The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-30
SUMMERS MORE COSTLY NOW
YACHTS AND COUNTRY HOUSES
INSTEAD or HOTELS.
Change In the way Of Living rs q Middle
Aged Woman Sees It-A ummer for
Five at Saratoga That Cost $1,000
Fewer MOnths Now Spent In Town.

The old fashioned and the new fashioned
ways OF spending, the summer make a
study In oontrasts-where New Workers are
co~ncernedlat any rate
To begin with, the word vacation is
now politely ignored. except, indeed by
the youngsters not yet out OF school or
college. Among even the merely we'll
TO do where do you spend the summer"
has taken the place Of Where do you spend
your vacation?'
The old fashioned way was TO stick pretty
closely to New York except in midsummer,
and then to make an event OF the vacation,
on which occasion the amount Of money
per capita that changed hands was. conf
pared with the amount which now changes
hands on a like occasion, surprisingly
small,
we we're a family OF fve-father, mother
and three children, the youngest myself,
aged l8-and we went away for nearly three
months one summer which ] particularly
remember because my sister. two years
older, became engaged before the summer
was over. 1t cost $1,000. Father was
speaking OF the cost he other day
II was a woman OF so who made this state
ment. Her son, aged ~. paid $4,000 for
a motor car the other day and he is en-
gagged to be married to a girl who, il. she has
spent a cent. has spent $1,000 on new
summer hats, p~arasols and k~nickknacks
to match for the season of 1907. Her gowns
are a side issue-a much more costly issue.
Fathers remark was the outcome OF a
conversation with his nephew. a middle
aged man Of wealth who WINS a finely ap-
pointed steam yacht but who wishes to
Ill Z, ~ oat onnthor With recommendations
for storing a large automobile
The m OF so made the point also
that when she was 10 the American owners
of yachts were very few, the automobile
had not arrived, the New Workers who
owned country places were far from plenti-
full. Slid she:
Our way Of spending the summer was
quite different then. The first class sum-
mer hotel was more highly respected by
New Workers. thirty-four years ago than II
Is now. when fashion expects that any one
who is anybody must have a country house
as we'll as a city headquarters.
Il often wish it wasn't like that. I wish
that when / want to shed the cares Of house.
keeping for a few months l wasn't obliged
to 20 to Europe. Were / to take my family
to a summer hotel on this side Of the water
ana GGItl6 uOWn JuCIC lOI luASt Olti VI
30 my friends would imagine l was getting
crazy.
But when l was 10 it was different. Some
of New York's most a%ristocratio families
when they closed their city house went
directly to a hotel; others were even to be
found at frat class country boarding
houses. dreadful as the thought is now:
The particular summer | speak OF we
were at S~aratoga-the Saratoga OF the old
days, when it was really fashionable be-
cause it did have to compete with Newport,
Bar Harbor. Southampton. Tuxeuio and
other cottage colonies, and we left town
about the middle Of June and got back
early in September al outing longer than
the average, which was from July l to
September /. Comparatively few New
York men Of that day could take long va
cations, and the sailing lists Of a season
were not much longer. 1t seems to me, than
the sailing list OF one day is now.
IAN this affected the relative cost Of the
summer outing Of course. My husband
says that there was plenty OF real yachting
for sport among the weather. class then,
more in comparison to the size OF the popu-
lation thar there is to-day. for he doesn't
call a steam yacht sporty. He says IL 10
only a!small steamboat, and, as most OF them
ara managed now. a sort of floating hotel.
And it is true that the owner Of a steam
yacht always sets about planning house
parties on board early in the season. l was
amused at my cousin the other day because
of the difficulty he was having in getting
a complement OF guests to his liking.
But sporty or not the steam yacht counts
tremendously in the cost Of a summer
outing. The 5000 which father says
covered the cost OF our family outing
~thirty-four years ago simply. represented
the outlay for board, travelling expenses
and carriage hire. We did not a up
we're sent to a farm TO rest and the coach
man got a vacation.
I'VE could hire fine turnouts at COM
paratively moderate expense where We were
and u other social enjoyments cost
A good many Of our own set were at
the Springs. but il was not the fashion
to give each other a dinner party every
night or a luncheon every day. for the reason
probably that we met often enough
in the same dining room and on the same
piazzas. My mother really had a rest
from social cares. n we girls had a de-
lightful time and without losing social
prestige either.
4 didn't ave so many or 80 expensive
gowns as my nieces have now nor did my
mothers clothes cost probably a quarter
30 much as mine have cost this season
80 far. In fact, one of the main differences
between the old and new style summer
outing is in the matter OF women's clothes.
/ am quite sure l wore pretty gowns when
l was young. but they would never do for
a young woman Of corresponding social
position to wear at q fashionable watering
place-I I'm speaking, Of course. Of the
watering place where cottage life 10 a
feature.
ut costs my cousin from $4,000 to SO, 900
a month TO run his yacht and entertain
his guests while the yacht is in commits
sion; and the two summer homes he owns,
one near New York the other at a watering
place, are kept up at a cost Of from SIS, Don
TO SIS, 900 for the season, the expense vary
ing according to the entertainments he
gives. To go into the clothes bills OF his
wife is 70 multiply by at least five the
clothes bills OF my mother for her Saratoga
season.
"A friend OF mine and her husband sailed
yesterday for England, to be gone until
September 1. Thirty years ago, under
like circumstances, their country place
not far from New York would have been
closed and left in charge Of a couple of
c~aretakeB. But they have done nothing
Of the sort. The chef, the head butler
and five women servants from the New
York house are left in charge, and the
ooachman. second mar and force OF gar
deners are also drawing full pay while
the family Ii absent. Practically the house
is open and a distant relative puts in an
appearance occasionally and stays a couple
OF nights 70 see that matters are going on
smoothly.
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