The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-03
CANOEING NTHEHUDS0N
FAIR MAIDS WHO ENJOY 1T IN
SEPTEMBER.
A New Recreation of the Summer Girl
Sometimes She Paddles Her Own
Canoe, Oftener a Young Man Does
1t for Rer-She Enjoys it Either Way.
Copyrighted 1885. }

Copyrighted 1887
NEW YORK, Sept. lit is Saturday
afternoon. The flood tide is running three
miles an hour. The sun is bright but there
Is a brisk little wind which keeps the Hud'
son water dancing. The swell from a
steamer in mid-river sets the broad float
moored Off boathouse at the foot OF a
street in the one hundred and fifties bobbing
and curtsaying in as graceful fashion as
such numbering object can.
A young fellow in white flannel shirt,
white duck knickerbockers and white yacht
ing cap is sliding into the water the pretti-
est craft that floats, a small decked canoe.
Her polished cedar sides shed the water
like ducks feathers as her bow goes under,
comes up again and she floats alongside.
She has no thwarts or rowlocks, but two
cushions are flung into her bottom and on
the float lie two long douhle-bladed paddles.
Now, then" says the young fellow, and
a girl steps lightly in. Her feet are on the
steering yoke under the front hatch aud
one of the paddles lies across her knees.
She leans in half-reclining posture against
her swinging blackboard, the young man
seats himself on the cushion behind her, the
paddles rise and fall and-hallo, the spray
is slapped fairly in the girls lace, as the
canoe dives into curling wave.
There is a small black box on the float.
1t is detective camera for river photogra-
ply. The canoeing couple have forgotten
it. No, they are coming back again to take
it in The girls shoulders and arms are
drenched and there is water drop running
off the tip of her nose Does she carer She
is wearing blouse and short skirt of dark
blue Jersey cloth with white girdle round
70 nd FL
felt SLOUGH hat on her head. She has on
low, rubber-soled shoes In chamoise leather.
Five minutes of sunshine and smooth water
will dry her off and leave not a trace of the
rivers kisses behind. Care? 1t would not
discommode her greatly if you flung her
overheard. She has padded her own
canoe from March to November and knows
every mood of the Hudson as she knows the
face of her mother. Once again the
paddles dip on one side, then on the other
The canoe is tossing like a chip in mid
stream.
But the float is not empty. Another
white shirted canoeist is running up a spread
of Canvas to take advantage of the wind.
"All right, Mary" he says, when the main
sail and dandy are adjusted, and with Mary
tucked inside another canoe is scudding
before the breeze Mary's captain is not
tucked inside The canoe heels as the sails
belly aud, perched on the deck with toes
clinging under the opposite SIDE he leans
well out 10 windward. Now and again a
heavy wave burjes his shoulders in the
water Mary laughs as the breeze blows
sitter. She is used to the canoes frolics,
besides she sits on a rubber air cushion
which answers every purpose of life pre-
server. The wind and foam crisp her hair
and she trails her hands in the water as one
wave after another lifts the stern and then
lets it down with swash into the hollow
The white caps are curling over the whole
stretch of the river and the canoeists are
coming cut in force. Here is a party Of
four on gypsying intent. They have two
canoes, and what are they storing in the
matches and uuder the deck? An iron fry
ing pan and some steel knives and forks
by my halidom. And there goes a tin pail
and some sliding cups. One girl has her
arms full of roasting ears of green corn and
the other hands out parcel which smells
like coffee Tnere are two men and two
young women, in tennis blazers all four,
and they ere going across the river to eat
supper under the Palisades. They know
how to skirt the deserted quarries and the
fishing villag whose wharves are dropping
to pieces, and the old powder house and the
scattered negroes huts, keeping on and up
TO perpetual spring under a hemlock tree
and shelving beach where the driftwood
fire burns bright. There the girls will
boil the coffee and the men will roast the
corn, a nd when the tide turns and the wind
goes down they will drift New Yorkward
III the twilight.
See, now, here is a new conner afioat 1t
is shorter than the others, barely 13 feet
long, and light in proportion. its cedar
sizes are so thin that you could feel the
lap of every ripple if you were seated in it's
bottom. It is decked fore and aft, but it
would weigh hardly twenty -fvesspounds.
Ii has only one occupant and that one a
girl of 49, Her white Garibaldi shirt is
turned away from throat that is bconzed
by many summer days on the river. Her
hands are small and well shaped and brown.
There are muscles in them and the canoe
seems to move almost without effort, com
manded by her will Her slvery hairpins
have fallen out and the wind is shaking a
mass of brown curls over her back Her
sailor hat is Of scarlet felt and you can see
the red and white of her boating rig far
over the water as she heads her canoe up
stream; the most picturesque object on the
Hudson to-day.
The sun is behind the Palisades and the
saucy wind is shifting with it. Theskim-
ming canoes move more slowly and one by
one down come their sails The long pad
dies flash in and out of the water, and as
each tandem draws alongside the float, the
sailor girl steps ashore and pulls an armful
of goldenrod and cardinal flowers from the
sailor lad, mind you for it is canoeing Ell
quette that be should remain seated to hold
the rolling little boat steady for her debarka-
ton.
The canoeing girls are coming in, but
another set of canoeists who are not sailor
girls are just ready TO get under way. The
water is still at twilight; under the moon it
will be level as a floor Now is the hour
when all manner of pretty nothings are
said, and their sayers speak with freedom
on the river.
This dainty water nymph does not Jump
aboard. The skipper of the boathouse
stands at the bow and there is a hand at
the stern 10 hold all steady until she has
settled her draperies. Cautiously she sets
one foot in the canoe. then the other. With
one hand on the float she sinks slowly on
the cushion, timorously, as If she feared to
find herself in the water. She won't use a
paddle, she doesn't know how and she is
not on exercise bent The sailor girls faced
forward, tandem fashion. This ones cush-
ion lies in the bow and she curls do wn front
ing her escort. He is very happy, and so is
steer would be if the water did not spot
her dress. Every stray splash has pangs
FOR her and by-and-by she borrows coat
and tucks herself dryly in. There are half
dozen of her out Tonight, floating up and
down under the stars
New York is not Il bad place in summer
with canoeing at your very doors There
are not a great many women yet initiated
in the lows of the ri YER but there are mora