Long Ago and Far Away

Abstract

An article in the July 26, 1906, Saratogian of Saratoga Springs, New York, raised an interesting prospect under this headline: "Here is a Chance for Saratoga Souvenirs, Real Ones, Unique, and No Duplicates in Existence. Take a Purple Float Home." It seems that Benjamin P. Wheat, receiver of the defunct Saratoga Floral Association, was anxious to unload "eighteen Mardi Gras floats that received more advertising on their way from New Orleans to Saratoga than William J. Bryan on his European tour." The floats had been collecting dust for several years in a barn near the Adirondack Railroad. After that fleeting reference, though, the historical record fades. We don't know who, if anyone, bought them, or where they ended up. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What were floats from New Orleans doing in a village so far away from home in the first place? To answer that question, it's necessary to step further back in time. The resort town in upstate New York attracted visitors from as far away as Europe in the early part of the 19th century, and by the Victorian era it was the place to see and be seen. "Health tourists" came originally to imbibe Saratoga's famous mineral waters, which were said to have cured British colonial official Sir William Johnson, among others, of gout. Later, as the spa's fame grew, wealthy visitors from below the Mason-Dixon Line also came to find relief from southern summers. Many came by steamboat to Albany, then rail for the last 30-mile leg of the journey. The village's tourist economy boomed, and its hotels and boarding houses filled to bursting each year for "the season." Even the Panic of 1837 and the Civil War couldn't dim the allure of the "Queen of Spas." In fact, the famous gambler and boxing champion John Morrissey opened a gaming establishment in Saratoga toward the beginning of the war. Later, at its height in August of 1863, when New Orleans's Metairie Race Track was suffering and more than a decade before the opening of Louisville's Churchill Downs, Morrissey opened Saratoga's race track--now the oldest continuously operating track in the country--with New York turf men, including William Travers, Leonard Jerome, and John Hunter. Horse racing and gambling became the major draws that gradually replaced the more salubrious pursuits that had first attracted visitors. As for the floats from the Crescent City, they hadn't yet become a gleam in the village fathers' eyes. In 1893, a Boston merchant and summer visitor named Franklin Webster Smith raised concerns that vice--in particular, gambling and horse racing--would be the spa's downfall. He brought the village council a proposal for "A Greater Saratoga" that would elevate Saratoga to the level of the great European spas. His plan included a Floral Fete--a parade and battle of flowers that would take place at the end of the summer season, and on September 4, 1894, the Floral Festival Association of Saratoga Springs held its first events. A Grand Floral Ball was held on the same evening at the village's new Convention Hall, and it was estimated that at least 25,000 people attended. Carriages and floats were festooned with flowers, and the magnificent hotels on Broadway got accents of pine boughs and garlands. The event and the crowds grew larger in later years, and bicycles and even doll carriages were made to bloom. …