Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-08-17
SARATOGA. LAKE GEORGE AND
THE RANGELEY LAKES.
IEdit0rldI C0rresp0ndence Of The ttdr
GRRRNYAIR PLANTATION

trip has taken me over the route indicated in
the heading of this letter to the point named in
the date, at the head of Rangeley Lake, or the
series Of lakes going by that title.
Life at Saratoga.
Saratoga found to be full of visitors thou Oh
so many of the watering places are complain
ing of dullness. This does not indicate so much
the superiority of the waters as the superiority
of the manag cement. The other summer re-
sorts may as well understand that Saratoga's
interests are In the hands of some exceedingly
Keen and wide-awake business men, who, Will e
looking out for Number /, CO operate in large
general way to make the place attractive for
visitors. OF course there is more or less real
estate speculation, SC, underneath, but the
general result is for the advantage Of Saratoga
and its guests.
The One Cheerful pot in America.
The first thing that strikes the visitor at Sar-
atoga is the buoyant cheerfulness of the place.
In this way it reminds one Of Paris and one or
two other European health or pleasure resorts.
There is certainly no other place In America
where SO animated a spectacle of elastic gayety
is presented, or where people seem to be so
really enjoying themselves as here. For one
thing, the brightness and vivacity OF Saratoga
life Is not wasted, or lost to view, by being scat
tered over too much ground, as at the leading
seashore resorts, where the great hotels are sep
arated by wide intervals of barren sand or other
dreary wastes, and the inmates of the different
caravaDseras are almost as much isolated as if
they were passengers on as many different
ocean steamers. At Saratoga the leading hotels
are linked costly together on broadway" in a
manner to bring the guests OF all in compan-
ionable association, and the life and gayety Of
all the houses is grouped in one bright and ef-
fective picture.
At Night,
when these immense many-storied structures
are brilliantly lit up from the billiard basement
to the browning mansard, and the strains of
music float out fro N ball room, piazza and elm.
shaded court, while the spacious halls. parlors,
porches, and sidewalks are occupied by the gay
concourse of twelve thousand visitors who sum-
mer at Saratoga, the locker on Is brought to
the conclusion that there is one cheerful spot In
America where the male element, particularly,
is not solemn nsss-meeting of men in black
broadcloth playing at relaxation.
What the Hotels of Saratoga Have
Done for the Place.
The mineral waters of Saratoga of course
first directed attention to the place, but its at
tractive hotels have had more to do in the way
of keeping it at the head OF American pleasure
resorts than ausht else; and this brings ms to
OF Washington. ANY one who sees what these
superb hotels have done for Saratoga can ngure
out for himself the advantage that Washington
would derive from hotel system of the same
style, such as would make our city sort of
winter Saratoga, attracting health and plea
sure-seekeis alike during the Water months.
Our much-abused Board OF z ublic Works have
made the city an attractive, healthful, and de-
sirable winter resort. Now we need to compile
ment this by two or three Saratogs-style hotels,
and am confident that the capitalists who find
it worth their while TO put their money in hotel
property at Saratoga, where there is a short
season of three months only, would get better
returns by building hotels at Washington that
would DO a rushing business for a season OF
from SIX to nine months, and a payisg
business through the Summer months.
What say you, Mr.. 4. T. Stewart? Cannot Won
put some of your surplus income into Washing
ton Grand Union Hotel" and help to make
our city the great winter resort OF the country?
Or MI. Corcoran, much as he has done for
Washington in works Of tsste and phil anthropy,
L doubt IL he could accomplish more for the
permanent prosperity OF the city he loves 50
well, In any other way than by the erection OF q
hrst-ciass hotel building. Let him erect such a
building and place it in the charge Of men who
"know how to keep a hotel ;" men like Messrs
Breslin. Purcell s. Co, who run the Saratoga
i" Grand UnioD," or the Messrs. RoesseIIe, who
have so successfully managed Mr.. Corcoran'.
darlington with its limited accommodations,
and their own fine hotel at Lake George. 1
name Messrs. Breslin & Purcell partly because
OF their admirable management Of the " Grand
Cnion," but largely because they have shown
sbrewd appreciation of the fact that it Is time
for hotel-keepers to come down from war prices.
ha MI ria vr,hI
ten years ago. and are looking for just such
hotel men. This is particularly the case where
men take their families to places of summer
resort. very small number have incomes to
justify stopping for any length OF time at one
OF the big hotels. The result is that they resort
to bosrdiDg-houses or minor hotels, and the
large hotels must depend for support upon the
bircs OF passage who come and 60 day by day.
MessIs. Breslin & Purcell land not MIR. A. Il.
Stewart, who is the owner of the building only0
have undertaken this year to make 1t worth the
while Of families to settle at the "Grand Union"
for the season by putting board at a moderate
hgure. Thus they reduced the heretofore price
OF S35 per week, to SCI for June and September,
and SOS for July and August The result has
proved the sagscity of the step, and at the close
OF the present season the immense building is
TO be nearly doubled in size and extended over
very large square of ground, making it by far
the largest hotel structure in the world. Its
added frontage will be some four hundred feet;
its height five stories with mansard roof, and its
number of roonls increased from !, $50 to 800
with hot and cold water throughout.
A Wholesome Competition.
1t is not probable that the other hotel-owners,
who are men of means and enlarged ideas, will
remain far in the back ground, and the result
will be such competition and emulation in the
way OF Improvements, engagements, and bi ds
for patronage in the shape of moderate prices
as will advance Saratoga still further as a pop
ular resort.
The Man Who Can Keep q Hotel
Is the man for the people In this Congressional
District. Marvin, OF the United States, was
sent to Congress with great reclamation until
Hathorn (the present membsr) beat him by
building finer hotel; and now, when Breslin
opens his enlarged and greatly grander "Grand
Union" be will be naturally the coming man
for the suffrages Of the Saratoga District.
Incidental.
DO THEY SALT THE SPRINGS AT SARATOGA 2
Some say they do. The rosy and rotund Mr.
johnson, who experiments the great bottling
s<aHl ;shx ,Sn Q :