LOCAL INTEREST

WHEN THE SUMMER FOLK HAVE FLITTED

"What is Ocean Grove like in winter?"

Of the thousands of visitors who throng the beach, the Board Walk, the hotels and boarding houses in summer, many individuals, doubtless, more or less vaguely form this question in their minds, especially if said minds happen to have an imaginative turn or an inquisitive twist. Most of them, of course, forget it the next moment. But now and then one-the number is really running into scores and even hundreds now-is drawn back first by curiosity and afterward again and again by a much stronger attraction born of pleasant knowledge, to spend days and sometimes weeks of mid-winter in this place, which you, perhaps, are thinking of as dead or sound asleep.

Ocean Grove is neither dead nor asleep in winter. I am not sure but that most of those who are coming to know it well would pronounce it even more delightful at this time of the year than in the crowded "season."

Many things, of course, are different. The great Auditorium, the Temple, and the Tabernacle are closed and their doors and windows tightly boarded. Most of the large hotels, also, are closed, and so are many cottages, though not nearly so many of the latter as you might expect. But these changes come as a matter of course, like the falling of the leaves and the ripening of the acorns. And with them come the charms that belong to winter alone.

It is true that Ocean Grove was designed first of all for the summer sojourners. They are always most cordially welcomed. Every effort is made for their pleasure and profit. Hundreds of cozy homes are given up to their use, and from June to October the place is theirs. But their bright season, after all, covers less than half the year. When they have packed their trunks and folded their tents and gone their diverse ways, seven months of the twelve are still left.

Enjoyable and profitable as the popular season has been, no one can be blamed for a certain sense of relief when its excitement and confusion are over. A few weeks are devoted to a general clearing up and setting to rights, indoors and out, and then the winter population settles down to a home life not unlike that in other places of the same size. For them there are the usual occupations and resources that other people enjoy in their home towns. Saint Paul's Church, with its nearly seven hundred active members, is earnestly engaged in all the ordinary lines of organized religious work. A school of fifteen hundred pupils, with a teaching staff of fortynine, occupies a large and beautiful building, entirely modern and wellequipped. A considerable number of business places flourish throughout the

year. A weekly newspaper and a monthly magazine are published. Electric lights in streets and buildings, gas in most houses, free postal service with three deliveries each day, and one of the best water supplies and sewer

systems in the state-all these have become so old a story that they are taken for granted and seldom thought of; while a sense of safety and security is provided by an extraordinarily efficient volunteer fire department, whose fine buildings are equipped with excellent, up-to-date steam and electric apparatus and furnished with attractive reading and club rooms. The general social life of the place is, of course, what every one makes it. But at

least it does not fall behind that of other similar towns in interest.

Lectures and concerts, entertainments of various kinds, and an interchange of hospitality, keep the weeks from ever being dull. The common query, “Is not Ocean Grove very lonely in winter?" is sure to bring an indulgent smile to the face of any year-round resident.

But what is there for the mere winter visitor? First and always there is the sea. Pleasant as was the beach in summer, it is still more so in fall and winter. The bathing grounds, to be sure, are deserted; the swimming pool is empty; the merry-go-rounds are still. But this is the time for long, brisk, bracing walks, unjostled by the crowds that used to swarm the Board Walk. The peanut carts are no longer in evidence, nor is the odor of popcorn wafted to your nostrils on every zephyr. But will you miss these, with the keen salt air in your face and its sharp tang on your lips? And who could sigh for the tinkling of the beach bands, when the fingers of the wind play upon the great deep, the spray plashing in showers of melody while the breakers beat out a basso profundo in solemn harmony?

Then, if you care to turn your back on the drifting dunes and the blue splendor of the sea, not far to seek are bits of woods carpeted with crisp oak leaves and soft pine needles, spicily fragrant on sunny days with balsam and dried sweet-fern. I have heard that the fishing-pier offers sport for the enthusiastic angler even in winter. And I know that the two lakes are as well adapted for skating as for rowing. "A good freeze" is hailed with delight by the young folk, and these placid little sheets of water afford no prettier a sight with their gayly decorated boats and darting colored lanterns in August than they do on a white and gold day or a moon-flooded evening in winter, when the ice "bears" and is thronged with merry skaters. Even the swans are apparently as comfortable and contented in January as on the warmest July days, dividing their time between the ice and their little wooden "house," with an evident preference for the former. The very storms too have their charm-to some persons the most potent of all. There are occasional tumultuous "northeasters," when you breast the furious wind to gaze upon the grandeur of the storm-lashed surf. And there are quiet, mysterious days, when the snow comes dropping through the still air, covering trees and roofs and sand with its powdery, glistening veil. Sometimes, too, there are fairly well-developed blizzards, when snowdrifts pile shoulderhigh or spread out in wide, white wastes. But it is doubtful if there are many places where these bring less of discomfort than in Ocean Grove. As soon as the snow reaches a few inches' depth the Association's snowplows begin a rapid progress through the streets, clearing the sidewalks and opening the crossings. Provision wagons of all kinds go from door to door, making sales or taking orders, as assiduously, if not in as great num

bers, in winter as in summer. Telephone service is uninterrupted, and mails appear with their accustomed regularity. As to hotel accommodations, while most of the houses are closed, there is still ample provision for a large number of guests, who will find entertainment unsurpassed, for comfort and good taste, in any hotel in the country. This, at least, is the verdict of many persons who have traveled widely and had much experience.

I do not know whether or not Ocean Grove has any aspirations toward becoming a winter resort in a large or general way, but to the growing

number of those who have found it out it is already a most satisfying retreat for a week end's outing or a longer period of rest and recuperation even in the coldest months.

ELIM

Recognizing the advantages to be derived by having a "home for the ministers" erected on the grounds, plans were considered in 1874 for the granting of lots for this purpose. While the object was considered to be a grand thing, there was a fear it would interfere with the erection of the proposed church. The application was made through the ladies of Ocean. Grove. It was granted and a committee appointed to select a site. Shortly after the Association granted the use of Grove Cottage to the ladies for this purpose. In 1876 Grove Cottage was renamed "The Elim Cottage," granted and furnished gratuitously by the Association and placed in charge

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of the Ladies' Union Aid Society of Ocean Grove. It was not intended to be a hotel, but what its scriptural name indicates-a place of rest. It even became cosmopolitan: "Often the inhabitant of far-away India mingled his song with the Swede, the Japanese with the Bulgarian, and the converted Hebrew with the Dane."

During the season forty two ministers of different denominations, twelve of them with their wives, were entertained at a charge of from $3 to $5 per week. Some unable to pay anything, but needing rest and recreation from their toils, were entertained as guests of the ladies. The receipts just met the expenses of the table, the matron and her help having been paid from the treasury.

Mrs. Cookman and Mrs. Joseph H. Thornley, wives of members of the Association, were respectively the president and treasurer of the Ladies' Society. Mrs. Badeau was the first matron.

Those who came to the Elim Cottage were many and from remote localities; they represented many branches of the Christian Church, yet all dwelt together in delightful harmony, so that it was said, "O how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"

In 1883 it was found necessary to move the Elim Cottage some thirty feet west in order that Benson Avenue might be opened.

In 1895 a new porch and railing were built on the east side and certain other improvements made.

Through the years following the Elim Association, which has succeeded the first Society in charge of the building, has kept the house open each season with but one exception. During the years it has continued to afford the entertainment intended at the outset.

OCEAN GROVE CHURCH

From the beginning a site along the turnpike had been plotted on the map of Ocean Grove for a church and parsonage, so that when the time came that a church was needed to serve the permanent population of the locality, everything would be ready. Nothing was done until 1874, at which time it appeared the necessity was present. The plot of ground was thereupon donated and the Association pledged $1,000 to carry on the work.

Prior to the building of the church edifice, however, religious services had been held before and after the summer meetings for the benefit of those who came early and remained late.

The first time Ocean Grove appeared in the Minutes of the New Jersey Conference was in 1870, when Bishop Simpson appointed the Rev. William B. Osborn pastor at Greenville and Ocean Grove (Greenville is now known as Hamilton). In 1871 the Rev. H. B. Beegle became superintendent at Ocean Grove and was appointed the pastor at Ocean Grove,