Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-27
LIFE At SARATOGA.
PEN PICTURES OF PEOPLE AT THE
FAMOUS WATERING PLACE.
Rosalind May sharply Criticises Some OF
the Fair, Fat and Forty"
Crowd.
Especial Correspondence of the SUNDAY UNION

Especial Correspondence of the SUNDAY UNION ]
SARATOGA IN. Y July %, 1889.
used to wonder how it was that people
who had the best food, best clothing, best
houses, best doctors, died off pretty much like
other people. Since have betaken myselfto
summer hotel life, my wonder is that many
of them don't die. Beginning with a
breakfast too hearty for a ploughman, they
are naturally disinclined to motion. The
women sit around, immoyable gosssips,
in clusters The men of course circulate
little more freely, and it is hardly
to be expected, as a lady CORE
spondent, that / should follow them
too closely. But that they are inactive, is
sure. They, too, sit around or slowly
stroll until dinner-time Now | beg the
readers charity while put before him or
her bill of fare that was ordered and
eaten at my table only yesterday. 1t is
iamentably true, and the performance of a
dvspeptic who had come to Saratoga to be
cured by drinking the waters: Ox-tail
soup, baked fish, two entrees with strange
names and strange looks, roast chicken,
roast beef, bread, potatoes, vegetables, and
a very rich pudding. That over, Il e in
valid looked wistfully at his wife and in
quired in mourniul tone, "Letitia, do
you think l could have piece Of cherry
pie"
Letitia shock her head and he denied
himself to the extent of nuts and cheese.
In view of invalidism, he had ordered
wine and drank it between times to aid
digestion. The most sensible thing | saw
him do was to drink cup of cofiee, and
the event Of the day over, he sat most of
the afternoon in an armchair.
He's SO delicate" whispered the con-
siderate Letitia, land we think of chang
ing doctors. His present enc does not seem
TO hit the case" The example I have
given is not an extreme one. ! have often
seen people eat three and four kinds Of
dessert after q rich and varied dinner. OF
course it is impossible for them to walk,
and an afternoon drive only serves to ag-
gravate matters by giving them something
of an appetite for supper, when again in
credible suppers are in order.
The sight of six enormously stout women
at once on the piazza of leading hotel
can easily, then, be accounted for. They
were not seated in a group, and two were
actually promenading. To look around
for six fat men to bear them company was
but natural. Only two answered the cali.
Philosophy coming 10 and, the conclusion
reached was that men doing incom parabiy
more mental work, the system taxed both
ways, gives out sooner, and perhaps fire.
quent imbibings helped them along They
die and leave widows. With women, brain
work and business cares do not interpose
They sit and gossip and grow fat. l think
] am logical.
Probably the same lack Of brain that
helps to make these women so fat causes
them to wear large-patterned dresses, and
wearing them their apparent size Is in
creased indefinitely. Then, too, they love
ieweiry as we'll rs large figured dresses
Diamonds sparkle in their ears and call
attention to fat neCks Their sleeves are
made short on the wrists, for the wearing
of bracelets that are clasped with difficulty
over the fat roll called an arm. Rings on
puggy fingers cause wonder as 10 how they
are ever gotten on or off. Diamonds gilt
ter at fat throats. and in evening dress
beloved parure, wien Jewels shining in
their hair, whether purchased, dyed, or in
the natural state, complete the telling
picture. Sometimes too, there is the ben
EFT of contrast, so powerful an element in
art. This very morning one of the six fat
sisters sat by window wearing an art
toilet, ard weighted down by superim-
posed iewelry. Immediately in the rear
!, I Il
window sill Of an apartment, and to the on
locker the two faces were framed together,
side by side. They merited a sketch, but
not being skilled with my pencil, do the
best ] can with printers ink.
Then, how these people can sleep! l
have seen them go of at the seasonable
hour Of ten and not make an appearance
till ten the next morning Whether some
portion of the time is spent in putting
away one set of brocades and jewelry and
getting ont another SET or experimenting
their maids as they Go it, must be forever
mysterious, but certain it is that they go
in ami do not come ont. Worse than that,
there are instances where these fine ladies
do not come down to breakfast at all. They
say they are 400 weak" and the walters
struggle upstairs with heavy trays, or me-
ander among rooms on parlor floors, GER
tain dowagers ohjeeting even to the exer-
ton CT being carried up one flight on the
elevator So much the better for the ele-
yator.
As for the girls, so far | feel sorry for
them. They do wear such pretty dresses,
and not few of them are pretty in them
s. selves; but a girl doesn't want to be pretty
for the sake Of other girls. It's about time
some beaux came along, and surely they
must after little. As yet their mothers
or aunts have the best of it, for more short
cropped gray heads together are seldom or
never seen. Not that the cropped heads
do not like to look at the girls, but, in
very shame, most of them refrain from
playing the gallant, and so the buds of So
ciety promenade arm in arm and try to
look happy.
Saratoga is the place for dashing widows
of from 80 to a well-preserved 40 or IS.
Here is their appointed vantage ground.
The gray heads prick up their ears, and,
provided they can show good financial
record, the widow smiles blandly.
RosAIIND MAY.
The Manuscript of KeniIworth,