Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 138, vol. III, August 21, 1886

No. 138.—Vol. III.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1886.
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.
In the United States, even in the coolest, most northerly portion, the summers are long and hot; the July days are scorching and the nights are suffocating in the crowded cities and larger towns; with August comes a little change, but then come the exhausting ‘dog-days,’ when, though the mercury will not run so high in the thermometer, the atmosphere is as unpleasant as if it were still July.
Those who can afford it—and many who cannot do so, but fancy they must do as their wealthy neighbours do—begin in June to flit to seaside, mountain, or Springs hotel, where they pay as high a rent for a tiny room as would give them a whole house in town. Here the ladies and children stay for such a time as suits them, or as suits papa’s purse. If the hotel chosen is within a reasonable distance of the men’s places of business, they will flock there on Saturday night, and hasten away early on Monday morning. At some resorts, certain trains or boats have the local name, for the season, of ‘husbands’ train’ or boat, as the case may be. The maidens who have no lover to look for at this time are on the alert to see what ‘new men’ Messrs So-and-so will bring with them this Saturday; for there is an appalling dearth of eligible men—eligible, if only as escorts or partners at tennis or cotillon at most of these summer resorts. Between Monday and Saturday the ladies amuse themselves with fancy-work, gossip, reading of light novels, fault-finding with the meals, or with the noise other people’s children make, and flirting with the men who, taking their own holiday, are remaining at the hotel for a week or two. Then, too, there is usually, in so mixed an assembly as must necessarily be found at even the most select hotel, at least one person who has something queer, perhaps no worse than simply great eccentricity, about her, and so furnishes material to her fellow-boarders for endless speculation and gossip.