Edwardian Beach Etiquette

“The city fathers wish to discourage the theory that Long Beach can be turned over to all breaches of decorum, and they make it a punishable misdemeanor for bathers to appear in bathing costume within certain limits of the city, practically confining bathers to the beaches.” – Collegiate Break Fun at Long Beach, 1905

 Tourists Breaching Beach City Decorum 

The City Council has wrought some more changes calculated to transform the appearance of Long Beach. It bears strongly upon etiquette and that which made necessary the passage of the ordinances leaves room for reflection on the social training of some of the city’s guests. “Thou Shalt not parade up and down the streets of this seaside metropolis in bathing suits.” is the latest decree and an expanded force of police officers declares that it will carry out to the letter the meaning of the ordinance. The city fathers wish to discourage the theory that Long Beach can be turned over to all breaches of decorum, and they make it a punishable misdemeanor for bathers to appear in bathing costume within certain limits of the city, practically confining bathers to the beaches. 

It has been the custom during the years gone by, when Long Beach belonged to the surf instead of the surf to Long Beach, for bathers to invade the streets of the place en masse. A ban is put on fish poles also by the new ordinance. It is declared unlawful for fishermen to walk through the streets with their fish poles, unless they carry sectional poles, which have been disjointed, with the Joints banded together, with lines free of treacherous hooks. In the same breath the fathers warn dogs to stay off the streets and impose orders on police officers to prescribe limits for all canines, which do not include the pleasure pier, the pavilion or any of the most thickly settled streets.– Los Angeles Herald, 1902

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia