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SCRiBNER's Magazine

Vol.

AUGUST

XVI

1894

No. 2

NEWPORT By W. Illustrations by

C. Brownell

W.

S.

V'axuerbilt Allen

A

BENEFICENT fairy of »stliotic

predilections could not have arranged a composition containing more efficient contrast and Ijalance than New2)()rt presents in its combination of old and new, of the (juaint and the elegant, pictures(|ueness and culture. Nowhere else does fashion rest with such feathery lightness on such a solid 2>^<lt!^tal. The extravagance gains im-

mundane

mensely by being related, seemingly and as to ocular setting, to a background of natural beauty and grave d e c o r u m The background at least

.

gains a little, too. The i)eoi)le that inhabit it, addicted as they are to olv servant criticism of "summer visitAtlantic ors," nevertheless receive an electric OCEAfJ tillip from their contact with what is gay and joyous and no doubt Heeting. In spite of their most conscientious efforts they are aliected in a way that broadens their horizon in proportion as it sharpens their critical faculties. They " size up " the brilliant butterflies that but hover about the lovely town a few brief months in the year, and in rather remorseless fashion; but they are justiAVliat other city fiably if secretly proud of their opportunities for doing so. with any pretensions to be a watering-place has any such chance ? The whole town is in consequence visibly braced up. The clerks in the shops along Thames Street betray the influence in their deportment. A higher standard of manners than w^ould otherwise obtain is universally apparent. School-cliildren, even, The comtreat each other with noticeably more decorousness than elsewhere. edy of societ}' is repeated, in fact, in infinite and often humorous trituration. But the result is plipasant. The hack-drivers are, socially considered, jjoseurs. They crack jokes with their fares if they divine resj)onsiveness, but tlieir selfrespect is still more obvious than their conipanionability the "old Newi)orter"

Copyright,

1894,

by Charles Scribner's Sons.

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