The Chesapeake for Pleasure.
On Tangier Sound, July 30,1906.
To the Editor of The American: The Chesapeake Bay, take it where you will, is a fascinatingly beautiful sheet of water. All that the poets have said about any other sea, inland or outland, may be said of the Chesapeake. In its calmer moods, it is as placid as a mountain encompassed lake, but when the storms blow in from the East, it sometimes lashes and rages in a white foaming fury that gives notice that it is a true offspring of the ocean. The Chesapeake is nowhere more entrancingly beautiful than down where Tangier Sound spreads on the east and the wide-mouthed Potomac [River] opens to the westward. Here, from mainland to mainland, the bay is about 50 miles wide, and there are many islands breaking the monotony of the waters. Crossing Tangier Sound on a moonlight night in summer on one of the modernly equipped bay boats is an exquisite experience.
The passengers gather in the bow and upon the hurricane deck. If there are a lot of gay young people aboard, or gay old people either, the captain will see to it that they do not pine in a corner unless they are determined to be shy or exclusive. If someone in the party can spin a good yarn, the captain gets him agoing; it does not take long for these groups on the upper deck to arrive upon an easy footing and the jest and the repartee spring spontaneously. Even chronic melancholy gets a severe jolt in the free-from-care spirit that is enkindled in these upper deck gatherings of the bay steamers. Out on the broad lower Chesapeake these lines of the Corsair naturally come to mind;
"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,
Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free,
Far as the breeze can bear the billows foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home!"
The people who live along the shore lines of the Chesapeake are unexceptionally prosperous, and the general average of happiness is as high, it is safe to say as it is anywhere else on earth. They are a people who live simply and have an abundance, without passing the line into that excess stage of human existence described as "luxurious." The fisher folk of the islets and the mainlands generally have cozy homes, and the "enough" which is "good as a feast," but no one has ever yet accused them of being enervated by the taint of luxury. They go down to the sea in ships after the oyster, the clam and the crab. The crab fisherman of the summertime is the oyster fisherman of the R months; thus, the fisherman now have a money-making season that lasts, with a few brief closed periods, from the first of January to the last of December. Many of these fishermen have accumulated a surplus -- own comfortable homes and raise their children under refining influences. Generally speaking, they are a simple unaffected kindly people. Approach them with sincerity and without artificially and they respond with a quick sympathy. They are not by any means a shy people; they will talk about anything they know about and ask questions concerning lots of things which they want to know about.
It is likely that a somewhat wrong impression has gone abroad concerning the Maryland oystermen, caused by the strenuous attitude which those who fish the natural beds and bars have always taken against an oyster bottom leasing system and from the somewhat intemperate talk that has now and then been reported from the tidewater sections in connection with the subject of oyster culture by private enterprise. In judging of the attitude of the oystermen upon the oyster issue generally it might be well to recall the story of the man of Uz, concerning whom Satan advised "Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face." The leasing law does not touch all that the oysterman hath, but he is afraid that it will, and the oysterman, like the rest of us, clings to the situation that has "made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath.": And of few of the oystermen can it be truly said, perhaps, as it is said of the man of Uz -- "that man was perfect and upright." However, the oystermen are up to the average of uprightness, and I believe will act fairly toward the leasing law when they understand that it is fair. They will scarcely place themselves in an attitude of blockade to the development of the vast Chesapeake industries.
The people who live along the Chesapeake shores and upon the numerous islets take great pleasure in an occasional trip up to Baltimore. There is a vast daily tide of travel that sets up the Chesapeake to the big city near the head. There are at least 100 passengers steamer that ply between Baltimore and points upon the Bay and the tributary rivers. These steamers deliver into Baltimore upon an average 40 passengers each daily, or from 2,000 to 5,000 people, according to the season and the attractions at the Baltimore end. I say "attractions," and by that I mean something more than the ordinary inducements. It will pay Baltimore to make special attractions, and to do so unceasingly. Viewing the 50 or 60 passengers on a bay steamer it is interesting to ask "Why are all these people going to Baltimore?" There can be no doubt that many of them are going simply for the pleasure of the trip. Will it not pay Baltimore to make things pleasant for the pleasure hunters? Can any sane person believe that the proposed Jubilee is not a right move??
REPSAC.