Evening journal., 1892-08-18
Special correspOndence.l

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4tl on THE BOARD WALK.
gust, and on Sundays this number, great
as It is, often doubles. As good an au-
thority as there is in the town, the chief
of police, tells me that there were in
this town last Sunday over 100000 peo-
plel 5I
One hundred and eighty Thousand of
these had come for rest or pleasure.
Five thousand were walters and porters
imported to serve the 100000. The re-
mainder were permanent residents.
Long Branch and Saratoga attract
the swell society people; Newport, Mar
ragansett Pier and Bar Harbor the 400;
Asbury Park the religiously inclined.
Atlantic City catches the masses of the
people--the hoi polloi. It is here you
see the American people as 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, 600
Americans-men, women and children
have the leisure and the spare cash to
visit the seGshore 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
tions, and yet people were left in Phila-
delphia simply because they could find
no cars to get in.
Atlantic City swallowed them all up.
just how do not know. But it did it,
and every one was made comfortable.
Nearly 200, 900 Americans gathered in
one spot, principally along the strand,
made rare spectacle. They were the
common people tradesmen, salaried
workers, professional people who are
not at tho top Of the heap-all we'll
dressed, nearly all well behaved Thou.
sands had come for a good time-tc
drink, battle, make merry. Restaurants
and saloons by the hundred We're open.
There was no restraint. Yet one might
walk abont the town for an hour with,
out seeing a drunken man. OF all
these thousands only nine were arrested
and they for petty otfenses.
What is the fascination Of this city OF
pleasure that it is able to attract sucf
multitudes to its gates? The ocean, one
says, Of course. True. The ocean is Z
great attraction. The strand, two milei
long. is from inidforenoon till night
mass Of humanity. Literally thousand
sit or walk in the sand watching eacl
other. or the gay crowd that is sozzling
il tho surf. Here we catch the real Sc
cret of Atlantic City's popularity-thl
love Of people for being where other PEG
pie are;, the fondness of the average
mortal for looking at his fellows. Per
haps $4,000 people are on the beach
though only a third Of them care t,
battle.
Imagine a stretch of beach mile o
so long. From IL o'clock to 1, 20, 0O
people in the surf A third of then
women. One-sixth Of them children
All sorts Of bathing suits, all sorts 0
figures, all sorts of pranks in water o
on the sand. Young and old, lean a
Cassius and fat as Falstaff the ugl,
and the beautiful, all mixed together
Lovers billing and cooling in the break
ers. Whole families wading out. hand il
hand. even carrying the babe in arms
Thousands OF merry children prattlinl
in the shallow water or digging in tn
sand. Here and there a woman wit
divine face; here and there
queenly figure; here and Their
~.
the lame, the decrepit. The woma
with tights and bleached hair. TIL
foolish young man with a flesh colore
bathing suit. Now and then an IDIOT
rather OF mother who, by main force
carries into the water hysterica
child. Pretty women basking in th
sand. Other women who have provide
themselves charming bathing suit
which they parade in a series of prone
nades up and down the beach, foolishl
Imagining people do not know they al
out to appear and MOI to get wet Youn
women who scream because they thin
screams make them more interesting
So many incidents, types, character
that | despair Of cataloguing them-th
is the beach at Atlantic City.
And there is the board walk. In oths
places it would be the promenade-tl
something or other less plebeian tina
plain. common board walk Yet tn
Atlantic City board walk is about IL
most interesting thoroughfare hay
seen in America--ezcelled only l
Broadway. 1t is three miles long an
has an average width of thirty fee
Some years ago there was no boar
walk, merely a planled way down
the sand. The young men Of Atlaut