THE SPENDERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4740, 20 August 1924, Page 3

THE SPENDERS.

PALM BEACH MILLIONS. HOW TO SCATTER THE DOLLARS. Palm Beach, Florida, is a synonym for millionaires. In order to haunt the beaches you must have so much money that you can spend and spend and spend without keeping count. You can’t have, a dip in the Atlantic for less than 15s or £l. This story from a special correspondent gives some idea of the wealth and luxury of the world-famous resort. For the luxury of a few winter weeks amid the waving palms and brilliant tropical flowers the so-called Palm Beach col.ony spent all of 50, 000,000 dollars last season. This estimate has been conservativey made, and, of course, it includes the expense of getting to Palm Beach and the much greater expense of getting away. It includes the intake of the two great hotels on the island, one of them the largest resort hotel in the world. It is nearly a ten-min-utes walk down the main corridor, running the entire length of this building. The hotel has a capacity of 1700 guests, and when it Is realised that 20 dollars (about £5) a day is a modest average for each guest some idea of the revenue can be gained. POPULAR EXPEN Sil VENESS. The mere matter of bed and board, however, is comparatively a email item in the daily life of the Palm -Reacher. There is an expense to be met at every turn, and it is this very ex pensive ness which makes the place : o popular. Counting a wheel chair to the beach and back, and the use of a room in the Casino, you can’t take an ocean bath for less than 4 dollars or 5 dollars. A round of golf will cost you an average of 5 dollars, provided you don’t lose any balls or wagers. The 5 dollars merely represents what the business man would call the overhead. Technically, of course, it is greens, fees, and caddy hire. But. spend as they will, the poor “outlanders” at the hotels contribute hut a drop in the bucket to the total of Palm Beach’s 50,000,000 dollar reason. The cottagers are the ones who pay and pay and pay. And they, too, Just love it. Take the Stotesbury’s, of. Philadelphia, for instance. If she follows her customs of past seasons, Mrs Stotesbury, chatelaine of the beautiful estate known as El Mirasol, will entertain thirty to forty persons daily at lunch, to say nothing of the elaborate dinners which are always scattered through her social programme. One elderly couple, owning a cottage here, have brought down no less than four Rolls Royces as a part of their automotive equipment One car is foi the husband, another for the wife, and two for such guests as they may have through the season. The yachts and houseboats anchored in Lake Worth, or tied up to the docks, represent an expenditure of from 15,000,000 dollars to 20,000,000 dollars, and an upkeep of fully 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 dollars a month. The clubs of palm Beaen are another great luxury in which millions of dollars are spent each year, gome of these are merely isocial clubs for d innig and dancing and bridge and mah jong. "The Chinese game unquestionably is growing in popularity, and usually one sees about two mah jong tables to one of bridge. The stakes are rising, too, and it is easy to hear stories of great winnings and losings among the friends who meet to tear down the Chinese wall and listen to the siren voice of the East Wind. BRADLEY’S Then, of course, there is Bradley’s, where green-topped tables abound, and where there is virtually no limit to what the young bloods among the millionaire colony can stake on the turn of a card or the paying click of the little roulette ball, as it flies spinning into the lucky number and colour. Also there is the bootlegger who comes high, but evidently the cottagers simply, must have him. Yet, with all its wealth, and all Its display, all of its prodigal spending and its occasional flings at games of chance, Palm Beach has a very large bit of piety in its make-up. Sunday is almost as quiet as in some New England hamlet. Of course there is golf and some bathing, but them is much more of church-going and a general cessation of several activities. Even Bradley’s is closed as tight as a convent.