The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-08-11
ON THE POTOMAC.
How to Spend a Cool sunday-Human Ma
ture Aboard and 0yerboard-Ten
Cents TO Five Dollars Worth
of Fun.
WASHINGTON, D. c., |
August 9th, 1878. J

q AsHINGTON, II. ",
August 9th, 1878.
To the Editor of The Leader:
Do you know what a noble river the
Potomac is? 1t is rendered doubly
pleasant these sweltering times. Whew!
amt it hot2 Taking a Seventh street
car we concluded to go on an excursion
Sunday, down the river. The street
cars when filled are most horrible
places. The old woman with the mar
ket-basket sat upon US. The woman
with the baby wedged us in. The back
of our editorial head was conscious of
passing the Smithsonian grounds. For
a moment we gasped the air, and then
sighted the refreshing water. BLESSED
be the man who invented Sleep" said
Sancho Panza. Blessed be the man
who invented water, say we. How the
broad surface of the river rested our
smarting eyes after the weeks glare of
the pavements.
Ever since we outgrew the small-boy
period the name Excursion" had de-
pressing effect upon us. Woeful expe-
rience has made it to us a synonym for
overcrowding, overwhelming, cross and
crying babies, sweltering mothers,
angry papas, a swarm Of that intoler-
able nuisance yclept "small boy" But
here we are, sitting upon the open deck
at the bow of the steamer, looking
dreamingly at the full moon just lifting
above the tree tops like a monstrous
red balloon, hearing almost uncon-
s~ciously the click and splash of passing
oars and the various tumult incident
to a steamship departure. "We're off,
said a voice at my elbow, and SO we
were.
At Alexandria we touch a moment,
just long enough to take aboard half a
dozen passengers and watch the gam
bols Of a school of men and boys bath
ing. With what utter abandon they
plunge and dive and roll and disport
themselves. Now darting off into the
darkness of the shadow, anon splashing
and plunging under our very noses, and
so neal the wheel as to produce half
suppressed shrieks from the timid fair
ones aboard.
Already the dust and cobwebs Of
daily toll have been brushed away. The
t~winkling lights of Alexandria ara
dropping rapidly astern. Washington
seems miles away and we are in a new
world. Toll and turmoil, heat and
worry are forgotten. We are beyond
the reach of the taskmaster, inaccess-
ible to orders, bores and duns.
Comfortably stored away on the up
per deck we give ourselves up entirely
to the delightful sensations of the hour
motion without exertion, the broad,
placid river, the wooded headlands, the
distant lights, the delicious, cooling
breezes. We absorb them all without
volition. Fancy flies away on dreamy
wings, and Life, so YEARLY prosaic at
most times, disports himself in poesy's
robes and really seems worth the living
for
Lazily we watch the beetling cliffs Of
Forts Foote and Washington rs we go
gliding by. With a squirt of energy we
seek to mark out the "Home of Wash
ington'' as we glide past Mount Yer
mons beautiful w Then we give
ourselves up entirely to disjointed rev.
cries, staring meanwhile at the silvery
pathway Of the moon upon the waters,
and wondering, in a far-off sort of way,
il it would be possible to walk upon it
and finally reach the moon.
"Piney Point, SIR" "Here we are,
SIR" awake up, SIR" Passengers
for Piney Point" We woke with a
start, rubbed III eyes, said impossible,
we knew we had not been asleep five
minutes, and then gradually collected
our scattered senses, recognized the
stentorian voice of the porter, and real
lied that it was broad daylight. Good
nessshow we had slept!
= We came for quiet rest, fresh air,
and a bath, and we had all three. The
steamer furnished abundant shade, and
its deck was a cool and breezy place
even in the hottest part of the day. But
the events of the day were the dips in
the surf.
Watch a party of bathers five minutes
and you will learn that there are ways
and ways of getting into the embrace
Of Neptune. There is your old-time
bather, who goes in with a rush and a
plunge; your corner grocery swell, vino
strikes out with a cigar between his
teeth; your novice of a poor, lean, half
starved clerk, who goes in s%hiveringly,
and only vets his shoulders to escape
the jeers of the crowd ON shore; your
flabby old gentleman of means and
leisure, who goes straight in, slowly but
surely, looking neither to the right nor
the left, and blowing like a porpoise all
the time. There is your elderly un-
married lady, who cannot be induced
to venture beyond her knees, and let's
off a half-strangled scream If by the
luck of a rolling pebble she but sits
down in six inches Of water. There
are the strong swimmers and the ven
turesome, who swim far out and revel
in the CONSERVATION and anxiety their
fool-hardiness produces. There are the