The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-07-27
n Summer Watering Places-The
Prospect for tho Season.


There is pleasure IN the painless woods
There Is society where none intrudes,
BY the deep sea, and music in its roar.
Byron.
In the frame of mind thus absorbed in the
charms of solitude Childe Harold would find
little to detain him at the Vanity Fair Of any
of our watering places Nevertheless, these
have irresistible attractions tor
our moths and butterflies of fashion, and even
for the traveller, bona ide, in search Of health
or recreation, which are Irresistible. But it
is in proportion to the general prosperity of
the country, real or fictitious, that the profits
Of our Summer watering places may be meas
ured. A good season to the landlords OF the
great caravansaries at the seaside and OF
the springs, and among the mountains, lakes
and waterfalls of the interior, indicates gen.
orally prosperous people, who have something
to spare beyond their average savings for pur-
poses of health, pleasure and relaxation. On
the other hand, short harvest to the reapers
of our Summer resorts is considered as mark
ing corresponding decline in the net profits
all round Of our sharp, wiry-edged, bustling
pushing, money-making and calculating
people.
BY this standard our Summer season, so
far, of 1873 betrays q general deficiency in
the returns of our last Spring trade and some
retrenchments throughout all our business
classes for the Fall campaign of buying and
selling. From Newport, Saratoga, the White
Mountains, niagara; indeed, with very few
exceptions. from all the shrines of our Sum-
mer pilgrims within our own borders we have
the suggestive report that the season is
''slow," and promises less than an average in
come. 1t is midsummer; the Summer East
has been dry and favorable for travelling; our
country hotels were never in better condition
for the entertainment Of visitors; the cholera
in the West and South has caused general
movement from numerous localities in those
sections to more salubrious places; the mer-
curry for some days in this city and over q
wide extent of country has been ranging
among the nineties, and yet there was never
perhaps before on the last Sunday in July 30
large proportion Of the residents of Man.
haitian Island still in town as there is this
day, or will be in the evening, with the return
of our suburban excursionists New York
city, in short, is becoming an attractive
Summer resort, and may be made, as it
should be- the most popular on the Con-
t!asps;
From reconnaissance Of Long Branch and
the intervening Jersey coast to the Navessn,nk
HighlaSIds, and thence up the Shrewsbury
inlet to Red Bank this July, particularly on
Saturday night or Sunday morning, the visi-
tor will be apt to conclude that the cities
around New York's great harbor must be de-
populated and that half their inhabitants are
in Jersey. But all these Jersey retreats, with
their railway and steamboat lines, which give
you half dozen times day communication
with Wall street, Broadway and Washington
Market, are so convenient to New York and
its suburban cities and towns that we have
here no criterion from which to judge of the
White Mountains, the Catskills or the Adiron-
dacks Moreover, is not the President of the
United States established at Long Branch in
bis cosey cottage by the seap" and els not
the kings name tower of strength? ?" In
truth, the establishment of the President and
his amiable family at "The Branch" and their
quiet, unpretending and popular mode of life
and enjoyments through all the Summer there,
have been and are, socially and financially,
invaluable to the prosperous settlement.
But why, in the general estimate for this
Summers fashionable season, have we this
So JoGo ~; - L.
vest9 The reasons are at hand, and promi-
nent among them is the fashionable exodus to
Europe. Since May-yea, since April last
all our outward bound transatlantic steamers
have been crowded with our health and pleas
ure seekers off to Europe, and still our people
are going over in hundreds by every depart
ing steamer. Many of these passengers are
native Europeans, drawn to the fatherland or
motherland by the ties Of kindred and early
associations many are Americans, to whom
Saratoga and Newport, having become q
thrice-told tale, and who find among
the old ruins and peoples and insti-
tutions and treasures of art and of his
tory in Europe temptations and compen-
sations for the voyage over the sea which
they connot resist And then to Pater fami-
las the special pleadings of his prudent wife
and daughters are conclusive that four months
devoted to European tour will cost less than
two months in running the Summer gauntlet
at home, and that so much can be saved in
the purchase of dresses and hats, and gloves
and shoes, and everything in Paris; and that
the girls ought to see something of the world,
and that they are really getting delicate and
need sea voyage. But the paramount reason
for this general exodus of our fashionable
world is that it is the fashion. This season,
moreover, business inducements, the general
peace of Europe, the Vienna Exposition, the
Shah of Persia and the reviving destinations
of Paris have made the trip to the other side
more the fashion with our people than ever be-