The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-11-19

pet-bag at one of the two tolerable cabins
of the town, and strolled out on the mali
street, by the Court House, the Jail, the
old Uncovered parish church, and the
several graveyards with old tombs haC
no reason to feel contumely for the place
which was really well-built, even handsome
in the character of its tenements and the
faces of the native folks. Observing a very
ancient and spacious mansion of brick,
rough-coated, standing in back street,
the yard full of colossal box-bush, and with
reverent foliage rising to far height above
the roof, took ont pencil and essayed to
make a sketch. Almost Immediately a
gate opened, and man with a neighborly
look came out to see what | was about.
From that moment it was open sesame to
me all around the village. Every one
seemed to remember thirty-six years back
without any effort; in fact, | have no
remembrance of seeing anybody under 100
year of age during my entire trip; the
very unchins appeared to remember my
father and his grandfather, and all the
minutie of the family history back to the
time when those memorable three brothers,
which form the beginning of every Ameri-
can family, landed i'll some mysterious way,
at the mouth of the Pokomoke River. l
got the notion, somehow, that l was
amongst townsmen and contemporaries of
John Bunvan, Daniel Dofoe, Alfred the
Great, and Godfrey Chaucer, and l found
myself insensibly saying, elbow did Shake
speare look the last time you saw him -
"Who in town has the snutf-box of King
Canute - In short, | seemed to have
lived one thousand years ever since went
to Snow Hill, and the food I got there
seemed to be of like antiquity-most won
derful 'pOne;' most various sorts of slap
pers and waffles; curious lnfusions of sweet
potato and Indian meal: sausages of flavors
unknawn to me: and biscuits which had
been kneaded with an axe on butchers
block, and which smoked, when opened,
with all the pious flavors of Abel's sacrifice
The prevailing topic Of the town appeared
to be, not the late war, nor the siege of
Paris, but the celebrated conflagration of
Snow Hill, which happened in the year
1884, and which was described as appalling,
having consumed no less than seventy
principal editices, stables, and hen-coops
included. The wretch who fired the
Ephesian dome on this occasion bore the
name of John Harper. 1t is recorded Of
John Harper that lie worked in a carpen-
ter's shop by a huge fire, and when eau
toned against the danger of leaving the
shavihgs to lie around loose, he remarked
he would finish certain trunk-boX if he
burned the town. Whether the trunk
was finished has not been ascertained,
owing to the fact that the burning of the
town was completely successful. Every
inquiry that made round Snow Hill was
in some manner embraced by the conse
quences of that great fire. The Court
House archives were gone. The gorgeous
inn of the Revolutionary times existed
only III tradition. Fabulous warehouses
would have stood where they did not, but
for the fact Of John Harper insisting on
finishing that trunk-box. | dreamed all
the first night in Snow Hill that John Har-
per, and the three brothers, my ancestors,
and Adam, aid L large part of the Eastern
Shore of Maryland were on the pit of my
stomach, in that imperfect trunk-box.
OLD TOWN TOPICS.
Next day, a young clergyman put on his
gown and preached in the old Episcopal
Church on the duties of the clerical Office.
His was the first sermon delivered there in
four months, and as the Methodist preacher
had the toothache at the time, the MethO-
dist population came back to the establish
ment. The old brick edifice, almost buried
in ivy, stood amidst its ancient graves, and
man in the church steeple struck notes
out of the old bell which was put up in the
time Of George |. Within, the effect was
simple and touching, tendrils and punches
of iv; clambering through the long, many
paned windows, and dropping their dark
fingers to the brick floor. The little old
organ, which Martin Luther might have
performed upon, stood back by the door,
and in the wall were panels of black timber,
indented with yellow letters, saying that
beneath our feet slept the families of former
British rectors, with elegiac verses taken
frum contemporary numbers of Addison
Spectator. The modest face of the young
rector well became the old tenement, but
noticed that few of the people understood
where to find the prayers, and the Metho-
dists looked upon the entire affair as some
what of heather ceremonial. ! selected
from among the attendants, one family,
which l was sure had gentle origin, and
had always been Churchmen, but, after the
service was over, / discovered that these
were Methodsts. Roaming around the
graveyard, l found that the prevailing
names were all rare to me. Almost every
third man seemed to be named Purnell,
which, take it, is the same as that of the
old poet, Parnell. Other family names in
excess were Lingle, Trnett, Spence, Mill
bourn, and Scarborough, while the sur
names were also uncommon, Zaook, Mes
shach, Levin, Ishmael, and Annanias.
l should judge that living was cheaper
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland than
anywhere in America. \ cousin of mine
complained about his extravagant house.
rent and l found him living in a roomy,
light, pleasant dwelling, with a stable and
large garden, two acres Of ground, and his
house rent was $3.50 a year. This cousin,
b v the way, had been in the Federal army
an the rebel army for eight years; and
vet he told ME, with all appearance of
deeu feeling, of some old house near by,
where n man had been murdered, and
where the blood stains could not be got
out of the floor, either by hopping or
washing, or with an adZe, and understood
him to say that, although they had taken
up the floor three times, and put new one
down, the same blood stains appeared on
the new planks. Here was man who had
fought on one side OF the other in hun
dred bloody actions, and yet he was credu-
lous and moved as ever by little local
tale of priva,e bloodshed. Thus the ghosts
of our childh God haunt us the longest
Board for transient stranger, was 81 a
dav in the hotels Of the Eastern Shore,
and So week for Ioarders by the period.
OYSTERS, which used ID be % cents bushel,
are now 1925. Land can be bought for
from 81 to $40 dollars an acre; but at this
part of the State, the soil is thin, and
Northern farmers, who ATTEMPT to astonlsh
the natives by putting in a saaiAsoil plow,
commonly get disguised and go away
Some of the luost extraordinary cases OF
longevity have existed i'll these old regions.
Persons are said still to exist who remem-
Der Washington when he visited the East
ern Shore at that period had one OF two
children already.
EXAMPLES.
Amongst the Eastern Shoremal who
have reached distinction in Illinois, are
David Davis, of Bloomington, Associa tie
Justice of the United States Supreme
Court. and w. II. Hooper. formerly of
Galena, now the delegate in Congress from
Utah Territory.
Justice Davis was first cousin of Henry
Winter Davis, and he was born in Cecil
county, Md, 1915, educated, like his cousin
at Kenyon College, Ohio, and in the law at
New Haven and in Massachusetts,, and in
1885, at the age of twenty, he removed to
Bloomington. He has been i'll the State or
Fo6aral Rappl, Siupa 1SlS and % was one