The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-17
RURAL BOARDING PLACES
Comforts and Disc0mfor!s Awaiting
the City Folk.
Canned Goods Merchants shipping
Lots of Material to Farm Houses
for the Requirement of summer
Boarders-Frcsh Country Produce
Not Always Found ON the Tables.

A ,oak through the advertising columns
of CITY papers, and through the adver-
Using leaflets that litter Information bu-
reau tables is a revelation in regard to
the charms of the Eastern States for sum
mer boarders. There are, at lowest cal
culation, %. 600 places between Manhattan
and the Canada line, where one can have
ell the Joys of Paradise for from 50 to sl2
a week The average summer hotel is
bad enough, but there are hotels where
you can obtain positive comfort. and, by
consulting trustworthy information bu-
reau or experienced friends, one may lind
q host of hotels where the discomfort has
adequate compensations; but when 1t
comes to boarding houses, and life IN
comfortable farmhouse let him that
standeth take heed lest he fall.
When one finds the right thing, IN tnat
line. the farmhouse of the summer Eofei,
the experience is ideal. An honest, blum,
genuine farmer, a busting capable moth
erly housewife, fine scenery, splendid tfees'
hammocks, verandas, fresh vegetables
country butter. eggs, milk, and poultry
brook trout, white sheets, smelling OF
lavender; beautiful drives, excellent
wheeling, cool weather-there's the ldeai
summer on farm. 1t sounds well. mere
are mortals who assert that they nave
known the Already. Then there are others.
The comic papers have exaggerated the
summer clearinghouse joke, unduly per-
hans. but in the last month the demand LOT
canned goods, from the country trade, mas
been enormous Carload after carload OF
canned vegetables has been shipped TO the
country towns where summer boarders
most do corgregate. The wholesale men
say that the same thing is true each year,
and that the country boarding houses and
hotels buy more canned vegetables during
the summer than are sold in the cities.
The city markets are full of fresh veget-
ebies of every kind from early spring until
late falkland all through the winter. IL
one cares to pay the price; but the best
of the country produce comes to town Inc
ordinary farmer doesn't take boarders un-
less he is thrifty soul with hunger for
shekels; and that sort Of man knows
better than to waste his fresh vegetables
on his toarders. when he can sell them at
q remarkably good price. Hence the car
loads of timed things, and the woe OF the
urbanite who dreamed dreams OF rural
Joys.
The same thing is true In regard to but
ter. eggs, and cream. Naturally, there
are exceptions to the rule, but In the
average country household those articles
Of diet are used more sparingly than py
the average city family. II the farmer
wife doesn't make butter for town trade,
there's a chance that the boarders may
reyel in rich milk and cream. but. ordi-
narily, butter making monopolizes the
cream, and even the milk is not as good In
quality as that sold by the city milkmen.
In q Berkshire Hills farmhouse, last sum-
mer, the boarders, including a number OF
little children, had milk go thin that Ia
tipping a glassful Of 1t, the ebbing milk
left not the slightest mark upon the glass.
Such q case is not by any means rare. and
even eadder tales are told. II is positive
fact that q New York family spent last
August on a farm in Vermont. and that
poultry appeared on the table only once.
during that time, the unusual celebration
being due to the fact that the small boy
Of the boarding family accidentally Killed
n hen with his rifle. Yet, every week,
young chickens were taken from the farm
to the nearest village and shipped to town
or to the nearest swell summer resort
If fishing is good In the neighborhood.
one does have fresh fish, but If not. beef
and mutton, pork and veal are the diet,
and all of q quality that would raise riot
in a city household and send the head OF
the family TO the butcher shop with murder
in his eye. The country meat problem ism
as bad as il was years ago, when the lar
mers depended altogether upon local
KILLING" but even now farm or neigh
borhood slaughter isn't an obsolete custom.
1t is no unusual thing for mutton or beef
TO appear upon the farmhouse table the
day after the killing of the sheep or beef,
and the condition of the meat may be left
to the Imagination. Even when the packed
and shipped meat is used by the farmer i
. is poor and tough. The city butcher buys
his meat in large quantities and hangs 1t
in his big refrigerators until it is TO be
eaten The farmer buys his meat directly
from the village butcher or from the pack
err and as he has little or no refrigerator
room the meat is never properly hung. and
is tough.
Fruit Is another thing that is rare upon
the farmhouse menu. The city markets
draw from all parts Of the country and
fruit is cheap IN the city long before 1t Is
in season in, for example, New England.
The city man who has been eating delic-
ious berries and fruit Of all kinds goes to
the country and waits for his fresh fruit
until the special variety Of fruit peculiar
to the locality is in full season. Salads
one might expect to have. and usually
there is plenty Of lettuce, though not the
delicious, bleached head lettuce Of the city
market But vinegar and sugar or milk
and sugar are the rural ideas of lettuce
eaiad dressing, and II the concession OF oil
is made to the boarder's depraved tastes
the oil Is usually Of a quantity that ruins
fits utility save for machine and harness
-use. As for a mayonnaise, it's not to b,
considered for an instant. Then there's
the bread Surely, bread making is the
stronghold and bulwark of the farmers
wife Often she does make good hot bread
but In fully five cases out Of ten hei
raised bread Is calculated to ruin the
digestion of an ostrich and make the city
wanderer think sadly of the bakery OF
his block.
The farmhouse breakfast is bad enough
and the midday dinner is depressing, hui
the supper is the abomination of desola-
ton: Cold meat, potatoes, preserves, and
cake There you have it, Sometimes there
are three kinds Of cake, all equally heavy
and three kinds OF preserves, all equally
sticky, but not relish in sight, and Their,
are times when the boarder would barter
his soul for a grilled sardine, or seated
woodcock or croquette. or even a scram
bled egg. Any one who has lived through
q season of farmhouse suppers and come
out with disposition and digestion intac
Is proof against eli culinary assault ant
battery.
The poor coffee and tea, the uhiquitou
pie and the unfailing beans are a part o
the home comfort SO recklessly advertised
30 are the cotton top mattresses. Their
was time when the farmhouse mattress
was husk one, into which the chamber
maid or young lady who helped the house
wife, disappeared each morning. through
O slit in the cover. The making Of husl
bed had its exciting and picturesque fea
ture, but there's nothing to be said TO