-
cause family can live cheaper in them
than at houseke eping. If we seek for
the reason of this, we find that only
certain localities and only q certain
grade of building and furniture are
considered respectable. Respectable
life-genteel life-ig all on IN expen-
sive scale. A man with an income less
than ten thousand dollars q year can.
not supporta family and entertain his
friends in a style that would be consid.
cred genteel- much less, generous
Our whole American life is keyed too
high. If man 60 into business, he
will not be content with either mod
crate business or moderate profits.
Everything must he 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 really seems to he
no respectable place for respectable
family OF moderate means. The low.
priced hotels are not genteel; the low.
priced houses are either unfit to be
lived in or are in mean localities; and
thus the great need of the tlme-re
spectacle homes respectable men OF
moderate incomes-is unprovided for.
IT the Saratoga hotels should reduce
their prices to 50 so or 50 90 per day,
and give their guests plain homely fare
minus the splenlOr and the music, they
would not only be crowded, but they
would make money. If a nice three
dollar hotel could be established in 6
respectable quarter of New York, ii
would be crowded from years end t.
years end, and give remunerative in
come. If plaiu, comfortable houses
could be built in districts now unoccu
pied, for what their owners were will
ing to take as fair rent, people would
not be driven by thousands, US they
are now, either into hotels or into sub
urban towns. We have now in New
York only the rich and the poor. The
middle 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 who live among
the poor, go out of the city to find
their homes. So the words "T'o Let ,
stare upon us from the windows of 6
multitude of houses, which many
would take ut tair rent, but which
nobody can afford to hire. Real estate
is very high, and considering the scar
city OF money, wonderfully firm; but {
change will come sooner or later. Oul
greatest fear is that it can only cotut
through great commercial disaster
involving the overthrow o: all existing
prices, ana another beginning at tl,.
bottom of the laalder.-Dr. q. H. Hot
land, Scrib,.e,'s Monthly fo, October
A SUPERIOR quality of champagne i,
now made, with petroleum as tho chic
Ingredient. The manufacturer claims
that it is the best ever benzinc.