Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-09-09
NO. 215.
LIFE AT MOUNT DESERT.

NHcu OHe SlLS uOWn 10 u MOUNT desert
table, the memories of Parker's beefsteak,
or Delmonico's Poulet a EspGgnOl, to say
nothing of the luxuries of the home table,
come thronging sumptuously before him
to Danish whatever little appetite remains.
When people cook and eat food Of this
wretched description, there mustsbe some
thlng wrong in their moral condition. aim
aware this condemnation as regards food
applles equally TO other parts of the coun-
try, to the White Mountains and the Far
West. The unfortunate creatures who
cook at these places will make bread with
about equal quantities of -four and salera-
tas; they are determined to fry meat rath-
than roast, broil, boil or stew it they insist
on calling beans coffee, and so on. At
Mount Desert very little meat is furnish
ed the hungry sojourner, but he is permit
ted to feast and fast upon fish. This diet
is perhaps satisfying to the intellectual
Bostonian, who seeks that food which stim-
ulates and adds to the brain; but the
seusuous New Yorker, or the rearing,
tearing half horse and half alligator
of the West, must have beef, fowl, and
mutton.
One day we begged of our landlord to
send to Boston or somewhere and get a
barrel of corned beet.
We'll, now, that is an idee,n he re-
sponded, while he shifted one leg over
the other and turned his head, as he lay
stretched at full length on the store-room
counter. That's an idee viii it keep"
The beef Not long, for your hungry
guests will eat it up "a, :
This was all we got of the corned beef.
although the question was again and again
brought before the clouded mind of the
landlord: and some of us who could not
live on beans, fish, and saleratus bread
alone, sent up to the Falmouth House in
Portland for other supplies. s 80
Perhaps this is a solemn, not to say des-
pairing, aspect of the commissariat ques-
tion; but the fact must remain that the
food furnished at most--I will not say AL
-ofthe hotels or boarding houses at Mount
Desert is highly unsatisfactory and if
ever there was christian missionary work
needed here and throughout this country,
it is upon this matter of the quantity, quail
ity, and the most healthy way of cooking
food
But the crowds Of people who hock ev-
cry summer to Mount Desert are willing
to overlook, in measure, the shortcom-
ings of the table. The bounteous feast
which Nature spreads before them-the in
centive to pass all day in the open air,
either in heightened pedestrian expedi-
tons. in sailing or rowing upon the waters
of the beautiful bay-gives them an appe-
tite equal to any situation. Mount Desert
is not a fashionable resort, while it is more
frequented than any of the watering
places under which title do not class
Long Branch, which is nothing but par
asite to the city of New York. The peo-
pie who pass the summer on the rough.
rocky Island of Mount Desert leav
their big trunks at home. The ladies wear
wide-brimmed hats and picturesque css-
tunes Of red and blue flannel, cut short
above the feet and ankles, which in turn
are encased in stout walking-shoes. The
gentlemen appear in warm, rough CLOTH
ing, which will stand the wear and tear of
a tramp over the rocks and through the
bushes, and which will offer some resist
ancc to the fogs which penetrate like the
rain. There is good deal of fun in the
way of dancing in the evening, and play
ing all sorts of games, like unto blind
mans buff and puss in the corner. Dur
ing the day parties of several persons.
ladies and gentlemen, start off on walking
expeditions of five, ten, and fifteen miles,
to one or another of the objects of inter-
est on the sea-shOre, or up the mountains.
There is vigorous, sensible. healthy feel
ing in all they do. not bit of that over
dressed, pretentious nonsensical, unheal-
thy sentimentalty which may be found at
other places George W. Nichols, in Har-
per's Magazine.