Those of our readers who desire more particular information in regard to real estate and permanent or transient homes in Saratoga, are referred to Messrs. Wm. M. Searing & Son, of Ainsworth’s block.

Hack Fares.

Saratoga cannot be called extortionate.  Unlike Niagara, its prices are not exorbitant.  Most people like to drive a fast horse, and they can do so very reasonably here.  A nice single team can be obtained a whole afternoon for only $3, and a nobby carriage and coachman will carry a party to the Lake and back for from $3 to $6, at any time during the season.  Hack fare, in the village, is 50 cents for each passenger; baggage, 25 cents each piece.  An elegant turnout, including coachman, can be leased by the month for $75, and this includes the exclusive use.  Excellent accommodations for those who bring their own teams can be obtained for from $8 to $10 per week for each horse.  Over three thousand private carriages are here every summer.

[Illustration:  DRS. STRONG’S INSTITUTE, SARATOGA.]

Drives and Walks.

The most fashionable drive is the new Boulevard to the Lake.  Until recently there have been few attractions beside the gay and brilliant procession of carriages with their fair occupants and superb horses.

The drive is four miles in length, with a row of trees on each side and one in the middle.  Carriages pass down on one side and return on the other.

No sooner have we turned by the Congress Spring than we are in a long level reach of plains, dotted here and there with trees of pine and fir, with a few distant hills of the Green Mountains rolling along the horizon.  It is a city gala at the hotel, but the five minutes were magical, and, among the trees and rural scenes upon the road, we remember the city and its life as a winter’s dream.  The vivid and sudden contrast of this little drive with the hotel is one of the pleasantest points of Saratoga life.  In the excitement of the day it is like stepping out, on a summer’s evening, from the glaring ball-room upon the cool and still piazza.

Near the outlet of the lake, on a bluff fifty feet above the surface of the water, is

Moon’s Lake House,

One of the features of Saratoga.  There is a row of carriages at the sheds—­a select party is dining upon those choice trout, black bass and young woodcock.  The game dinners are good, the prices are high, and the fried potatoes are noted all over the world.  They have never been successfully imitated.  Are done up in papers and sold like confectionery.  The gayly dressed ladies indulge in beatific expressives as they feast upon them.

[Illustration:  DINING ROOM GRAND UNION.]

A capital story is told of Moon, the proprietor—­indeed, he tells it “himself.”  A few months after one of his “seasons” had closed he chanced to be in Boston, where he hired a horse and buggy to drive out to Chelsea.  When he returned and called for his bill, the livery stable keeper charged him about six times the usual price; and when an explanation of such an extraordinary charge was demanded, replied, “Mr. Moon.  I presume you do not recognize me, but last summer I took dinner at your Lake House.”  “Say not another word about it, my good fellow,” responded Moon in his turn, “here is your money.”