Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-10
~ OSTED in all the strategical points
in the New York entrance to the
= Brooklyn bridge are signs rea ding.

Brooklyn bridge are signs reading:
Entering or leaving cars through
windows or over the side rails is strictly
forbidden"
That simple legend epitomizes the
2 story of the daily hegira to Coney ISL
and. 1t tells more than whole socio-
logical library could tell of the traits
of the army as a whole. 1t tells what
Coney Island is.
Geographically, Coney Island is not
an island. 1t ceased to be one two
years ago, when the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit company unselfshly dumped
several hundred thousand tons of New
York's garbage into the Coney Island
creek which had separated it from the
mainland.
Coney Island creek was not a pic
turesque creek in itself. At low tide
1t was just a gutter lined with black
mud of triumphant odor; but at its
worst, which was very worst indeed
1T was as a Persian garden compared
with the square mile of ashes, broken
crockery old mattresses and tin cans
with which the dumping cars have
filled its bed.
Its Hidden Beach
Coney Island has a beach-a fine
beach, fronting the ten-mile wide jaws
of the lower harbor, which is practi-
cally the open sea; but the stranger
might well be excused if he failed to
discover that there is such thing as
a shore on the whole island.
Not that the beach is deserted. The
Grand Duchy of New York can shake
enough people out of one wrinkle of its
baggy garments to fill every bit of the
shore front of Coney Island and never
know that anybody had left town. The
thing that makes the beach hard for the
stranger to find is that the great army
that drags him along as he leaves the
cars through the windows and over
the side rails" surges through the
painted street and into the lath, plaster
and painted canvas side shows and beer
and song dens and dance halls.
And all these places are carefully
built to face away from the sea, so
that its strong breath may not blow
away the more civilized smell of beer,
whisky and cigars.
The beers, whislies and cigars are
all of Coney Island quality, which is
unique. There is a dark rumor that the
three staples of life are all made in
Coney Island from Coney Island re-
sources, and they bear within them
grim evidence that goes far to convict
them.
The loyalist who created the thought
that some whisky is poorer than other
whisky, but there amt no bad whisky,
never drank Coney Island whisky. Yet
even 1t is not fatal, for the 300, 600 who
go to the island on Sundays drink
enough TO find out.
The beer is not as bad as the whisky,
owing to a beautiful and simple pre-
caution taken by the sellers. It Is to
fill the glasses with more froth than
beer, thus minimizing the quantity of
IN a. "A
ity plays only an inhnitesimal part
Fat ladies' and mermaids, old mills
and roller coasters, trips into the paint
ed canvas bowels Of the underworld
and voyages through lath Venices
make up the rest of the "Island." +"
Everywhere there is an apparently
studied absence of reference TO any-
thing that could possibly remind people
of what the stranger might consider
the dominant feature of a seaside resort
the sea-
Like a Dark Crime
In the real center Of Coney Islands
life the stranger might walk for hours
without dreaming that there Is a sea,
so far as his sense of sight Is concerned
II almost seems as II Coney Island
viewed the ocean as its one dark and
shameful crime To be kept out of
sight as much as possible 1t doesn't
try to hide anything else
You, the stranger, even though pay
ing due regard TO the crowd on the
beach and in the water, will look on