Year: 1873

/
dissipated and disordered intellect.
Much has been said of the extravagant
charges at Saratoga. Have I not shown
conclusively that nothing could be more
reasonable, all things considered 3?
People putting up here forget that they
really stop at half-a-dozen hotels, and
are not expected to pay any more than
if they stopped at only two or three.
But, seriously, there is something to be
said counter to the charge of extrava-
CANT charges. The proprietOrs of the
Grand Union, for instance, pay a rental
of $40, 900, and even at that rate the
property probably does not pay fair
interest on its value. The house is only
open four months of the year, and of
these four months, two are a sort of
dead open-and-shut on the proprietors,
so far as profit is concerned. July and
August are really all that the lessees
have to get their money in. They make
long reaches for it in those eight weeks,
and do pretty well, taking the difficult
ties of the case into account but I
don't believe any one could get me to
take a hand at the game, notwithstand-
ing that I'm not averse to turning an
honest penny. I'd rather be boarder.
Very much the same may be said of the
other hotels, / fancy, though / have
made no deep scrutiny into the ex-
penses they are under the fact is, I
have given up all idea of going into
the summer-hotel business. And so
far I have not circulated around much.
finding it pleasanter to sit ia a room
and write from imagination than to be
out in the rain without an umbrella
gathering facts.


In Congress hall, however, I remark
no changes the furniture is about rs it
was. I thought, indeed, that detec-
ted new spittoon or two, and boot
jack that was not there last year. But
one never can be certain about spit
toons sometimes you think il new
one, and tits only the old one washed !;
and the boot-jack have since learned
belongs to a guest, and was left lying
around inadvertently. It may be that
he set out to catch pair of boots that
he had lost, for n good deal of leather
| gets adrift over there. Five years ago,
the first year the house was opened, I
rashly set out a pair of shoes in the hall
to be cleaned In the morning they
were gone. Next night 1 set out pair
of boots, aud IN the morning the shoes
were there aud the boots We're gone.
As I had Tater lose the shoes than the
/ boots, next night set ont the shoes,
and, as n delicate intimation of my read
mess for trade, also set out pair of
old slippers. Next morning, both slip
pers and shoes were gone I had moth
ing left for bait. and the proprietor
| said he was only responsible for things
! deposited in the safe at the Office. 1
always put on my Oldest feathers now
when go across the way, apprehensive
! that the same boot-and-shoe fiend may
| be about.


The Clarendon has a new parlor suite
/ notice, in exquisite taste. There is n
quiet elegance about this house, which
commends it to those who wish to be
in the world and yet not of the world.
The guests are of the serene kind; they
don't read newspapers, or bother them
selves about what is going ON ten rods
from them. No noise is ever heard at
the clarendon attaches and visitors
alike glide gently and gracefully
around, the floors are earpeted six
inches deep, the children as well as the
chairs are set on rollers, the doors
swing on wel-oiled hinges; if the
joints of even q guest creak he is at
once informed that his room is wanted
but his rheumatism is not; everything
is in the minor key, except the propri-
etor, who is a major of militia.


AS for the Grand, 1 have only AN out
side acquaintance with it. There is a
terrible newness about this which awes
me- 1t never seems to me that house
is finished till it is 10 or 20 years old.
II it be rebuilt, thai is another thing.
II the grand had turned up as DR..
Bedortha's water-cure, now, 'twould
have had a raisOn d'etre, an assured



position. An old name carries with it a
glamour of aristocratic antiquity, new
though the possessor of it be When
the United States hotel, now rebuild
ing, is completed, it won't seem born OF
this generation, though beyond the
name there win not be even tradition
about it which belongs to the old.


]
wonderful "sea-change." Mr.. A. T.
Stewart seems rushing madIy on to beg
gary in the decoration of this house.
The parlors and the dining-rooms have
been newly frescoed and made decided
ly handsomer and more pleasant in
every respect than any similar rooms
that know of. The delightful pecH-
liarity OF the dining-room is its open
ness; the shaded street on the one side,
the ieafy hotel grounds ON the other, and
windows with little more than five feet
of interval between, to all intents and
purposes yon are dining in the open air.
No smell of fooior of cookery can linz
ger in the room. And the ventilation
of the whole house has been made per
feet The furniture of the parlors,
the chandeliers, and the coup a eil
when these latter are lighted, you must
come 10 Saratoga TO see, for enthusias-
tic description Of this kind ia not my
forte They tell me there is nothing
equal in any other tavern in the world,
and i should imagine there cOuld't be