The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-12-20
RICH CROWD
SARATOGA SPAS
Cheapest Thing at the Most Fa-
nous of American Resorts
Is Money. Il
SOCIAL BARRIERS LOWERED
NewIy-Made MiIIionaires Strut About
the Place to Display the Wealth
They Acquired During the War
-GambIing Is Heavy.

Saratoga, N. Y.-The cheapest thing
in Saratoga is money. Everybody has
it il abundance off and on and spends
it with the abandon of the drunken
sailor in the old song.>
Clerks bet $1,000 on a horse at the
race tracks. Newly made rich pile up
checks and counters on cards and the
elusive roulette ball. Men throw dol
lars around as they used to toss dimes.
Women accustomed to ginghams
and rhinestones gladden. the eye and
stimulate the sense of humor in their
efforts to carry with grace silks and
diamonds. The most suitable is dis
carded for the most expensive.
Extravaganza and a contempt for
money values intrudes itself at every
turn on the picturesque streets of the
most famous of American resorts, and
oldest of the. cures, in the corridors of
the great barn-like hotels, at the race
track, in the dining places and in the
lake sections and fits by in, the bewil-
dering parade of f1ashy motorcars.
Natives Reaping Harvest.
And anybody who knows the ruling
passion of Saratoga doesn't need to
be told that the prudent native is get
ting his.
What escapes him falls to the no.
tel keepers, the bookmakers, the sleek
anG rat-faeed gentry that cap for Sc
questered resorts of chance where the
green cloth, the dealing box and the
other implements of their craft are to
be found without much difficulty.
The crowds that flock to the race
courses are greater by thousands than
ever before.
All the old social barriers have been
broken down and trampled under foot
by the crowd that comes from the
financial marts of Wall street, the re-
sorts of upper Broadway, the bench
and forge, and forest and mine and
farm, upon which the fortunes of war
have smiled.
The number of resorts where wom-
en- are admitted to the gaming tables
is probably less than four. In the
other small places where the wagers
range from So to $50 at roulette, haz-
ard and M Or two other c~ontrivances
for getting the money women are not
admitted. 1t is not considered chubby
to advertise the location or names of
the owners of the gaming establish
ment because it might stir the local
officials to interpret too literally the
legal inhibition against such enter
priSes.
There has already been more or less
trouble-for the gaming purveyors-
as it is. During the first week of the
racing season all games were closed
up for three days, due to a misunder-
standing as to the number that were
to be privileged-and the failure of
certain other negotiations that are of
interest to politicians.
Display of Gowns and Gems.
The greater part of the women are
of the middle class type. The dis
play of gowns and gems Is, if any
thing, more striking than in the other
days when Saratoga had atmosphere"
Almost every woman that passes in re-
view seems TO have prospered from the
wal, if diamonds be accepted as con-
vincing evidence.
One woman was at the Union whose
maid-she had one-had displayed
great ingenuity in finding vacant
spaces on her mistresses' frock on
which to pin a ~stupendous assortment
of brilliants. Her husband made a
fortune out of scrap iron in Chicago.
Another woman, whose costume no
sane man would attempt to describe,
seemed to run to pearls. She wore
more than any two women has any
right to possess. The combination of
dazzling colors and gems provoked one
of the new. voters to comment, Dress
ing that woma up is like putting gold
harness on a mule"
But for all the vanities and jealous
les the women seem to be having as
goo0 a time as the men and to be as
well supplied as they with all the
money necessary to pay for it. Be
cause the statement made at the be-
ginning of this chronicle holds good
to the end. The cheapest thing in
Saratoga is money.