, 1905-09-06
LAST SUNDAY EVENINGS
BOARDWALK CONCERT
Mr.. HASWIN'S INTERESTING TALK
Next Gathering Will Mark the
Seasons Close. ValedfctOry
Addresses by Minister and
Laymen. What Real
Energy Has Done

singing on the BOARDWALK Will lie
among the most memorable of these
delightful gatherings during the season
of 1905, and next Sunday evenings
meeting will mark the seasons close.
Valedictory addresses will be delivered
by Rev. Charles NJ. Roberts, of Phila-
delphia; J. Thompson Baker, and
Thomas Martindale, the conductor.
Mr.. Carl Haswin, the famous retired
actor, delivered an interesting address
at the last gathering and among other
things he said: ~zN1T>
my first trip to this island was early
in the spring of 1894. 1 had said l was
going into the wilderness somewhere
to rest absolutely after my seasons
work and travel. Some n said:
Come with me to Holly Beach; it is
wild enough I came, saw and was
conquered by its wild beauty. Here
was the grand stretch of strand five
miles long, a beach that has no equal
in all the world; the primeval forests
of holly, cedar, oak and pine, while the
wild thorns and ivies bound them to-
gether in an almost i~mpenetrable jun
gle. Wild flowers of infinite variety
were everywhere, and in June the per-
fumed air was ravishing with the odor
of wild roses that grew in lavish pro-
fusion. But l did not reach the island,
as n may now, in a Pullman parlor
car, but at Court House we changed
from the Cape May train to a very old
and dilapidated car drawn by a queer
old locomotive that ratified and wheezed
painfully as it slowly trundled along
backward to Anglesea, then the ter
minus of the road. The road lay on
the meadows and any very high tide
would lift up the track and scatter it
hither and thither on the marsh. Then
a force of men would go out, gather up
the track and straighten it out again.
Occasionally the locomotive would
part company with the track and
plough off into the mud, and because
of this habit the ~antiquated n ven
cradle engine of locomotion was famil-
iarly known as 1.-THE Mud Hen" to all
the inhabitants of Five Mile Beach.
These too, were the days when the herd
of wild cattle roamed the woods. Many
a time have heard their believing as
they stampeded Though the forest
paths, and / we'll remember the night
they freed and kept prisoner all night
one of the members of the Holly Beach
Company.
"But this was twenty years ago.
Gone are the wild cattle. Energy and
enterprise have cleared away the I'M
dergrowth of the jungle, and filled in
the swampy places where the black
snakes hid. From out of the wilder
ness has arisen the beautiful towns of
Anglesea, Wildwood and Holly Beach
Wildwood, a miracle of achievement,
rejecting the enterprise, energy and
wisdom of its founders, and now the
little island of the Jersey coasts known
throughout the length and breadth of
this great country of ours, and thous-
ands upon thousands of city-tired men
and women flock to this great ocean
strand to breathe the life giving airand
forget the fact of the strenuous life in
communion with nature. But there is
one thought I wish to speak to you all,
the thought born of these Sunday
nights on the boardwalk; the thought
of the universal brotherhood of man.
kind. For as each Sunday night we
gather here, led by our good friend, Mr..
Thomas Martindale, and raise our
voices in harmony in that grand old
hymn:
Rock of ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee,'
or feel our hearts beat faster with pa
triotic fervor as we sing
"My country tits of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
OF thee l sing,'
or again that appeal of every soul who
aspires upward:
"tNearer, my God to Thee,
Nearer to Thee,
En- though it be a cross that
raiseth me-
We must feel drawn into the great
F--I H.