Mrs. Ralph Hemingray and Mrs. Meade Massie

WAYSIDE NOTES.

A Pleasant Sail Down Chesapeake

Bay — Covingtonians at Old

Point — Sad drowning.

Correspondence COMMOMWEALTH.

OLD POINT COMFORT, Aug. 27. — The traveler who has not sailed down Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore to this place, has missed a delightful and interesting trip. The steamers are fine, the appointments elegant, and the fare as good as can be found. Your correspondent was fortunate in arriving at Baltimore on the evening the Carolina sailed, and was allotted a stateroom which was the equal of a modern hotel apartment. The steamer left the wharf about eight o'clock and the changing lights of arriving and departing vessels, with an occasional glare of electric light, made the scene one of lively and exciting interest. To one tired and sick with railway travel, the rest that one finds on one of these steamers must be experienced to be appreciated. The scenes and incidents on the bay before we arrived at Old Point in the morning, are of a very pleasurable nature. Fish darting through the water, and schools of porpoise showing their heads and oftimes jumping above the surface, may be seen from either side of the vessel. The view on the approach to Fort Monroe is very fine, but is familiar to the general reader from photographs and extended descriptions.

Arriving at Old Point I was pleased to see Kentucky faces, among whom were Col. and Mrs. J. W. Bryan and their interesting little daughter, Mattie; and Miss Gaines; also the talented young lawyer, Mr. Lockhart, of Paris. Mrs. Ralph Hemingray, and Mrs. Meade Massie, of Chillicothe, O., and young Mr. Blair, son of Hon. Montgomery Blair, of St. Louis, left here for Long Branch yesterday. Secretary Robert Lincoln and his wife and her mother, Mrs. Harlan, are here; also the celebrated Dr. Bliss, of Washington, who is treating Mrs. Harlan for cancer. Dr. Bliss affects, or has, it is hard to tell which, a lame foot, and tries to invoke the sympathy, like many of his profession, of all he comes in contact with. The appearance of the guests here is rather subdued, which may be accounted for in part by the sad drowning last week of two beautiful young ladies, Miss Williams and her cousin, from Richmond, Va., while bathing unattended in a forbidden part of the surf. The bathing, however, is very fine, and no danger may be apprehended if one only heeds words of caution about time and place. The pavilion here for dancing is large and over its waxed floor glide, every evening, merry dancers, the male portion of which come from Fort Monroe for that purpose. Of course, here as elsewhere, bright brass buttons have a fascination for the fair sex. The sailing and fishing facilities are good, and those fond of that kind of sport can at all seasons find a field here for enjoyment.