The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-08
ON SANDS.
The Crowds That Gather at LOndOn's
COmey Island.

Elizabeth Pencil, in the Century.
1t is a very good beach for the English
coast, though perhaps not to be compared
to the beautiful sweep of sands at Atlantic
City and many another little town on the
Jersey coast. However, not a square foot
of it is wasted. There the London crowd
squats-there is no other word for it;
the same crowd, partly small tradesmen,
partly staggering clerks, partly well-to-do
largely their wives and daughters that you
see ~picnicking and betting on the Downs
at EPSON, or scattered over the river
banks at the Henley regatta, or packed in
to a solid mass at the lord mayors show.
The only difference is in the background
and the way the holiday is spent.
oh, I love to sit a-gyzing on the ~bouniless
When the scorching sun is blyzing down
on sands and sea!
And to watch the busy nggerS or the happy
little diggers,
Or to listen to the niggers when they
choose to come to me.
There you nave it in Mr.. Anstey's "idyllic"
verse. Only no one can ever sit "a-gyZing'
in romantic solitude. Not even in Santa
Lucia in Naples have l seen people herded
so close together, and living an outdoor life
with such unembarrassed frankness. Rows
upon rows, groups upon groups, of men
and women sprawl on low steamer chairs,
open-mouthed and snoring without shame.
Lovers lie in each others arms prone upon
the sand-the disconcerting spectacle AIRY
and 'Arriet always present in their hour of
Courtship. Family parties sit within neatly
d06-Ca CAOR 1oH ACN@@&@ fN N& t@NEN -
mending, fathers with their pipes. And
children by the dozen, by the hundred, by
the thousand, bare-legged, frocks and
knickerbockers rolled well up into little
bathing drawers, are digging and padding
and building; while in a space apart,
marked by a gay red flag. poor little pale
faced cripples are hobbling about in the
sand, a show for the pennies of the COM
passionate. And down into this mess of
people,, too stupefed by sunlight and sea air
to seek amusement, come the same beloved
negro minstrels who turn up at EPSON and
Henley street corners on a Saturday after
noon. But they are ten times more gor-
geous at Margate; faces SINNER, coats and
trousers gaudier, sashes wider, b%uttonhole
bouquets huger, hats jauntier, some in
tights, some in ~1annels, with bones, tam
BOURNE and banjo all complete, And a
wide space is made for them hours before
hand, and the audience collects, first a cir
Gle of children low on the sands; then cir
Gle after circle Of steamer chairs; then
people standing behind the chairs. and
more people on the embankment For the
late-comer there is no getting near enough
to hear q joke or a song. And when hnally
the mornings heroes arrive. they bring an
other audience with hem-men women and
children logging their every step through
the streets, patiently waiting outside every
public house where il pleases them to stop.
Talk OF the success of a Patti or a Melba;
II ia nothing to that of the MINISTRIES at
Margate.
And down, too, on the beach come the
seedy German bands, and the unblackened
strolling singers, and the men with pianos
and concertinas and comets and harmoni-
ums. and the preachers. and the photogra-