The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-17
THE NEW LONG BRANCH.
NOT 80 GRAND AS THE LONG
BRANCH OF OLD.

bhANOh Ut OLOs
Everything Left to the Cows Between
Monmouth Beach and West End.
The Fashionable Set at Elberon-The
Old Long Branch is But a Memory.
(CopWiqhfed)
LONG BRANCH, N. j., Aug. 16.-Long
Branch comes in sections this summer. The
old Branch that our fathers and fore-fathers
knew 50 well, and which was the national
summer capital when Grant was President
and sojourned here. is only a relic 1t lives
in memory and must be observed through
recollection. The Long Branch Of
to-day stretches up and down the
coast for several miles. That which
formerly constituted the resort Of
fashion and frivolity consists now of a
broken bluff, a shattered boulevard and a
lot of unoccupied cottages, with broken
fences and the remnants Of lawns on which
vagrant cows Craze. In the midst of this
desolation, In painful loneliness, stand sew
eral hostelries that score of years ago
counted on their registers the names of the
nations celebrities and of society's favor
ties.
To-day one must go up to Monmouth
Beach or down to the West End. Holly
wood OF Elberon to ascertain just what the
modern Long Branch is BY shutting your
eyes to the bleak hill that intervenes be-
tween Monmouth on the north and the
West End on the south, you get a good
glimpse of the successor to the ancient CAPT
tai and learn what the celebrities In society,
finance and politics are doing in these more
modern times. There is no mistaking the
beauty, natural and artificial. human
and rural, that pervade the territory
embraced by the West End and Elberon.
Here are the cottages where wealth and
fashion pass the heated term. On the
piazzas of the West End, Hollywood and
Elberon hotels gather the legitimate sue.
cesSors Of tie generation that made the
original Long Branch famous. Yet it must
be. Admitted that much Is LACKING. Just as
much money as ever is lost over roulette
and faro at Phil Days club house and Just as
many people drive regularly to the MOI
mouth Park races. The cottages are even
more handsome than were those erst w lille
lined the old Ocean avenue, and lawn tennis
acts as satisfactory substitute to the
| played out croquet ground. But the glitter
and the glory of the equipages and the
dress and style Of the occupants of the
| turnouts that used to crowd the ocean drive
along the bluff every afternoon are gone
There is no Disgusting that fact The old
visitor at the Branch misses the excitement
| that made one of the old-time afternoons a
picture of beauty, wealth aud fashion.
| Aud the former faces have likewis @
departed. They are not dead, and many of
them are just as pretty and piquant as ever,
but Newport. Sa atoga and the Catskills
claim them, or If they do occasionally sniff
the salt air OF the jersey shore it Is for
| some point much farther down the coast
Long Branch is no longer the summer
center of fashion. The faithful chronicler
must print the cold fact. unpleasant as the
narration may be, that the products of
Worth and Redfern and the results of the
skill of the English tailor are not TO be
The young portion Of society seek some
| other sojourning place in order to exhibit
the latest fads for which they are RESPONSE
| BILE. The change may be accounted for in
several ways. but 1t is always a thankless
| task to explain such transitions The
| wrecked avenue and broken bluff cut some
| figure in the calculation, but whatever the
causes are, the result is certain. Long
Branch has lost its popularity. Fashion and
| frivolity have taken other quarters.
| Yet IL must not be taken for granted that
there is nothing left. The new Long
Branch has a great deal TO commend itself
to the sensible seeker after recreation, even
| if society does not consider the swim to be
in this vicinity. There is something de-
| cidedly substantial about Holly Wood and
Elberon, and the cottages wear quiet air
of elegance that speak for themselves The
cottager, as the successor TO the summer
capital, can produce purse as plethoric
as any that Newport and Saratoga can turn
out but he prefers expanding his overplus
Of cash on extra peaks aud gables and addi-
tional trimmings TO his cottage rather than
| upon gorgeous equipages or dresses that
cost fortune apiece. When one glauces
at the seaside homes of George M. Pullman,
| George W. Childs and Anthony J. Drexel,
| he recognizes that some Of the nations
men of fame and fortune still
| congregate hereabouts. Philadelphia
predominates at the new Long
Branch. and the Quaker City never did set
itself up as fashion plate or a carriage
exhibition. The very mention of the names.
in addition to those of Childs and Drexel,
of Mayor Filter, James McManes, Thomas
McManes, Thomas Mexican, Rudolph Ellis
Alfred G. Baker and Thomas B. Wanna
maker bespeaks the flavor Of the city that
William Penn established betwixt the Del
aware and Schuylkill rivers.
OF course there is fashion at the new
Branch. The substantial summer residents
represent the very best society, Hebrew
and Gentile in the cities from which they
come, even though they make mighty little
fuss over it, There is nothing between this
substantial element, however, that adorns
itself elegantly but unobtrusively, and the
loudly decked rowdies who frequent the
race tracks have a wardrobe most character
istically their own. There are diamonds
galore, but they glitter most conspcuously
on the shirt fronts of the gambler and on the
fingers of the women who dress in 50
close an imitation Of masculine attire that
it requires study to discern which sex is
looming up before you. The semi-male
costume of the females are to be observed
as frequently here as at any Of the large
resorts this season.
But there are few noteworthy society
people-Robert l.. Cutting Of New York
probably comes as near falling heir to the
fame acquired of Berry Wall
and Robert billiard as anv
one. He appears on the West End
piazza, as do some of his less celebrated
associates, in the various suits appropriate
to the various hours of the day. There are
light suits and belts at breakfast, lawn
tennis blazers later on, blue cheviot outfits
at lunch, and the neat cutaway coat, the
variegated vest and the light mixed cloth
trousers at dinner. When there are hops the
proverbial dress suit with silk lapels is
worn. Then there is the Baroness Blanc,
who also Is guest at the West
Fad. She is fond OF driving and
handles the reins while the old Baron sits
beside her and lifts his hat right and left as
he passes the carriages that limo the Boule-
ward 70 Elberon on the road 10 Red Bank