The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-10-18
IDLE CHAT ABOUT OCEAN RESORTS.
PART ". ATLANTIC CITY.
A CHAPTER ON SEA AIR SOCIOLOGY.
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oCdGO, ANOW cCiSOy,
is vertable EldOrado for sea
bathers. Asbury Park has al
ready been mentioned. Long |
Branch, once the most famous resort /
of the kind on this continent, has lost
its popularity, and number of the
larger hotels there have been closed for
want of patronage. Not that the place
does not have good beach, or were
otherwise disqualified, but because the
Jersey legislature has placed an inter
dict on-race courses and similar gam
bling devices, which used to make
Long Branch as popular as notorious.
But the village colony in the West End
and Elberon are still holding their own.
The same can be said of Cape May,
which has one of the finest beaches in
the world: but which is not as easily
accessible as other resorts.
Atlantic City is more frequented by
-"steady" guests than any other resort
in America, and is visited annually by
from two to three hundred thousand
people, not including the host of Sun
day pleasure seekers which the Penn
sylvania and the Reading carry there
every Sunday Boats cannot land there;
the coast condition forblds it. Allan
tic City has hundreds of fine and large
hotels, and the places of amusement
there are almost as numerous as in
lclo bnf Of for
respectable nature. 1t has also a
Spring season, which is frequented by
the prominent (p) people of Philadel-
phia and elsewhere. What those peo-
and uncomfortable, has always been q
puzzle to me. 1t is a fad, pure and
simple.
In all ocean resorts, the attractions
consist solely in the invigorating salt
baths, in the healthful air, in such
amusements as the place affords, and
in the society to be found there. The
surrounding country offers absolutely
nothing; it is either sandy, or swampy
For reasons to be enumerated at the
conclusion of my "chat," not one of all
our sea resorts meets the requirements
a health-seeking public could reason
ably expect there. It, therefore, be-
booves us to look for the causes Of
their steadily increasing popularity, tt
life as we find it in those resorts.
Many people labor under the errone
.-ous idea that ocean resorts are kint
of matrimonial market; or at leas
good places to indulge in Irritation
which may eventually lead to matri
mony. On the way to Atlantic Cit.
your train will be boarded at Egg Har
Dor, or some other way station, by boil
highwaymen in the guise of hote
agents, who, in due course of time, vii
<'hold up" every passenger. If you ar
young female, one or the other o
these agents will surely tell you tha
his particular hotel is renowned for tn
number of engagements which are cor
summated there every season. If 20
are man, he will tell you of the man
rich and beautiful young ladies, wh
now grace HIS hotel with their presenc'
or who are billed to arrive there in tn
near future, and that you can enjo
gratis all this wealth and all this char
by paying the bagatelle of only fiv
dollars per day for room and boar
OF possible extra expenses, say of tt
cost of very short honeymoon, Of
six months sojourn in Sioux Falls, I
lawyers fees, etc., he will not say
word. Being married-very energeti
ally SOL wanted nothing of all ths
And yet, I took my wife to just sui
an hotel; for it is my business to stut
human nature in all sphases, partic
larly in those best calculated to ST
race suicide.
1t was nice, little hotel. The CUES
consisted of fourteen young girls, eig
maids who said they wereyoung, eig
smatrons. and two henpecked husban
sbesides myself. The male reader "
agree with me when i say that It !