Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-27
THAT ABOUT PROMINENT VISITORS.

TcHAT ABOUT PROMINENT VISITORS.
Special Correspondence ofthe Sunday Register.
OCEAN CITY, MD, August 25.-I shall ab-
breviate this letter as much as l can, and
en6eayor TO give you in the narrowest COM
pass, what have thought about and seen
at this famous seaside resort in the last
few days, and siRce. my last eOmmunica
ton. There is nothing so much chatted
about or dreamed OF, or that absorbs more
of our conversation at place like this, as
the subject of sea-bathing, whose we'll
known and healthful effects are assigned
as the exclusive reason for turning so many
footsteps hither. That's the excuse so read
ily given by many of US for coming, any
how, and is generally accepted as sutf-
cient one.
Surf Bathing
is not only an exhiliarating and superb
pleasure, but it has grown to be the monu-
mental novelty and sensation OF the period,
in its great innovations upon all the strict
and tight-laced customs and severe regula-
tions Of society life and etiquette. Just
| imagine one thousand ladies and gentle
men of every rank in life, and OF every
| level of fortune and intelligence and Gull
ture, waving with the utmost freedom
every caution and social restraint, almost,
and giving up, with the most delicious
! abandon, to the matchleSs charms and
seductive temptations OF sea pain.
And il your imaginatiODs are well develop
Led and hunger for kindred scenes, just let
Nthem suppose all these thousand good
peolle in the water
| Throbbing with the Momentum of the
Tides,
floating. laundering, plunging, splashing,
! dancing. diving and reveling among the
| grand pillows, as though they were all deni'
| GEMS of the mighty waters around them,
and could subdue them at will. Fun, we'll
yes, a heap of it. You can just stake your
| best and biggest ducats that it is princely
| fun, fun galore, as exciting rs champagne
and ever so nice and Jolly, invigorating and
| glorious. | came pretty nearly at this
| iuncture perpetrating an innocent double
! entente, but / forbear, and leave it to the
| fertile minds of the old
.'CIub of Ruckies'
| to grasp it. Do you catch on, boys? OF
| course. il is rule, from which some depart
| ures are allo we'd rule more honored, how
| ever, in the breach than in the observance
| OF it, for the lady and gentlemen bathers 70
| dress, and array themselves as scantIly and
| Sparingly as possible, and according 10 the
| latest most fashionable and la.de-dah bath
| ing regularilieS. Let me make the picture
nearer your eyes and thoughts. Just think
| If an acre of good, and genial, modest and
refined people, representing the very best
| families OF our continent, all mixed up
with the maddened waves together like
children. and seemingly as playfully and
CareleSSly, and you lay right hold OF my;
| idea of what is the novel and sensational
| part of ocean life in the summer tides.
| And when broad smiles rise in profuSlon
| at the
| Seantness and Brevity Of the Costumes,
| and YOU laugh till your sides ache at the
| batbers. tossed about like strawS, by the in
| hospitable surgings and blows of the tides,
YOU get fair sense of the keen enjoyment
our SojOurners have afforded them, as they
! take in the peculiar spectacle from the
| beach. One morning. when the surfis strong,
| high. and reaching for the clouds, as they
| do, will suffice 10 convince your readers
| how far the ocean baths have disturbed, to
the easily shocked natrons aud fathers, the
| social and conventional requirements of the
country. old maids with their soap locks
pattiug their faded cheeks, and heartless
Iand lOveleSs bachelors, who hide
I\their charms from even their COM
panions the cats, and who would blush red
der than red flannel under other cirCum-
stances at the sights some of them, attired
for their a5lution, present here
K Walk in to the pillows of Brine.
like old salts, with their arms and ankles
bare and exposed, and their aesthetic and
paraliZing modesty at home is forgotten, as
they crawl into theiI short and slight sea
dress and robes. Maids with eyes as bright
| as sunbeams and with faces flashing with
youthful freshness and girliSh beauty, and
pure as the dew drops, throw OIL unabash-
| cd and with a readiness that would occasion
surprise and diSmay elsewhere and here if it
were not for the inc XOrable demands of fash
ion, their parlor delicacy and refinement, and
| don their hlOOmer dresses, and with their
lovely arms bare, and their lower limbs
from the knees down, enclosed in the show
| lest stockings of the most exquisite colors
| and hues, and thus arrayed, not as royalty
| us Solomon, but with every charm to the
eyes of the sun, they run and dive and dip
INTO the waves like the traditional mer-
maids or the legendary princeSses OF the
sea. And these fascinating damsels enjoy,
without stint or limit, the baths that
Queens In Purple and Gold Might Envy.
The stronger and Sterner sex dress usu-
| ally in various colOred tiannelS some OF
which fit splendidly upon handsomely
shaped bodies, until they are wet and baggy
and ashame Apollo. And yet amid all
Il is miscellaneous gathering in the ocean,
of men, women and children, how mex
preSSibly happy and beautiful the whole
scene.
No coarse lips dare risk the articulation
OF an improper or indecent thought Orword.
The lips of any one so preSumptuous as to
try it would be in serious peril. Not
movement or act that would warrant the
-, - Nha form oil
and prudish could be for moment tolera-
teed from all you see and hear. All par
Elephants can bear testimony to the glorious
fact, and Enthusiastically demonstrate the
truth, that amid all the harmless mischief
and sport of the numberless flock OF merry
batherS, there is not even the smallest room
in sill their buoyant and inspiring pleasures
in the depths of the mighty and life be-
slowing waters, for the ugly presence OF
Scandal or Bad Repute
to find lodgment. There is no scandal at
the sea. In four seasons, to your CORE.
SpOndentS knowledge, not q comment OF
reproaCh; not an evil stain or spot; not a
wrong can be found TO be put on any man
or woman of the thousands who have an
nually, and now frequent these splendid
retreats and asylums of health by the sea.
notwithstanding all the necessary and un-
ayoidable faAilisrities that attend both
sexes as they swim side by SIDE, ana patne
and mingle together in the widest enthusi-
sam at their triumphs over the colossal
waves, whose fury makes the sea foam,
and coquette with the most expert swim
mers, sometimes, like playthings. Yet
there is a pure, sound and healthy moral
atmosphere, that encircles all those who
share in the magnificent bath. And there
are many of those who, with manly charac.
ter and knightly courage of the Chevalier
Bayard pattern, would strike down
Pitfilessly, and Unto Death.
the wretch who would dare to breathe
word or offer the slightest offense to
womanly fame or repute. Is this not worth
writing about in a prominent and popular
journal? Is it not peerless tribute, and
fiattering comment 10 the manly and
womanly honor and virtue OF the Ameri-
can peopleH All will uncover their heads
and will applaude this practical exhibition
of high and solid moral worth. And yet an
ordinary representative of the stronger sex