Year: 1866

Tho Season NJ the watering Places.


From the concurrent testimony Of all who
have visited the watering places, 1t d now evi-
dent that the season there Il the worst that has
been experienced for many years. There =
not one Of them that can boast Of more than
half the number Of visitors which Il has had
for several seasons back. In Saratoga, New
port, Sharon, Cape May. &C., there Is such
dearth OF arrivals that the hotel keepers and
their assistants have become positively civil;
a change quite refreshing to those who have
had to endure their superb airs. There ls really
now some chance Of people getting . polite
answer from bookkeepers, and Of being
attended to without giving extra fees to walters
So bad is the condition Of things with most Of
these establishments that they have been com
PEELED to fall back on the old system Of toutng.
II is done, 10 be sure, in a quieter and moro
genteei way, but II does not the less mark their
impecunious state and their anxiety TO secure
whatever chance patronage may be picked up
in this way.


Various are the reasons assigned for this
falling of. Speak to landlord, and be will
tell you that the cholera is the cause Of 1t,
numbers having been scared away to Europe
by the epidemic. Admitting this to be true,
which it Is not, it would only partially account
for 1t. There may have been some diminution
of visitors from this cause, but it Is very
slight one. Most Of the people who have gone
to Europe this year are persons who are periodi-
cally in the habit Of visiting it They certainly
were not in any larger excess Of numbers than
last summer, when there was so heavy shoddy
exodus. Tie outbreak Of war in Germany
sent many OF them back, and brought home In
addition numbers who had settled down
abroad. On the whole, we question if the de-
partures for Europe affected uniavorably the
prospects of our watering places. The cholera
certainly did not. On the contrary, It pre-
sented such powerful inducements for people
to visit them that only reasons more powerful
oould have kept them away. What these were
it is scarcely necessary for us to say. The fear
Of the pest proved secondary to the apprehen.
sion of the extortion and incivility which Of
late have characterized the conduct Of the
hotel keepers at those places towards their
visitors.


by this time the landlords have, we hope,
found out their mistake. Their ill-gained
profits Of last season have been swept away by
the blunders Of this. They literally stand in
the position Of the foolish fellow who killed
the goose that laid the golden egg. It IL very
doubtful if they will be able TO get back the
patronage which they have SO stupidity driven
AWAY. The experience Of the present season
in pleasantly situated farm houses and quiet
mountain retreats, where they live comfortably
and cheaply, has convinced people Of tho folly
of their submitting TO be ill-treated and plum
dered for the enrichment Of hotel proprietors.
There is such thing as putting on the screw
too tight 1t may be dcne onoe, but will not
succeed second time. Next year there must
be a complete reformation In tho charges and
conduct Of these country hotel keepers, or but
few Of them will be lcft hotels TO keep.