Year: 1873

-- NEWPORT. July II, 1879.


It Is one OF the characteristic surs which tho
Saturday Hev;c,c casts upon the watering place
correspondent, that he will insist upon being jolly
anu brilliant. No matter how depressing may be
the circumstances by which he is surrounded; no
matter how the season may nag, and the hotels
languish, and the drives grow barren, anu the
amusements pail, and the lOitercrs dwinde on the
beach, your typical watering place correspondent
says the above mentioned censor always deems 1t
incumbent upon himself to be amusing. And what
If he does ? The ambition Is very laudabc so long
as the writer succeeds in carrying it out, and so
long he does so in the right direction And it
must be owned that watcrng-place life, in the
main, whether in this country or Europe, gener-
ally affords sufficient opportunities for his
purpose. For the last twenty years there
has generally been something interesting
and pleasant to be said OF most OF the
resorts OF this kind. Whether you wandered
amcng the splendid gambling hells OF Baden
Baden the eccentric Swiss baths and the equally
unique ones In the slender valleys OF the Pyrenees;
whether you lost yourself in the dolce r ntente OF
LuCca and Castellamare or visited any OF the
quaint little resorts scattered over England, or
plunged into T0ptz Hegoland or Ischl, or, finally,
whether you content ted. yourself at home and
restricted yourself to Saratoga or Newport, there



something to be written. But this year, far as
Newport is concerned, seems to be the exception,
and 1t would be pleasant to those who have de-
lightful memories OF what this renowned old
watering place used to be to be able Justly to
ascrbe Its present failure in charms to GER
tain vague peculiaritics OF the season
easier, perhaps, to feel than to analyze. Every
hotel proprietor In the place admits that
the present is, so far one OF the dullest
seasons, If not the very dullcst OF which his
memory bears record. The beating of your own
heart and the breaking OF the waves are almost
the only sounds you hear, excepting, perhaps. the
occasional roll OF carriage in front OF the hotel
and the staccato clang Of the electric bell. There
no balls and fashng toilets; no stunning
equipages and very few dashing bellies The three
principal hotels OF the place-the Ocean House,
the Atlantic and AqUidnick-are not much more
than half ul. The expectant visitor who has
franticaly telegraphed for rooms finds himself in
much the sane situation as the gentleman VINO
breathlessy rushed to secure seat at the late
Robert Houdin's farewell performance In Man.
chester. The gentleman attacked the box office
furiousy, purchased his ticket In o transport,
scarcely took time to pocket the change, and,
bursting past the astonished doorkeepcr scarcely
hoping to be able to elbow his way to his
seat, found himself In vast audi
forum, occupied by audience OF two


Newport Is not quite SO bad as this, but the one
thing suggests the other. There has been so much
cooi weather that people have deferred their ocean
visits 10 later date than usual 1t is not necessary
to argue, from the paucity OF the present season.
that this pretty and celebrated little watering
place is in q state OF decadence. That has been af
1rmed OF it so often without TRUTH that its friends
can afford to laugh at the slander But still,
picture yourself the scene, and then say whether
Or not it Is particularly cxhiarating. All watering
place life u.s. in essential characteristics, the
breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper at much the
same hours. and between them nothing to do but
to Kill time in any manner deemed best, the ladies
to sit on the piazzas and eye each ot1crs dresses
and read the latest novel, the gentlemen to repair
TO the fishing banks OF the billiard room Those
who bathe meet together in general rendezvous at
eleven just In time TO manufacture, between
breeze and brine, splendid spirit and appetite for
the next meal. But you ma uraly associate
with all this ideas OF vivacity, motion, brliancy
and livcliness. You hear in Imagination the voice
OF society mingling with the thunder OF the ocean,
the rustic OF fashion with the gigantic murmurs of
the deep. Many Of the shiverng and lively phases
of humanity YOU expect to sec, set OIL and framed
by a sort OF rectangle OF the elements. All that is
TO be said is that at Newport tis fancy Is not ac
tualized. There is a hush on all things. Even the
roar OF tie ocean seems scarcely a any longer.
1t appears to come out OF the sea shell instead OF
going into it. The colored driver WHO waits with
his wagon to drive you to the fishing ground looks
lugubrious, through lack OF orders. lie offers IN.
ducements OF bass and tautog to you In vain and
drives with melancholy meekness to one hotel
after the other, standing shyiy % on the opposite
side of the road, whence lie casts reproachlul and
despairing glances at the hotel windows, mach
after the manner OF an organist who has given his
pennyworth OF opera tune without receiving
the penny. The very walters go about softly as
II there was some body dead In the next room. Ine
voice OF the hotel Clerk has q pensiye accent as he
inaures the number OF your room, Tor which you
have been paying So per day, and the very barber
who shaves you sharpens his razor with deep
seated detection, which sets your teeth on edge,
though not calculated to give one to the instru-
ment. There is a funeral vacancy IN the dining
room. The unoccupied walters, about onc-lali the
entire number stand in melancholy ranks, looking
as Though their richest relatives had died ana lett
them nothing. 1t Ia easy to see that the watering
place Rachel ~ crying for her children, because
they refuse 10 come orth In the proper numbers.
You go down to breakfast and IND, perhaps,
forty people seated at twenty tables, which would
accommodate about nve times as many. Things
are, perhaps, a little better at dinner and about
tse same at tea But even at dinner there
that sensuous display OF dress for
which waterng-place fashion and fcminnity have
been, time out OF mind, renowned Where are
those ravishng toilets that Worth might have
invented and that che little troop Of per Jodicals
IN Ion dasr ho wifi moi nn.,o