The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-12-24

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William B. Bond. Stephenson Archer had
an office in Bel Air, but about this time
succeeded Judge Kell upon the bench
About this period Albert Constable came to
Hartford from the Eastern Shore, and was
regarded as young man of brilliant parts.
I presume he is still living, as l saw his
name In your paper not a great while ago.
Bel Air could also boast of three tailor
shops, severally carried on by William and
Thomas Mills, and Maurice Foley. Will
liam Mills lived and died bachelor. He
was pleasant, kind.hearted man, and was
the village barber. He was somewhat sus-
picious and superstitious, and hence be-
came the object of the tricks and pranks of
the mischievous young men and boys. l
remember once, when sleeping with his
head resting on his shop-board, one of
his tormentors stealthily entered, and with
his own shears cut off his queue, which he
held IN great veneration, and for the loss
of which he was inconsolable until another
grew out, A short time after being thus
despoiled of his valued appendage, the
person whom he suspected stepped in and
asked to be shaved. "No," replied Uncle
Billy, you stole my queue, and wouldn't
shave you if your beard was as long as from
here totLambores MILL" which was only
about two miles off. Poor Uncle Billy, he
followed to the grave the lady to whom he
was affianced, and they are now sleeping
side by side in the little cemetery in the
northeastern corner Of field adjoining the
southern end of the village, which be-
longed to Col. Dorsey, and at the northwest
ern corner of his orchard Modern progress
and civilization may have given that quiet
corner to the plough share, but it was an
obscure place of burial at my day. Thomas
Mills was younger brother, and had large
family. He may be still living, for aught
| know. Maurice Foley was an Irishman,
wild as a buck when under the influence
of John Barleycorn, but at other times ex-
ceedingly gentle and polite in his manners.
He owned sorrel horse called Fox, and
regarded him as q race-horse. With this
notion in his head, he sometimes permitted
him to be entered in quarter-race, and
though he never won, Foley was greatly
encouraged because he always came out
second best when there were but two in
the race. | remember, on one occasion,
when John Barleycorn had thrown him
off his feet, that some youngsters got him
on wheelbarrow and were taking him
home, he all at once imagined he was on
FoXs back, in a race. Rousing himself to
the effort, he clapped his hands and ex-
claimed, "Flee, TroX, me darlin', you're
showin' 'em the bottom of your fut."
There was but one smith shop in town,
where the common grindstone was kept,
and where all who had axes to grind re-
paired. There was also q wagon making
shop in connection. The former was pre-
sided over by Howell Mitchell, and the
latter by John Blaney. There were also
two shoemaker shops, one carried on by
Vincent Jeffries, and the other by-Fay.
William Jetfries, a very worthy young man
and an excellent workman, succeeded his
brother Vincent.
There was one hair seive- maker Uncle
Ben Hudson-the united ages of himself
and horse being upwards of one hundred
years. He lived with Aunt Sally Rockhold,
useful old woman in her day.
There were two printing offices in Bel
Air at that early day, though the patron
age was inadequate to the support of one
respectfully Bond Of Union, Ivy Will
liam Coale, and the Independent Citizen
by John McKenny, Jr. Your humble cor
respondent was "devil" in the former, and
perhaps was not altogether appropriately
named There were but few post offices in
those days. and the papers were scattered
over the country by post-boys on horse
back. Little Philip Coale-everyb
then and now living remembers Uncle
Philip-God bless his memory carried
one route, and l, a part of the time, carried
the other. His was all the western side of
the county, including part of Baltimore
county, from the Black Horse on the north
to the Philadelphia pike on the south, and
mine was the whole of the eastern side to
the Susquehanna, and reaching the same
points north and south. 1t took three days
to distribute the papers on each of these
routes; and If the proprietors then, Messrs.
Editors, with all this trouble and expense,
could manage to keep soul and body to-
gether, surely. you ought, with your album
dant facilities and better patronage, to re-
alize an adequate return for your labors.
But to proceed. Ienjoyed my route huge
ly, for every week had view of the wild
and romantic Susquehanna, and that grand
natural superstructure known as the Crooks
of Deer Creek" the latter of which, annu-
ally, on Whit Monday was the scene of
gambling, cock-fghting, and general
Bacchanalian jubilee. Strange way of en-
JOylnS Ine grandeur OF NATURES SCupenQ-
Gus works-but such the manners and such
the times. Many a subscriber to the old
Bond Of Union got his paper ga day after
the NEWS" when my fancy for the grand
and beautiful would lead me to Iinger
along the margin of the Susquehanna,
watching its wild waters leaping from the
falls and forming young wavelets as they
rolled off upon the bosom of the tide
Here, too, for hours have stood and watch
ed the sons of old Erin, in the employ of
Robert Bell, removing great blocksof grant
lite to the decks of vessels, awaiting to con-
vey them to Hampton Roads, to which
they were freighted, to lay the foundation
of the Rip Raps. And then, again, when
| reached the vicinity of the Rocks ofDeer
Creek, (strange they are not named and
illustrated in any geography or book that
I have ever seen,) | would look for hours
upon their grand and awful proportions,
and there, next to the lessons at q mothers
knee, learned to fear and adore the Great
Architect of the universe, whose hand had
piled this natural pyramid in such grand
and terrible order. Often, while looking
upon and contemplating this magnificent
work, has my young imagination pictured
an eagle upon one of the dizzy crags upon
the opposite side, and my blood dash
ed coldly through its channels as unused
,,nop the mad darino of the man who rode