The Pulaskian., 1915-08-20

M most characteristic summer
 1 playground, Coney Island,
 which is thus pictured by a writer in the New York Evening Post:
 There was an endless, surging tide of people, a crowd which would be described next day as record breaking for it was Sunday after noon in June, and thousands had es- capped from their hot city apartments and were spending it at Coney Island. There may be some persons left who want to rest on the Sabbath day, but not so those who journey down to this fascinating place, where the sights and the sounds are enough to keep them perpetually stimulated. Many of the people you pass upon the street look as if they had worked hard for the oth- CT six days of the week, but now they are determined to have some fun to make up for it, and have chosen the noisiest, most crowded, and the gay est place within reach.
 Wow" shouts a man in red coat, who stands before side-show, the pla- cards of which declare that it will re- veal the wonders of the Orient. Wow, come in and have look. New CT saw anything like it, ladies and gents. Wow, come in and have a look"
 And he is only one of ten in his i'm mediate vicinity, each of whom is blessed with strong explosives, strong lung capacity and marvellous inclina- tion toward hospitality.
 But it is only at first, before your ears become accustomed to it, that you notice the bedlam of the place. The concentrated hubbub strikes the per son who is just getting off the train as almost deafening. But he soon re- alizes that this is part of Coney's charm, one of the causes of it's excite ment and thrill It is on waves of sound that one is borne along with the hundreds of others, that one enters the side-show to see the lady who could not possibly be as fat as she is pictured on the poster, or shoot at one of those uninteresting wooden duck targets, hoping not to be so unfor- tunate as to hit one and thereby draw a pink china vase as reward. Subtety Versus the Obvious. If Coney were a place of silence or of merely mild sound, the visitor would never be inspired to do the things which he finds himself nerved to do when excited by the roar about him. rA Ia nJ1 h fe tU it.. and so n finds himself shouting with the others, laughing uproariously at the spectacle of solemn man wear ing a small red felt hat about as big as a teacup over one ear, although as matter of everyday choice, he pre- fers a somewhat subtler appeal to hu- mor
 The crowds take you along; you laugh with them, you push and shove with them You feel yourself closer to human nature than ever before, even in the subway at rush hour. This crowding and pushing mob is very diff ferent from the subway crowd, tired after a days work, cross and hot and lackadaisical. This is a gay and so- ciable and contented, uproarious gath ering which bears you along on the wave of it's enthusiasm. Even if you come alone and join the oyowds, you feel at once accompanied and befriend- ed.
 In such a mood of comradeship and boisterousness you love to watch the man who is passing out bags Ot pop corn to those who proffer the neces- sary nickel, while the popcorn itself pops white inside glass case, show ering down like fountain. And fur ther on there is the attraction of the smoking plate, on which hot dogs are being cooked till their skins burst, as they are laid between two rolls and laved with mustard. And certainly 1 it is the most natural thing in the world for the person who at other II