The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-07-10
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
SUMMER sAUNTERING.
Our washington Correspondent I'm search
Of a Cool Climate.

keep cool?'' was once prop ounded to me b,
an eminent physician
said | did not know, unless becaus
the common belief was that the climate grew
cool in proportion as you went North
'That Is not true" said my friend 'any
where inside the sixtieth parallel. Up to tina
i point the curvature of the earth is not suffi
eiently defective TO the suns rays in mid
summer to make any appreciable difference
In the temperature. The true escape from
heat Is
TOWARDS THE SUN,
not away from it. Take for example any
given point by the sea; say Callao, which Is
one Of the hottest places on the face of the
earth; you and / will separate there, seeking
refuge from the heats of midsummer; you
may go away from the equator, either North
or South. and will ascend the Andes, keeping
close to the equatorial line; and | will give
you two degrees Of latitude for every Thousand
feet I ascend above the level of the sea until |
get up 10000 feet and you get twenty degrees
from the equator After that will give you
| five degrees of latitude for every thousand
feet, until shall have reached an altitude of
$1,000 feet and you are in latitude 45, when I
will be
wADING IN sNow-DRIFTs,
and you still sweltering In gauze and ex-
hausting your substance In iced drinks. II
you want to keep cool In summer my boy go
up-not northwardly, but perpendicularlyp
| Of course / knew all this before: but my
friends way of putting it invested the trite
fact with all the charm of discovery. won
| der how many readers of the DEMOCRAT re-
Hant ttht1a thnt1 e~.,.
| consin lakes, that there is within three miles
| of them cooler climate than they can find
anywhere short of Labrador or Alaskal But
then it would be easier to reach
ALASKA OR LABRADOR
| than to attain that cooler climate which is
within three miles, Perhaps the time will
come when the science of aerial navigation
will be as perfect as that Of the sea is now:
when balloon tickets will be sold at all the
ticket offices and the upper air made high
way Of. When that time comes / shall fur
ther elaborate my theory OF vertical escape
from the heats Of midsummer. For the pres-
ent 1t must suffice to study the methods
which people now employ in their
ANNUAL HEGIRA
in search OF low thermometer.
Few people have any adequate idea how
large proportion OF our population mgrates
In summer time; how many men, women and
children flee from the wrath to come, sum
stroke and dog days, or in what diverse, con-
trary and Illogical directions they fly. We
have about forty-four millions of people, and
at least five hundred watering places and
summer resorts of established name and
fame, not to speak of myriad hooks. corners
and necks-of-woods where the
ODDS AND ENDS |
OF society who can't afford q Saratoga hote, |
or a seaside cottage, betake themselves in |
July. Great Britain, with thirty-thren mil |
lions, has not above a dozen watering t,iaces. |
France, with forty millions, has not. more
than twenty, and Germany, with popula-
ton fully equal to ours has only about one |
resort to our thirty. These are sue gestive
facts. They show among other things that,
after all the talk about the thrift and bust
ness traits of the American people. there is
no nation so given to the pursuit of pleasure
as ours and no country where there is SO
large proportion of the populace that can
afford to seek special comfort and relaxa-
tion.
If you will take the trouble to watch the
habits OF summer tourists for a few seasons.
you will discover that the national customs
In that particular, as in many others, are
GRADUALLY CHANGING.
All the hotel proprietors at the great re-
sorts complain that they do not make money
rs they used to; that their custom seems to
diminish year by year, both in number Of
guests and in amount Of money they spend
Vet the phar of VIII, - |
town for one or two months in summer
Increases every season. More go to Europe
now than formerly, for the reason that a I
three months trip over the water, including
q run through Switzerland, is q
MORE ECONOMICAL
way OF spending the summer, than tour OF
our watering places covering the same period.
The Vale of Chamouni can be seen for less
money than it takes to visit the Yosemite
ind there is but little difference in cost be-
jween the assent of Mount Blanc and that of
Pixies Peak starting, l mean to say from
NEW YORK OR WASHINGTON.
But these are only drop in the bucket
The vast bulk of summer tourists in these
lines who are not seen or heard Of at the big
escorts are people who pack up one trunk and
! hammock and take to the woods. The Ap-
,alachian chain of mountains, from Musse !.
shoals to the head waters of the Susquehan-
Ia, Is full of that class of pleasure-seekers {
nd searchers after respite and nepenthe
mother wave, mostly from New York, is Just
eginning to surge over the Adirondacks
While the Bostonese, with their eye-g asses
nd stout shoes, may be seen
sNEAKTNG OFF
p the Maine coast and pitching their tents 3
n every headland from Rye Beach to Mount 8
Desert Island predict that as our country q
rows old and our national customs become &
xed, the larger watering places will lose 9
round and the fashion Of frugal summering I
1 out of the way places in the woods and y
long quiet coasts unvexed by commerce will I
row. Such fashion is more after the Amer +
AN heart. The big watering place with it's 4
ense crowds, its extortionate charges, its a
dventurers and adventuresses and it's gen.