The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-07-22
Where Perpetual Picnic Prevails

Where a Perpetual Picnic Prevails
Amusements Found at Brighton
To-day finds me down at Coney island,
this magical city of pleasure by the sea
Here the world seems all holiday time.
A perpetual picnic prevails, and it is dttt1-
cult to conceive of care In the first place,
it is perfect day. Nature never fiuttered
a fairer leaf from the folds of her book.
The shadows on the sea are as varied as 3
Florentine mosaic. The purple of pansy
away off there where the sun is clOuded,
while here at our feet the breakers fringe
the golden sands with silver. A CLEAN OF
sapphire like the bluest break in
shoWery sky, has fallen athwart the main
distance, and through it white-Winged
boat, full-saled, goes courtseylng down
the wind. A haze hangs over all, like the
mist that rises from meadow at dawn,
and the shadowy dOmes and towers of far
off Rockaway breaks through like city
in the air.
1t is tnconceivable that New York
should have been so slow to appropriate
and use this beautiful island. For years
and years this strip of sea-girt sand might
as well have lain in mid-Ocean as here. A
few roughs came down now and then ana
perpetrated dark deeds that gave flavor
of disrepute to the island Nobody who
pOcket-book ever came here in those days.
Now, half-hour boats and numerous lines
of cars bring down all New York. Many
come by private conveyance over the
smooth anG beautiful boulevard lead
from the city TO the very margin OF the
sea.
Brighton at its Ioveliest, in the full tide
of the season, can not excel this wonder
land of pleasure. There is everything OF
which folly ever dreamed of in the line OF
amusement here. Are you fond of riding
the feet-footed ostrich, the gentle COW,
the domestic rooster, or the roaring hon
of the desert, to say nothing OF the stately
giraffe, and the mettlesome swan? Here
you have your chance in the "merry-go-
round" Only cents, and you can mount
any one of these animals, richly caparl-
soned, and fly around a ring to the lnsplr-
ing strains of a brass band.
If you want to spin like a rocket
through the air; if you want to hoIu
your hat while your back hair falls OF
and in your ears the elements of wind and
fire make merry, ride down the switch
back" You take a seat at the top of the
inclined plane-you flash down the plane
like paper through a printing press; you
skim up another like a swallow on the
wing; you dart down again like falling
star and up again like kerosene-teo
flame, and your ride is accomplished. For
another cents you mount the elephants
back and indulge in light refreshments I'D
different parts of the body. believe they
serve lemonade in one of his ears, and ID
the mysterious recesses of his inside you
can buy caramels and sweet cakes.
Should you care for milk, several stuffed
cows stand about under gay canOpies.
Milk is surreptitiously introduced through
a hole in the back, little behind the ear,
and man draws it fresh from the udders
and presents it with a wink of superhu-
man cunning. Donkeys and horses are on
hire, Whereon you can canter over the
sands and into the sea if you like. Little
children are playing all about, thicker
than sand-fieas, and the whole scene is
one of perfectly unallOyed rapture and
content.-"Amber" in Chicago Journal