st caste by declining to participate
in the routine of watering place life, simple and inexperienced as it
then was. Yet there were summer resorts, and they were patronized by the
best and most prominent citizens of the country. The springs at Saratoga
had already been discovered, and there were many New Yorkers who made
the then long and arduous trip.

But nearer at hand was the "Beach at Rockaway," sung by the military
poet, George P. Morris, and Coney Island. At the latter resort
conditions were primitive. Unheard were the blaring of bands, and the
raucous cry of the "Hot-Dog man," and the riot and roar of the rabble.
Mr. Blinker, of O. Henry's "Brick Dust Row," could not then have seen
his vision and found his light. For there was no mass of vulgarians
wallowing in gross joys to be recognized as his brothers seeking the
ideal. But he might have been as well pleased with the unpretentious
hotel at the water's edge, where the urbanite could enjoy the cooling
ocean breezes, and listen to the waves, and dine upon broiled chicken
and succulent clams.

The press of the third decade of the last century was high-priced and
vitriolic. Of the morning papers now known to New Yorkers there was
none. The "Sun," the first to appear, began in 1833. But of the
afternoon journals there was the "Evening Post," perhaps even then
"making virtue odious," as a wit of many years later was to express it,
and the "Commercial Advertiser," now the "Globe," the oldest of all
metropolitan journals. Before the appearance of the "Sun," the morning
papers had been the "Morning Courier and New York Enquirer," the
"Standard," the "Democratic Chronicle," the "Journal of Commerce," the
"New York Gazette and General Advertiser," and the "Mercantile
Advertiser and New York Advocate." In the evening there were the "Star,"
and the "American," besides the "Post" and "Commercial Advertiser."
These newspapers were mere appendages of party, "organs" in the
narrowest and most restricted sense, espousing blindly certain interests
or ideas, expounding in long editorials the views of small groups of
politicians.

"Here's this morning's New York Sewer! Here's this morning's New York
Stabber! Here's the New York Family Spy! Here's the New York Private
Listener! Here's the New York Peeper! Here's the New York Plunderer!
Here's the New York Keyhole Reporter! Here's the New York Rowdy Journal!
Here's all the New York papers! Here's full particulars of the patriotic