The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-08-26
BAR HARBOR.

The attraction OF Bar Harbor is in
the union of mountain and sea; the
rise in granite majesty right
out of the ocean.
The genesis of Bar Harbor is curious
and instructive. For many years, like
other settlements on Mount Desert Is
land, it had been frequented by people
who have more fondness for nature than
they have money. and who were willing
to put up with wretched accommoda-
tions, and enjoyed wild sort of rough
ing it" But some society people in New
York, who have the reputation of setting
the mode. CHANGED to go there; they de-
clared in favor of it; and instantly. by
an occult law which governs fashionable
life, Bar Harbor became the fashion.
Everybody could see its pre-eminent at
fractions. The word was passed along
by the Boudoir Telephone from Boston
TO New Orleans, and soon it was mat
ter of necessity for Il debutdnte, or a
woman of fashion, or man of the world,
or a bldSe boy, to show themselves there
during the season. 1t became the scene
of summer romances; the student of
manners went there to study the ''Amer-
lean Girl" The notion spread that it
was the finest sanitarium on the cOnti-
nent for fiirtations; and as trade is said
to follow the flag, so in this case real
estate speculation rioted in the wake of
beauty and fashion.
Our tourists passed weary, hot day on
the coast railway of Maine. Notwith-
standing the high temperature the coun-
try seemed cheerless, the sunlight to fall
less genially than in more fertile regions
to the south, upon a landscape stripped
of its forests, naked, and unpicturesque.
They were plunged into cold bath
on the steamer in the half-hour's sail
from the end of the rail to Bar Harbor.
The wind was fresh, white-caps enliv-
ened the scene, the spray dashing over
the huge pile of baggage on the bow.
the passengers shivered, and could little
enjoy the islands and the picturesque
shore, but fixed eyes of hope upon the
electric lights which showed above the
headlands and marked the site of the
hotels and the town in the hidden har-
bor Spits of rain dashed in their
faces, and in some discomfort they
came to the wharf, which was alive with
vehicles and tooters for the hotels. In
! short, with its lights and noise, it had
every appearances of being an import
ant place, and when our party, holding
on to their seats in a blackboard, were
whirled at gallop up to Rodick's, and
ushered into a spacious office swarm
ing with people, they realized that they
were entering upon a lively if some.
| what hap-hazard life. The first con.
| fused impression was of a bewildered
number of slim. pretty girls, nonchalant
! Young fellows in lawn-tennis suits, and
indefinite opportunities in the halls and
parlors and wide piazzas for prone
nades and flirtations.
Rodick's is sort of big boarding
house, hesitating whether to be hote
or not; no bells in the room, no bills o.
fare (or rarely one), no wine list, a go
as-you-please, help-yourself sort of place
which is popular because it has its owl
character, and everybody drifts into il
first or last. Some say it is an acquired
taste; that people do not take to it a
first The big office is a sort of assem-
scanned and discovered, and it is un
blushingly called the '.tish-pond' by
the young ladies who daily angle there
Bar Harbor was indeed an interest
ing society study. Except in some o
the cottages, it might be said that so
ciety was on lark. With all the man
ners of the world and the freemasonr,
of fashionable life, it had elected to b.
unconventional. The young ladie
liked to appear in nautical and lawn
tennis toilet, carried so far that on
might refer to the .'cut of their jib,
and their minds were not much givel
to any elaborate dressing for evening
AS to the young gentlemen, fthere wer
any dress-coats on the island, they too
, pains not to display them, but delighte
in appearing in the evening prone
made, and even in the ballroom, in tn
nondescript suits that made them S
conspicuous in the morning, the favorit
being dress of stripes, with stripe
Jockey cap to match, that did not sus
gest the penitentiary uniform, becaus
in State-prlsons the stripes run round
This neglige costume was adhered t
even in the ballroom. To be sure, tn
ballroom was little frequented. only Al
adventurous couple now and then glid
ing over the floor, and affording sean
amusement to the throng gathered ol
the piazza and about the open windows
Mrs. Montrose, a stately dame of tn
old school, whose standard was tn
court in the days of Calhoun, Clay, an
Webster, disapproved of this laxity, an
when couple of young fellows il
striped array one evening whirle
round the room together, with briel
wood pipes in their mouths, she wa
scandalized. If the young ladies share
her sentiments. they made no resolut
protests, remembering perhaps tn
scarcity of young men elsewhere. an
thinking that it is better to be loved b
a lawn-tennis suit than not to be love
!, at all. The daughters of Mrs. Mon
rose thought they should draw the lin
on the brier-wood Charles Du'
} leg Warner, in Harper's Magazine il