The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-08-24
Correspondence
METROPOLITAN NEWS.
From our Special Correspondent.
NEW YORK. August 18th, 1877

From our Special Correspondent.
NEW YORK, August 18th, 1877
/ ii is a self evident fact that numerous
people in this world, have the same
dread of ordinary water as the Prince of
! Darkness is said to have of that which is
sacramental. In spite of the Yankees
proyerbial cleanliness, there have been
many residents of the rural districts
who have only been washed twice in
their lives; when they were born and
when they were buried. Not so with
the New Jersey farmer. His family
may not have so extended reputation
for securing tin-ware, mopping floors,
getting the washing out by daylight, land
all the chores done up before the lazy
dweller in the cities has thought of ris-
ing, but one thing he does do, he takes
his family once year to the salt water
for good dip in the ocean. Annually,
they enjoy the luxury of a perfect lava
ton of the whole body, and to prevent
such an unusual occurrence from becom
ing fatal, the elders find apple juice, and
and the young people dancing, very
good antidotes. The great wagons
which bring produce to market or carry
it to the trains for transportation are put
in requistion, and from gray-bearded
grandfather TO the new born infant a
month or two old, all 60 to the salt water
and, as All Sin says, "whashee. washee."
The primitive bathing suit ofthe farmer
and his boys, is an old pair of breeches,
cut short at the knees, very old or such
vandalism would not be allowed. The
women wear calico morning wrappers
whose clinging folds when they come
out, it must be admitted among the elder
portion a general scragginess of outline,
suggestive of the skeleton in the doctors
closet, but compensated for by plump
ness in the maiden. A few of these
who have been to the Branch" during
the season, had improvised bathing suits,
but they were mostly looked upon as
being stuck up" putting on airs" and
unfaithful to the traditions of their fore
fathers. The salt water days fall in Au
gust and New Jersey is for a season per
vaded with a sense of unusual cleanli-
ness, that makes the autumn months a
pleasant time to visit its solitudes.
The belief in the sanitary benefit of
fresh air is growing, and every year adds
to the various charitable enterprises, by
which those who could not otherwise
get away from the heated city, and the
dense atmosphere of close rooms, may
breath the fresh air by the seaside or in
the mountains.
The sewing girls of New York have
been thus treated recently, and their
last expedition to Rockaway was very
enjoyable affair for them. Most of them
washed fairly well and came out with in
creased rather than faded color, as some
of our more celebrated bellies occasional
ly do.
For residents of the city, gentlemen
especially, Coney Island has at last been
rescued from the roughs and bids fair
to be restored to respectability. The
crowds that throng its various hotelsare
as diverse as the people who fill a large
city Sunday especially do they rush
there in throngs, finding sermons in the
sand, and psalms in the surging of the
surf took run down to Manhattan
Beach to see what it was like last Sun
day. They have fine hotel there, am
pie accommodation for the thousands
who come thither, the hygenic arrange
ments of the hotel are unsurpassed by
any summer house in the country, the
restaurant is very fair, little too steep
in its charges for the purses ofpoor peo-
I, pie, but they can bring their own lunch
baskets, and accommodation is provided
for them; the only trouble lies in the
short-sighted policy, Of a single track
and difficulty with the boats. They
have one old tub, the Norwalk, only fit
I! for fire wood (old enough almost to have
been built by Fulton) and which will
yet come to grief some time when she
is overcrowded. This had broken down,
and was replaced by one Of the Central
Railroad ferry-boats, so that ones sail
was long in point of time if not Of dis
lance, and the ride in the cars was
heightened by the uncoupling of the
train and the leaving behind of a por-
ton of it twice, much to the disgust of
those in the rear cars, who thought they /
were destined to remain on the road all
day. Two hours instead of the forty-five |
minutes of the schedule time was occu-
pied in the journey each way. The |
other boat the d r Martin is a good
one.
Once there, however, one forgets all !
miner inconvenience. There lay the
mother and lover of men, the Sea"
sparkling in the sunlight, and hundreds
of odd looking people rushing to her
embrace. The crowd was motley and !
amusing, and there seemed no possibili |
ty of the immediate adoption of the |
Malthusian doctrine by the great major
ity. To thoroughly get the good of it |
however, women aud children ought to
go down and stay, but it would be at an
expense of about S. per day. A good
room can be procured for g, but the |
restaurant charges would at the smallest !
figure be two or three more. However
it is blessing for New Workers to have
such place. Ny letter has assumed
such briny odo-, that you must imag- |
inc that you have had whiF of that salt |
sea air which Gothamites are so fond Of
that they can see nothing refreshing in
the breezes of fresh water ponds, though |
they msy be as large as Lake Michigan.
1t is thought that from Nym Crypkles,
recent article on the conversation ofthe
Long Branch women, he must have en-
joyed the pleasure of assisting at the
toilette of person not to the manner
born, but like that French woman who
hired one lover to dis6gure another, for
women never talk abont their secret
beautifiers. Each one asserts TO her
bosom friend her entire innocence of
the use of such articles as arsenic, bella
donna and others that fall so glibly from
Nyms pen.
/ went to see All Sin again Saturday
night. Parsloe, as the Heather Chinee,
is inimitable. The play to 49ers is re-
minisence, and to those who never
struck pay gravel, on the Stanislaus,
revelation. The wild camp life Harte
has so graphically described is here nre-