Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-08-21

August, and on Sundays this number,
great as it is, often doubles. AS good
an authority as there Is in the town,
the chief OF police, tells me that there
were in this town last Sunday over 2OO.-
900 people! =.
One hundred and eighty thousand OF
these had come for rest and 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 society people; Newport, Mar
raQansett Pier and Bar Harbor the 400
Asbury Park the reigiously inclined.
Atlantic City catches the masses OF the
people-the hoi polloI. IL is here you
see the American people as they are
the plain, everyday, workaway people.
They are good enough Tor me. Ihey
make one proud Of his race and Of his
country. The simple fact that 1907
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 Tor 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, aud eight
or ten OF the traius were in two sec
tions. and yet people were left In Phila-
| delnhia simply because they could lind
| no cars to come In.
Atlantic City swallowed them all up
Just how do not know But 1t did II,
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 the top OF the heap-all well
dressed, nearly all well behaved. Thou
sands had come for good tlme-to
daink, 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. Or all these
thousands only nine were arrested, ana
they for petty offenses.
What is the fascination OF this cltyof
pleasure that it IS able TO attract such
multitudes TO it's gates2 The ocean,
one saws. OF course. True, the ocean is
great attraction. The strand, two
miles long, is from midforenoon I'LL
niQht a mass OF humanity. Literally
thousands walk or sit In the sand,
watching each other or the crowd that
f. sozzling I'm the surf. Here We catch
the real secret OF Atlantic Clty's popu-
larity-the love OF people for being
where other people are; the fondness OF
the average mortal for looking at his
fellows. Perhaps $4,000 people are on
the beach, though only third OF them
care 10 battle.
Imagine a stretch OF beach mile or
so long. From IL o'clock TO !, 10000
people in the snrf! A third OF them
women. One-sixth OF them children.
All sorts OF bathing suits, all sorts OF tg-
ures, all sorts OF pranks In water or on
the sand. Young and old, lean as Cas-
sIus and fat as Falstaff, the ugly and
the beautiful, all mixed together
Lovers billing aud cooling IN the break
ers. Whole families wading out, hand
I'm hand, even carrying the babe In arms.
Thousands OF merry children prattllng
in the shallow water or digging In the
sand. Here and there woman with
divine face; here and there queenly
figure: here and there magnificent
man: here and there the lame, the de-
crepit. The woman with tights and
pleached 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 a hystericsl child. Pretty women
basking in the sand. Other women
who have provided them
selves charming bathing suits
which they parade in a series OF prone
nades up and down the beach. foolish
IL imagining people do not know they
ara out TO appear and not 10 get wet.
Younp women who scream because they
think screams make them more inter
estIng. So many Incidents, types,
characters that l despair OF cataIogu-
ing them-this IS the beach at Atlantic
City.
And there is the board walk. In other
places IL would be the pronenade--the
something or other less plebeisn than
plain. common board walk. Yet this
Atlantic City board walk IL about the
| most interesting thoroughfsre i have
seen In America, eXcelled only by Broad
way. II 10 three miles long and has an
average width OF thirty feet. Some
years ago there was no board walk.
merely a planked way down In the SAND.
The young men of Atlantic City, who
saw the possibilities Of their communi-
ty, insisted upon raising this wall TO the