The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-09-03
Is there SO snobbish a Contest 2

| for their share OF ridicule.
Is there SO Snobbish a Contestf
| The Evening Post is writing good deal Of
| late about more or less imaginary contest
between the cottagers and boarders," as 1t
calls them. BY cottagers it means city peo-
pie rich enough to have houses and places OF
their own in the country Boarders, of
course are those who lodge at the watering
place hotels and boarding houses
| According to our contemporary, the cot
tagers enjoy social distinction superior to
| the boarders. They have formed a caste
| apart, which looks down on the boarder with
a certain hauteur, and begins to make up
parties without him, to be bored by his visits
| and unwilling to return them, and undis-
guisedly anxious that he shall clear out VI
the vicinity. The consequence will be, our
contemporary seems to think, that the
boarder who is so badly snubbed will have
nowhere to go. "In fact" 1t says, "therc
has OF late years sprung up at all the great
watering places, except, perhaps, the me-
dicnal resorts like Saratoga, O conflict be-
| tween the cottager and the boarder, which
has assumed the proportions and the bitter
ness OF O Darwinian struggle for existence"
Is that so? II 1t IL true, OF course 1t Is
worth while to write leading articles on the
subject, for 1t would be lamentable II man
could not enjoy the country without going
to the expense Of buying or hiring cottage
there. The contest, too, might proceed
further until nobody would be sure Of not
being snubbed by his neighbors unless he
actually owned his house. The owner would
count the mere tenant as In lower social
rank than he, and not invite him to his par
ties and be bored by his visits. To gain
social Distinction good deal Of money
| would be absolutely necessary. Our water
ing place society would be made up Of the
worst kind OF snobs, those who pay court
| to money only.
But the vulgar contest for superiority is
| by no means so observable as the Evening
| Post makes out. At Newport alone among
the great fashionable watering places the
society is almost exclusively composed Of
| the people who inhabit cottages. The sum-
| mer hotel population is Of comparatively
| little account. 1t Is hardly place to go to
unless man has a circle OF acquaintance
there. provided he seeks for social pleasure.
But even Newport is not SO full OF snobbery
that 1t would turn its back on anybody mere
| ly because he put up at hotel. Only very
provincial people, only the vulgarest So
ciety, estimate an individual according to the
way in which he lives. To receive or reject
him because he kept up a house in the
country or lodged at a hotel merely, would
be the silliest Of snobbery.
| 1t is true, however, that people may prefer
that great hotels should not thrive in the
neighborhoods where they have their sum-
mer places, because they interfere with their
quiet or help to keep down the value Of land
ed property. That is reasonable enough;
but, unless they are very foolish and very
| snobbish, they recognize their friends and
show them civilities just as much whether
they find them in hotel or cottage.
But whatever the people who inhabit the
cottages may say and do. they will not drive
sensible men into taking country places to
escape snubbing. They do not form class
into which anybody but n snob would COM
pei himself to enter merely TO secure their
good graccs. The keeping up of country
| place and a city house involves great deal
Of care, and many social duties which even
! a man able to stand the expense may wish to
avoid. For people OF small means, 1t is i'm
possible without pecuniary anxicties which
spoil the enjoyment Of the summer. The
| boarders, Therefore, are as hundred to one
when compared with tho cottagers, and, in
spite OF the Darwinian contest which our
contemporary talks about, they are not at
loss to find places in which to put up, and
where they will pass for what they are worth.
The hotels are much better on the average
than they used to be- and those who live at
them, free from household cares and the
labor OF entertaining, probably enjoy them
selves fully as well as the cottagers to whom
the EreninO Post gives Alterations ovulgar
If a busy New York man, moreover, wishes
for a country home out Of which he can get
the most satisfaction, he is foolish to go far
for it, to any Of the places at which the fear
full struggle Of which the Ecening Post Is the
discoverer is supposed to be going on. He
can find plenty of desirable situations by the
sea within an hours ride of the town, and
where life is not disturbed by snobbish con-
tests Of this sort. II he does not care to keep
up his own establishment because OF the
trouble it would impose on him, or because
the expense would be too great for his purse,
admirable hotels invite him; and he will find
that the best company are by no means at
those which are most expensive.
But neither there nor anywhere else need
any family be frightened by the cottager
and boarder war which seems so terrible to
the Erenin0 Post. People usually drop into
the places where they belong, whether in
the country or the city.
Married Women in Great Britain.
III 10, 10