The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-07
AN EASTER OPENING.
Apple Tree Inn Was Forced to Admit
Guests This Week.

New York, April depending the Easter
holidays in a country hotel seems hardly
an opportunity for pleasure, but that is
what a score of young people are doing
Just now, because their choice is in no
wise a common place boarding house. l.
was opened three years ago by couple of
plucky spinsters who bought in an aban-
doned farm that was rich in aged apple
trees and rock-ribbed daisy grown fields.
1t did possess fine we'll and a charming
old gray timber house, in pretty good con-
dition, and a first class water privilege
on the banks of a real, cute little lake.
Everybody naturally advised "the girls"
to operate their property as a milk farm
or raise fruits, or violets The girls, how
ever, had other views and when thes
openly announced their intentions of tax
ing boarders, their Acquaintance and re-
lations, from the rector down, wrestled
nightly with them in spirit to reconsider.
1t was no use trying to explain their
intention of running a perfectly unique
boarding house, deeds they believed had
a voice above words and now, with plump
pocketbooks and triumphant smiles, they
have the I-told-you-so over all the disas-
ter predicting well wishers.
When they took their old farm In hand
they made the house damp and rain proof
only, cleared up ire front yard. white
washed a little, barbered the old apple
trees a trife, restored the quaint we'll,
swept and furnished their house in the
simplest possible style
The Secret of Success.
r7t-z foIk n
real knack with servants and a finger for
pies, volunteered to keep house and man.
age the accounts if her associate would
conduct the social end of the enterprise.
and this last was no unimportant depart
ment. 1t was in short their departure
from the common place methods of board
ing house keeping, for having knocked
about in many summer hostelries them
selves, they had observed that the great
drawback to most of them lay in lack of
cheerful attractions. Wholesome fooo,
pure air and good beds are not the sum
total of the summer boarder's aspirations:
he or she has normal desire for d.
version, and where boredom enters in at
the window the summer boarder fles out
at the door, and HES in despair for the
detested, noisy hotel.
Now the partner who purposed to create
the cheerful, social atmosphere. knew her
business down to the ground. She was
youthful enough sensible, buoyant. good
tempered and fond of outdoor sport, and
she used the barren, well-trained fields
to lay out, without any expensive expert
advice, nine-hole golf course. She sank
her putting holes just wherever she found
a decently level space of green, built her
tees where she liked and let the old
fences, the stones in the fields and a me-
andering brook serve as hazards and
bunkers Pretty much all the front yard
was laid out in a tennis and croquet
courts and under the one vast elm near
the house she had some rough benches
and tables knocked together From the
houses of her friends and relatives she
got together wagon load nearly of paper
novels, and tearing off their old, dirty
backs, she recovered them in clean, heavy
brown paper. To her amusement proper
ties she added a window seat full OF
games bought a secondhand, a good-szed
magic lantern, and a fine bridge whist
set.
Applying the New Idea.
Finally she christened the old place APP
pie Tree Inn, and when the first board
ers drifted along she was ready for them
The boarders were couple of depressed
looking girls, with their sad-faced moth
err, a tired school marin on lookout
Tor nedlIn ana "a young lAldu WIZ hdo lfdl
typhoid, and was trying to forget 1t in a
hurry and get back to business. The re-
ception committee took them right In
hand and before the month was out APP
ple Tree Inn came perilousy nearly to
sleeping three in a bed.
The coffee was good, the biscuits brown
the beds like snow and the pie crust pos
itively dainty, and the boarders were not
unappreciative of such solid blessings
but their interest became almost excite
ment when they found that they were not
only being fed and housed comfortably
but entertained to perfection.
What rejoiced the heart of the arriv'
ing guest was to find him or herself met
at the door by no Indifferent servant oil
weary, hot, fiustered and slightly dis
heveled andlady but a sweetly, smiling
pink shirt wasted, cordial young hostess
who had the warmest kind of welcome
up her sleeve; a hostess who made intro
ductions all around, took the shy or quiet
stranger right under her wing, found Out
what his or her preference as to outdoor
exercise or indoor recreation might be,
and Furthermore made ii her special
pleasure 40 see that some sympathetic &C
uuaintance or entertainment was found at
once for the newcomer. She played golf
herself, and taught the beginners how to
tee off and put out; she got up games;
made up sets at tennis; umplred sne GRO
auet tournaments; organized the morning
bridge whist classes on the front veranda,
and for every Saturday and Wednesday
a special entertainment was planned.
Nobody had any of the trouble of think
ing out or managing these programmes,
though suggestions from fertile-mnded
boarders were cheerfully considered, and
sometimes it was a picnic, or a dance or
a round of old-fashioned games, or the
bridge whist.
sharps played close to their chess in a
hot contest for prize. If the social lead
er found an inmate of the house possessed
coz =