The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-11-29

ORCHARD BEACH.

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a brief summer sojourn. You may leave
New York in the morning at 10 o'clock,
spend an hour in Boston, and at nine in
the evening you are set down pleasantly on
the very margin Of the ocean, at Old Or
chard Beach. Whence its name, could
not learn, but the old orchard that was
once old enough to suggest it, has disap-
peared, while the name remains. The first
hotel built here bears the name of the
beach, and then the Ocean House followed,
and both of these spacious establishments
are in full view Of the boundless sea, and
the green lawns sweep down from the steps
of the houses to the sands of the shore.
And on the verge, close at the waters
edge, smaller but excel ent hotels have
been built with piazzas which the high tide
almost reaches, so that all the day long, if
you please, you may sit or walk within
sight, and sound of the salt sea, the surf
breaking within few feet of you, and the
play Of the waters going on constantly un-
der your eye.
Nine miles in a straight line this beach
stretches from north to south, sloping off
so gradually that children may play with
safety in the waves, and when the tide is
out the beach is SO hard that the horses
feet resound as on solid road. 1t is thus
a splendid course for driving, and in the
afternoon is thronged. At each end of
this stretch of nine miles headlan1 puts
out four miles into the sea, and SO bay
is formed of exceeding beauty. On these
projecting headlands are settlements, to
which visitors resort to enjoy the most re-
freshing breezes and the coolest weather in
the heats of summer.
Pine groves are the feature of the
grounds little way back from the water.
Some years ago an Englishman by the
name of Bull came here, and being charmed
with the region, expended time, money and
taste in laying out forty acres in one Of
these groves, with walks, arbors, grots and
seats, making one of the sweetest places
for solitary or social resort that imagina-
ton or reality can furnish. On the trees
at the entrance, and at every turn, and
over the romantic arbors, he has put up
tables with appropriate quotations from
poets of Nature-Bryant and Thompson,
Cowper and Parnell, Coleridge and Shake
speare and Milton, are speaking in these
woods, and God is heard in some of the
sublimest passages in the Psalms and
Prophets. An oratory, which has mar
bic memorial of the man who devised this
remarkable forest sanctuary, is sometimes
used on Sabbath days for religious services.
when the visitors at the hotels are assem-
bled in the shades to worship in the
groves, Goods first temples"
Here again and again, with congenial
friend, or in that solitude which at times
is the best of all company, l found peace
which is the one thing needful for one
wearied with the work of this driving age;
peace that passes understanding; that comes
into the soul when far away from care and
calls, and the heart securely rests in faith
that makes the future sure. Nowhere is
this feeling deeper than in the woods in
summer. And Coleridge touched it when
he wrote, aye pine groves with your soft
and souERke sound" 1t is not melancho-
ly. 1t is not sentimentalism. 1t is not
poetry. It is the immediate intercourse
of the soul with its object of worship; a
feeling that He is all around and over all;
without book, or word, or a sight; tina
One whom We know and love is here, per.
vading our frame aud spirit; breathing upon
us as he did in Eden on our father, and
giving us health, life, peace, strength,
hope and courage.
This is such working age, so active,
busting, noisy, busy, unresting, that this
pine grove, compared with the house Of
bondage in which we serve who dwell in
cities, seems Paradise Regained. l do not
wish to build tabernacle, or to take one
Of Mr.. Bulls arbors and dwell here, tempt.
ed as one might be to forget the higher
calls of duty to world that he must live
in and work for, while there is anything to
do. But it is good to be here; and happy
is he whose heart and life are in harmony
with these peaceful shades. The deep bass
of the ocean rolls up, and the cool winds
sigh among the pines, and Nature pauses
to listen to the voices Of her minstrels, and
silence in the midst ofthese great anthems
is music to the spirits ear But we can
not linger always on such mount. Let
US go down.
And to make very sudden descent, let
me tell you that this Old Orchard Beach
is where you can get the most for your
money of any place to which / have been
in many year. 1t is in the town of Saco,
in Maine, which is divided from Biddeford
by the Saco river. But here on this beach,
with this glorious ocean to enjoy, with ia
cilities for bathing unequalled by any beach
| ever saw, fifteen miles south Of Portland,
on the coast of Maine, you can have good
rooms and comfortable board for three
dollars, or two dollars a day, or ten dollars
a week, at the hotels, and the keepers make
money at that rate.
The charm Of this resort is greatly d.
minished by the rush of transient company
Last summer the railroad first reached it
and parties Of Eve hundred or thousand
or two thousand, now come almost daily to
spend the day in the groves and on the