Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1886-10-15
ANNAPoLIs. ND. FRIDAY EVENING. OCTOBER Is. 1856
IN SEARCH OF RECREATION.
The American way-Better Management
ofExcursions in China-The Gardens.

| The American way-Better Management
ofExcursiOns in China-The Gardens
Managers of excursions from New
York and other large American cities
complain that they are not patronized
by the people who have more taste.
The people alluded to would probably
say, il they thought it worth while to
reply at all, that there is no reason why
they should 60 ON excursions such as
leave the city every day. What are the
inducements? Does any one who has q
comfortable house, or even quiet flat,
see any pleasure in squeezing into
crowd ON big steamboat. fighting for
camp stool TO sit on, smelling bad cigars
for an hour or more, and then be
dumped into the centre of another big
crowd at Coney Island, Rockaway or
Long Branch? What is there to do
when one of these resorts is reached?
The people among whom one is thrown
are strangers to him, and apparently as
uninteresting as if selected for that
special purpose; there are no rational
amusements except eating and drinking,
and these have to be done in a crowd,
with another crowd. as spectators. One
may listen to music, perhaps, by good
band, but there is at the same time a
ceaseless clatter of feet on the walk be-
hind. He may bathe, but he must do it
with mixed lot of men, women and
children and when at last he becomes
disgusted and hastens homeward he
must fight with crowd for a seat on a
boat or train.
They manage these things better in
far away China. City people there are
very fond of excursions, but they, not
the owners of boats and trains. make up
the parties, which never number more
than twenty; strangers are vigorously
excluded. The boats are not large; they
are made for the purpose, but their ut
most capacity is about twenty people.
When all is ready sails are hoisted, oars
dipped or steam started, and the family
or party of friends HE away to gar
den previously engaged for the day.
These gardens may be found by hun
dreds on the shore of all rivers, sounds
and bays near Chinese cities. They are
small, sometimes being only a single
acre in area, but they are hedged high
enough to keep off the intrusive gaze of
outsiders; they contain shade trees,
shrubbery, neatly trimmed grass plots,
and abundance of blooming plants, from
which visitors may pick as many flowers
as they like. There are also seats, benches,
hammocks, and wooden or bamboo
shelter in case of rain. In such place
little party may enjoy itself as unre-
servedly as If it were in private grove;
the men may roll on the grass, toss off
their hats and outer garments, play ball,
and shout, without attracting the atten-
ton of the police, and their elders may
sit all day talking politics or scandal
without being told to move on. Lovers
can sit in such a garden with their arms
about each other and not find themselves
in Jail for an offense against public taste,
as some couples in Central park have
done.
At these Chinese gardens no one has
to fight for something to eat and then
pay several prices for the privilege Of
eating it. A party may take its own
luxuries, tea, birds nest jelly, cold
sliced puppy, picked sharks fins, or
what not, or it may order of the keeper
of the grounds, who, on overcharging,
has his head Topped off at once by the
public executioner. When inclined to
sail, boat is called, and the party is
taken wherever it chooses to go, instead
of following beaten path of passenger
boats. The trio of Italian torturers who
seem part of the crew of every Coney
Island or Rockaway boat, are not on
board, but there always is music, and
although the instruments of which the
Celestials are fondest sound strange to
western ears. they are not, at their
worst, as bad as the harp, fiddle and
| flute, which are inflicted upon all excur-
sionists here. There never is a fight on
the home trip. The Chinese excursion
ist never has to fear that the person al
his right may be pickpocket and the
woman at his left no better than she
should be. The landing is not made al
the docks farthest from the excursion
lists homes, nor is the Decentralization a
a signal for the blood-curdling howl by
the passengers. Cor. New York Hour.
The aScfemco's OF Pitching.