Life — July 8, 1897 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

-LIFE- 33 charged with high (priced) spirits, and has thought- fully marked up the goods that impregnate the summer air of the casino. The cottagers come from those mad centres of whirling gayety, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Brook- lyn and Providence ; they are pallid with the pace of church sociables, giddy women's clubs, whist tournaments, and other forms of dissipation; they . age aristocratic and cosmopolitan, and have done Europe, Chicago and Niagara with Crook's excursions, They come to the Pier for relax- ation, and leave the evangelical pleasures of winter's merry revels behind, after securely boxing up Mrs. Grundy’s rules in the safety deposit vault; and they relax with the ease and flexibility of a prehensile monkey's tail. The nobility and gentry of the cottages are next in rank and succession to the aristocracy HOW THE WAITER PRESENTS THE CIGARS ACCORDING TO THEIR PRICE. AND JULY FIFTH, A PARADOX, Foe two ideals I strove, in eager quest, The first I lost—and why? ‘Twas realized. The other, unpossessed, Stays with me till I di HE man who deserves the most credit generally has to pay cash, LIFE’S PERSONALLY CONDUCTED TOURS. NARRAGANSETT PIER. ARRAGANS PIER is an insti- tution devoted to external and in- ternal bathing, which is perched on the rock-bound coast of Rhode Island. When a young man of rapid transit habits fails to acquire Paris by rea- son of parental parsi- mony, he may, by ju- dicious avuncular ne- gotiation, attain Nar- tagansett. Of course, there are things in Paris that Narragan- sett has not adopted; but the Pier has ad- vantages of a bohe- mian sort that Paris might object to. The pier itself is a tradition, though there is a decayed and storm-beaten wharf at the resort; but this attraction is not alluded to boastfully. Socially, Narragansett is a bar (sinister) relation of Newport-across-the-bay, and is re- garded by the latter as Boston years ago regarded Texas—a place where social conventions are ignored, where illuminated vivacity congregates, and where the thermometer breaks the record. Narragansett is cynical about Newport, and hints that the nobility and gentry of Newport who spend swift days and rapid nights at the Pier, return home via the gold cure. Possibly this is merely the social jealousies of the two paradises finding utterance. HE Pier consists of a series of archi- tecturally startling cottages strung along the cliffs, and a storm centre of hotels and casinos. There are two casinos, the big and the little, and the concierge, M. Sherry of New York, judging from results, appears to hold cards—and spadesalso. There is an in- direct tax for looking at the casinos, a specific tariff for entering their portals, and an ad valorem duty for escaping from them, The prices of everything, from atmosphere to civility, are lofty and depressive in these joyous joints, and seem designed to keep out the lower orders; for Sherry understands the haughty disdain of a real gentleman FIFTEEN CENTS. aN TWENTY-FIVE CENTS, comicbooks.com