Glum Hosts

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Now that summer has come and gone, the truth about the summer resorts can be told—at least from the financial side. Northern New England resort keepers, it seems, have not wholly enjoyed the summer months. For their tribulations there have been many and various causes.

That perennial scapegoat, the weather, comes in for much abuse; the spring was cold and summer was late. But novel factors have also arisen to make the summer innkeeper unhappy. Chief among these is the "auto camp." Guests no longer arrive bag and baggage via the railroad station, meat for the innkeeping Caesars. Instead they enter resorts under their own power, and proceed to the inexpensive hospitality of the "auto camp." Food they obtain from neighboring farmers, who in consequence are first to defend the camping motor tourist. Moreover, no one wants to stay put anywhere for even a week, and the landlord's toll is apt to be nightly rather than by the week or month.

Finally, other regions have this summer proved great drawing-cards. The tourist rush to Europe has been great. Many, too, have undertaken pilgrimages to Quebec, the Bahamas, Cuba and other sections.

The New England railroads also show the local tourist slump. Passengers on the B. & M. in June were 10% fewer than for June, 1923; ap parently about the same decrease was experienced on the New Haven.