The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-22
Monopoly at Mt. Desert.

Returning to Bar Harbor after an absence Of
four years q have known the place for twenty
I have found myself among Californians and
Westerners, With large representation from
New York Philadelphia and Baltimore. Bos-
ton and New England make the minority.
am greatly pleased To hear all these people ex-
press for the scenery an enthusiastic admira
tion which, il anything, surpasses what we
used to hear long ago on the first discovery OF
this island as watering place. 1t is true tney
see more than we did, thanks to the new roads
and the abundant supply Of horses; but the
variety and beauty of the landscape deserve
all that can be said by way of praise There
is, besides, as paramount attraction, the COOL
ness of the climate, which the place shares
with all the Maine coast. 1t far more than
counterbaances the fog, and people better and
better understand the value of it as factor in
the summer rest. The anxious mother, with
her group of energetic boys and girls; the
tired clergyman, the harrassed man of busi-
ness, all know that their holiday will be worth
infinitely more If spent where it is cool. 1t is,
then, a matter of great Importance to the
whole country that such place should be
known and enjoyed by the greatest possibl'
number Of people. 1t is beyond the reach of
the vulgar aad noisy crowd to be found near
great cities, and it should be the resort of thou
sands OF persons of moderate means. Mt. De-
sert island is large enough for 10000 people in
it, to choose the way OF life each likes; the
gayety OF the hotel or the quiet OF the many
comfortable boarding houses along the forty
miles of shore. Bar Harbor is, OF course, the
center not only for amusement but for obtain
ing the appliances OF cultivated llfe-from the
skilful physician and druggist to the Jacque-
minot rose-so that the future of the island de-
ponds greatly upon the future OF Bar Harbor.
The large hotels are in the hands OF the same
families who inhabited the houses of the little
hamlet twenty years ago. Little by little they
have improved and added to their resources, 30
that now the hotels are more than fairly good,
some OF them quite good enough. To have
done this is, it seems to me an emphatic testi-
mony to the teachableness and the adaptability
of New England character.
But, alasl at the very moment when they
might have expected assured success to reward
them, they find the number of visitors is at
staDd-still, il it is not ,essening. They are
ready to sit down in dust and ashes and repent
their own short-sghtedness in giving up their
land. To borrow your own figure, the red
squirrel has gained footing and has begun his
fatal work. The cottagers do not like, and do
not mean to have, If they can help 1t, tran
sient people. The land that was once dear at
$50 an acre is not to be had for $500. For
five miles each way there is no enjoyment Of
the shore except on sufferance more or less po-
lite. A or B, from some distant city, builds
his cottageand bars his gate entirely. Conse-
quently the native at Otter Cliffs, whose wild
land never bore so much as blueberry, thinks
himself magnanimous to allow the buckboards
to enter at twenty cents piece.
This shore was the precious birthright OF the
people OF Maine, and they have sold it for
worse than a mess of pottage, for chains in
which they themselves are to be bound hard
and fast "What!" said an indignant New
Yorker yesterday, "shut up this place to 30
families, as against the whole American
people!'' But this, / fear, must happen unless
some strenuous efforts are made. 1t is ques-
lion of the same kind as that at Niagara, and
the scale is not very much less, since this is
''the only neighborhood of mountain and sea
on all our Atlantic coast" Morally and 8sthet-
ically, it concerns the thousands oil families OF
moderate means to whom this island may be a
summer resort. Shall the few very rich refuse
to share it with them? If Bar Harbor is shut
up, it will put back for 20 years the develop
ment of the coast. Practically, 1t is of the
utmost consequence, in the first instance to
the merchants of Portland, and next, to all
New England, that the thousands of dollars
which would be brought to the coast by Cali
fornians and westerners shall not be lost to
| their trade. The islanders are divided among
| themselves now. They know that danger is
ahead. but each is so busy frying his own little
fish that he does not see that the fire on which
all depend is already going out. United effort
on their part, led by the hotel-keepers and
backed by the steamboat and railroad corpora
tions may avail something yet But it must
be done quickly. AS to the cottagers, they
ought to see that it is 10 no effort Of theirs,
but to the patronage of the transient company
| they dislike, that they owe the steamboats,,
railroads, telegraphs, telephones, and the 1OO1
comforts now gathered at Bar Harbor. Ssine
concessions from them would be prudent as
| we'll as graceful. Moreover, there is a certain
| fine and delicate consideration by which legal
rights might be enjoyed without awakening an
| irritating sense of usurpation.