The Washington critic., 1888-08-22
A DRIVE TO THE OCEAN.
Colonel SeligsOn'S Story Of a Pleas
ant Trip,
THE GARDEN SPOT OF THE EAST
a Terrific Encounter with the Mosquitoes
of New Jersey.

A.. Scigson Of Washington, who is here with
his wife, drove down from the city, and his
trip was such an interesting one that he has
been induced TO relate his experiences. His
narrative is as follows:
We left Washington on Wednesday morn
ing, tho 18th instant, at o'clock, aud travelled
to Laurel, Md, by the old Baltimore pike
| (which, by the way, is in miserable condi
ionl where we stopped for lunch. After
feeding the horses and resting for about two
hours--from ! to 3 o'cloch-wo went direct to
Baltimore. As we intended starting quite
early next morning We drove through Balti-
more to the beginning of the Philadelphia
pike at Patterson Park. There we stopped
over night at q wayside inn Next morning
tried TO buy guide in Baltimore by which
mght be able TO discover the most direct
route, but while there are thousands Of rail
way cdldcs aud maps published, there is not
a single driving guide TO be found IN this
country. In this dilemma ] Dethought my
self OF applying to the b. and O. Engineer
Department. as they had recently surveyed
their new road to Philadelphia, and lucky
thought IL proved 10 be. ] met there one OF
their engineers Mr.. Potts, who agreed with
me that II would be folly TO 60 to Phiadel-
phia, but found me- from different county
maps OF Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware
ana New Jersey, route by which VIC saved
fully forty miles. From Baltimore we took
the Philadelphia pike, which is in frightfu
condition On account OF tho heat and the
fearful hills, we were compelled TO rest our
horses after driving only six miles You
ought TO have seen us make Il lemonade in
small colfee-pot, which we had intended 10
make coffee in, and you ought furthermore to
have seen us eat sardnes and dry bread, can
taloupes and pears for our dinner.
Although the atmosphere was almost I'M
bearable, we did not feel the heat very much.
II was fortunate that we had chosen a beauu-
ftt ~ lie fn. ,1
pump OF cold water for our resting place.
There we remained until 1 o'clock, when we
again started for n small place called Abng-
don, In Hartford County, Md, about twenty
eight miles from Baltimore. Finding that we
could make another small town In the same
county named Aberdeen" before stopping
for the night. we only watered our horses in
Abingdon and went to Aberdeen, where VIC
arrived about $50 p m. We did rot mind
travelling after sundown, as we had moonlight
nights and avoided the intense heat by being
out Mt night.
Everybody who heard that we had driven
from Washington and intended to drive to
Atlantic City thought we were out Of our
senses. Hartford County is u very fertile
county, and one passes through beautiful
rolling country, thickly settled. 1t is und 'ubt-
edly one of the finest counties of Maryland,
as Montgomery and Baltimore counties appear
to be the poorest of the State
About Z o'clock Friday morning we left
Aberdeen for Havre-de-Grace-dis abo1t
| y miles, through magnificent country. In
! llayre-de-Grace we were transferred to Perry
! vile, across the SusQuehanna, by special
engine and two cars, after wait cf more than
two hours. IL was at Aberdeen we bcgen to
gain on the regular Philadelphia pike, which
passes along very hilly country to a wagon
bridge, situated about fifteen miles up the
river called the Connaminga Bridge By
crossing the river at Havre-de-Grace we saved
the fifteen miles up and back through very
| hilly and heavy country. In Perryville, which,
as you know, is the terminus OF the bridge,
we entered Cecil County, Md, very poor
| county, indeed, containing nothing but sand
and rough hills.for twelve miles; it is very
! sparsely'seted, the few farms we saw were
| very poor and the houses miserable novels.
| After driving about twelve miles we came
| to the llourshing village, Northeast, situated
! on the Northeast Creek and Northeast River,
both of which create fertile valley in which
there are located several iron furnaces and
other factories.
From Northeastwe had another rough drive
OF eight miles over bad road to Elk ton, which
is, without exception, the prettiest small town
we had thus far seen. 1t Is situated on the
Elk River one of the three large streams that
drain the hills and mountains of Pennsy ylvania
and Maryland, the other two being the afore-
mentioned Susquehanna and Northeast Rivers,
| all three empty into the Chesapeake Bay not
far from iiavre-de-Grace. AT Elkton we left
the Philadelphia Railroad also, and struck
into Delaware to Delaware City, on the Della
ware River aud the beginning of the Delaware
and Chesapeake Canal This portion of our
journey took us through the garden spot OF
| the Middle States
The country is as level as floor, but every
farm you pass-and they are very numerous
is enclosed by beautiful hedges. Think of
farms of from 300 to 800 acres having, in
stead of rail or other wooden fences, hedges,
trimmed as even as only gardeners of eXpe.
rience can do, and every cross field is divided
by hedges. Thus cornfeld is divided from q
cloverfied or orchard by hedge, ana as we
passed through that country we could imagine
how every one of these farmers Yicd with the
other to make his farm the finest. The green
grass fields, the magnificent corniields
the beautiful orchards, the potato, tomato
cabbage aud other fields and the lovely
vineyards, made a very grateful picture
to behold, the dark hedges making each place
appear more like landscapes | have seen il
England than anything ever beheld in thi'
country. In this part of the county 1t is moi
at all rare to find well.kept, race
track on farm, on several o.
which we saw the farmers or stock
raisers speed some magnificent colts; it was {
sight ! regretted to leave behind We arrived
at Delaware City about O'Clock Friday nigh
and found very good hotel there.
About o'clock p. m. on Saturday we toob
regular ferry we had to wait for the Phila
delphia steamer--and from Salem we at one,
struck across this State for Vineland through
a sandy uninteresting country, except tina
you find a large number Of fruit orchards an(
vineyards in it.
At Vineyard, which is about forty miles
from this place, we stopped at a very mic,
hotel called the Baker House; then we started
for this place on Sunday morning at GIL!
o'clock. About two miles from Vineland W,
struck the j ersey Sand Marshes and the in
fernal pests-thc Jersey mosquitoes. Al
though the horses had Travelled during tn
previous four days nearly or quite 200 miles
they refused TO cat their feed when we treC
! to feed them aftcr about a twenty mile drive
aud were quite ready To resume the journey
SO as to get relief from the avalanche of file
and mosquitoes, My wife and myself wrapped
ourselves up in our laprobes and even coy
, cred my hands and wrists with newspapers
and, though we wore out a dozen large news
papers In the tanning process, we were dread
fully bitten on our faces, neclls, wrists, arms
ankles and every other exposed part q
our bodies Our colored coachman wa
obliged to fan himself with one hand Will
he drove with the other, continually. A
times tnesc pests were so thick that they oil
scured the sky around us. Our horsea hay
4 great large places on their bodies from whic
e they have lost the hair entirely, the moslutoC
| having actually destroyed the roots of I'll
hair and created bald spots all over then
D This Is the belt OF swampy undererowt
: which runs along the entire Jersey coast b
tween the Delaware River and the ocean, bI
, Notwithstanding the swamps on either side {
the road the road itself consists OF deep sanl
0 aud had 1t not been for the rain VIC enioye
Saturday and Sunday we could not have mac
the last forty miles In less than two days Til
half Of 4 lNr