Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-08
THE THOUSAND ISLES.
PICTURES OF COTTAGE LIFE ON
THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER.

PICTURES OF COTTAGE LIFE ON
THE sr. LAWRENCE RIVER.
Visiting and Marketing in Dainty sIins-A
Religious Park Where the Laws Arc
Strict-Pretty GIimpses of River Life. |
Young Lovers
Nowhere is life so Unconventional, so COS
so picturesque fresh and delight
full as in the pretty, quaint cottages which
crest the cliffs, crown the islands and line
the shores of the St, Lawrence from Clayton
to Alexandra bay. The inhabitants of this
water girt city are birds of passage that
come with the daisies and depart with the
golden rod, and hold continuous high carnival
and perpetual holiday. They perch their pic
turesque cottages on the craggiest of crags,
chain them down TO the rocks if need be,
hook on to them tipsy little porticos and fly
away balconies all fringed with fretwork, as
lady's kerchief is bordered with lace, deco
rate them with all the brilliant hues known
TO the painters craft, spell out the fantastic
names with which they are christened, ''Neh
Mahbin," "Wawinet,n ''sans Souci," Lin
lithgow, CLOUD Rest and u thousand more
on the bastions of rock for the information
of every passing tourist, hinging wide to the
wild breeze yards on yards of bunting, array
themselves in the most picturesque of apparel,
and troop down to meet every boat with
Kaleidoscope scene Of brilliancy, illumiue the
river at night for miles and miles with chains
of colored lights, and greet every passing
steamer with whlz of rockets and GALAXY
of colored stars.
COSTLY SUMNER VILLAS.
Near Alexandria bay. where the larSest
and gayest hotels are located, clusters a on
stellation of costly summer villas, in be Auty
of architectural design, richness Of siiorn-
Inent and elegance of appointments eq'aiing
the most Injurious of modern residences.
Their owners, people of wealth an6 social
eninence, have here constructed a u tie city
of their own, with all city's conteenlences
and some OF its dscomforts. F!geWood
Park, the most exclusive and cofservatlve
resort on the river, the Holly wooSoi the st.
Lawrsnce, is adjacent to the pay and
social center for the ISLANDERS Inc mag
niicent club house blazeS with beauty ana
brllliarcy every night, and is crowded with
pretty dancers. The wealth ana display of
equipage seen at some resorJs Is here re
placed by the elegance of .iVer craft, the
daintieSt sliiffs, the swiftes5 sailing boats
and best appointed steam Sachts. The peo-
pie live. move and have taelr being, call
shop, and entertain their friends in boats
Whether they go to marAst or to a reception
it is in the same floating vehicle, and all
goods purchased are delivered in skiifs
Fancy your butcher corting up through the
sunset like L.ohengrin without his swan, his
paddle cleaning like slice cut from rain
bow and his white spron glorified with iri-
descent light. 70 bring your chops for break
fast. Picture your green grocer kneeling in
a canoe piled high with glowing green like a
harvest god in festal barge, and your laun-
drynan coming out of the mist in a spectral
boat laden to the guards with snowy linen
cleaning white in the cleaning
The majority Of people who frequent this
resort are people of moderate incomes, many
Of them from the small northern cities and
country villages in the vicinity of the river
They build unpretentious, inexpensive
wooden houses, paint them In gorgeous kues
christen them with romantic titles drape
them with bunting and decorate them with
colored lamps, The interior is usually fin
ished with pine in its natural state, carpeted
with cheap bright rugs, the walls festooned
with pregty dropping grasses, and bright
soft draperies and cushions of scarlet Canton
flannel or felt, finish the coy little rooms
Three or four hundred of these pretty sum.
mer houses line the avenues of Thousand
I'll, H. =
park, neat, clean, orderly and prosperous
The code of laws of this institution is more
rigidly enforced than the articles of an inter
national treaty. The naughtiest slippered
foot dare not tread the measure of a waltz OF
polka In the hotel parlors. and the merriest
Of maideus must remember the Sabbath
day and keep it holy" The main articles OF
social diet here are religion, excursions and
Irritation. Piety is served up IN all sorts OF
ways, " lth all kinds Of sauce and all manner
of seasoning, with little entrees Of missionary
worA and relishes of temperance.
EXCURSIONS WITHOUT NUMBER.
Excursions are arranged to and from every
wharf on the river, and at such astonishingly
small rates that It Is prophesied another yeal
all people who go on an excursion viii re
ceive a chrome or be presented with al
island. Lets get up an excursion to tn,
postoffice, shouted a pretty girl in a car
dinal hat as tho mail steamer swung int
port, and away they tluttered, dozen of tn,
brightest pumPest, girhest girls in theil
brilliant dresses up the shady walk. TIL,
captains Of the excursion boats seem to rui
them just for a joke, ard Will stop at all tn
small wharves along the line 10 accomrnodat
a single passenger. One small, sharp prove,
steamer, the Island Wanderer keeps up
perpetual twice day excursion Throughout
the season, and Is always filed with mos
cosmopolitan crowd
Around the parks one sees the pretties
gImpses Of river life. Here a young mothe
is rowing a little skif slowly, gently croor
ing soft lullaby to her baby Graded in tn
bottom Of the boat and rocked to sleep
the waves; there group of children in scar
bathing dresses. and with bare legs and arm
disport IN the shallow water among the rock
and dozen more of them have clambere
into an old sCow that is full of pretty fac
as vase is filed with flowers, and are rom
ing and tumbling about in happy unconceI
as to whether the boat capsizes or not, viii
a tall young girl in a sleeveless dark BIZ
bathing dress, with a pair of "Baltimo
legs crowded. into cream colored stocking
and arms as shapely and almost as white
those Of the carven Venus in the Milan q
lery, swins slowly round and round ther
with her handsome blonde bead on her arr
there a pair Of lovers come up slow
through the sunset, looking in each othe
eyes.
Height on height Of purple cloud wav
trimmed with silver and veined with fire, r
back In the west from royal highway
clear luminous opal, down which the d
god sinks slowly and YEARLY to rest on t
breast of the river. White hands Of fos
lift up to welcome him, and the rivers bose
rises and falls and throbs to meet him
the east, where the gray storm clouds of t
recent tempest still linger, a rainbow arcl
the river with beauty from shore to sho
Her eyes are full of glory, and her LAP
running over with ferns and water Iii
among whose golden hearts the small, slenC
fingers flutter nervously as they float p
silently into tho great radiance. 1t is
lovers paradise, for all conventional formu
are forgotten. Young people go about
pairs, like robins in springtime. You fin
pair of them in every shady nook, on eve
sheltered rock, in every secluded wood pa
and In every other skiff.-Cor. New "
Sun.