The weekly tribune., 1892-08-27

on THE BOARD WALK.
< Ist and on Sundays this number. great
Us it is, often doubles. As good an au.
.holity as there is in the town. the chief
Of police, tells me that there were in
this town last Sunday over 200. 900 pco-
pie!
One hundred ana eighty thousand of
these had come for rest or pleasure.
Five thousand We're walters and portrrs
imported to serve the 10000 The re-
Nainder We're permanent residents.
Long Branch and Saratoga attract
the swell society people: Newport, Mar
:agansett Pier and Bar HarbOr the 900,
Asbury Park the religiously inclined.
Atlantic City catches the masses Of the
l'"ople-the hoi polloi. 1t is here You
~ee the American people us they are
The plain, everyday, workaway people.
They are good enough for me. They
make one proud of his race and of his
country. The simple fact that $50. 900
Amerlcans-men, women and children
have the leisure and the spare cash to
vl>lt the seashOre for at least few DAYS
each year is encouraging to any one who
believes in prosperity for the many.
SO many people wanted to come to
Atlantic City last Saturday that the
railroads couldn't carry Them Thirty
express trains on three railroads hauled
an average of nine cars each. and eight
or Ten Of the trains were run in two Sec
ions. and yet people were left in Phila.
lc'phia simply because they could find
no cars to get in.
atlantic City swallowed them all I'D.
Jast how do not know. But it did II
and every one was made comfortable.
Nearly 100000 Americans gathered in
one spot, principally along the strand.
made rare spectacle. They Were the
common people trades,nen. salaried
workers, professional people who are
not at the top Of the heap-all well
dressed, nearly all well behaved Thou
sands had come for good time-to
drink, bathe, make merry. Restaurants
and saloons by the hundred were open.
There was no restraint. Yet one might
walk about the town for an hour with
out seeing drunken man. OF all
these thousands only nine We're arrested.
and they for petty offenses.
What is the fascination of this CITY of
pleasure that it is able to attract sucn
lnultitudes to its gates? The ocean. one
says, of course. True. The ocean is "a
great attraction. The strand. two miles
long, is from lnidforenOon till night a
mass of humanity. Literally thousands
sit or walk in the sand watching each
other or the gay crowd that is sozzling
IN the surf. Here we catch the real St.
ret Of Atlantic City's popularity-the
gOve OF people for being where other peO-
pie are; the fondness of the average
mortal for looking at his fellows. Per-
haps $4,000 people are on the beach,
though only Il third of them care 10
bathe.
Imagine stretch of beach mile or
so long. From II o'clock to |, 10000
people in the surf! A third of them
women. One-sixth of them children.
All sorts Of bathing suits, all sorts Of
figures, all sorts of pranks in water or
on the sand. Young and old. lean as
Cassius and fat as Falstaff, the ugly
and the beautiful all mixed together.
Lovers billing and cooling in the break
ers. Whole families wading out, hand in
hand, even carrying the babe in arms.
Thousands of merry children prattling
in the shallow water or digging in the
and. Here and there IA woman with
a divine face; here and there "a
4ueenly figure; here and there
"a magnificent man; here and there
the lame, the decrepit. The woman
with tights and bleached hair. The
foolish young man with flesh colored
bathing suit. Now and then an idiOtic
father or mother who, by main force.
carries into the water IA hysterical
child. Pretty women basking in the
sand. Other women who have provided
themselves charming bathing suits
which they parade in series of prone
nades up and down the beach, foolishly
Imagining people do not know they are
out to appear and not to get wet. Young
women who scream because they think
screams make them more interesting.
So many incidents, types, characters
that despair of cataloguing them-this
is the beach at Atlantic City.
And there is the board walk. In other
places it would be the promenade-the
something or other less plebeian than
plain, common board walk. Yet this