Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-04-04
AT fHE hARBORy HOUrH.

4
sweeps along the sIore it the sou n,
Tor about Q quarter Of 1 mile at th,
harbor's mouth, and then turn,
and comes back to the koun aeair
by higher ridge Of lad about /,
hslf-mile from the rive. Near tn,
harbor's mouth the rad is linei
on the shore side bY sammer cot
tages it passes q large sammer ho
tel. and reaches . xhise Iighthons.
before It makes i turn. La sum.
mer it is filled with the carriages oi
the cottage rssidents, the teams Of
the dwellers in the city, and long,
yellow beach-wagons carrying young
people and children to the bathing
beach on the sound. The cool sea.
breeze powders the grass and bushes
on the west side of the road with
the fine white dust Of the shells,
pulverized under many wheels aud
hoofs.
And it 10 by no means deserted
in winter. The beach wagons are
covered in with glass windows that
rattle and shake 90 the vehicles Jolt
along. and though they run at
longer intervals, and carry less hill
arious passengers then the shout
Ing, laughing loads Of summer,
they are seldom empty, and late in
the day they are crowded with work.
ingmen carrying their tin dinner
pals and returning to their homes.
The city itself is not q large one.
ln fact, it is very small one, and
If one compares it with. Tyre and
Sidon, which were also sesports. it
is q very new one. Butt is old in
the history of the country, q fact
of which its inhabitants are Justly
proud. 1t was q place Of consider
able importance in colonial days.
ls was the center of importing for
the surrounding country. Vessels
from foreign ports Lag y.asite rharfs,
and as late a. the beginning of the
century merchants advertised their
own importations Of calamancoes,
bombszine. Irish and tandem hol-
land, shalloons, damasks and other
stuffs, the names of which have an
odd sound to the modern ear. In
it's old graveyard lies buried Lyon
Gardiner. Lord of the Isle Of Wight
(Gardiner's Island). the only en-
tailed and titled estate in America,
aud the small building is still stand
ing where Nathan Hale taught
children to read before he taught
how brave man could die. In
whaling days the city's wharfs were
busy with ringers and gaugers and
filled with great barrels of whale
oil. IL was from the profits of these
ventures that the captains and
agents built the square white houses
With Grecian columns, some of
which still remain standing on the
main street, and which mark o cer-
tain epoch in the domestic archi-
lecture of New England. It has
its past and its history, and it has,
like every well-rsgulated New Eng
land city with history and past,
it's house Nhere Washington slept.
Long before the city had, as it
has now, its mayor, aldermen, com.
mon councilmen, board of trade,
and all that innumerable host of
public officials, happily numerous
enough in small New England cit
les to give every citizen reasonable
hope OF holding public Office before
he dies /; while it's ruler was that
Georgius Secundus whom Doctor
Holmes irreverently calls "snuffy
old drone from q German hive"
the road which runs down by the
riverside has only started on the
journey which it has since complet-
ed. It started out ambitiously
enough, bat after passing one or
two houses il became 0 cart path,
which struggled on in winding
and desultory way until the last
house was passed only . few rods
from where the railroad now cross
es then giving up the effort to be
even q cart-path, it wandered az
foot-path through the coarse salt
grass. and finally lost itself in the
sand long before the hsrbor's mouth
was reached.
The same white. sandy beach,
however, stretched along the shore
where the river flows into the sound
and the gray, granite rocks where
the lighthouse stands even then