The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-23

Uncounted Thousands Go There for Rest,
Bathing and Refreshment, and They
Find the Nickel Is the Coin Most in
Demand-The Peoples Paradise.
Especial Correspondence
ATLANTIC CRY, Aug. 1S.-This is the
greatest summer resort in the United
States. No other attracts one-half SO
many visitors. It is a city Of pleasure
whose magnitude astonishes all behold
ers. Atlantic City stretches three miles
or more up and down the shore, and ex-
tends back from the sea about half a
mile. Within this area are 700 hotels
and cottages licensed to entertain
guests. Seven hundred is large num-
Der Of hotels for one town when you
come to think of it. Besides there are
thousands of cottages owned by people
who come here for the summer months
and invite their friends to sojourn with
them.
In this way Atlantic City, which ordi-
narily contains about 10000 population,
swells up to a regular population OF
about 100000 during the month of Au-
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
One hundred and eighty Thousand Of
these had come for rest or pleasure.
Five thousand were walters and porters
imported to serve the 10000. The re-
mainder were permanent residents.
Long Branch and Saratoga attract
the swell socisty 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. 1t 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 10000
Americans-men, women and children
have the leisure and the spare cash to
visit 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
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 100000 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 the top Of the eapall well
dressed, nearly all well behaved. Thou
sands had come for good time-to
drink, battle, 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 were arrested,
ana Jnoy TOT peIGy OHouSoS.
What is the fascination of this city Of
pleasure that it is able to attract such
multitudes to it's gates? The ocean, one
says, of course. True. The ocean is a
great attraction. The strand, two miles
long, is from midforenoon 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 Sc
cret Of Atlantic City's popularity the
love 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 a third of them care to
bathe.
Imagine stretch Of beach mile or
so long. From II o'clock to 1, 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
sand. Here and there woman with
a divine face; here and there a
queenly 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 a flesh colored
bathing suit. Now and then an idiotic
father or mother who, by main force.
carries into the water 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, foollshly
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
H.