Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-23

-, him.
!: ]: !
-kE1yVW, 'What 10 . summer
W~L, Tl, resort?"
MAW IK{S@' IA place of inconven-
RAEI&SEE(l fence, discomfort and
MA hWI ll-health, he answered.
~hjEI ''Still, that does not
~ N give me Q definition.
WA What constitutes sum-
mer resort2".
"a hotel with wide piazza and several hun
dred fools" This reply was still unsatisfac-
tory, SO the ground was shifted and he was
asked how summer resorts are made.
"Oh, he said, chats easy enough. Here's
your receipts Take piece Of rural scenery, throw
a lot Of rough planks together so IS to form
shed, serve IL to the public plentifully sprinked
with false representations and call it Q summer
resort"
DELIGHTS AT NEWPORT.
Now, 1t is obvious that this gentleman ID
prejudiced and unjust, for while some summer
resorts are, perhaps, worthy Of the severe de-
nunciation he heaps upon them. they are not all
so bad. Take Newport, for instance; nobody
can denominate its houses as mere sheds Of
rough plank. There is probably no summer
resort in all the world as rich as Newport For
mile upon mile palaces stretch along the ocean
front and back Of these are hundreds Of
other palaces which have no opening on the
sea. When the hour for driving comes there Is
veritable procession Of wealth on wheels down
the ocean drive. 1t reminds ono Of Connect
cut avenue or upper 5th avenue in the winter.
There il the casino and there is the club there
are good shops and fine restaurants. When the
evening comes there are parties to 20 to, and
they are generally very magnificent parties.
The climate has changed and the scenery has
changed, but people who live at Newport are
simply living over again the life they led all
winter. 1t isn't country life at all, and so far
from being retired life there is probably more
grand entertaining at Newport in summer than
there Is in any but few Of the great cities in
winter. Perhaps, in view of all these facts, it
is hardly fair to call Newport a summer resort,
since 1t is city of considerable size and the
life there Is hardly more or less than city life
ANOTHER TYPE.
But now let us take another type, and II viii
hardly be necessary to name it, but IL is q
splendid place. in a certain way, and Washing
tonians are very fond Of it, In winter there is
no such place IN existence. The post Office closes,
the houses are shut up, the hotel is not running
Early in the summer It begins to revive A few
owners of cottages appear on the scene, the
hotels open, and early guests come struggling
along. Still it is slow and very quiet and there
is abundant time for long nap every after
noon. This sort of thing keeps up until about
this famous southern summer resort breaks out
with a wild whoop and a hurrah. The band Of
music that has been playing in half-hearted
way now thunders out its enthusiastic strains;
the liazzas of the big hotel, which held only
few sad people, are now ablaze with people,
young and old, all bent upon pleasure, all re-
resolved to ''have good time" Then there is
dancing-dancing in the morning. when they
have german, dancing by the children in the
ball room In the afternoon and dancing at a
ball every single night but Sunday. Old fell
lows who stopped dancing ''before the war;
dance when they get down there, and ladies
whose domestic cares and comfortable lives
have expanded their waists almost beyond the
Dimensions where round dancing is convenient
make an effort and get through somehow.
WHY THE PLACE Is POPULAR.
There are splendid mineral springs at this
place. and it is said on good authority that people
have been known to go there for their health.
but that isn't why the place Is so popular. Nine
people out of ten 60 there to enjoy themselves,
and they do it. and when the wild rush Of
gayety Is over they rest. No summer resort is
complete, of course, unless there Is flirting to
be done, and at this particular place it has been
declared by close observers there is more flirt-
Ing done than at any other resort on the face Of
the earth. The women are all beautiful and
they are all lively. That is it is needless TO say
an exaggeratiOn as there are some women there
both ugly and solemn, but beauty and vivacity
are SO much the rule that every one is struck
with it, and cherishes the memory Of it ever
afterward. This is certainly a summer resort
much more than Newport is, for the life is not
like the life Of the winter. There is no for
mality; there il not much exclusiveness; the
people are thrown together pretty promiscu-
ously and accept the situation good naturedly.
MANUFACTURED RESORTS
But these places are old-established resorts
and time has given their individuality. II is
the new resort that tho growler who was quoted
at the beginning of this article was aiming his
ill-natured remarks at. These manufactured
summer resorts thrive through the advertise
ments they throw out A certain proportion
Of the population have to 60 away from town
every summer-or they think they have to,
which is the same thing-and they are hard put
to it to know where to go. So they get the
flaming circulars relating to summer resorts,
and finding the Bigneck House on Bigneck
bay is place where one can enjoy surf bath
ing or still water bathing can 60 sailing or row.
ing, can hire horses for a mere song and boats
for faint MARBLE, can live off of all the delica-
cies Of the land and all the while enjoy the
finest ociety-finding all these and many other
attractions offered for a very moderate sum,
they pick up their traps and 60. 1t is needless
to say that they 60 only one summer. Next
season they get fooled again. for it must be re-
membered that the American public, as the
late F. I. Barnum used to say, likes to be hum
own good luck and to hope that eventually it
will find all the luxuries Of life with the society
of millionaires thrown in. at some summer re-
| sort where the guests Of the hotel are taxed
the moderate sum Of 81 day.
Now, good summer resort gets q fine adver-
tisement from the people who go to it. They
tell their friends and the place is doomed, but
these paper summer resorts manage to hold to-
gether for years merely by the false allurements
that they hold out.
THE COTTAGE RESORT.
There is another variety Of summer resort
that must not be passed over and that is the
one that is peopled by ''cottagers, ie., people
who have houses that they own or rent and who
do not live at hotels. At these places there are,
Of course, hotels, and the piazza Of the big
hotel is the common ground where all the cot
tagers meet one another, but the hotel is not
what gives the place its tone, and any one who
goes there is not Of much consequence unless
he knows the cottagers or is cottager himself.
The term cottage, by the way. must be under
| stood as embracing almost every kind OF rural
| summer resort residence. To the unsophisti-
| Gated the word means q humble, small country
dwelling, especially meant for the use Of the
| farm laborer. But America has changed the
word, and now it Is considered perfectly allow
| able to speak Of Vanderbit's white marble pal
ace at Newport as a cottage, or Of any other
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