Joseph Parrish

“ Nor should buildings continue to be so contiguous that one may walk from roof to roof, under which people live in contracted apartments, separated by thin board partitions, which, even for purposes of common privacy and propriety, are scarcely sufficient. It is true, and justice demands its utterance, that later improvements have, to a good extent, avoided these evils, and that the class of private homes and boarding-houses now being built are more in accord with a civilization that, at a Christian resort especially, should be conspicuous. ”

“ The time is past when even the common mind measures the depth of human character, and gives it credit or not for truth and righteousness, by the amount of religious fervor or the degree of religious profession it may exhibit. ”

“ The fathers in the olden time would have looked to the West, with its moving multitudes, and planted their tents to capture them; but modern Methodism plants the churches as the people settle, and, to preserve the camp-meeting feature of the denomination, they seek fields already populated and locate themselves in more profitable places. ”

“ In the number of cottages and tents, especially those appropriated to cheap boarding, we venture to say that there are more people lodged and fed than can be found in any equal number of dwellings in any other city or community of an equal population of well-to-do people. ”

“ In such promiscuous multitudes as crowd the cottages and the strand, and as go in and out of tents and barracks, coming as they do from all parts, and representing as they do various grades of social life, there must be forces and influences that are constantly at work, and whether their influence is toward the better or worse side of human nature it is hard to say. They are not all Christian professors, and they are all human. ”

“ Then, every laudable thing was done to rekindle and keep alive denominational pride and loyalty. The lakes that bound the Grove on the north and south are named for Wesley and Fletcher, while the avenues and parks are known by the names of departed worthies, whose memory is revered by the Church; and then, to complete the programme of attractions, the annual camp-meeting, occurring in the height of the holiday season, is made the central, the pivotal figure around which all the others are grouped. It has been a success as a venture to establish a sea-side resort ”

“ It is out of harmony with the spirit of the age, which demands freedom and space, in proportion to population, in a ratio that is overlooked or disregarded at such sea-side resorts. There is, however, one conservative and redeeming fact in connection with this practice of promiscuous crowding, and that is, that the season is short and the people live most of the time out-of-doors. ”

“ To provide a market and secure competition, conventions of various kinds meet at these ample grounds, occupy the commodious buildings, and transact their legitimate business. It is all done in the name of religion, and may or may not be in fact and in spirit harmonious with the most exalted standard of Christian methods, according to the out-look from which the subject is viewed. ”

“ Towns and churches have grown up, as the migrating crowds have moved on in one continuous caravan, until the mountains, and the Pacific slope beyond them, are already occupied; and we find prosperous settlements of miners, farmers, and adventurers of all kinds and grades, dwelling in the midst of each other. ”

“ With missionary conventions, Sunday-school anniversaries, temperance assemblies, and camp-meetings, drawing upon an immense constituency in all parts of the country, and bringing thousands of visitors to the spot, with fair opportunities for investing money with a good hope of speedy return, it is not surprising that investments were made. ”

“ The entire time, out of the three hundred working days of the year, that is to be set aside for camp-meeting services, is ten days or a fortnight, and the remainder is occupied with the secular business of the concern. ”

“ It will not be tolerated by a sanitary-wise people that there shall continue an unwholesome contact of dwellings, with cess-pools and water-wells within stepping-distance of each other and from the kitchen-doors. ”

“ They are loosed from the restraints of home, and are on a vacation for pleasure. They are crowded together, and, in order to be physically healthy and morally pure, their environment must do much to assist them. ”

“ They have taken up coast-lands, some of which were comparatively worthless, and made them into fruitful towns, with prosperous and happy peoples. They are to be credited also with the testimony they have borne to sobriety and good morals, by preventing the sale of intoxicating liquors within their boundaries ”