EDITOR'S TABLE. 



£0Iio^'3 hh\e. 



Retrenchment among the New Yokkees. — The Courier and Enquirer^ of July 13th, 

 has the following article, which indicates the beginning of a mnch needed reform. "We 

 rejoice at it, whether it come from necessity or choice. Hundreds of families have annu- 

 ally spent money enough at fashionable summer resorts, to support them a whole year in 

 comfort and elegance in a country villa. We are glad to see a journal of such influence 

 draw attention to the subject. 



" It is admitted by all those who know, that there is much less traveling this summer than 

 there has been for several years. There are fewer parties on their way to places of fashionable 

 resort, or jaunting up and down for the mere sake of locomotion and thoughtless pastime. But 

 it is equally worthy of remark that the city is more than ever deserted for the warm months, 

 by those whom the imperative calls of business do not confine within the sound of the slumber- 

 ous chimes of Trinity. These facts are significant ; and their causes are worthy of considera- 

 tion, because they lie deeper than the mere accident of the day, or the caprice of the hour. The 

 change in the mode of spending the summer months results from a lack of money, and a return- 

 ing disposition to Usten to the dictates of common sense rather than to those of fashion. 



"To those who consider the subject superficially, it may seem absurd to suppose that the 

 comparatively small amount of money required for a summer trip could be made, by a mere 

 stringency in the money market, an item of moment to those who have hitherto considered the 

 outlay for such a trip a necessary part of their family expenses. And it would be an unreason- 

 able supposition, hud this expense been incurred only by those who could really afford it. But 

 in this respect, as in all others, the families of the great majority of our merchants and profes- 

 sional men have been living very far beyond their means — and Uving thus, not for health and 

 comfort, but for display. Their summer change of residence has been in fact but a change of 

 their scene of ostentatious dissipation. Fashion commanded that they should be ' out of town ;' 

 and as the eclat of fiishionable Ufe was the one object of their thoughts, they must be out of 

 town in an astonishing manner. The newspapers which make personal notice of private citi- 

 zens a part of their business, must prate of their whereabout, under the thin disguise of initial 

 letters and stars ; or they must at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they were part of 

 the brilliant assemblages thus typographically gossipped over. Now to do this costs money — 

 any amount you please, from five hundred to five thousand dollars a season ; and the unpleasant 

 but wholesome truth which has presented itself to many a pater familias this eeason is, that he 

 cannot afford the five thousand or the five Imndrcd dollars to do it with; or to speak more 

 properly, that he has not either of those sums above the daily needs of his business; for he 

 could last year have really afforded so to spend them almost as little as he can even now. 



" When men live up to the extreme of an income which, though nominally large, is not the 

 product of property accumulated and laid aside, but the mere profits of a business more or less 

 precarious, — when upon such an income they build 'a house and a half after the fashion of a 

 ducal palace, and furnish it throughout in a style wliich would make most dukes stare with 

 wonder at the outlay and the bad taste, it is not at all surprising that when Erie and ITa 

 are ' down,' it is found impossible to allow Madam and Miss and young Master to polk 



