The New York herald., 1873-08-31


or the Business Season In Town.
The last day of August stands in our calen-
dar of pleasure and business as the closing
day of our fashionable summer season in the
country, and the LIST of September is estab-
lished as the reopening of the fall season of
active business in town. The ffty-two col
umns of advertisements which accompany the
reading matter" Of this days HERALD are
solid and pleasing indication that business is
opening with vim. The HERALD advertising
columns are, indeed, unfailing barometers
of trade, not only of the city, but
Of the entire Union. Our summer hotels
at the seaside, at the springs, on the g reat
lakes and among the mountains are to a con-
siderable extent open from the 1st of June
to the 1st of October; but the regular out
pouring from our cities begins only with the
oppressive heats Of July, and the heavy return
tide occurs during the last week of August or
the first week of September, according to the
season. Practically, therefore, the harvest
time of our country caravansaries is limited to
the brief period of the two months, July and
August, and August is the month upon which
these caravansaries depend for their profits.
warm, dry August, running a week or so
into September gives the balance in their ac-
counts on the right side of the ledger, and
vice uersa with an August Of unpropitious fogs,
clouds, chilling winds and pitiless equinoctal
storms in advance Of their appointed season.
By this standard we conjecture that the
summer season of 1873 will long be remem-
bered by our country landlords as one of the
least profitable, within their recollections of
many years. This season, delayed in the open
ing by the tardiness of the usual heats of July,
and hurried to close by the unprecedented
fogs, clouds, cold winds and storms of this
Alaskan August in these lower ATTITUDES, must
result in serious losses generally, and in many
cases to our country cousins, where ''iush
times and large profits were anticipated.
During the whole period of last week, by
every boat and train from the White Noun
tains, Newport, Saratoga, Niagara, the Cats
kills, the mountains and lakes, and from Long
Branch and from every point along the Jersey
seaboard to Cape May, the masses of baggage
brought in and discharged at our railroad
depots and river piers, from hour to hour and
from day to day, have afforded overwhelm-
ing evidence that this stormy August has hur-
ried our health and pleasure seekers from the
country back to their homes in town.
But not alone have the delays Of this passing
summer in rising to the nineties and the cruel
storms Of August in Fastening the return of
our moths and butterflies of fashion home
ward operated prejudicially upon our summer
watering places, for the comparative cheap
ness and the many attractions Of the trip to
Europe, including the Vienna Exhibition, to
say nothing of the Shah Of Persia, have drawn
very heavily this season upon the elements
which in days gone by built up the grand
hotels of Newport and niagara and made fa-
nous the summer charms of the White Noun
tains and Lake George All told, perhaps
forty millions would not cover the moneys e1-
pended and which will be expended by travel
lers from the United States in Europe, which,
in the absence Of our transatlantic lines of
steamers, would be saved to our own country.
But we have so fully discussed this subject
and SO often suggested the reforms, retrench-
at our summer watering places and by our
railway companies, to enable them success
fully to compete with the attractions of trip to
Europe, that we need not reproduce them here.
If their experiences of the passing season and
of several seasons past will not serve to en-
tighten the parties most directly interested
they can only be convinced by continuance
of their wasteful outlays and uncertain returns
under the old system of foolish extortions.
We pass from the summer season in the
country to the fall season of business in town;
and here the general inquiry is, What are the
prospects for our fall trader We are glad to
assure our readers from the merchant prince
to the day aborer, that the prospects are en-
couraging that the crops of our great staples
cotton, wheat, Indian corn, are good, or
promise to be beyond the average; that our
people have been generally retrenching;
that Notwithstanding our heavy imports
during the spring. the stocks Of
goods among the retailers throughout the
country admit of large replenishments, and
that there is general demand for all kinds of
goods. In short, profting from the expert
ence of their "great expectations" of 1872,
our traders and business men of all pursuits
throughout the country have been Compare
lively prudent in their ventures. The results
are general condition of solvency and pros
perity from which we may reasonably expect a
prosperous fall trade. We hear some croak-
ings of an impending financial convulsion, but
there are no signs visible to justify such ap-
prehensions. The dangers which did exist
some years ago from the extravagances of
shoddy and petroleum have passed away, and
business and speculations of every descrip-
ton, as they appear to us in general view,
were never under more wholesome restraints
than at the present time. We anticipate
therefore, brisk fall trade, and such condi-
tio,, of oaparol ,,rooparifv in tbic coyp,nup;ty