The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-16
NO YOUNG GIRLS AT HOTELS.
The Older Women Take Their Place. Says
q Just Returned Visitor.

The fat boarder who had not left the hotel
summer or winter for ten years came back
to town after an unusual absence that upset
all the coterie accustomed to find him every
night at 10 o'clock at his u~ndisputed table
in the cafe. He came back looking a shade
less fat, and the rosy glow that settled
generally at the tip Of his nose was distrib-
| uted more equally over his cheerful oo,In-
nan
went way for q little change; doctor
prescribed it; didn't want to but had to-
he explained when the usual group WA
gathered about him. Il hadn't done 1t
for ten years and won't again il I live that
long. In a way it was a good thing for ms
apart from the sea air and the bathing. I
saw some things about summer hotel life
that were new to me-. They have changed
a number Of their ways since I used to SIT
on their piazzas.
when I used to 60 to summer hotels
twenty years ago they used to be talking
all the time about the girls who spent the
summer Months in such places. The de-
moralization Of rearing a young girl with
hotel piazza points of view on many SUBJ
| 'jects. the miscellaneous kinds Of people
she might meet there and the damage to
her manners used to be the theme Of those
who found so much to deplorein our summer
seaside life.
We'll they were rather q forward lot,
pacing the piazzas with boys. romping
around and making themselves entirely
too conspicuous for old fashioned ideas
Of what young girls should be. They are
not an issue, however. in hotel life to-day
in the summer months.
aTha old uvaunan haxra Shar. et,,nn 60 a
finish. They are the overwhelming per-
sonalities Of hotel life now They sit all
over the piazzas. play bridge in corners,
rush over the place ornamented with auto
mobile wells. parade around the dining
rooms dressed within an inch of their lives
and otherwise deport themselves in a man
ner totally at variance with the accepted
ideas Of the dignity and gentleness ana
sweetness that are supposed to be asso-
ciated with old age. Old age, indeedi
They're only rs OF 70, and they've NJ idea
OF being put on the shelf just because
there are a few women about younger than
II saw parties OF -four or five women
who we're all lowering about the seventies
riding OF In automobiles, wrapped up IN
wells and other togs that CAV them q hid
eous semhlance Of the skeletons OF young
those same garments and dressed. In that
same way. That was the awful idea that
suggested itself TO me every time I saw
those crones gather for such an outing
There were other details Of summer
hotel life that had impressed the visitor.
Sometimes when | went down to break
fast he went on, L felt as II I were In
truding on a very domestic and intimate
scene which / had no right to witness.
That would happen when the wife Of the
man who had gone down stairs beforehand
to order breakfast came to join her spouse
and gave him a. demure, ~coquettish bow
revealed outside OF her own dining room.
II abe had stopped over the table and kissed
him her manner could not ave been moro
intimate. I got so after several mornings
that / looked away whenever I saw her
enter the dining room. II was a domestic
sacrament never meant for the eye OF the
outside world.
.Inever minded Watching another domes-i
tic incident that was usually 10 be seen at its
best on Saturdays and Sundays. This
wa the decoration Of the old men. They
had to get into their Tuxedo coats at those
times, and an unhappy lot they were over
IL. The old ladies' did all the dressing
during the rest OF the week and let tho
old men alone. But when they came to-
adding a few extra frills for the benefit
OF the owe Sunday crowd the old men
had to go along with EN- TO the extent Of
putting on evening dress for those two
nights. II they had been made TO put on
corsets the old chaps could ave not have
looked moro uncomfortable. 1t was q
positive relief to see those old men on
Monday. They. knew they would not
and their relieved manner showed how
thav nm tovod thu ancano