Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-08-25
REFORMED COMFY ISLAND WIDELY COPIED.
Change That Has Forced the Popcorn Man 10 Refresh His Stock Every
Day-"GiVe a Man Five Times His Moneys Worth and
He Will Come Ten Times"


this way and that by importunate
barkers. The bankers are still there.
TO be sure, but their activity is large
ly confined to talking. And even the
talk has undergone a change for the
better.
The city authorities have recog-
nized the change and have aided in
II. Water supplyand drainage, clean
streets and efficient police protection
have followed. And all this has
brought also a change in the charac-
ter of the patrons. With the bad
shows eliminated and the strong
hand of the police to be relied on,
this change in the class of patrons
followed naturally. And with every
thing to gain by the keeping of good
order the amusement people them
selves have naturally been the strong
est upholders of the law and order
regime.
Perhaps they were more firmly
convinced of the correctness of their
view by the fact that the higher
grade of patrons meant also greater
box office receipts. The change at
fected all alike, and even the beer
hall proprietors profted, one Of them
averring that patrons commonly
spent as much as a quarter apiece for
drinks now when a nickel used to be
the average.
Chances For Actors of Merit.
Another important result of the
new methods is noticed in the
changed character of the showmen
and their employees. Time was when
Coney Island and similar resorts were
hotbeds of crooks and panhandlers of
the worst description. To-day they
afford an excellent opportunity for
actors and actresses to continue their
work and for young college students
to obtain employment that will help
pay their next years schooling.
There are as many as thirty or forty
of these employed at the baths and
in other capacities. The big produc-
lions such as Fighting the Flames"
and the Great Train Robbery" EN-
ploy many trained actors, the last
named going to the extent of employ
ing an actual member of the famous
Dalton gang in their effort to provide
true-to-life production that will be
in every respect worth the admis-
sion fee.
From Coney Island the new idea
in summer amusements spread. 1t
might be imagined that the old style
show, being driven from that place,
would find a Judgment somewhere
else. But that is not the case. APP
parently the showmen came to the
conclusion that the appeal of the old
fake show was too limited a patron
age to be worth while. The two re-
sorts that come nearer to the old sort
are North Beach and South Beach,
but except In their cheapness they
have very little similarity to the old
Coney Island. They, too, are devel-
oping along the lines of their most
famous prototype, order is rigidly
preserved, and with very few excep-
lions the amusements are of clean,
legitimate character. Two other
nearby resorts - Glen Island and
Fort George-are now being rebuilt
and developed on an elaborate scale
along somewhat different lines from
Coney Island, to be sure, but with
the same recognition of the sort of
amusement that the people care most
for.
And so it is with resorts through
out the country, from Maine to Cali
fornia. Scattered over the country
there are scores of minor Luna
Parks" and "Dreamlands" and won
derlands" and White Cities" every
one of which shows the direct effect,
in name as well as in character, of
the changed conditions exemplified
at Coney Island. How thoroughly
the new idea has been established
may be seen in connection with the
change in the character Of exposition
side shows. Scarcely more than half
a dozen of all the shows on the Mid
way at Chicago in 1898 would have
passed muster on the pike" at st.
Louis eleven years later.
At Coney Island 1t was noticed
that when great amounts of money
were invested in amusement places
the city at once came forward and
performed its duty as to civic i'm
provements. The same thing has
been true throughout the country.
AS soon as the resorts cease to be
menaces to public morals and become
places of really innocent amusement,
the municipal authorities are glad to
recognize them and give them the OPP
portunity to become even more sta
BILE and permanent. Such an attitude
on the part of city authorities is I'M
imaginable in connection with the
old-style resort. Perhaps a majority
of such suburban resorts were orig
inally built up bytransportation COM
panies, largely by street railway COM
panies. Sometimes it was to these
promoters interests to establish a
really high-class resort, as in the
case of Norumbega Park, near Bos-
ton, but more often 1t was decidedly
to their interest to make 1t as cheap
and popular as possible. AS long as
the only sort Of resort known was
the fake variety, the street railway
resorts were almost entirely of this
sort. But now these have also felt
the effects of the change of the last
few years, and many of them have
benefited by 1t to such an extent that
| they have either been taken into the
city park system or connected with 1t
by means of parkways or boulevards.
Indeed, no phase of the lighter side
of American life has been so utterly
changed-lifted from the gutter, as
it were, and clothed with respecta-
bility, stamped with the approval of
the better public opinion, and recog-
nized officially by those who hold the
power of protection or suppression
in their hands.-New York Post.
| Horses and Mules in the West.