Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1898-12-28
A LETTER FROM THE
CITY BY THE SEA.
The Holiday Season Indi-
Gates Increasing Pros
perity.
HEH BUILDINGS AND GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS.
HARBoR IMPROVEMENTS HOPED FOR
A LITTLE ESSAY UPON THE GRIP.

IL lS SOHt E1dL dWKdrQ Tor those
OF our citizens who insist upon a
strict construction of the calendar
that Christmas and New Years Day
comes on Sunday this year. / mean
the few who wouldn't t even get drunk
ON December Nth, or 26th, but would
cheerfully and enthusiastically do SO
on the 18th. The Holiday season is
usually a fairly accurate business
barometer to Indicate how prOsperi-
ty is prospering, and our store-keep-
ers can fully as anybody else tell the
conditions of local affairs, from q
business standpoint. From what l
have seen and heard from them / am
positive that times are not quite SO
hard as they were a year or two
ago. Money seems to be plentier and
the little folks are getting more
christmas toys, and the New Years
limcracks than has fallen to their lot
Tor several years One has only to
look i'll the store windows to realize
this. and to watch the crowd of shop
pers that thrOng the stores that make
speciality of Christmas novelties.
The year closing has been a better
one than Atlantic City had right to
expect, when we remember that the
country has had war on it's hands,
and a war scare, last Spring, big
enough to blow the whole island
across the Bay and land it in Pleasant
Vile. Under such conditions we had
no right to expect a great season, but
we had it, in spite of unfavorable
combinations, and we land npon the
threshold OF a new year with better
prospects ahead than ever before.
New buildings are going up every
where, old ones are being enlarged,
streets and avenues are being paved,
lOw-land is being reclaimed from the
| salt water, lots are being graded and
curbed, the burned district is being
rebuilt, all the railroads are improv-
| ing their property and lines of travel.
and all hands getting ready to do a
| greater business than in any previous
year. All this, and many more enter
| prising things / might mention il II
had time, indicates substantial
| prosperity, which every one homes
will be still further increased the com
ing year.
l notice by the papers that Con-
gresham Gardner has asked the
River and Harbor Committee Of the
House, to appropriate half a million
dollars for the improvement Of the
Inlet, and surrounding waters. He
does well to ask for a large sum, but
| do not think he seriously believes
that the Committee will recommend
any such sum, although / earnestly
hope it may. One thing is reasonably
sure and that is we shall have no
Inlet or harbOr worth bothering
about in few years. unless there Il
something done. Vessel Captains
tell me that the water is shoalinp.
new bars being formed, and MANY
changes rapidly going on. Congress
has the right and power to extend it's
aid, but so far it has done nothing
except to make some preliminary
surveys under the direction of the
government engineers. This is the
first step, and all right, but it must
be supplemented by the right kind of
work. at the right time, by the right
kind of men, in Washington. This
Country has an enormous territory
OF water in the shape OF rivers, lakes.
harbors and canals, and there are
tremendous business interests that
are continually asking the govern
ment for aid. The great harbors
that hold the fleets that carry our
enormous exports and bring back our
imports will receive the first atten-
ton. There are rocks to be blasted
out. channels to be deepened or OBJ
structions to be removed, in nearly
all of them. Harbors are enlarged.
break-waters built. rivers deepened,
levees built and repaired, nd the
great western canals looked after.
When all these legitimate expendit-
ures are made and due amount of
Jobs put through for political pur-
poses, small Cities like ours can hard
ly expect to get into the half million
dollar class. | do not mention this
to dash anybody's hopes, but only to
commend Mr.. Gardner for asking for
more than he expects to get.
| notice that our newspapers are
mentioning the fact that some of our
eminent citizens are snOrting with
the grip" How can that be? had
heard that there had been an IRON
clad compact formed to declare that
no case of the grip was ever known
in Atlantic City. Be that as it may.
the grip is here, and with q good
| strong grip upon a whole lot of us,
who are coughing and sneezing our
daylights out. 1t would be q great
mistake. / think, to say that the
| fashionable disease is not prevailing
here. 1t would make a man who has
it feel uncomfortably mean to come
here and find that no one else had it.
He would leave town by the next
train. 1t is better, believe, to tell
the truth, and admit to our fellow
sneezers that the grip is hard and
fast upon Us, but in a less malignant
and dangerous form than in many
other places. The sea air-generally
mild here-dOes not seem to aggra-
vate 1T, and one can stay here with it
with less than the average discom-
fort elsewhere With the assurance
that we have the grip, even mildly,
thousands who have it worse, or ex-
pect to, will naturally come here to
exchange sneezes and mutual condol-
| ences.
Yours truly for grip,