Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-08-13
Old Orchards "Degeneracy."

| Grafton of great beach resorts. Nature
| Was munifcently kind to Old Orchard
| but man eventually spoilt it for people
of taste. Time was when it attracted
clicntage that brought 1t much none!
and gave IL wide fame. 1t might have
been made a place of beauty and value
But soon came an era of cheap ana
hideous houses, a orowding in of unde-
sirabIe elements and a general lowering
of the tone of the place. Finally came
the trolley. bringing its loads of t"uGhs
from Portland, BiddefOrd and Saco. ana
now the result is patent to anyone VIM
revisits the spot after an absence VI
several years.-BOSton Journal.
| 1t is true that Old Orchard was once
fas hionable and aristrocratic resort
such as Saratoga was generation ago
and such as Newport and Bar Harbor
have become in later years, ana IL Is
also true that in recent years the eX-
clusivcness has departed and that IL
has become Il great excursion center OH
Sundays. especially, and with a sulil-
mer pOpulation made up of the masses
! Of the common people rather than VI
REPRESENTATIVES Of the smart set. but
we cannot help feeling that our Bosl''i
contemporary is worked up into uh-
necessary grief over the change. frop-
ably it has been somewhat mlslcd pS
the agitation which has followed the
discovery made by a clergyman that
objectionable souvenirs were for sale at
one of the booths upon the per. FROM
this little circumstance has come an
endless amount of abuse from pulpits
all over the land. and long editorials Ill
many paDcrs dcnouncing the great re-
sort in the most extreme terms.
TO those who know Old Orchard the
whole thing seems to be very large
c,,,d of smoke from ii very small fire.
Il is absurd to arraign Old Orchard as
h. inc anv more immoral or indecent or
dcnr1yed than any other summer resort
here crowds go to enjoy an outing or
SPEND their vacation. On recent sun
day. when there We're many thousands
of cAcursionists at the beach from
n.ighboring cities, and brought by
special trains from a distance, there
was not single arrest for drunken
ness made that day, and the only cases
observed where persons were the worse
Off for liquor were two men at the rail-
i,,.1i i'll
had just arrived in town.
Old Orchard is no longer the great
tocratic circles in our big cities. but it
is the place where increasing thousands
go every summer from all parts Of our
own country, and particularly from
Canada, tn enjoy IL week or Il month at
the greatest beach on the Atlantic
coast. If the crowds which throng
there have spoiled it for people Of
taste" then let them go elsewhere. The
great hotels there are not cheap and
and the crowds. whether they
he eXCursiOnists or vacatiOnists or
campncrting followers, are not of the
undesirable element" unless the great
middle class of our population is to be
declared undesirable. The crowds
which come from neighbOring cities by
trolley are by no means crowds of
"toughs." AS far as money and wide
fame" 60, there is certainly more of
both for the resort than in the earlier
days.
Dld Orchard is not the Old. Orchard
"f old. but it is something to be re-
iorcd at ana not regretted that is surf
its magnificent beach and its many at
fractions are being enjoyed by the
multituGcS rather than by few as in
| the earlier days before the vacation and
excursion habits were 50 generally de-
rrloped. In the height of the summer
season old Orchard is Il cosmopolitan
| city Of pleasure seekers, and yet con-
| sidcrnC the many thousands gathered
there it is very orderly and law is well
enforced. Those who find "degencracy''
there are the kind who would see only
the fly spcck on a beautiful painting
/ and hear only the one false note in the