Connecticut western news., 1881-08-31

week,) Tristram Coffin, Esq.,, ofPoughkeepsie, | poems by cultivated and and strong minded l ladies, and short addresses, but as it was get ting late, and the weather very unpleasant, | did not stay to hear them, but wended our weary way back to Nantucket. Before leav- | ing. we managed to get hold of clam to sam- | pie the article, but we must confess there was not very strong affinity between us two. | We prefer them pickled. The next day the services were held in the Methodist church. | and as we had nothing else to do, (the weather being stormy and boisterous,) we thought we would go and enjoy feast of reason and flow of soul la Coffins. The first act con sisted of long spread eagle eration by anoth- American Citizenship" and delivered very able fourth ofJuly speech, but what it had to do particularly with the Coffin reunion we could not quite understand. After the oration. a
 Coffin from New York, whose nom be plume is
 Barry Grey," read poem on Iristram and
 Dionis, his wife, which was followed by other
 poems and addresses ad intinitum-not ad-
 nauseam, oh cOmposltor, we did not say that.
 The queerest part of the performance was the
 music by the New Bedford Brass Band. For
 instance, after the oration they played "Near-
 CT my God to Thee" Oh, how I wished that
 the Canaan Cornet Band was there to give
 them taste ol good music. There seemed to
 be one circumstance in the Coffin history
 which was kept to the fore flont above all
 others, to wit that they were descended
 from Sir Richard Coffin, (emphasis on the Sir,)
 who came over to England with William the
 Conqueror, and was granted a large estate for
 his services-large enough at least to rank
 him among the aristocracy. After all, we may
 talk about American Citizenship and our re-
 publicanism as we will, there seems to be
 latent feeling Ill our republican hearts, which
 loves to trace our genealogy to the old world
 aristocracy and royalty. Queer. Has this
 feeling anything to do with the imperialism
 which we have heard so much about for the
 last few years? On the whole. we rather like
 these reunions-they are real pleasant. Why
 won't some one get one up at Canaan, of the
 descendants of our common father and moth
 CT, so that we could all attend without taking
 back seats and going away hungry. We could
 have clam bake at Twin Lakes. 1 would
 contribute my clam knowledge and experi-
 ence, the band would give their services free
 gratis, and we could have real nice time.
 What does the Doctor say?
 We took advantage of Hull in the N. B,
 gale one day, to go over to Wauwinet to go
 sharking-that being the sharking ground,
 and famous place for fish dinners-but it was
 so rough the fishermen wouldn't venture out.
 Not to be entirely disappointed, we drove over
 to Quidnet, about two miles towards the south
 eastern shore, and went perching on Lake
 Sachachia. It is fine sport. We were out
 about an hour and half, and caught about
 one hundred. They were not large, but when
 prepared and cooked by the hostess of the
 Weston House, who understands the art, they
 are very toothsome and delicious. On our re-
 turn from Wauwinet, on watch, Eddie threw dI'dH, (that is what they call it here, consist
 ing of large hook, a long piece of lead wound
 with eel skin for bait, and strong linel over- board, and soon hauled in & four pound blue fish. But they are scarce in the bay, and it is | not often that any are taken there, the blue fishing grounds being about nine miles away,
 on the ''rips" beyond Great Head Lighthouse.
 or over near the Tuckernucks. This is the ex- | tent of our fishing. Although we haven't sharking ourselves, we saw one of the savage monsters lying on the beach, which had been | caught day or two before, and the sight of | it didn't increase our desire to try tussle | with one in a small boat out on the briny deep. The old salts called it small one, but | it was six or seven feet long, and looked as if | it had entirely too much muscle for us, to say
 nothing about teeth We would rather take a | drive across the moor, Chat is the fashionable 1 term here now, and of course if you go to watering place you have got to follow the fashion, as we did the other day. This cer- 1 tainly to a landsman who has been accustom- l ed to look on the forest covered hills and
 mountains of Litchfeld, is very novel and de- ightful. There no trees to speak of, eX- | cept here and there clump or belt of scrub oaks or pines, nor fences, and you drive whith- CT soever you will. There are no regularly | laid out roads, but there are numerous tracks | leading to the principal towns. They all lead l to Nantucket as they all used to lead to Rome. | The wheels have made deep grooves in the | sand and gravel, and when you once get in | there is no getting out short of the terminus. | There is generally track for double and | single team each way, and the rule is to keep the right hand track, there is no difficult | ty in meeting teams. If you wish to go to particular place, all you have to do is to get & | horse accustomed to the tracks, az they all are | here, head him in the right direction, give | him the reins, and in the course of time you
 will reach the desired destination, Our course | led up to 'Sconscet, and what funny old
 town it is who can describe it? Not your
 correspondent his poor description powers l are not equal to the occasion. l thought would leave 1t to our more poetlcal and en- | thusiastic companion, who went 6lmosG into | ecstacies over 1t, and wanted to buy cottage l instantly. 'Sconset is more quaint and old
 fashioned even than Nantucket, but of course l it is OH much smaller scale. consisting al-
 most wholly of small one story wooden cot tages perched on the high bluff overlooking | the ocean. It has become quite summer
 resort, and the cottages during the summer
 are mostly occupied by summer tourists. It | has one advantage over Nantucket it has good surf bathing, and is resofted to 8 good | deal by Nantucketers on that account. After
 the fashionable season is over, a good many | families from Nantucket go there to spend the | month of September, which they say is the
 most delightful season of the year. We dined 1 at the Sea View House, and certainly in some 1 respects it was peculiar Ona. happened tc l look down the table to where my friend was | sitting, and To and behold, he had four dishes | of boiled ca bbage arranged before him like a
 file of soldiers. Whether he ate all of it or
 not we will not affirm, for We were so shocked
 at the extraordinary spectacle, and our ap- 1 prelensions were 90 aroused for fear that
 something might happen to him, we did not
 dare to look in that direction again during | the rest of the meal. After dinner We drove | to SarIaty Lighthouse, about mile distant, l to see the revolving light, which is said to be | the finest one in the country. The Light house occupies the highest point of land on
 the Island, and commands magnificent view
 nf ocean, beach, surf, breakers, waves and | Island. After gazing upon the scene until l our eyes became weary, we turned our horses 1 head towards home, gave hlm the relns, and I he landed us there without accident, in time for supper
 Of course we took run over to Cottage City. We were little curious to see what 1 changes had taken place in the last three | years. There are two three new hotels,
 and the Methodists have erected large iron | tabernacle, tso called,) but with these excep- | tions we did not discover any great changes.
 Indeed we were imprt ssed with the idea that l the place was finished and had reached its climax. We were surprised to see many places in the most desirable locations for sale and to let. The whole place gives one an im~ | pression of the unreal and fantastic-of the | Judy show order. It looks too much as if it were made of fahcy paste board, and 1t is so | pretty, light and airy, one cannot help feeling | an apprehension that if strong North Easter 1 should sweep over it, it would wake up some | morning and ind itself blown oyer into the sea. We went over to see the taDefnaGie. It is large structure, capable. We should sup
 pose, of seating twenty five hundred. It was amp meeting week. and meeting was iu
 progress. There were about three hundred
 present, while all around there were beautiful
 cottages with their occupants sitting al the
 doors. The meeting impressed us that those
 conducting it were doing their part as mat
 ter of duty, but that their hearts were in the
 cottages and gay life surrounding them.
 There did not seem to be any spirit in it-the soul had fled. We prefer staid, old-fashioned. substantial Nantucket. One of the most cu- rious relics of the ancient time, especially to stranger who comes from section where such tni,,.Ns do not abound is the old wind mill |