Life — June 24, 1897 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

day he would feel very much at home. These gentlemen are affluent and ami- able, and addicted to airy persiflage in bric-A-brac English on the hotel piazzas; and their tact, modesty and self-cfface- ment have endeared them to all at this quiet retreat. They prefer the demo- cratic manners of the beach hotel to the cold hauteur of the cottage; and they are not irritated by the Hiltonian prac- tice of chaining the table ware and count- ing the doughnuts, a practice which implies lack of confidence, and the sus- picion that a relative is hidden upstairs whose modesty keeps him off the hotel register. Then, they can mingle with aristocrats who resent the purse-proud exclusiveness of Bar Harbor and New- port, and can breathe the same air with- out extra charge. A gentleman in the business of retail- ing clothes, dry goods and small loans, may be coldly attentive to commerce at home, but he unbends and loosens up at LONG PRANCH FROM DER OCEAN. the seashore. He adorns his person with fine Oriental taste; he drinks wine with the best—labels; he delights in large cigars with Castilian names and reptilian flavors; and he has no objection to con- fiding to strangers the immense sums he squanders on his pleasures and family. Ina locality where noses do not count as social obstacles, his fine, democratic style and manner are attheir best. The gentlemen of the race track who retail literature covered with cabalistic marks in blue pencil give him the glad hand and the tropic smile ; for these sportive blades know that when he leaves the anchorage of his clothing emporium, the child of Israel is a good thing. The gay Pennsylvanian who affects Long Branch goes in for cottages and abandon ; he is there for relaxation, and relaxes to the point of dislocation. He goes in for good form, and sends to the Rialto for it; but he does not mingle pro- miscuously with the sons and daughters of Zion; he docs not have time. His fun is swift,torrid and condensed; he has ten months of Philadelphia to work off in two of the Branch, and delays are dangerous. * * * ESIDES the regulars at the Branch, and the transients from all over, fugitives from Asbury Park are arriving constantly. Piety and prayer as anti- dotes for parched palates are not success- ful; and this fact leads to a hegira of sainted persons from Bradley's Reserve, large enough to support an electric road and fatten a horde of magnates. The visitors from New York come with furry palates and red eyes, and mean business. They are persone grata in the most cx- clusive alcoholic centres— “For while the bills hold out to burn The thirstiest sinner may not yearn.” Hotels are numerous and McKinley tariffs the rule. No man need want ex- citement and house room while he has