Guy Wetmore Carryl

“ The brazen voice of the island begins to beat upon the ear drums like the pulse of fever, the leaping horses and the flying cars are metamorphosed into the agile demons of delirium. And through the doorways of endless concert halls and drinking places one gets glimpses of faces that follow and haunt like the unspeakable phantoms of a dream. ”

“ Whether one patronizes the Scenic Railway or any of those cousins of hers which resemble her so closely, or prefers the water chute, which is dignified by greater age, it seems to be absolutely necessary to scream loudly and continuously from start to finish, and to embrace one’s nearest neighbor with such varying degrees of ardor as the particular circumstances of age, sex, and length of acquaintanceship may dictate. ”

“ There is something supremely striking in this elbow touching of man’s cheapest and tawdriest, and nature’s most majestic features; in front, that unknowable Atlantic, sphinx of the ages, sleeping, gray green, under an opalescent sky wherein the new moon is hung like a pendant on strings of young stars ”

“ For Coney Island, unlike other resorts of its type, loses rather than gains by the fall of night. The pace has been so swift, the excitement of the long hot day so intense, that a more than mortal energy would be required to maintain the original level of enthusiasm. ”

“ One finds it murmuring to itself at the foot of some shabby little street, and curiously fingering the piles upon which the whole flimsy fair is constructed, as a drowsy tiger might touch a handful of trinkets tossed into his cage. ”

“ CONEY ISLAND’S CODE OF ETIQUETTE.
Therefore let us “loop the loop,” “shoot the chutes,” and do whatever other alliterative and acrobatic things the Isle of Idiocy provides—if there be no interference on the part of the police, those vigilant custodians of New York’s health and morals, who have of late demonstrated an unaccountable interest in some of the island’s most popular amusements. If there be girls on the front seats of our convulsively careering car, so much the better for them. They have something to fall back upon. ”

“ And even in the act of philosophizing upon the folly of one’s kind, amazement at the infinite ingenuity displayed in their construction forces one into an attitude nearly akin to admiration. A veritable multitude of mechanical devices is grouped in one great inclosure where on a holiday more money is made in twelve hours than Homer ever dreamed of or Shakespere ever saw. ”

“ Also, you may ride behind a locomotive three feet long and perfect in every detail; you may slide down an inclining plane—screaming always—and lose yourself in a maze; and, best of all, be packed in a monster barrel and rolled incontinently down a hill. ”

“ But that is where human inconsistency comes in, and where human inconsistency is the issue none of us can afford to be hypercritical, because here, as in love, money making, and the desire to get ahead of our neighbors, we are all in the same class. ”

“ It moves, in its entirety and continuously, up and down with the regularity of a trip hammer; and by calculating how you go up on the stair, and the stair comes down on you, and you and the stair go up, and the stair and you come down, you may go up the stair. ”