The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-08-31
WATERING PLACES.
Long Branch, EIberon and ocean
Grove.
A Seaside CamPmeetIng All sum.
mer-Ugly WOmen-Sunday
Laws and Week Day Fir.
tRIi0n.
OCEAN GROVE, N. j., Aug. 20.

Laws and Week Day Fir.
taIion.
OCEAN GROVE, n. j., Aug. 20.
To the Editor OF the Statesman:
Commencing at point on the
Jersey coast twenty-five miles south
of New York city, then extends in O
southerly direction for fifteen-and
no matter how many more-miles
nearly straight, unbroken line of
beach. There is nothing but
sand to the beach, there is nothing
but sand to the bluff, which in places
rising to heighth of twenty feet
overhangs it, and there Is little
but sand to the shore for
some rods back from the bluff.
this fifteen miles of water front must
have looked much the same as all
the rest. geographically the diff
ferent parts look much alike to-day.
In point of artificial attraction, how
ever, there is very great difference,
especially at this time of the year.
To the east nothing to be seen but is
the open Atlantic, with many a YES
sci coming from and going to New
York. To the west, half a mile and
more back from the beach, there are
hills. swamps, trees, towns and
farms.
This strip of coast is the summer
resort for many of those fortunate
New Workers who can afford some
thing more expensive than the
so popular half-hour to half
day trip to Coney Island.
The part of it which Is most
noted is about in the center, that is
about thirty miles from New York,
and extends for a distance of over
two miles. 1t is Long Branch. 1t is
at this point that you will find the
hotels as well as the cottages largest
and most numerous. They stretch
along in straight line, all facing
the ocean, from which they are sep
arated, first by their own yards and
lawns, next by a wide road where
all the show driving is done, then
by a narrow public lawn at the edge
of the bluff which overlooks the
rather narrow beach.
Lite at Long Branch may be
said to consist of bathing and
seeing the bathing in the morn
ing, driving and seeing the driving
in the afternoon, and dancing and
seeing, the dancing in the evening.
And in all these pleasures the spec
tators far outnumber the partici-
pants. The bathers are mainly made
up from the best aristocratic visit
ors; those who are out driving con-
sist largely of the richest and most
aristocrstic; while the dancing in
the evening is done by a rather
young set, and to a considerable ex-
tent by the children. So much for
Long Branch proper.
Joining it on the south is Elberon,
which may be said to consist entire
ly of cOttages-that is to say, there is
no hotel OF any size and no place of
business, every private house of
whatever size or shape being called
cottage.
Many of these cottages are very
handsome the two most noted ones,
however, that one in which Garfield
died and the one owned by Grant,
being about the plainest.
Some miles further south Is Ocean
Grove, the place from which l write,
and which has impressed me as be-
ing decidedly the place having the
best claim to my time and your
space. Ocean Grove is, guess, I'M
like any other watering place that
| ever was or ever will be. For sea-
son every year there is Methodist
camp-meeting here, but the class of
L hok nd
conventional ways they have with
each other and with strangers, make
the place seem like per-
petual camp meeting. 1t is as
| much a summer resort
as any other part of this coast, but
resort frequented mainly by semi
fashionable people of moderate
means and free and easy behavior.
The hotels are cheaper in every re-
spect than those at Long Branch,
Seabright and elsewhere, and much
larger proportion of the people live
in cottages-but in boarding. house
cottages, mind you, not family ones.
Many people.live in tents, too; or
rather, in houses made of cloth,
which they rent for few weeks at
time. The place is fanatically re-
ligious and good. Services are held
outdoors under al immense roof,
where you can take your gospel sit
ting, standing or walking, as you
choose. Not only is the sale of liquor
prohibited and enforced, but 80 also
is the sale of tobacco. Sunday is
observed. No train or engine is
ever allowed to pass over the road
| through the town, and no rowing or
| driving whatever, is then allowed.
The town is surrounded by a strong
fence, and on Saturday night all the
roadway gates are shut and locked,
and not even for a funeral or doctor
can they be opened until Monday
morning. Nothing is allowed to be
sold there on Sunday, not even a
glass of soda water, a newspaper,
a meal at a restaurant, or quart of
milk. There is ferry-boat cross :
ing a little lake to the adjoining town
of Asbury Park. On week days
the ferry boat is rowed back
and forth, and the toll is
one cent, but on Sundays the boat
is pulled back and forth by a rope,
and the ride is free one. Surf
bathing Is then allowed for only a
single hour in the morning. On
week days, however, bathing is very
extensively r, sorted to at all hours,
and by all classes, no one here, ap-
parently, being too nice or too ex-
elusive to rig themselves out in such
scanty garments as it would be in
decent for them to expose them
selves in at any other than a seaside
resort. There the women not only
show themselves on the beach in
bathing suits, but they go through
the town in them, putting them on
at their houses and returning from
their bath in them for the sake of saw
ing the expense of hiring bathing
house. They even stop at the religi-
GUS meeting without taking the
trouble to change to their usual APP
parel, alternating between surf and
prayer, and thus showing that
with them cleanliness is the
next thing to goodness. The
entire town site is owned by
q religious association, and the
most that any person can get who
wsnts to go there and build is long
term lease, revocable if tobacco is
90 ell IN