Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-07-27
To the MINING JOURNAL.

Sunday at Coney Island.
New YORK, July Is, 1901.
To the MINING JOURNAL.
Again, again the summer tme-again,
again the sea and our time we'll while at
Coney Isle where the breeze is blowing free.
TO its shores we'll float on the crowded boat,
mid the strains of dago band, till with
cheer on the great iron pier with the merry
throng we'll land.
There are bands and bands and peanut
stands, and the luscious popcorn pops there's
foaming beer in whose amber clear lurketh
the Knockout drops BleaChed sOubrettes
smoke cigarettes pianos crash and bang, and
the barkerS cries resonant rise where the
Cymbals clash and Clang.
Pocket book shakers, ring toss fakirs, side
shows on the side; merry gO-roundS all DER
the grounds and soft shell crabs are spied.
NinCompoops form in groups for the ten-cent
tintypes taking; others athirst from the
wienerwurst drink beer for their parChed
Threats stalking.
Seats are free" some shows to see "who
wants the handsome waiter" and you pay
dime to a fraud sublime to see stuffed ALI
gator. Musical mokes get off old Jokes that
give you that tired feeling" dance halls
abound where round and round goes Name
wit Chlmmie spelling"
Some shoot the chutes or in bathing suits
romp in the surf and spray, and ever the
throng it moves along laughing, careless, gay.
It's the same old place in every case, and you
wish you were tyrO who on the Midway
er had been nor seen the Streets OF Cairo.
With all this jingling i'll my head and
- so that had never been spent juggling
i'll my pockets Coney Island took me i'll
last Sunday. There were others taken
i'll beside myself. One case i'll point was
Il stout, moist man with Il dccoIlctc leath-
er vest. He had been "taken in in il
museum and while there was advised to
allow phrenologist to feel his head.
The fee was to be but ten cents, and as
the stout, moist man told me himself, he
was willing to pay the money Ill the
cause of science but was much dismayed
to find that while the professor" was
feeling his head his assistant was feel,
him chart of his head, the stout, moist
man told me, for an extra ten cents; he
had offered to double the money if they
gave him chart of his pocket showing
three dollars that had been there up to
the hour of going to press This they
firmly but gently declined to do.
However, it doesn't matter much,"
said the stout, moist man; Il got the
professors diamond scarf-pin. | will
keep it as memento of the bad, bad
men who robbed me-
He showed me the pin. 1t was
gorgeous two-and-a-half carat sparklcr,
and never till | looked upon it had |
taken any interest in phrenology. Il
have notion to 60 i'll and get my head
examined myself" said. IF the as
sistant puts his hand i'll my pocket he
may get in debt
But the stout, moist man shook his
head. Il would be of no use" he said
sadly; "the professor misses this SO
much," he pointed to the diamond pin,
for he used to warm his hands at II to
keep them supple, and | fear he is too
nervous to distinguish between the bump
of benevOlence and the one of caution
which has developed since your last argu-
ment with some one of hasty temper
Let us leave science for while" said
the stout, moist man, land come In to
the nearest chemical laboratory and L
will blow you for foam.
"How much better" continued my
new acquaintance when we We're seated
i'll the presence of two beers and the
sacred sandwich-''how much better the
primitive Puritan American Sabbath
than the license of what is called a
continental sunday Never can | for
get how panied | have been to see i'll
London, Paris, Berlin and other European
cities men and women openly and shame
lessly drinking beer i'll public places on
Sunday. There was no sandwich to
cast the halo of IA meal over the drink
ing of it. 1t was not even i'll hotel.
They could not tell me if there were
three-inch partitions i'll the bar-room.
In fact, they did not seem to care wheth-
er there We're any partitions or not. SO
lost to all sense of decency, so lawlesS
We're they that they sat there drinking
beer as we are now, without as much as
knowing or caring if there We're ten bed
rooms upon the premises or whether il
was really Il hotel or not. But think
how different it is here. In this State
on Sunday You cannot drink liquor with
out meal Here is the mealH The
moist man pointed to the sacred sand
witch. 1T is our own business whether
we are hungry or not. You can drive
man to drink but you cant make him
eat, as the old saying is. So here we
are at COney Island preserving the
American Sabbath, keeping within the
law, and you will agree with me that it
is comfort to know that above your
head are ten bedrooms as the law re-
quireS. Did not know that, said the
moist man, chow could |, rs IL respect
able citizen here he breathed on the
diamond and wiped it ON his sleeve
sit here and look that sandwich i'll the
face"
Il always thought | ventured to say,
that the excise law known as the Raines
law was passed by the farmers, with the
meal clause to it, because when they
came to town they had to get their meals
at a hotel anyway, and so they got their