The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-08-11
WHITTIER THE TRIBES GO UP.
SARATOGA IN HER SEASON.

CHoIoE-MAGNATEs or THE COUNTRY
CHANCE FOR CHRISTIANS.
Occasional Correspondence of the Sentinel
SARATOGA, Aug. 9, lS74.-Like other sum-
mer resorts, only more so, Saratoga is very
individual in its resident and routine life.
The town is thoroughly alive during eight
weeks of''the season." after which it PLAYS
a turtles winter role and sinks into pro-
found repose. During the season strangers
are supreme and intensely self-asserting
They crowd the natives into nowhere. The
mense parade. Almost the entire
town is turned into boarding
house, vast. corporated caravansary
Of course, there is q. first class folk among
the residents. doubt mot that Alexander
Selkirk had first class in his rather scant
society. And had Jonah held a longer occu-
pancy than he did in the whale, wager he
would have set up first class, even in those
limited quarters. Humanity has ever had a
weakness for psrtitioning it's people into
pariahs and princes. But everywhere the
humblest grade is as foastfui of Its bon ton
as the highest. And the whole hubbub
about social standing has hardly more in il
than difference between a cat among kings
and king among cats. In this locality.
at this season, strangers appear to play the
part of kings and the residents the part of
cats. But, consult the party of the second
part and you may bet button thew would
protest against the classification as a bloated
assumption. How provoking that men can
not settle themselves on the social scale at
the rung they choose, and rest in peace,
without disturbance from those rude jolts of
jealous people which ever seek to shake them
out of place. But L am of the track of story
telling, and turn back to say that the
HOTELS OF SARATOGA
are sups$. Until within ten years the ac-
commodstions were simple and scant Since
then, the new Congress Hall rose out of the
ashes OF the old, and set the example of an
immense structure, offering room for 1000
guests. Stimulated by the success which
crowned the opening the new Congress,
Union Hall, with its long, low frame front
and wings, was partially demolished and
its proportions greatly enlarged, its appoint
ments gsrnished in the highest degree and
its name magnifed to the ''Grand Union"
Fire has been rather a friend than
foe to this famous watering place. And so
unsightly and insufficient structures were
left standing, because the owners lacked en-
terprise to level them and build larger. The
fire fiend has once and again, and again
waved his wand over the shackly frames and
boarding houses, and bringing them to the
dust, has given room for these splendid and
spacious brick halls to rise. After the Con-
ed, it was thought the place would
not bear another big hotel. But the old
babitde of Saratoga is surprised and
pleased to see this year the most magnificent
of all hotels in the New United States. A
traveller in Europe gets mad at the mon
strous misnaming of hotels by grand.
Those continental people seem to have no
to accuse them of mendacity,
when they call any miserable little kennel
or cow stable grand. In America we might,
without forcing the truth or falling into the
sin of immoGesty, name many more of our
vast csravaDsaries by the taking title
of grand. None deserve the destina-
ton more than the New United
States. Eleven hundred and sixty rooms
open their doors to summer guests. More
than four hundred men servants, besides
maids innumerable, with immaculate
aprons stand at every corner. eager to offer
you service with clothes. whisp and boot
brush, and newspapers, and tray and glass
with things good and otherwise to drink
stories of the house are surmounted by
Mansard roof, with additional balustrades,
cupolas and pinnacles topping and perfect
ing the architectural effect. All these gor-
geous hotels are built with front and two
wings running back in shape of the letter Z,
angles with the wings. To attempt any full
description of the adornment and devices for
comfort in the new UNITED States" would
weary my readers. A glance into that grand
psrlor is too strong a temptation for any.
poor man to resist, without breaking the
tenth ommandment-especl if his taste
run to blue. The severest taste can not I'M
kindly criticise. Whether you note the ex-
Quiste Administer on the floor, or the inim-
table blue of the window work,
with costly and snowy curtains
falling out from the cornice and
sweeping over the fiooI, or whether you
mark the noticeable and sensible absence of
you say, ait is gorgeous, but not
glaring; luxurious, but not loud.
And can such swollen structures ever be
filled? yes, and covered so smotheringlyfull
as to spill over and fill every second class
concern TO repletion; and yet further run
over and fill every private dwelling whose
occupants will accept lodger-and they
nearly all will, if you havea dollar per
night ready to pay. Once this season. the
social reservoir seemed I'd have broken,
and there came such flood of strangers rs
to leave the larders loafless and fishless be-
fore the half had eaten supper. The town
was eaten out; although there
are daily tons and trains of
provisions arriving from New York, to add
to the supplies obtained from the surround
ing vicinity. This Saratoga becomes every
year a vast social vortex sweeping in patron
age from sea to sea and pole 10 pole. 1t is
hard to conceive of more
HETEROGENEOUS SOCIETY,
than that which the visitors compose. OF
course, there is large representation of the
beau monde. The extravaganza 10 dress
is something such as to discourage or dis
gust ordinary mortals from initiating it,.
Describing the jewelry of a Louisville lady
at last nights ball, the critic
concluded With this touch:
"And she wore diamonds enough for a
princes ransom." Let it be hoped that this
favorite of fortune was socially very differ
ent from the one who two years ago, at the
same hotel, displayed the purest of the
precious stones i'm more bewildering album
dance than any belle of the ballroom but
who, if she had been questioned by Christ,
would have been forced to the confession
found ia John iv, IL. But let not this be ia
Ken as confirmation of the fact that Sara
togs summer society is sadly demorslized.
There are shady sides, of which we may
l. nj har ftr,ao Pnf of