tors _a la_ Coney Island, so that it
was bare of all those curious things "cast up by the sea;" or perhaps
it was that the huge surf constantly tumbling in raises the sand
perpetually, and buries all objects, whatever they may be, rapidly out
of sight.

One of our party, who wished to improve the occasion and also give me a
treat, paid fifty cents a piece for himself and myself to gain
admission to a museum on the beach, said to be a wonderful collection
of interesting things in natural history.

I noticed rather a startled look upon the lady caretaker's face as the
money was paid. I may here say we found the doors open and a sign at
the entrance giving price of admission. We might have pushed in without
the formality of a cash payment, but the dignity of our cloth forbade.
My friend really made an effort to summon the caretaker from some inner
recess. She took our money--his money, I should say--with a startled
air, and we entered.

Well, the less said the better about that museum. No wonder that our
payment to get in was startling. We who had seen Kensington, the
Crystal Palace at Sydenham, the British Museum, the World's Fair, and
about one hundred and twenty years of life between us, were greeted
with shabby plaster reproductions of this, that, and the other; with
jute-haired, manufactured monsters and other absurdities; the only
thing that really commanded our respect being an American coon
tolerably well stuffed and set up. We left disgusted. My reflection to
my friend was that in such localities the best things were always "free
shows," as I pointed out to the boundless Pacific; the hard, firm sand
of the beach; and

"The white arms out in the breakers, tirelessly tossing."

But the melancholy of the museum had yet an outside chapter, for there
were cages of wild beasts--miserable captives--and some wretched
monkeys, whose capacity for the pathetic grief which was stamped upon
their poor faces, turned one's thoughts inward to the tragedy of all
life.

The hotel was one of the many "largest hotels in the world," and is
really a wonderful place. The great interior court, with glass roof
covering in a collection of tropical trees and plants, was all a thing
of beauty. Into this magic place quite a number of rooms opened. The
dining-room, the ballroom, the verandas, the sun-parlors, the public
rooms--all were vast, grandiose, and what one might say "perfectly
splendid." I pity the taste of any one who cou