Off on a Fishing Trip
WASHINGTON, May 30. -- President Cleveland, accompanied by L. Clarke Davis, of Philadelphia, left Washington for Hog Island, Va., over the Pennsylvania Railroad, at 5.40 this afternoon. There were no other persons in the party except a colored porter. The President is due at Hog Island at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning. He occupies Car No. 180, a combination dining, sleeping and observation car. His car will be switched off at Wilmington, Del., and goes south to Exmore, Va., whence he will proceed by boat to Hog Island. The President's determination is to return to Washington on Saturday evening.
The President arrived at the depot at 5.30 and made his way, accompanied by Mr. Davis and a valet carrying his hand satchel, to his car almost unnoticed. He was enveloped in a gray linen duster and wore a gray slouch hat, pulled down almost over his eyes, and would have been almost unrecognized by his nearest friend. Upon reaching the car he took a seat near the door, Mr. Davis sitting opposite. He lit a Havana cigar, and, with his back to the window, sent smoke curling out the rear door of the car, which was left open. Hundreds of people passed, but no one aside from the depot officials and watchful reporter seemed to be aware of the presence of the President of the United States.
BROADWATER ISLAND.
The Quaint Little Cottage in the Pines -- A Pleasant and Exclusive Resort Created by Prominent Philadelphians Upon the Virginia Coast -- Plenty of Gamey Drum Fish to be Caught in the Surf.
BROADWATER ISLAND, Virginia, May 30. -- In the pine woodland not far from the sheltered bay side of Broadwater Island, or, as the natives still call it, Hog Island, stands a small cottage, built some years ago by Mr. J. L. Ferrell, of Germantown, who had then just discovered the potent charm of this particular portion of the Atlantic seaboard. This structure is probably utterly unlike any other cottage ever built for the shelter of temporary residents by the ocean, or, for that matter, anywhere else.
In exterior conformation and interior economy it violates every architectural canon, and is, therefore, both picturesque and comfortable. Its wide roofs cover a single floor, from the midst of which a small upper story is projected, suggesting the "Texas" of a Mississippi river steamboat.
During the past winter and spring it has been occupied by a cultured family, who were guests upon the island, and its several cabin-like rooms show the touch of tasteful fingers.
From the windows the outlooks are all vistas of the splendid forest that extends for miles through the centre of the island, with the club house and one or more pretty cottages just suggested to the vision.
Behind the house a narrow walk, built upon stilts, leads hither and yon through the thicket and past the gray little homes of the native fishermen, out to the highway and the steamboat landing at the inlet. This inlet is always picturesque. The swirl of the tide sets out and in, lifting and dropping alternately the many fishing and sailing craft gathered into this small haven, making new combinations of a picture that the visitor always views with pleasure, however often he may come.
The Inlet
To this inlet, upon the steam yacht Sunshine, along this bit of road, shaded now and then by grotesque cedars, and through the thicket to this little cottage, the President will come to-day from Washington, accompanied again by Mr. L. Clarke Davis, editor of the PUBLIC LEDGER, and in this practically inaccessible retreat try to enjoy some of the many blessings accorded to the private citizen but denied to the exalted official.
In December last Mr. Cleveland, then a President in expectation, was introduced to this region by Mr. L. Clarke Davis, who is an enthusiastic member of the Broadwater Club. At that time Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Ferrell placed their beautifully furnished cottage at his disposal, and the time was chiefly devoted to gunning for ducks.
Plenty of Drum Fish.
Now Mr. Cleveland comes in the full glory of the Chief Magistracy, and is, as far as can be learned, the first President to visit this portion of the coast while in office. The ducks are gone, but in the surges of the inlet there are plenty of drum fish, full of flight and rotund with good feeding. To reach Broadwater Island most conveniently from Washington, it is necessary to come northward to Wilmington, and from that point go down the Maryland and Virginia peninsula upon its single railroad (a division of the Pennsylvania Railroad system), which ends at Cape Charles City.
The traveller destined for Broadwater leaves the train at the little station of Exmore, about twenty-five miles north of Cape Charles, and in the heart of the strawberry region. Guests of the club are met at the station by a neat little bus, which rolls away through the fragrant woods and along the edges of fields a couple miles, to Willis Landing, upon Machipongo creek, where the steamer awaits and "Cap'n Fred" has, beyond a doubt, something particularly good to eat ready in the cabin.
Nobody seems to be in any particular hurry 'round about Willis wharf, nor worried about the financial situation, nor troubled by indigestion. The general impression seems to be that, however disastrous the times may get to be elsewhere, Willis wharf and all that region will continue to enjoy three meals a day "unless clams give out in the bay."
Presently the Sunshine, having developed sufficient calories energy, departs down the winding Machipongo through the reedy marsh toward the open water, which suggests its name to this shallow estuary. The long detour preformed by the steam yacht in order to keep away from the oyster-sewn flats extends the journey to nearly 20 miles from the mainland to the Broadwater Inlet. Sail craft of the batteau type skim across the flats at high tide and reduce the distance nearly one-half.
A Private Domain.
Broadwater Island is a private domain, being the property, by purchase from a number of long resident owners, of Mr. J. L. Ferrell, well known in Philadelphia social circles and a traveller who has voyaged in every quarter of the globe. Having this island and desiring congenial society, Mr. Ferrell organized the Broadwater Club, for the convenience of whose members and their friends a roomy club house was built, standing, like the little original cottage, in the shadows of the pine woods just upon the edge of the meadows that are spread behind the rampart of sand, an ideal place for the purpose. The present membership of the club includes about 50 gentlemen, nearly all being Philadelphians, as follows:
Hon. Henry Reed, George Vaux Bacon, John C. Sims, H. La Barre Jayne, Clifford S. Sims, J. W. M. Cardeza, D. S. Newhall, Alex. McGaw, L. Clarke Davis, Sidney G. Fisher, William Hacker, William Winsor, Joseph L. Ferrell, F. P. Prichard, H. L. Davis, Allen Houston, William C. Watson, George C. Thomas, James Bayard, Clement A. Griscom, William A. Patton, Samuel C. Wellman, Malcolm Lloyd, Thomas C. Wierman, Frank M. Hipple, Thomas S. Parvin, William F. Hirons, John Lowber Welsh, William M. Levering, William A. Garrigues, Theodore Frothingham, Joseph S. Smith, Henry Whelan, Jr., W. D. Hewitt, D. Weatherly, Jr., Joseph C. Fraley, Henry W. Dunne, John Marshall, Fred. W. Morris, Clement M. Biddle, N. Middleton, James Rawle, George C. Thomas, Jr., J. Henry Zeilin, Thomas F. Jones, Joseph Moore.
Wants to be Left Alone.
At the present time the gunning for small birds in very good, but, as already hinted, the chief sport is found in catching drum, a game fish which weighs from fifteen to forty or more pounds, but pulls on a line like a Colorado steer on a lasso. A good many are caught in sand pockets along the surf, this method of capture requiring a strong arm and considerable practice in throwing the bait over the breakers. The favorite plan is to fish along the edge of the surf in the inlets from a batteau. The bluefish have not yet arrived.
During the stay of Mr. Cleveland he will probably pursue the even tenor of a sportsman's life, as in December last, and both the members of the club and the natives who may be upon the island will respect his well-known desire to be let alone, unless he learns that some man over at the club is an especially good cribbage player, when he is likely to be wanted at the small cottage after supper.