Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-07

before reaching fresh air seeking noses. 1t
may be that there are none, not a single one,
OF the four hundred on the island between
whose revered names the snob would
like to see his own sandwiched in
the ordinary newspaper report of:
"Among those present we're" II
may be that the notables who are here i'm
pose a respectful observance of the privacy
of individual sayings and doings which the
snob aforesaid would not find genial. Or It
may be that the reporter has long since hied
himself elsewhere, winged his way to other
spots where morals are looser and scandals
thicker than on the sacred soil of the Manis-
ses. Whatever be the season, there is a lack
of or blessed relief from summer publicity.
All these things may be true-and many
more disadvantages equally true might be ex-
cogitated. but in spite of them all Block
Island is bound to be 30 full this summer
that excursion boats will bear the sign:
Standing room only"
Everybody who knows anything knows that
something quite serious is the matter next
the sun. Astronomers assert that the sun
with reversion is consuming its self-pro-
created spot, and that the consequent dys-
pepsia is the cause of the atmospheric dis
turbanoes, which are terrorizing not only this
planet, but all the planets of the system
which are clothed with atmospheres. From
the Lick observatory comes the information
that the atmospheres of Mars and Venus are
disturbed as never before. The inhabitants of
these outlying and unannexed worlds are un-
doubtedly as much put to it as are the citi-
zens of the United States in seeking place
of refuge. Alas, not to them can be con-
veyed the comforting assurance that there is
one spot Of absolute safety; spot where the
cyclone Is unknown; where the tornado new
er blows; where the water spout never spouts,
and where the cloud burst never "busts." !"
This spot is Block Island. To be very sure
all the Oldest Inhabitants have been visited ;
all the Oldest records consulted; SO that it
can be most truthfully asserted in the plain
est of plain English that no one of these
scourges ever visited the island. Moreover,
and what is still more extraordinary, have
yet to find the record of the descent of q
single thunderbolt. One very old chap
thought he remembered his grand fathers
telling him that in his grand fathers youth
there was tradition that SLAYER had been
struck by lightning while trying to make the
harbour, This explicitly civil condemnation
Of the slave trade is the one and emily in
stance, and this is mere
tradition, remembered by but one single
individual. So far have found but one
lightning rod, while the cemetery contains
many grave of lightning rod men. The
owner of the single rod assures me that it
has added to his house as an architectural
feature; that when his house was completed,
finding it possessed no architectural feature,
and his wife insisted that it should have one,
the rod was added: the only one on the
island.
Is it to be wondered, then, that every in
coming steamboat is laden to the gunwales,
and that all the sailing craft of New England
has been chartereds
So hasten, ye loiterers; for the capacities of
the island are limited and Its capacities are
already taxed.
PERIANDER.