Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-08-12

rs much rs II you were In totally new
resort. The Coney Island of to-day
began there and hesmallness OF nearly
all the establishments is characteristic
Of beginnings there, ~ everywhere else.
The rudeDess and slendGrnesS of the diff
ferent attractions Is due also 10 the fact
that vice reigns as the eOnsOrt OF pleas.
uTe, and as vice Is never certain how
long she will remain undisturbed, she
seldom builds solidly. You realize that
if the dens around you had to be aban-
dOned at a moments notice their pro-
prietors and occupants would not lose
much. This, too, is universally the
case, but | won't dwell on these trite
morals. Few people bother with morals
on Coney Island; why should L or you?
You have left behind you three great
and palatial hostelries, the peer OF any
first class summer hotels In the world,
each in its own ample grounds and
each Offering to its patrons the pleas
uTeS of cool sea air, ocean bathing, tasn.
ionsble lOunging, choice music ana
good eating. You are welcome and
can get along there if you have with
you only a spare two dollar Dill. but
IN this other section bathing, lounging,
dining and all such modest recreations
are subordinated to the whirl and
Excitement Of Dissipation.
You are suddenly confronted with
streets and rows of buildings at right
angles with one another; your eyes are
distracted by inuuu.erable gaudy signs,
posters and pictures; your ears are tor
iured with the discord of innumerable
banos, whose art is not to make music
hut to produce racket In which the
best lungs do the fittest work. 1t is
BOwery 1T midnight shifted TO the sea-
beach at midday. Here is animmense
dining. hall, but you see at glance that
il WAS small originally and grew piece
by piece, and at the second view it oc-
curs 10 you that il Is more for drinking
Ian for eating and that the people who
palrOnize ii are either cOuntrywomeu or
male and female sharks. The orchestra
Is composed Of bold females, and riotouS
women are at the tables. IfyOu have
beer in the Atlantic Garden in the
Bowery you know what that means.
Courtesans az the Seaside.
Here are merry go-rounds, with their
screaming bands, one Of them whired
around 10y steam. Tip<y cOurtesans
and befuddled rusticS are riding the
hiGeous animals and have seats in the
Iawdry chariots, and they have driven
away the children, for whom the ma
chires were devised. There are five or
six museums-One q genuine affair. and
he rest merely baited traps TO gather
the unwary into the hands Of gamblers,
swindlers aud thieves. Each has its
lung straining, ear splitting band. Next
you see some small cottages and minia-
lure hotels, in which are painted wo.
men in loose gowns. These are branches
of the city's poisonous establishments.
The Outeasts are sent from the city houses
to the seaside To stay week and then
return and give place to another batch.
Here is an immense iron observatory
on "A skeleton of rods, thick enough, but
20 tall as 10 look like so much wiIe. This
is Il moral attraction and so is the hOl.
low, Undiscovered cow full of milk to
be drawn from tin teats by fair German
hands and retailCd at ) cents glass.
Virtue Reigns Also.
at the score of tents where clam
ChCwuer AID clam rOastS are purveyed
aud in shautiea where you are invited
TO throw basGLallS at live dan keys
head, with a five cent cigar ~ the
premium to the man who chances to
whack the agile ebOD skull once in
three trials. SO also are the big iron
piers that jut into theOCean respectable.
| There are TWO of them. Thousands that
go to Coney Island never get farther
| than them. They have the sail and
once Oh the piers they get the breeze,
! bear the music, enjoy an eight-cOurSe
| dinner for II and see the constant boat
| loads landed aud taken away. TIE
| pieIs have barrOOms, prOmenades, con
/ cert halls and restaurants on their
| spacious floors. But to return to the
| shOTe-theTe arc still other places where
| virtue Ii excluded; where the city gam-
blers have set up branch sets of gamjng
| paraphernalia for the summer season.
| ShOOting-ga galleries, b0wling-alleys and
| plain gin mills are as numerous as the
| plaques OF Egypt, and in them all aud
| IN the other places and In the sandy
| avenues that intersect this motley set
Element you have to make your way
through crowds.
The Can-Cap Dance.
1t il just as lively there at 10 \. NJ.
~ at 10 o'clock at night. 1t is livelier
there on Sundays than on week days.
The New Workers live under laws form
ed by blending the old English statutes
with the Puritan blue laws, but they are
rot i'm sympathy with their laws and
| hey leap at q chance or place to show
how their letters goad then.
They are Of every creed and ma
ton and when they get together for a
good time their human nature shows
more plainly than their respect for
legislation. At night electric lights
blaze on every hand and colored lamps
and flariug naphths torches add to the
picturesqueneSs of the scene. Now the
great asSembly-roOm is busiest. On one
floor topped by q roof but with no side
walls, so that one can see the outermost
dancers from the beach, twenty sets
sre gliding and promenading through
the lanciers. People will tell you that
many ofthe young women have homes
to go 10, but you will doubt the testi.
mOny Of your eyes or ears, or both, II
you stay long and look observiugly
around you. The majority Of the young
men, even in the waltzes, are smoking
cigars, and some OF the girls hold cigar.
cites between their teeth. Here and
there girl falls in heap, drunk. The
floor manager tells you to let him show
YOU something. He takes you to part
of the immense floor where the Virginia
reel is TURF ed into 3 can-can. You turn
away ashamed to have looked. In
France there may be poetry even in
immodesty. French women are artis-
tic. The worst they do is but sugges-
tive. But these clumsy peOple-the
floor manager chuckles as be whispers
that they are from Billy McGiOry's.
That explains it. Walk back, If you
will, to the hotels at the first part OF
the Island We came to. They are yir.
tuaIly closed for the night and only the
Office and q room here and there display
lights. The watchmen have the
grounds to themselves. The guests are
sleeping the sleep of the virtuous. J.
QUEER ACCIDENTS.
The cutting Of q part of colorsd
wrapper from q bar of soap caused the
Sa.rp Of :. Hftla GIRL nf West Iibprfy ky,