COMPANY AT SARATOGA. 57 



CHAPTER IX. 



Company at Saratoga Fast Eating Notices ofBuel Farm Mr 



Buel New York State Agricultural Society Advantages of a 



young country Farmers of Britain and the States British 

 Agricultural Societies. 



WE reached Saratoga, the most celebrated watering-place 

 in America, about two o clock, arid found accommodation at 

 Congress Hall, the principal hotel in the village, and capable 

 of accommodating 300 individuals. On retiring to prepare 

 for dinner, my friend and I debated the nature of the attire in 

 which we should appear he conceiving it unnecessary to 

 change our travelling garb, and I thinking it proper to assume 

 full dress, in expectation of meeting the gay, wealthy, and 

 polished of the land. We soon found ourselves seated at a 

 second dinner table, consisting of a numerous company, which 

 the railway coaches had just brought from Albany. The 

 party displayed few symptoms of refinement. A gentleman 

 on the opposite side of the table deliberately folded up the 

 sleeves of his coat before commencing dinner, planted both 

 elbows on the table, and swallowed his food voraciously, with 

 out once looking to the right or left. I felt, and perhaps 

 looked, disappointed at the hurried manner in which the 

 party dined ; and on the company leaving table immediately 

 afterwards, my friend enjoyed his triumph of opinion, and 

 quizzed my shoes and stockings, as a marked singularity which 

 both of us were anxious to avoid. Tea was served at seven 

 o clock, and, as usual, the repast was a regular feeding race. 

 Business may have originated, but it cannot always excuse 

 the practice of fast eating ; and the inmates of Congress Hall 

 were in perfect idleness. 



