National Republican., 1883-08-18


and criticise the inhabitants, and make your
self as obnoxious as people generally do who
feel that no ono knows them and they
have no reputation to lose. We were
interested in the little brown colluloid
coins, about as big as a five cent
piece, which they use for car tickets,
and thought them a great Improvement on
the tiny, elusive scraps of the avenue car
line, which you never can find when an inn
patient conductor stands with his punch
poised before you We had also the good
luck to discover gem of poesy in the shape
of epitaph in the old graveyard, which, for
soaring originality and scorn of conventional
metres, struck mo as almost Whitmanic:
In memory of Nm,
Departed this life oct. 2, 1901.
He lived much beloved,
His death we laments 1t.
The dust returned to dust again,
The soul to God from whence it came.
Apropos of epitaphs, nothing on this jour
bey is so striking as the oceans of water
melons Where do they all come from?
There can be no question where they go to,
for Of all the vast armies of darkeys we saw
not one but had his nose buried in at least a
segment of one. In Baltimore as we drove
past the Light street wharf, we would not
have been surprised to hear that the entire
colored population of tho United States was
assembled. Fleets of sloops were moored
there, in which the lightning calculator esti-
mated that there were 100000 watermelons,
and we could readily believe it.
OF course as we started from Baltimore
there was q representation of pretty girls on
the steamer, though wherever you 60 on
your travels you are sure to see gay, chatter
ing parties of girls, their soft, pink checks
and shaggy bangs looking all the prcttier
for the close fitting dark, plain dresses most
of them wear now did not at all sympa-
thize with the cynic who growled "They
hn mi yIna,, han,, "a
sea day or two" But little later, when
one of the numerous party of seers-off con-
trived, in defiance Of innumerable bells and
whistles, to stay on board until the boat
started, and it had to put back and the gang
plank. with much perspiration and profanity
be showed on again, and she tripped shipper
ing off, did sympathize little with the
cynic when he said openly, Girls are such
fools"
The salt sea breezes are very we'll for girls
with lovely Martha Washington foreheads,
but for less fortunate maidens who wish Ia
veil their Websterian brows with clustering
ringlets they are rather destructive But
ah when we suffered the sea change" that
soon came DER us, little we rocked of our
bangs When we got up in the morning after
stormy night outside" and tumbled and
tottered up on deck, we knew we were mon
sters of hideousness, and we gazed idly at
other monsters Of hideousncsS, and didn't
care. We went on deck any way, because
the day seems even longer to lie in your
berth with no outlook but one round
hole, filled as tho vessel bitches, alternately
with low, gray sky, and great tumbling
green waves, with silver, plumy heads. But
on deck il is almost worse to hear ono old
gentleman after another, between their par
oxysms, tell with much fat, hearty laughter
that Henry Ward Bcecher said that tho first
day you were seasick you were afraid you
would die, and tho next day you were afraid
you wouldn't Round trip tickets on Satur-
day were quoted way below par, and most of
us when we got to Boston agreed with the
Baltimore girl who is reported to have said
when she returned from Europe that she was
glad to get on terra Gotta again.
After the tumble and the tossing of the
sea- the steady grandeur of the mountains is
very refreshing and it was delightful to leave
Boston in the early morning, and ms the day
went by and the train climbed up, up, up
to begin to SEQ the soft purple bloom Of dis.
tant mountains and to feel their spicy air
and by and by to see great granite boulderS
cropping up in the fields, and as the air grows
cooler, here and there red branch or a yell
low one flame out in the woods. And once
fairly in this, ono of the loveliest of the lovely
White mountain intervales, with tho Pemige.
wasset river ripping past, tho eye never tires
OF looking out upon the circling amphthea-
ter Of hills, cloudy, misty, or sun bright, pur-
pie, gray, blue-green, and opal, with changing
soft lights, and softer shadows. 1 know that
"Blair's" is one of the things not generally
known, and | know that with inborn egotisn
we all think that II u place has not attracted
our attention it can't be very much of place
But when this spot once lays its spell upon
you, you arc bound to come back, sooner or
later. / leave it to regular, systematic, news.
paper letter writers to tell you its altitude
and temperature, and other instructive
points, l only know that the air is cool and
fresh and smells of the mountains and the
pines; that the smooth, grassy slope TO the
river, the summer houses and hammoeks, the
gay tennis dresses, like bright flowers on the
vivid green grass, where tournaments now
going on, and whence light laughter and cries
of "love, fifteen, &C." float up to me, make a
very attractive picture this summer after
noon. All around are smooth, hard roads foI
riding and driving and every day parties &c
to the Profile house and the flume and all the
other celebrities of the mountains. OF course
we see regiments of white fan.
mel quits, and armies of blue ones on the
girls, knickerbockers and an astonishing
variety of bad legs and few good ones on the
men for there are men. Unlike most summer
resorts, where one sees little between the
hoary head Of age and the downy cheek oi
extreme youth, there are n few full grown
men who are not aged. Most of them have
their quarters in what they call the Pelican
an odd little red cottage across rustic bridge
and the tennis courts, which succession OF
summer guests have made into a picturesque
retreat AS it was built in 1913, it is moi
Queen Anne, but its dull red color and sloping
roof are quite as effective, The presiding
genius is vividly portrayed on the outside
with the appropriate inscription;
Why call II the Pelican2
To nobody tell l can.
only know briefly
We call 1t so chiefly
Because IL is So
And now dye know?
Inside a sitting room is eaborately fitted
up, and over it's big, open fire place clever
hands have inscribed in old-fashioned text:
The fire. clogs, shoyels, ana the tongs
The bellows with their leathern lungs,
The wood, the ashes, aud the smoke
DO all Its righteousness provoke
On one side is n line from Virgil, "DeH
NobiS kdeo Otie fecit," and on the other the
verse from tho Psalms; I" / am lyke pelican
of ye wilderness; ! am lyke an owl Of "
desert" An artist of tho crowd has bril-
liantly decorated all the door panels, and
numerous fans and rugs, owls and pelicans in
every form, complete this very attractive
interior.
What Mr.. Yellowplush calls the Safety