New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-06-23
EARLY SUMMER AT SARATOGA.
PREPARATIONS FOR AGAY SEASON.

PREPARATIONS fOR A GA1 SEIAcON.
IMPROVEMENTS IN AND ABOUT The HOTELS
BRIGHT PROSPECTS FOR THE SUMMERTIME
RACES AND OTHER FESTIVITIES.
IPRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT or THE TRiBUNEI
SARATOGA June 20.-Where to find rest in these
wearisome days puzzles the overwoTked man. At
most inland resorts 1t is too early but fortnight
hence he will go the mountains, to the seaside, TO
the country villages good fishing streams, or 10
WILL by large majority, be likely to come here.
The solitude of the mountains will become peopled
then the seashOre will be dotted with Summer
cities the country village will have its old-fash-
Toned ways and iuconveniences. and Saratoga VIII
he the centre of gayer and more active life than no
knew in his city home.
! have thought to-day, as / l0itered about the
public places in this town soon to become fever
ish With high life that the comforts of existence IN
a CITY are nowhere in the world so well combined
with the tranquility of rural life they now are
here Most people who love not society in its modern
sense, have always found it did them little good
to come here for rest. The whirl of excite
ment from the first glass of spring water
in the morning till the small hours of the
night-balls, fetes, parties, concerts, races and
crowded corridors keep alive the consuming fever
which ten months in the city have brought on, and
the poor mortal is likely TO go home with nerves
still weak. with palor still on his face and with in
ask himself why be did not visit Saratoga the last
two weeks in June. Then there was a calm In
which his nerves and his soul would have found
peace. So far as society is concerned he may be
law unto himself. The rnsh and noise in huge DIN
ing halls crowded with thousand impatient and
hungry people and one two hundred swift-footed
and half-craZed walters will not exasperate him.
Two or three score of men and women
will be in the dining-roOm with him. but
he need have no at his table but himself
The hotel park is silent almost a forest aud the
birds in the elm trees, having audience, sing for
the very love of IT, The untrodden gravel walks
show few if any footprints, and the marks of the
gardeu-rake are yet plainly visible. The painter is
using his brush on the baustrade OF the piazza or
busies himself from a scafod alongside OF the inner
wall high up the topmost story.
The large hotels with one exception are now all
open Many of them including the United States
and the Grand Union, were opened last Saturday,
and Congress Hall will be opened tomorrow.
About forty guests registered az the United States
and the Grand Union each on the first day. and there
are now in each between seyenty-ive and hundred.
The outlook for the season encouraging than
it has been in several years During the Centen-
NAL year the hotels suffered considerably and last
year the large exodus to Europe carried away
great many oftheir usual guests. But in the year
1877 the railroad strike affected the States than
the Centennial or the Paris Exposition, since the
railroad officials who are accustomed to stop there
and hold their conventions and conferences were
called home for nearly or quito all the season. En-
eagements already made for the present season are
unprecedented. In Cottage Row." at the States,
only seven suites of rooms remain unrented, and
other parts of the house have been largely spoken
for. So also at the Grand Union great many en-
gagements have been made and are making every
day.
The past ten years have witnessed continuous
series of improvements in Saratoga, and great
and liberal have they all been that little remains to
be done further. One finds. however, that the
painter the plumber. the builder and the gardener
have had good deal to engage their time for the
present season. At Congress Hall new wardrobes,
electric bells, new carpets and furniture and new
paint have been added. The old opera house at the
Grand Union and manyof the lesser buildings which
were at that end of the Court Park have been
torn down. and the ground has been leveed and
sOdded BY this means very large addition has
been made to the park so that it is nearly double
the size il formerly was Next year handsome
new opera house viii be put up near the site of the
old one, with its main entrance from the
park 1t is intended that it shall be large
enough to seat a thousand people. Concerts will be
given this year in the park from the piazza. and
electric lights will be used to illuminate it, The
Old order, which caused so much discussion last
year-the order which excluded Jews from the
Grand Union-will be rigidly enforced this year.
OF actual guests there WAS not, 1t is claimed, a
larger number at tue Grand Union before the order
than other hotels received, but the custom of issu
ing tickets to guests for their friends concert
fete and bail nights brought IN great many Others
50 that not unfrcquenly one Jewish lady who lived
at the hotel filled up an entire corner on the piazza
with her friends, ofteutimes to the exclusion of peo
pie who guests. Other hotels say that the or
der t. them source Of great deal Of trouble |
and various devices have been attempted 10 Keep |
the new comers away, not mfrequeut and an ei- |
fectUal one being the putting up OF prices high
that rooms would not be taken.
Al the United STATES a large force OF workmen |
has been long at work repairs. The entire build |
ing has been painted outside and inside. and new |
carpets have been added 10 the parors. On the |
fourth floor all the rooms have been connected by
doors to admit of letting them in suites for families
there having been Of late years large increase /
in the demand for such apartments About l4O |
changes of this kind have been made At the same |
time plumbers have been adding baths 70 many |
in all parts Of the house. On the parior HOOr
"a large has been set apart for committee meet
ings, small conventions, conferences, etc. To-day
William II. Vanderbilt and party are expected to |
arrive. Elliot L. Shepard and wife are already |
here. Tonight the Cornell crew, whose Town head
quarters Will be al the States are expected to come,
being the rst of the crews who row IN July 10 aIl-
pear Oh the ground Some changes have taken |
place at Congress Springs Park, where IL Is now be-
heyed $4,000 have been expended Arrange
ments have been made to protect the springs from |
surface water Early IN July the usual morning, |
afternoon and evening concerts Will De held. |
Browns Brigade Band of Boston has been secured
for these occasions. Extra nights VIII be gwen
with lluminations of the grounds. AZ the HathOrn |
Springs Summer skatng-rink viii be opened, and |
the proprietor of II believes he can make 1t sue
Cessful enterprise.
The Saratoga races begin on July 10 and close Au-
gust 20 with three DAYS between the first and Sec
ond meetings. Ii probable that extra |
races as usual, will be given ON nearly all
the DAYS not announced as regular days |
from the beginning % the hrst meeting III
the end of the second. Ii has long been
tho fixed purpose OF the Association to give
one hundred races every season. Sixty races are |