The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-07-31
[iong Branch Letter to the New York world.l
How the Sea Tried to Capture a Noted
and SnmptuOuS Belle.

| There was once, during that memorable
| season here, when the two streams of fashion
and the dem-monde came together in the
| hotels and seethed and foamed very much
| like those pillows on the sand there-there
was noted and sumptuous belle at the West
End-it was Stetson's then. You probably
remember. 1t was that season when Olive
Logan was at one end of the hotel line and
Gail Hamilton at the other, indUstuously
churning the milk OF such human kindness as
the hotels offered into journalistic butter. and
sending it up every afternoon freshly worked
to market. This belle brought her brigade Of
admirers with her. They settled like a cloud
OF locusts all over the country. No queen
! ever had such attendance. 1t was a pageant
| wherever she went, and tournament wher-
ever she stopped. An imperious beauty of
the Cleopatra-Judith style, always doing the
| armsweep superb; always keeping the best Of
them at safe distance, content to have hold
of their heartstrings and to give them fresh
twist every morning. She had come down to
take a few lessons of the sea. She studied it
from the bluffs, with courtiers on either side
OF her, picking up her fan and her handker-
chief She caught few hints of grandeur in
motion from it, detected and initiated its cru
city, and even carried off some of the fash
and depth in her magnificent eyes. For the
two weeks that she ruled the Branch, don't
| believe the most favored OF her admirers ever
got beyond'the first parallel of Irritation. Her
unapproachabity was something superb.
At the end OF that time two or three of her
noblest wretches held consultation. They
took the sea into their confidence, and be-
lieve the old monster became a willing con-
federate. They circulated the story that she
was afraid of the water. Somebody, it was
woman, said that for her to bathe was to be
no more belle. That settled it, Cleopatra
determined to bathe. She would at least
prove that her beauty would wash. What
danger was there? Certainly none for her
with three rows of guardian swimmers in
woolen and ecstasies. So she went down to
the sea and planted her imperial foot upon
the neck of the old monster He growled and
rose at her. Never before had such a moFsel
come to his nav. But she was plucky. One
who had always had her own way ON land
could surely have it for once on water. She
had always denied human, should she sue
cumb to inanimate nature? In she plunged
boldly. All the wretches of her retinue were
there in various DISCUSSES OF blue and gray
wooden. The crafty old element let her ad-
vance until he could get one green curling
arm around her waist, and then he whipped
her up in moment, and with wet shout
was bearing her off like Sabine to some
sparry hollow of his own, when there went
up forty-two other glad shouts in all variety
of manly voice.
Have you ever seen thieves qua-relling
over the division Of their plunder? II hope
not
Men and ocean wranging for a maid.
What sight for gods and others on a bank.
l believe she screamed-a weak, suppleating
scream, that was smothered midway by q
salt kiss of the monster, as he pulled her ouE
of sight You will observe that he was hav-
ing much the best of it.
But presently Adolphus or somebody gos
her by the hair, and Clarence laid hold OF q
hand, and others possessed of foot apiece.
All, that struggle was a fierce one. The At
lantic was not to be baked so easily. He, at
least, had her in his arms, and his blood was
up. To the men and gods upon the bank
it looked like determined effort to drown
her. Adolphus got his arms around her
twice. So did Alphonse. There seemed to
be relays of saviors. There were so many OF
them that somebody shouted from the beach
that they were to stand back and give her
some air.
Marine people TO this day aver that the
waves rose during that struggle as il by mag
ie and there wasn't much OF a breeze blow
ing, either. Well, it all ended by the mon
ster vomiting them upon the sand in one n
tricate agglomerate of woolen, and then they
carried her up to the clearinghouse. Her
precious life had been saved by iorty-two
daring admirers who had risked their own-
They all came down 20 the West End tho
next day, and stood in cue to receive forty
two votes of thanks, and to he told that She
owed her life to every one of them, and in
tended to marry them all collectively when
she came back from Saratoga. But she
never came back.
There were forty-two locks of hair (beau'
tiful brown hair) worn for long time after
that in as many manly breasts.
Do you know, think they were pulled
out in the sea. 1t was pitiful thing to do
But little Miss Murtle, who sits on the cliff
and sketches, says, "Pshaw, she bought
new crop long before she got to Saratoga"