New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-16
SUNDAY AT OSTEND.
THE GERMAN EMPEROR-THE STEAMERS
THE DlGUE-TIIE TOWN-THE PEOPLE
THE SANDS-THE KING
Ostend. August ..

Ostend. The inhabitants have not tprgotteh MN
they keep, at least in memory the anniversary Vi
his visit, and piously wish he woulu MAXI an
other. All Belgium fccked hither TO see MN
3ever had the hotel-keepers had such a harvest
The great man stayed three or four days; then
departed. as he had come, in his yacht iecai'
his incident in order TO remark that place
capable of attracting an EiEp.io7 may DE supposed
10 have charms for the good Repuohcah' leu
imagine not many Americans come here' OF s'op
here If they know Ostend, they Kno" IL aS "
port of arrival or departure.
The graot Mr. Cook-he whose Jubilee has 1usU
been celcbrated-wil advise the travelling Ahel-f
lean that the route by Ostend is the shortest roo~
10 many parts Of the Continent Inc "oIu s"oi'
has varions qualifications The brighton haii"as
people have advertised for years anu sun ou'ei
tise. tnai their journey by NewhaNeh anu Dlepp,
&c ,be shortest and cheapest to Paris Measured
on the map with pair Oh coinP"sSeS'
shortest. Measured by time, it is not ana IL IN,
49,. = f,,o,ool MASSAGE of four hours which all
tro,aIiars do not consider boom The Journey
1rcu, Iondon tn Paris via Newhaven and Dleppe
REQUIRES some hours more than the journey wa
Dover and Calais or than the journey via foH>e-
stone and Boulogne. An equlVocal anu lni'ie
inc statement like that of the Brighton adVeriSe
net MIGHT if made by an individual, seem noU
ouite honest In the mouths OF the hlshiS ~
sncctabla directors and eminent chairman ana eheI
gctic general manager of the Brighton halfway !"
is | suDpose. a pious opinion; in one sense ol '"0
words IL not IN the other.
As for this Ostend route, whether II happens "
no shorter than the others depends, in measuie,
on whether the steamer from Dover 10 Os.e"'
breaks down or not. The steamers are Dcisi"A
built in Belgium, engined in Belgium m'iin0N a'V
oO;cerad hy Belgians; and fly the Belgian nag
do 4lp III
than four hours But you see every now anu ,nen
in the London papers that the Princess Josephine
or tho Prince Albert came to grief between INC
two norris and then the four hours stretch 10 esnO
nv ION mr. nerhaps more The London papers are
not eager TO publish such accounts. 1hese Dei-
gan steamers run in connection WIN WV iAiPOi
tant English railways, the LONDON OL@tn'n NV
Dover. and the South Eastern MI D. D TUT
Is the able chairman OF the former the 700 ""i'
Sir Edward Watkin of the latter. ana DOM arc
believed TO have some influence Win tile pleeS'
Wore IL otherwise, somebody might ask WHY .lo
Dover-Ostend service is left in the hanoS Oh DEL
pian company which performs 1t, to speak mildly
with some irregularlty.
Tho Chatham and Dover company has its own
boats between Dover and Calais-by far the hneSV
and fastest on the Channel The Calais-DouNIee'
the Empress the Victoria, are wonderful spec
nf
Of wafer doing their twenty two or twenty-three
miles IN hour when they choose, and costing nan
n million dollars apiece. You never hear OF these
ebins breaLinr down. The Southeastern has an
inferior but still good service between toIkestohe
ard Roulognc: a longer and slower Channel
nossage | have crossed from Calais TO Dover III
tho En5nress in sixty.One minutes; the average Is
ohout seventy-fve minutes; the average Hon'
Foll,estone about an hour and three-quartels'
Nm both lines they do what they undertake 10
do On the Dover-Ostend line they do
NOT always ] came over on saturday III oie
Prince Albert, due at 4:10 p. IN. Her engine
cave out twice, and she arrived at 10 1hero
was little wind and no sea; II there had peen
much Of either, it might not have peen PosSioic
IN repair the burst steam tube, ana we shouu
have drifted about till picked up ana toweu ILL.,
A single accident may happen to any ship;
carlos az similar accidents to her machinery means
bad workmanship.
still. il is O popular line: partly because it is
chcaD: Grst-class fares from Dover to Ostend just
under So The Prince Albert crowded; not
a seat vacant anywhere; the decks were the
seats for a good many heard we had over 4OV
passengers on this small ship. The food gave out
as well as the engines; by o'clock not SO much
as a biscuit was to be had. One thinks they
might at least provision craft, the duration Oh
whose voyages is so uncertain. However, we ala
arrive The delay mattered nothing to those OF
Us VINO were going to stop at 0Stend. To those
who were going on to Cologne, or Hamburg, or
Switzerland, it meant missing all their trains, and
turning the short" journey into long one. 1t
is no Joke on the Continent to miss your express
and be sent on by a slow night train, stopping at
Nj stations.
With that my grumblng ends and it began
solely for the benefit of Others. Ny chief reason
for coming here the long passage, and tho
extra two hours much to the good for me,
if not for all my fellow travellers. / have not
been here for twenty years. new Ostend has
grown up meantiQe, and it is charming. There
has been o discussion lately III the London papers
on the comparative civility of Custom House
officers in England and abroad. l vote for the
Belgians They passed everything without look
ing: perhaps because we were late. And l should
like 10 bring a New-York hackman here to learn
poHteness and cheapness. The Ostend cab is a
survival; huge vehicle not unlike in size and
shane that historical carriage il which Napoleon
drove TO Waterloo; to be at Tussaud's
in London, with other relics of that great soldier
If | had not known it was in the Marylebone
Road / should have thought mine was the same
carriage. The hotels are good-at least mine is
and the amazing cleanliness of the whole place
streets and all, reminds you that you are in the
Low Countries
They are as low as ever There seems no par
ticular reason why the sea should stop and the
land begin; or none except the Digue. OStend
consists of the Digue and innumerable balconies
The balconies have hotels and villas attached tc
Them or some of them have, and there is town
of $4,000 people, who no doubt have houses anc
shops. but with these the visitor need not con
Germ himself. j offer you not statistics, but i'm
pressiOns. The Digue is not only an impression
but an institution, and you very soon perceive
that if there were no Digue, there would be ne
Ostend. We should call it Dixie, but let us emu
late the polteness of the excellent Belgians, ant
call it what they call it. long slope of masonry
mile Of it or more, rising some thirty feet from