Life, 1897-06-10 · page 8 of 20
Life — June 10, 1897 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Coney Island Satire This is a humorous essay about Coney Island as a summer resort, illustrated with social commentary. The main cartoon at bottom, captioned "ALONE," depicts a beggar child sitting alone while well-dressed adults and children pass by indifferently. The dialogue—"What's he cryin' for?" / "That dead dog wuz his chum"—uses dark humor to satirize the callousness of Coney Island's crowd and the contrast between wealthy vacationers and the poor. The essay text mocks Coney Island's pretensions: its "concrete democracy," garish bathing costumes "reminiscent of Palestine," and unconventional social manners. It portrays the resort as simultaneously democratic and morally questionable—a place where social conventions collapse and people behave badly, indifferent to suffering around them.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
488 -LI LIFE’S PERSONALLY CONDUCTED TOURS. CONEY ISLAND. Co ISLAND is concrete democracy; it is the playground, bath-house, safety- valve and paradise of the American me- tropolis; and it guarantees to give as much salt water fortwo dollars as Newport and Narragansett offer for two thousand. It is situated in the State bye \ CASA of New York, facing LN the tumultuous At- 4 lantic Ocean, with its weather eye on Jersey and its back on Brooklyn. Its longitude is im measur- able; its latitude be- yond the dreams of mathematics ; and its isothermal lines indicate 197 in the shade all through the season. The component parts of Concy Island are sand, bath-houses, brass bands, dime museums, hotels, promiscuous humanity, and that impalpable matcrial known below Fourteenth Street as “Hot Stuff.” Coney Island is closed for repairs in October, its atmosphere during the close season being too austere for ordinary consumption. It is the summer resort of the People—the American People, free born, untrammeled, and otherwise—who reach the Island by steamboat, tugboat, sailboat, railroad, trolley road, wagon road, boat-rowed, and also by bike; the main point being that the People get there. HE summer costume of the Coney Islander is a dream, or rather, it is the result of the stuff dreams are made of; for it is distinguished by highly developed colors and amazing con- trasts that startle and affright incoming steam- ers. This style of costume is designed by thoughtful Hebrews as a means of arresting delirium tremens in its carly stages and of furnishing material, at the season's close, for real Daghestan mats. The yachting garb of Coney Island is intended solely for picturesque effect and feminine subjugation, not for marine purposes. If it is scornfully rejected by the Corinthian and New York Yacht clubs, it is well to remember that it has a passionate following in the canal districts of the interior. The voyage from any wharf down the bay to Coney Island is an epoch illuminated by strong drink, distempered by German bands, and brightened by manners and language wholly devoid of conventional stiffness. A cruise by bike to this pleasing locality has many of the hazards of African adventure, while a trip by trolley or rail should never be un- dertaken by persons with dependent relatives, or without a football uniform or chain armor. FE: The manners of the Island are simple and unconventional ; style, as Fifth Avenue knows it, is not there; a leader of Island society may discuss ethics or evolution with a total stranger over an urn of beer without shocking society or calling in the police. These things constitute its charm. Histrionics and thirst appear to run together at Coney Island, the exploitation of the former and the suppression of the latter being carried on under the same roof or canvas. Some of the very best people in the profession may be seen onthe boards there, hurling anathemas and comic songs at the ocean. Veterans who have played a splendid round of char- acters, from the skull in Hamlet to the cuspidor in ‘Ten Nights in a Bar Room,” do not disdain to strut their little hour at Coney Island. . * * Barns is entered into heartily by all classes, for the people know, without reading the papers, that the Aulantic Ocean has other uses besides carrying millionaires to Europe and sinking the 7exas, The bathing costumes of this vociferous resort are somewhat tumultuous, the patterns being vivid, and reminiscent of Palestine. They are worn not from any sense of fitness, but to soothe the irritated feelings of the police and to allay the spasmal symptoms of Comstock. A peculiarity of Coney Island bathing is that it is done in the water, a practice considered vulgar at Newport. Dancing is another favorite pastime at the Island, and while there are fewer trimmings and décolleté attachments to it than at Sherry’s, there is more solid marrow in the Island joust than in the society function. The terpsichorean conventions are more flexible by the sea than in other and fresher spots. A good body hold, catch-as-catch can, is con- Susy: WHAT'S HE CRYIN’ FOR? Nelly (tn @ whisper): THAT DEAD DOG WUZ IIS CHUM.