The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-15
THE BRITON'S SEA BATH.

CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 49,
high, never anything but cool nights. and
never in the daytime any temperature that
was oppressive, or which any visitor from
America would think other than delight
fully all right.
THE BRITON LOVES SPORT.
One is impressed even at the seaside with
the devotion of the English to sports and
amusements. Daily as the tide receded,
leaving its unusual length of almost level
sand. would the boys go out and pitch
wickets for little attempt at the national
game. Every English boy loves cricket,
and every English old man who began life
as a boy still loves this game in his old
age. In a match the other day between
neighboring corporations one of the play
ers was eighty-twO. There are many who
say that the South African war would have
been ended long ere this only for the
tendency of English officers to sacrifice war
to sport. More than once the Beers have sur
prised them in the indulgence of this ma
tional weakness with the most serious con-
sequences. They were not caught map
ping" they were caught playing cricket
But it's glorious game for those who have
plenty Of leisure, as these holiday-loving
Englishmen seem always to have. Between
cricket and baseball the difference in time
is the difference between two or three hours
and two or three days, and isn't that, when
you come to think of it, about the difference
in quickness and adaptability between the
two nations which severally have made
cricket and baseball their national games?
But 1 advise my readers not to put this
question in just this form to any English
man.
OF indoor amusements these English
watering places afford more than would be
possible, more than could obtain a pay
ing support, in climate of our own The
roof garden is a form of the American in
vasion which hasn't yet materialized In
London the amusement halls are no better
ventilated in summer than in winter, and
it's the same even at the watering places
The Pier Pavilion is only fancy name
for a room about as close as they make
them, and the entertainment it offers is
more endurable than it would be in a city
only because between acts you can go out
side and get the sea breezes But two
theaters open every night and with their
reproductions Of popular London plays
drawing a good patronage, is rather un-
decidedly unusual that a place no larger
than this should one evening have yielded
its quota of patrons Of two theaters, and
should then have had left the thousand or
more who attended a beautiful outdoor
production of the Midsummer Nights
Dream
THE REAL AMUSEMENT.
But the real, ever-conunuing amusement
of this English watering place is to be
found on what is called the Parade, a
smooth concrete walk about forty feet in
width, slightly elevated and bordering on
the sea. The English are still great walk
ers. y Cambridge don thought nothing Of
doing his ten miles in the morning. In
this feat he usually footed it from our
quieter resort to big. busting. beautiful
Brighton; sometimes too. he would walk
all the way back. making his ordinary ten
the rare English treat of a twenty-mile
jaunt. The climate makes walking a de-
light. The average Englishman's notion
OF a good time IS to have a good walk. and
this used 10 be true Of English women. but
I'm these days the fashions in dress are n
decided handicap on feminine pedestrian
ism. The tendency here isn't at all toward
short skirts and a plain street dress but
the very opposite. Trailing skirts which
must be held up IL they are not to serve as
street sweepers; soft. elinglng materials
which serve admirably to reveal the form
but do not conduce TO freedom of movement
that's the style in England whether you
see il in the tony shopping quarters OF
London. in the sunday dress parades Of