The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-07-15
From The Press, Philadelphia, July I1a, 1885.
CAPE MAY BELLIES.
An Enchanting GALAXY of Young, Beauti.
full, and Graceful Women.

From The Press, Philadelphia, July Ill., 1885.
CAPE MAY BELLIES.
An Enchanting GALAXY Of Young. Beauti-
ful, and Graceful Women.
CAPE MAY, July 10.-At Cape May
beauty is like poverty and beauties like
the poor-ye have them always with you.
Ii is q long stretch from seventy FIVE
years ago till now, but Cape May has
bridged the chasm with an interesting sue
cession of beauty. The bellies OF the olden
time might not recognize their successors
of the present, but the latter are the d.
rect descendants of the former, and as
honestly deserve as did the famous old
beauties tbs right handed down from
summer to summer without break, OF
defending against all corners Cape Mays
claim of supremacy as the resort of lovely
women.
Everybody goes to see the trains come
10 at Cape May, and the effect of the ag.
gregation upon the casual traveller alght-
ing from the cars, not with his eyes full
of cinders and his clothes full of dust as
10 years gone by is very demoralizing
The shock of cold surf bath is nothing
to 1t. It is beauty. beauty all around, but
nary beauty for him. After few trips
to the Cape the casual stranger generally
can stand the strain OF arrival with more
equanimity. He finds that all the beauty
is not inspecting him, after all, and gem
orally, IL he's any sort of a man, he man.
ages to have drop Of beauty all for him
self in the ocean of it that surges around
the station.
BEwITCHING CAPE MAY BEAUTIES.
Whether 1t is that Cape May air de.
velops beauty, or that beauty of the coun-
try has taken upon itself to develop Cape
May, nobody knows, but certain it is
that the worshiper of the ugly can find
no sanctuary for his incense offering at
the Cape. Beauty, attired in clinging
white flannel, walks along the beach un<
der big red sunshades; beauty, ia be-
witching black, with red ribbons and
straw bonnets, goes shopping around the
town beauty, in costumes above the
waist chiefly of lace-black lace some.
times--drive up and down Beach avenue
10 fancy dogcarts beauty, in dreams of
dresses, throngs the hotel ball rooms two
or three nights every week, watching the
dancing and occasionally, very occasion
ally, dancing itself.
Beauty also bathes. So do men and
everybody else at Cape May. Bathing at
Cape May is as delicious as eating good
dinner anywhere else. The beach Is as
broad as the preachers estimate of the
road Bob Ingersoll is travelling; as level
as the head of the office holder who is on
both sides of the fence about the time the
Administration changes, and SO firm and
easy and warm that lying on 1t and watch
ing the sky and the waves is like going
to paradise by the parlor-car route.
The surf at Cape May is like the surf
at no other place 10 the world-worse
luck for the other places. Plunging in it
is the perfection of seaside enjoyment. 1t
has all Of the bracing stimulus of the salt,
without the disagreeable chill. It's long,
even swell makes swimming as easy as 10
lake, and the breakers break just
enough to give pleasant tingle, like the
sparkle in soda water. So safe is the
Cape May surf that the little children
stand In it waist deep, and play ''ring-a-
round a.rosy" and Copenhagen, with
our the necessity of having old folks
watch them.
PICTURESQUE BATHING SCENES.
Custom makes from eleven to one the
bathing hours at the cape, and during
that time the scene on the beach is one
of rare life beauty--a veritable vanity
fair, with the naughtiness left out. Not
everybody battles every day, and the hun
dreds who are mot going in today
dressed in their gayest, walk up and
down and watch the hundreds who are In
The good clothes on the beach and the
gayety In the water make delightful
combination.
Taste in bathing suits at the Cape this
year runs towards the old quiet blues aud
grays. Dark blue, set off with narrow
red braid, and cut ever so little to fit the
figure, is the favorite. A novelty IN surf
caps is a sort of oicloth sunshade of
bright blue or red, but for attractiveness
the red handkerchief, tastefully knotted
into the hair, takes the palm. A new
and very tasteful notion is the wearing of
collars in the surf-not the white lace
frills around the neck, but real stiff white
collars, fastened at the throat with a lit
tie pin, or sometimes with red rosebud
securely pinned on. The little device sets
off the costume wonderfully. The collars
are made of some material that does not
wilt in the breakers, and are as neat
and cool around the throat after half an
hours tumble in the breakers, as before
they were wet at all. Bare arms are
sometimes In, where the arm is q fine one,
but sleeves are still most common. Stock
ings, dark ones usually, and slippers, are
still requisites of the Cape May costume
in the surf.
A local paper yesterday mentioned that
q lady, q guest at one of the hotels, wore
SO weli-ftting bathing suit with her red
stockings that she was universally sd-
mired. To-day twenty-three different
ladies came TO the beach by way of past
that hotel, and all wore cardinal stock
ings. The men couldn't tell which was
the which.
Fishing excursions are very popular
with the summer visitors. A party Of
three ladies on one the other day came
back with story Of having caught four
hundred and seventeen weak-fish. The
oldest and best developed fish-story teller
of the native population shivered as he
heard this tale, and, going out, wept
quietly for half an hour.