The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1871-08-17
pecial Correspondence Of the Courier.
TENT ON THE BEACH.
Aug. I'd, 1871.
DEAR COURIER

You did not accept
my invitation last week to attend
one of our quiet clam-bakes here on
this pleasant shore. Perhaps you
would like a moro pretentious one.
We'll, just below our camping
ground, and across the bay, is Rocky
Point, the famous resort for clam
bakes in the season. Take the beau
tiful and commodious steamer Bay
Queen at her wharf in Providence at
9 A. NJ. and she will land you at
Rocky Point in an hour. Tomorrow
is an excursion, so il you wish to see
a great company at clam bske 60
then. They will have from three to
,fue hundred bushels Of clans dry and
ready to bake for you when you ar
rive, 80 you need not fear that you
will be cheated out of your dinner
As you come to the wharf, you see
the large hotel and near it, (not .
part Of it) one ofthe largest dining
halls in the country. Not unfre.
quently two thousand people sit down
there to dinner.
You can use your time until din
ner, rambling, bathing, resting and
return to the city at 2 P. NJ, 4 Or g.
Beside excursions IN the interest of
churches, sunday schools, bands Of
music, &c, there are hundreds who
60 out from the city to this resort
every day for dinner. 1t is astonish-
ing how much humanity one Of these
boats will carry, and as with Chi
cago street car, there is always room
for one more.
Rocky Point is enough tor one day
so we will take another day for New
port and return, so we will be part
Of the company. Every available
sitting place is occupied and plenty
of standing room when the steamer
puts out from her wharf at o A. NJ
You are almost sweltering with the
heat in your Office dear COURIER, to-
day with the mercury dancing around
100 somewhere, SO come and sit here
on the shady side of the boat near
her PROV. By the way, you will
need to bring an overcoat when you
cave here. As you move down
Providence River and into Narrag-
ausett Bay, summer resorts dot the
shore OF either side; large hotels,
neat cottages, white tents invite away
from the narrow streets, and pent-up
air of the city TO comfort hero on the
shore.
Out past Rocky Point, we begin
to feel the great ocean swells rolling
in and making the boat quiver with
that tremulons sort Of motion which
every one recognizes too surely who
knows what it is to be sea-siok. You
do not know what that experience
is? Well, may you never. But look
around you, see what a change comes
over the faces and the spirits Of this
lively chatty company.
There is . lady near you who hae
been as vivacious and talkative as hel
gentleman companion could wish
But observe how interest in conver
sation lags, eyes lose something o.
their sparkle and put on dull, don't
care sort of look, and there are those
ghastly white lines around the emoutt
that tell their own story, and by the
time we round the point probably shs
doesn't care much for the lighthouse
or anything else. You have founc
use for your overcoat before thi'
time and rs the toy shuts in al
around, you n,ump down caring fol
nobody and nothing. You will se'
little, and hear little except the ire
quent warning whistle of the steamel
sent through the dense fog, until yol
arrive, q little after eleven, at New
port Of which more by and by. b.
| The pestilence fly, OF which men
ton has already been made. has ap
pearcd in New York city. Thi
insect is said to be the precursor q
the cholera, or other pes,ilencc. /
| is u little longer than the common
house-fy, and has very Transparent
wings, of q slightly purple hue. IN
head is perfectly round, Of q darl
brown color, with white mark o.
the face. The body is divided lik
the wasp's. The round portion mex
the head, 10 which tho wings ar
attached, 10 OF AN invisible green
The remainder OF the body from th
waist to the tail presents alternat
rings Of jet black and pale yellow
,, 1t has six legs, which are longer tha