USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. II > Part 10
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It was scarcely to be expected that an institution so unique in its con- struction and not in harmony with the lax religion of the day would es- cape the efforts of outside society to compel its conformity to those cus- toms. What was expected has occurred, and efforts in variant forms have been plentiful to destroy its privilege of privacy. The first effort was made by Ocean township to compel the abrogation of the financial privilege ac- corded to religious assemblies, either in or out of doors. It went to the leg- islature and was considered by a committee, but not reported upon. The vice-president proposed assistance to the township in its taxes, which was accepted, and has stood as the basis of agreement ever since. The next was a determination to invade the seclusion of Ocean Grove, which was met by the opening of our gates upon all days but Sundays. This was followed by a demand for the Sundays, which was met by permission for people to enter on foot or in boat, and eventually bridges. This was fol- lowed by an effort to establish saloons for the sale of intoxicants near by. This was met in a struggle before the Legislature, which resulted in a law forbidding their existence within one mile of the Christian resorts already established. Again there was a determined effort to open up the Grove to public travel, which was met again in the Legislature by an enact- ment which forbade the running of a road of any kind through any religious resort without its consent. Efforts have been made to incorporate it under a borough without which its power to enforce its regulations were dis- puted, which was answered by the courts that the Grove already possessed most of the powers of municipality.
It was never supposed by the founders of Occan Grove that the sacred- ness of the place would so change the nature of evil-minded people as to enable them to dispense with police. Indeed, so clear were they on this point that, in the charter for which they petitioned, a special clause was asked conferring police powers, which clause was promptly put into active operation in the very beginning of their corporate existence. It was true, however, that generally there was but little use for the men who wore the badges-as policemen-but they were of great value as watchmen, and in this respect their official power was of considerable consequence, and, no doubt, many a midnight raid was prevented because these men were on the alert and carefully examined the cottages to see if there were people there who had no right to be there. Their duties were mostly confined to looking after the causes of malicious mischief, and especially to fish out of the lake the youngsters who were perpetually falling into it. But for their vigilance a number of parents would have been without the children who to-day grace their families. Added to this, the enforcement of order among the crowds who lined the beach, and the larger crowds who pressed
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to the Auditorium, and a synopsis of most of their duty is made. It is not to be inferred from this that they are inefficient, but simply that there was nothing else, to do except to prevent the evil that a city policeman would let alone until the evil was done, when he would proceed to arrest the man. It requires no little tact to treat all large crowds bent on pleasure with the firm politeness necessary to secure order, but there has been rarely a complaint against them, and there have been but few infringements of or- der. Perhaps their most difficult work has been in preventing the infringe- ment of the association order that the apparel of people here when they left the water for the beach, or the beach for the street, must be in harmony with their appearance in the streets of the place where they made their home. It was so difficult for many to realize that what answered in the water would not answer for the streets, that the attempted violations were so numerous as to keep several police on the alert in preventing a public news- ยท paper scandal on the indecencies of apparel. Their success has been phe- nomenal, and, while the people who were compelled to return to their homes for more suitable apparel before entering the bathing grounds did not take it kindly, yet public sentiment sustained the officers and the sense of public propriety now generally prevails.
The first chief of police was Lewis Rainear, who afterward became superintendent, and whose place was yielded to General J. C. Patterson, who was soon afterward appointed police justice, and who has filled both these offices from that date to the present. The force for winter consists of five men beside the chief, with extra men whenever needed, increasing as the warm season approaches, when it reaches its ordinary maximum of fifteen or twenty. Special quarters, handsomely fitted up, have been assigned to them, where reports are made, and where the justice's courts are held under the jurisdiction of a justice who cares more for inducing an offender to promise to cease from evil than for punishing him for the evil he has done.
There was nothing originally planned for consumption of the time but physical and religious recuperation. The time was only to occupy two or three weeks, and nothing more would be needed. But as the time ex- tended, a life modeled upon the life in the home churches commended itself to the judgment of the people. Music, recitations, original compositions, festivals, stereopticons, moving pictures, concerts, oratorios, readings, with entertainments of similar character, filled the intervening time between the bathing and the service. None of these, however, are permissible during the camp meeting, when everything else is subjected to its exercises, and nothing allowed in any way to interfere.
Among other attractively interesting features to the people who visit
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Ocean Grove is the Model of Jerusalem. Many persons come here who have traveled through the Holy Land, and to whom the sight in miniature of a place through which they have passed, and around which so many holy associations cluster, is a benediction. To those who have never had such an opportunity, a model drawn to an exact scale of a spot whose place in the sacred records is prominent, and whose name is part of the hymnology through which they worship, is peculiarly interesting. The numbers who stand outside of the beautiful pavilion on Ocean Pathway, where the model is located, and who gaze in pious reminiscence upon it, with feelings which carry them back in vivid imagery to the temple where the holy priesthood ministered-the Mount of Olives with its garden of Gethsemane, the Via Dolorosa up to Calvary, with the surroundings so graphically de- picted in the Old and New Testaments-never seem to lose their interest to the tens of thousands who come again and again to study it. The model was constructed under the superintendency of Rev. Dr. Wythe, who had previously placed one at Martha's Vineyard, and has been pronounced by: travelers of intelligent powers of critical observation as nearly perfect as it is possible to make it, in all its houses, streets and surroundings.
The spots designated for public addresses were at first a few planks, afterwards a small platform with rough boards for seats, then a taber- nacle, a moderate Auditorium, a temple, and a chapel. These met the wants for several years, when the needs of larger accommodations became a neces- sity, and the present magnificent Auditorium, worldwide in its fame, was planned and builded. For years the conception lay in abeyance as some- thing desirable but ineffective. The president was deeply interested, but a building whose cost would approach a century of thousands could not be built from feeling. Some one subscribed five dollars, and he kept it as a nestegg until some one else subscribed a hundred, which was another egg in the nest. Then suddenly the conception took active shape. A spirit of enthusiasm arose, and people began to give, some five, some fifty, some a hundred, five hundred, and on up to the thousands, until the eighty or ninety thousand of dollars was subscribed, and, with the exception of some mistakes, was almost entirely paid.
The edifice itself is constructed on the best architectural principles embodying seating and hearing with free ventilation for the ten thousand people who were to find a worshiping home within its walls. The arrange- ment for light requires a special dynamo with nearly a thousand lamps. A place for a choir with five hundred seats rising one above the other is in full view of the congregation, whose seats are also on a gentle incline, so that each person had a full view of the speaker. There was ventilation from above, from the sides and below, and so arranged as to give all that
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avas needed without danger of draughts, and also in shape to secure safety against the damp of rain. The building has attracted considerable atten- tion from the outside world, and has only one or two peers in the country. It may be said, in passing, that it requires a corps of from thirty to fifty ushers to properly seat and care for the thousands who use it almost every day and evening of the season.
The first music, like everything else here, was more natural than scientific. The hymns of Methodism which had been sung for a genera- tion were in vogue, supplemented by the lighter tunes now so popular, and formed a large part of the music of the people. Any one who could start a tune was a precentor-as often a female voice as male. The first regular precentor was Mr. Willisford Dey, who, without an organ or piano, kept the people to the time and tune of their sacred melodies. Later on instru- mental music was given a larger place, and special books of song, newly clad every year, were placed as part of the musical menu. Upon the de- parture of Mr. Dey for the West, Prof. J. R. Sweeney, a musical com- poser of considerable ability and large personal magnetism, occupied the position until 1898, when failure in health compelled his retirement, and Prof. Tali E. Morgan, a man of unusual original ability, was placed in charge. His choir consists of from two to three hundred singers, from denominations whose members visit the Grove, and whose Children's Choruses number five hundred. The instrumental music involves an out- lay of several thousands of dollars annually, and is pronounced, especially in the Oratorios, as equal to the best in the land. Mr. Morgan conducts an International School of Musical Correspondence, in which people learn music in that way, which aids him greatly in his choir, for which he justly claims a superior reputation. In the height of the season, with the whole congregation joining with the choir in some popular hymn, the effect is enthralling-especially in the festival chorus of the children, when occa- sionally a piece is rendered in which the audience is asked to join.
The floral day has been one of the great days devoted largely to the young people, and usually entrusted to Dr. Yatman and A. C. Fields. The Auditorium on these occasions has been a dream of beauty. The religious services have been in harmony with the conception, and all combined have deepened the attachment of these younger people to their summer homes in the Grove.
In 1874 some fanaticisms began to develop among the frequenters of Ocean Grove. There had been tolerance toward erroneous and strange doctrines, when held by good people, so long as they were not reduced to open practice in the meetings. Now some good people felt that there could be spiritual conferment in "laying on of hands;" others that physical heal-
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ing must obey the commands of faith; and wanted meetings established for that purpose. They were gently reasoned with, but these doctrines were introduced into either the public services or special meetings of their own. The Association took the ground that even if the revelations and special powers were true, they were personal to the individual, and not proper for parts of public worship. The laying on of hands was degener- ating into farce, and faith healing was passing into Christian Science. The Association rent the veil by forbidding any religious meeting on the ground unless held under their leadership. Leaders from the Association took charge of them a few times, when the fanaticisms subsided and have not specially disturbed since.
Among the institutions which will live long in the successes of Ocean Grove is its Summer School of Theology. There were many clergy- men, as well as intelligent lay members of the church, who were unable to keep pace with the advanced knowledge in biblical lore or the closer forms of their interpretation. Colleges are not accessible to the pursuits of daily life. nor do such pursuits permit attendance if they were. The works on theology of later date necessarily include the philological researches into the languages of antiquity, with which the average man is unfamiliar. Heard through the living voice they become intelligible to the average mind of both minister and laymen. Even when clergymen have been "up" in everything up to their time of entrance upon the ministry, they fall be- hind as the days go on.
Different forms of a school which should occupy part of the summer were projected and experimented, and abandoned until a school with a regular faculty of bishops, college presidents, religious editors and semi- nary professors, aided by generous laymen, with Rev. J. E. Price, D. D., as its Dean, was established. The best biblical scholars were secured to lecture, interspersed with lighter forms of information and 'supplemented with entertainments and music. Dr. Price, during his incumbency, threw all the power of a forceful nature into his work, and gave a large impetus to it. Upon his resignation in 1900. Bishop FitzGerald, who, by virtue of his office is the President, performed the duties of the office. The popu- larity of the school continually increases and it may be set down now as a part of the life work of Ocean Grove.
The consecration meeting is one with which the day is begun at 5:45 o'clock, and is usually in charge of an officer of the association. Its object is to follow out the habit of the early Christians who met every morning before breakfast with pledges of a holy life throughout the day. It con- sists of religious song, testimonials of experience. prayer and altar service,
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
where the people kneel together before the Lord, and is held in the Tab- ernacle.
The family prayer is simply a gathering of people who are so trans- iently here that their usual family service is impossible. This service con- sists of scripture, song and prayer, and is confined to fifteen minutes, be- ginning at 7 o'clock A. M., and is held in the Auditorium.
The holiness meeting is one that is continued during the Sabbaths all the year, and during the "season" every morning at 9 o'clock A. M. Its. ceremonies are reading of scripture, short expositions, songs often deeply spiritual, religious testimony and prayer,-and lasts from 9 to 10 o'clock in the Tabernacle.
The fellowship meeting is one where a helping hand is extended to all persons in any difficulty in their religious life, and lasts from 9 to 10 o'clock in Thornley Chapel.
The young people's meeting is characterized with the best music to be obtained, with exercises of the young people in which they largely take part, and is intended to facilitate the younger people's progress toward a religious life and is held from 9 to 10 o'clock in the Young People's Temple.
The children's meeting occupies an hour from 3:30 to 4:30 o'clock, 'under the charge of some competent female leader especially adapted to them. Its plan is to impress the minds of childhood with the beauty of a religious life as compared with one of worldliness and sin. It is held in the Temple.
The twilight service is one specially in the interest of people who have either never entered a religious life, or, having entered, have left it, and is held in either Tabernacle or Temple.
The Camp Meeting, the greatest of all the ideals of Ocean Grove, is the encampment for which purpose, most of all, the Grove was founded. In view of this the most elaborate preparations are made. The most eminent divines in the land or across the water, or over the Canada border, or below the Mason and Dixon line, irrespective of denomination, are secured for preachers, upon the one line of "Holiness to the Lord." Care is usually taken that they shall be men whose voices shall be competent to fill the great Auditorium, and whose spirituality is as essential to spiritual reception as the magnetism of fervor in a political meeting. The music is of a choir numbering hundreds, swelling with the voices of thousands in the congre- gation. The exhortation and prayer are given by men and women whose souls are alive in the work, and the altar work is conducted by holy men and women. The first service will be one of consecration at 5:45 o'clock A. M. The next of family prayer at 7 o'clock A. M. At 9 o'clock there
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will be the Holiness Meeting, the helping hand of fellowship and the crowding thousands of the Young People's Temple, and at 10:30 o'clock the masses gather in the great Auditorium to listen to the sermon, which is followed by an after service of prayer and song. At 1:30 o'clock is a service for the immediate realization of sanctification; at 3:30 o'clock is a service for the children, and at the same time the afternoon Holiness meet- ing, which is always under the charge of some eminent man whose life is devoted to that work and which consists of a service with experiences and prayer. At 6:30 o'clock there is a twilight meeting with special refer- ence to unconverted people, and on Sunday evenings the Beach Meeting, at which the tens of thousands crowd at 6 o'clock.
The camp meeting is always preceded by a day of consecration and prayer, in which people pledge their work in the activities of religion, and whose evening is devoted to the Lord's Supper, in which from two to three thousand annually commune. It was originally fixed for ten days, but the pressure of the people has extended it to fifteen. The central Sabbath is always what is called the great day of the feast, on which the love feast, with the testimonies of personal religious consciousness, is the central power of its religious life. Its close is marked by specialties of music, and the reports of all the committees on religious work, made by their leaders, of the success which has attended it. Then comes the march led by the music, the president and officers followed by the people leaving the Auditorium, proceeding through the Tabernacle, the Chapel, the Temple, pausing at each place for a minute's solemnity, and then returning to the Auditorium, where after a short address from the president, amid the waving of handkerchiefs, tears of joyous excitement, praises of devotion, grasping of hands, in pledge of amity, in harmony with the tolling of the bell, in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, the president declares the encampment closed.
Among the conventions and moral and religious causes which have occupied the season at Ocean Grove may be named the Christian Commis- sion of the Union and Confederacy, the Camp Meeting of the National Holiness Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, the Woman's Home Missionary So- ciety, the American Sabbath Association, the Woman's Encouragement Society, the Sunshine Society, the National Temperance Publication So- ciety, the. National Sunday School Association, the Deaconesses, the Ep- worth League and numerous incidental associations, whose objects and aims were approved by the association. Special days are set apart for King's Daughters, Hospital Sunday, Floral Sabbath, Children's Day, Old Folks'
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Day and others as circumstances allow, all giving in attractive forms an intelligent understanding of the advance of the great interests involved.
BELOW ASBURY PARK.
Bradley Beach, nearly adjoining Ocean Grove on the south, was form- erly a little village known as Neptune. It was brought into notice as a desirable place for summer residence, about 1897, by Mr. James A. Brad- ley, who owned large quantities of real estate thereabout. He secured the establishment of a railway station, and "the Little Church in the Woods" (Methodist Episcopal) and a public school building were erected on two lots which he donated. Fletcher Lake extends from the main road to the ocean, and Sylvan Lake lies to the south. Both are fresh water bodies, and afford excellent and safe boating.
Avon, one mile south of Ocean Grove, is yet known to many by its original name of Key East. It is a comparatively new resort, but is fast coming into favor as a competitor with many of the larger and more pretentious places. It is bounded on the north by Sylvan Lake, on the west and south by Shark River and Bay, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises several hundred acres, a portion of which is covered with piney woods, with life-giving resinous aroma filling the air and com- bining with the salt atmosphere of the ocean. The drinking water is pure, cold and soft, and is found in great abundance in a stratum some forty feet beneath the surface. It is supplied to the town by a perfect artesian-well system. Electricity from the Asbury Park plant illuminates the streets and dwellings. The entire town is laid out in broad, graded avenues eighty feet wide. It is a rule in the village that no building can be erected within twenty feet of the road, thus securing ample space for the thoroughfares. For the greater part the town lies higher than most of the New Jersey coast, and there is considerable shade to offset the pre- vailing monotony of sand and ocean that one expects to find in this region. The bathing facilities are excellent, there being a number of bath houses and near them a spacious pavilion. A summer home for crippled orphans, called the Home of the Merciful Saviour, is maintained under the auspices of the Episcopal church. This was founded several years ago, and proved to be so worthy a charity that a new home was decided upon. On the 15th of November, 1894, ground was broken at Avon for the present structure, maintained under the same name and auspices. The home, which is the gift of several benevolent Philadelphians, costing when completed $12,000, contains about thirty rooms, and has accommodated as many as forty-nine crippled children in one year. It is supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the public.
YACHTS OFF SHORE.
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Shark River is practically a lake two miles in width at the point where it is touched by the village of Avon, and has several affluents meandering into the inland forest, which comprises a great variety of beautiful trees- birch, maple, beech and others. The river is a favorite resort for boat- ing and fishing parties. Striped bass are particularly plentiful here, and many of great size have been taken with rod and reel, the champion catch being one a trifle more than four feet in length and weighing forty-two pounds. The river is also the seat of a considerable industry in furnish- ing fish and crabs for the metropolitan market. The soft-shell crabs are of particular toothsomeness, and New York is supplied with more of these from this stream than from any other in the country. The federal gov- ernment has made large expenditures in building a jetty at the mouth of the river to protect the entrance against its insulation by sands drifted up by the wind and wave.
Belmar, located immediately on the ocean, eight miles south of Long Branch, is famed for fishing grounds near by. It is almost an island, bounded on the east by the ocean, by Shark River on the irregular north- west side, and by Lake Como on the south. The narrow strip of land on the west between Lake Como and Shark River alone prevents the place from being completely surrounded. The views to the westward are sublime, and take in the distant hills and the peninsulas that slope down to the river, giving it the appearance of a mountain lake. The town, with a frontage of one mile on the ocean, and one and a half miles on the river, is beautifully laid out in wide streets, curbed and graded. The dwellings are costly and artistic, and many are occupied all the year. A perfect sewerage system is in use; water is supplied from artesian wells, and the electric light comes from Asbury Park. A fishing pier three hundred feet in length is much frequented by promenaders and fishermen. Hotels of first excellence are numerous. Among these the principal ones are the Columbia and the Buena Vista, both overlooking the ocean and affording a fine viewpoint for scenes on Shark River.
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