The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-07-11
ON R0CKA W AY BEACH.
ONE JERSEY CITY MANS PART IN
IN ITS IMPROVEMENT.

iNlTS IKPR0YEMINT.
Finance Commissioners Datz,s Successful |
Efforts to Clear the Popular Seaside |
Resort of ifE DrnwbaciSs.-The Attrac-
lions Of the Piace.-A Family Breathing
.RocKAwAx BEACH, July 10. The visitors
10 this delightful seaside resort have Presi-
dent DATE of your local Board of Finance
largely to thank for the change that has
been wrought here within the last few
years. When he first established his
hostelrie at the first landing,
gamblers abounded, pickpockets piled
their trade on every hand, the innocent
and unsophsticated were beguiled out of
their money by the ssfakirs" of every de-
scription, and the sludge acid men poured
oil on the troubled waters to the great
discomfort of bathers. His quick percep-
ton convinced him that if these could be
driven out, the one draw back that pre-
vented this from becoming the popular
resort would be removed. The result was
the organization Of a sort of Vigilance
Organization among those having interests
here; and with characteristic energy he led
in the war of suppression. His activity
pointed him out as the man to hold the
reins of government, and last year he was
made President of the Society. He has
just been reelected this year, and is be-
lieve the only Jerseyman in the Association,
the only one from any place I believe,
except Brooklyn and Williamsburgh. He
began hunting the ssfakirs" the moment he
came here, and his relentless pursuit has
driven them all away. For a season he had
start, and when they found that wouldn't
work, lodged him; and, when they found
that wouldn't work, made up their mind
that he meant business and ssgot up and
got in, short order. Only the sludge acid
remained. TO abate that Nuisance the Asso-
citation is insisting upon arigid enforcement
OF the law that forbids its dumping within
a line many miles from the coast. The re-
suit is that the objections which, for atime
threatened to destroy the attractiyeness of
the Beach as popular resort have all been
removed. Everything that can be an offence
to nice tastes is set down upon at once and
discouraged. weat-boards no longer line
the coasts (; the tough element finds none
of the attractions that pleased them to the
exclusion of everybody better than they !;
and one of the most beautiful bathing
beaches in the world has become again one
of the most popular of near seaside re-
sorts. The Association is made up of hotel
keepers and property owners, and the
money with which their scheme of vigi-
lance is carried out isIraised by assessme nt
among them. They have forty policemen
on guard, and have just begun the erection
of leck-up for the imprisonment of evil
doors.
MIR. DATES prominence as the inaupura-
tor of this new epoch in the history of the
Beach is due primarily, Of course. to
his fitness as leader. But the importance
of his property interests here has not been
without its weight among his associates.
He is master of one of the largest of the
hotels on the Beach, and one Of the most
central in its location. His awning ex-
tends for 200 feet along the main avenue
The pavilion along the track of the Wood
haven and Rockaway Beach Railroad is 265
feet long. He is continually enlarging and
improving, and he is now having canopy
200 feet long stretched over resting-place
across the way from the main establish
ment. The trains stop right at his door.
and the FIRST landing of the Grand Repub-
Lie is only few feet away. Last Sunday
and Monday 100000 people arrived here
on the trains and boats. Of these &c. 600
or more stopped at DATES. He needed the
services of a corps of 100 servants to wait
upon them. So it is the week around.
Parties drop off here and there along the
line OF travel, but the crosrd gets down in
front of his door.
Throngs of people have blackened the
beach almost every day this week, and long
strings of bathers stretched far into the
sea. Lattle children play with the advance
ing and recediDg waves, the more daring
getting their feet wet as the result of their
miscalculations. Ponies dash up and down.
while parents rest on the sands and
Keep watehful eyes upon the young hope
fuls mounted on their backs. Up the
walk men and women pour into the CASH o
to chat over glasses of foaming beeer
while listening to the beeuilinc mus;c Of
the concert. Young ones haul half-williur
mothers by their dresses into the Dime
Museum, and they are glad when they see
the inside to think that they yielded, for it
is an attractive exhibition and ia a ehean
one. In the shades of the groves faunilv
parties gather around the homemade Ian
cheon, and devour 1t with as much appetite
as they might the choicest yiands Of the
hotel, and within their hearingis the music
that adds zest to the. sport of the whirlinQ
y-go-rounds, with their freight of d.
minutive riders. The dandy may take his
best girl to Manhattan to whisper sweet
notMngs in her ear. He has the treat OF
music and q stroll on the sands: but for
the family party Rockaway Beach beats the
deck.
3. of V.'s ON n Picnic.
Ellsworth Post, No. 10, Sons OF yeter-