The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-12-08

less, with sky all gold and azure end sea
ill sapphire and silver. But within an hour
all casterly wind has sprung up, and on its
soft wings has come the sea mist, which, like
n mighty enchanter has blotted out ocean
and sky and shore, and has shut in the dainty
house with close gray WALL wnich hides
from my gaze every vestige of tho fair sum
mer city by the sea- 1t does not matter;
need no bodily eyes wherewith to behold the
glories of Newport, for t.o slories on which
nv inner vision may dwell belong wholly to
tho past. Upon the folds Of that dense, dim
veil, memory paints with vivid ano unfadlng
tints another scene reproduces the faces of
other actors. awakens magician then, not
artist only the sound of long silenced voices,
and brings back to me that which once was
Newport
The time is 1859; the scene the Ocean
house, then glowing in renovated freshness
and gay with goodly company. Kerner &
Birch, proprietors of the Clarendon hotel in
New York. had taken the great caravansary
under their charge, and their skillful man
agement had revived the waning popularity
of this once world famous house Cottages
and villas and seaside palaces were compare
lively rare at Newport in those days and on
that special summer the four great hotels
b0S FILLMORE, Lne DellSNue, tu0 ttOldnJE ullu
the Ocean-were all crowded, but especially
the last. Like a gigantic boa constructor,
the Ocean house had engulfcd its summer
meal and was gorged to repletion. Beauty
and fashion, wit and wisdom, gold and folly,
all found their Representatives in tho latter
days Of that charming August under its spa
cious roof. There were southern bellies and
northern beauties, fair western girls with
the gold of their native sunsets shining
in their silken hair, sharp eyed east
ern maidens with much science hid
den under their smoothly coiled tresees;
there was Mrs. James Stone, the ac-l
tress, with her lovely white shoulders, saucy
black eyes and dainty nez retrousse, there
was the Elm Planet-so called in the theat-
rical world-fair, pure, gentle Alice Boudi-
not, with her keen eyed actor-author hus-
band; there was Gazzaniga, tragic queen,
, whose voice was but the gilded framework
for the passionate pictures of her acting;
there was Frezzolini, passee and aging, it Is
true, but still tall and handsome and regal
looking, splendid lamp whose flame of song
had been extinguished forever. There, TOO,
came women who had climbed society's
golden ladder to the topmost round, and VINO
looked down with serene indifference on
the struggling throng below; there were
others WHO had placed one foot on the drst
shining round Of that self same ladder, and
who had vowed in their secret souls to reach
the summit ere many years had fed. Among
the throng might be seen Paul Morphy, the
young chess king, with the first flush of his
triumph still on his boyish cheek, and wear
ing his newly won laarels with modest grace.
Either came politician and gambler, planter
and merchant. Your eyes passed from the
fine head and dark bright eyes of the Know
Nothing mayor Of Baltimore, to rest on the
coarsely handsome features and keen orbs Of
Jim Sylvia, the proprietor of a so called club
house, not fifty miles away 1t was gay
multitude, if mixed one, yet was it less
mixed in reality than in appearance. Social
lines were drawn more sharply in those days
than they are now Shoddy was unknown,
nay, uninvented, and the Valenciennes
trimmed skirts of Mrs. Beverly Upperten
might brush the brocade train of Mrs. Bow
cry Higgins, yet did each lady remain
sersnely unconscious of the others existence
the one from pride and the other from
pique. The rivalry of Mrs Fairhell and
Nine Nordetoile had not then shaken New
port to the very foundations of its social edi-
fee, and pony phaetons were things on GARTH
of which no daring Horaaia had yet dreamed
our story seems, when even that celebrated
contest is one of the tales of half forgotten
past OF the two rival queens, one yet reigns
and hourishes prosperous sovereign, but the
other Alas for the northern start under
what clouds in foreign skies has she not dis
appeared-the brilliant planet that shed such
radiance around herl
On one particular afternoon, late in August
of the season of which we have spoken, the
crowd of spectators and promenaders in the
wide but somewhat gloomy hall Of the Ocean
house was even larger and more brilliant
than usual. The ladies were looking their
best. and though it was no longer the fashion
to dress in the gorgeous and inappropriate
style which had been then de rigueur at
watering placedinners some few years before,
the toilets were elegant and picturesque
enough to suit even the most devoted adorer
of dress and fashion. Full ball costumes
with lace shaded decollete corsages were no
moro to be seen, but were replaced by dresses
with square cut bodices, hounced skirts and
the graceful SO called angel sleeves, which,
flowing back full and open from the shoulder,
left the white arms uncovered to display
their rounded and snowy beauty. Then there
were the tasteful robe dresses with dounces
bordered with graceful interviewer pattern,
and the basque and lace trimmed open sleeves
bordered with trimming to correspond.
Chignons had not yet arisen to deform and
weigh down the female head; the bright
tresses of the Newport bellies were that year
woven into cunning superstructnres of plaits
behind, and i'll front were rolled smoothly
back in the style called in other days Pompa-
dour but in latter times a rImperatrice. Dress
in those days was graceful, becoming and de-
1..s.l-