Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-19
REAL OLD ENGLAND, THIS
Notes Of a Summer Trip to the York
shire Coast.
BATH UNDER LOCAL CONDITIONS
Picturesque Places and Habits Along
the German Ocean-The Smallest
Church-sOmewhat SOmbre
English MerrymakinE,

SALTBURN, Eng, Sept. Slave you
in late years experienced the rarity in
Europe OF escaping the American tour
lists in summer time travelling? 1t can
be done here in Yorkshire and it seems al
most a wonder, so ubiquitous is Jonathan
on his holidays in these times. He is so
scarce among the Cleveland Hills, how
ever, that the natives don't know him
from a Russian.
It may be said with confidence that the
lmperIous American traveller has made no
Impression on the conditions of life here
about albeit in the neighboring and mod
lrn town Of Middlesbrough Yankee ideas
have so far been adopted or adapted by
The Yorkshiremen that upon quitting the
railway station one gets quite the feeling
pf having suddenly stepped from an Eng
dsh railway carriage into a western
American hustling town. The traveller
looks about in mild confusion until he
learns that marlborough as 1t Is is the
growth of a generation. 1t seems In no
way a part Of the old England around 1t.
Even where modernity has made head
way In the vicinity, as at Salt
burn or other of the seashore resorts,
there is a clinging primitiveness all per-
vading that takes the edges from the new
sharp bricks and dulls the bright new
ness of modern provincial elegance. The
presence of a cabinet minister and a MEM
Der Of Parliament as summer residents
high or, the splendid e%splanade cannot
lake from old Saltburn, nesting at the
foot of Huntcliff, the aroma Of ancient
days of romance and adventure, days of
smuggling, of hardy fishers, OF shipwrecR
and struggles with the sea which in times
of storm and of extreme tide washes into
the old houses and the old Ship inn
stacked against the inhospitable cliff.
While Old Saltburn was nothing but a
fishing village and negligible by it's neigh
bors, the newer S%altburn, the summer re-
sort, is looked upon by them es an up
start. Saltburn, to give itself airs, indeed,
as a resort OF people who can go sum
mering at the seaside in the face of its
elder and most worthy %neighbors who
have been established on the soil there
many generations, who figure in Domes-
day Book and were post villages on the
royal roads when it was a forsaken prom
ontory of the German ocean! Hadn't
Upletham these many years the reputa-
ton of being as bonnie a village as you'd
find In the realm, with the boast of never
a public house in its precincts, while its
neighbor, Guisborough-the ancient Guys
b~ourne-with twenty-five, pubs had
never a drunken man on the street-an
achievement in virtue characterizing Salt
burn?
With only three places dispensing liquor,
Saltburn, or at least a part of it, drinks
like the thirsty sands that swallow its roll
ing tides in a beach 1000 feet wide and ex'
tending for several miles to and past this
next coast towns 1t may be the excellent
beach which leads sojourners to do more
bathing at Saltburn than is to be seen al
most English resorts, yet it is a treach'
erous coast and takes 1t tribute of swim
mers annually. Three persons this season
so far have been drowned.
1t makes an American laugh and ther
angry at the stupidity to which this loss
OF life is due, the arrangement for bath.
ing at this admirable beach. or cours'
the clumsy, antiquated bathing machines
are in use, except that during certain hour'
men, women and children may II they wisl
and in fact they do-undress and dress II
the open air on the vast reaches of thes'
sands and go in bathing without the popu
lar bathing suit used at this period Il
worthy Ol HOllCts - SlhkAt pAtNG hShHil9
for men and women alike, it will go in IT.
entirety into a paper peanut bag, and som'
Of the lightest ones for men may practi
cally be rolled between the fingers like
cigarette. one costs a shilling, or one quit,
fulfilling the regulations may even b,
bought for ~ninepence.
1t may mildly interest some who stud!
political wickedness at home to learn tina
the reason for limiting the hours when PEG
pie may go bathing without the machine
is ascrlbed to the membership in the loca
council of the one man who owns all tn
machines here, In return, however, he pre-
scribes the safety OF users OF his machine
by informing them that unless they com.
i'm shore when -. w" toots his horn h,
will not be responsible" for them. AS tn
horn toots as soon as you have reached
denth OF water somewhat above your knee
the fun Of the game is quickly apparent,
And how solemn IL all Is. None of tn
Joyous shouts of sea bathers. in the Unite,
States, where they seem to have fun Il
the ocean. but one dull. silent occasion, a
though this bathing were the Performance
OF a rigid duty. And Nowhere a float, no
where a diving board or post, nowher,
ropes to mark the safety limits and servl
as aides to the weak; not even a lifeboa
in the water or a professional swimmer a
hand.
Back among the bathing machines o.
the beach is the sole boat, resting be
tween two wheels ready for launching
through the breaker The men to ma
it2 Maybe they are there; il they ar
they are beautifully inconspicuous. Blu
OF course there's ]. VS. horn.
But solemn as 1t all is there are dis
fractions at this resort too. The beacI
is the scene OF all sorts OF games. An,
number OF cricket matches are going on il
the sand, with foot ball and cicycle rid
ing. kite flying and more. Hundreds o
people, old and young, have dug hollow
and raised back rests for themselves Il
the sand 10 enable themselves to lie OF 81
In comfort ana see what is going on an
sim be sheltered from the strong winds.
The pierrots are here. the plerrots with
out whom the English seaside resort 1
not complete. Here at S~altburn, as at-mos
places nowadays, these London or pre-
vincial music han performers having thei
summering and making their living at IN
same time, wear yachting suits. otherwis
blue coats and caps and white trouser,
as they give their open air performance
on the beach. Further on at Redcar IN
pierrOts wear the old. familiar whit
PierrOt costume with the conical hat. A
4