The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-18


put in the aborigine, the rattle of his teeth
almost drowning the roar of the breakers. Very
properly, no attention was paid to this unsea-
aonable joke.
Although the very marrow seemed to be
working its way out of my bones, could not
persuade myself TO turn back to the tempest
and seek the shelter of the "Bue Pig" without
a little dalliance. That shifting, piercing roar
ing wind was working its own sweet will with
the obedient waters, and all that came within
their reach. Along the whole beach front, for a
stretch of mile or more, an array of stout
piles had been driven, as q breakwater for the
grand beach drive of which l shall have more to
say by-and-by. In and out among these the
wind frislSed and flurried, and round about them
whirled and danced the water, breaking into
misty spray as it rolled on past the unheeded
barrier and scooped up sheet of gravel to
carry out to sea on its return. Great gaps in
the gloomy array of wooden sentinels had
already been made, and now and then fresh
log would let go its hold upon the shaky sand,
and shoot off in bee-line for the Bay of Blscay,
with the wreck of a shattered bath-house to
convoy it over the ocean.
But, as we contemplated the discontinue of
the beach-drive breakwater, the joints of the
aborigine ceased to creak from stiffening, and
the party at last cheerfully returned to the
whilom "Blue Pig" to sit around a cosy supper
table and demolish raw oysters still dripping
with the brine in which they were serenely
happy less than ten hours before.
And after supper | am regaled, as are your
readers now in their turn, with the most notable
things that have been done since the close of
the last season, and are yet to be done before
the opening of the next, by way of rendering
Cape Island more attractive than ever as
summer resort.
But here, at the very outset, am guilty of
bunder; for Cape Island is Cape Island no
longer The Legislature of New Jersey recently
in session, like your own, did an ininitude of
things, and among others it transformed Cape
Island into the City Of Cape May. Everybody
will approve the change, and especially those
whose correspondence in former times, when
addressed simply to Cape May, brought up at
Cape May Courthouse, dreary little hamlet
eleven miles off in the woods, where justice is
dispensed in old-fashioned Jersey style-that is
to say, without fear or favor.
The last Legislature likewise did another good
thing, in perfecting its former action looking to
the creation of a commission charged with the
laying out, widening, extension, draining, and
general care and supervision of the streets of
the town. This commission, which is now in
full working order, was appointed by one of the
Judges of the Supreme Court, in accordance
! with the act of Assembly, and consists of the
following gentlemen all of them we'll known to
| frequenters of the island, and deeply interested
in its prosperity
John G. Bulltt, Esq, of Philadelphia, Chair
| man; General William j. Sewell, of Camden,
the General Superintendent of the West Jersey
Railroads; and j. +. Cake, Esq, the proprietor
of Congress Hall; Joseph Q. Williams, Esq,
ex-Mayor; and George Hildreth, Esq, of Cape
May City.
The act requires that at least three of the five
members of the commission shall be residents
of the city of Cape May, and all of them pro-
perty holders. Meetings are held by the
commission every Friday evening, Mr..
Bullitt presiding, and Mr.. A. P. Hildreth,
of the Congress Hall Office staff, acting
as clerk. They have entered heartily
into their work, and are now engaged in dis
cussing the most available plans for thoroughly
draining the town, while already at the task OF
putting the streets in better condition than
they have been for years past. AS a sample of
what they are doing, jackson street may be
taken. This thoroughfare, which is always SO
thickly crowded with vehicles and foot passen-
gers about train time during the summer, has
been thoroughly reconstructed from the depot
been laid and fagstone cutters constructed the
entire distance; and the roadway has been
bedded with gravel and crowned with oyster
ehells forming a smooth and compact highway
which will turn water as neatly as the back of a
duck.
But the grand enterprise in which the autho-
stiles have been engaged during the winter is
the Beach Drive. The original plan for thi;
contemplated a grand roadway sixty fee
in width, extending along the entire ocean
'front.' distance of q mile and half The foo
of Decatur street, which runs just west of the
Columbia House, is about the central point o
the proposed drive, and from this point east thu
Beach Drive is already completed, small out
lay only being needed to put it in condition fol
travel before the opening of the season. AT the
eastern end it runs at right angles into Madison
avenue, new and substantial roadway which
crossing the shallow sound, extends over th
marshes to the mainland, distance of abou
one mile, until it strikes Washington
street, the main thoroughfare of the seaside city
On the portion of the grand Drive thus far com
pleted about S20,0 900 have been expended, an
without doubt the money will prove good in
vestment. An effort has also been made to eX
tend the Beach Drive westward from Deeatu
street to the foot of Broadway, thoroughfar
some distance below the Excursion House whicl
is to rival Madison avenue and connect with tht
turnpike from the island to the steamboa
landing. But this effort, | am sorr.
to say, is thus a far decides
failure. AS already inTimated, the woodeI
breakwater which must first be erected ha
found the boisterous ocean an unrelenting foe