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

nected from the land by puddles of brine
and carts, slender ponies, and saw mil
teams, splashed through the floods to thu
landings. Shelltown was the first settle
ment, and it looked like few wooden ark!
on the brink of the deluse Soon after the
river grew narrow, and one beautiful estate
called Cedar Hail." the seat of widow
named Dennis, stood upon the bank among
willows, orchards, and sycamores, as fine
a place as any mansion ON the James Oh
York Rivers. For twenty miles succeed,
ing, we pierce a tall, deep forest of fal
cypress, hemlock, hickory, pine, and red
oak, through whose solemn cleft the stained
water rolled like great tawny and pol
ished serpent. Few boats or houses stood
in sight, only one canoe followed out of a
long log with a solemn man padding in it,
a glimpse of a sawmill up deep black
creek, some bundles of shingles at land.
ing, man poking with a long pair of tongs
for oysters, tattered fish, stretched
between the trees, fish boxes of wicker
work in all the eddies, on one side the bank
occasionally acclivitous. on the Other
scarcely bank at all, but a cypress jungle
Such were the phenomena. Now and then
a great old mansion of lap-boards, OF
black-baked bricks loomed up in clearing,
and a woman with naked feet was lowering
the pole and bucket at the garden well.
Rehoboth was an old timber settlement,
with an Episcopal Church, said to be the
oldest on the Eastern Shore, standing
among it's graves full of ivy, without pas
tor, roomy and void. Newton was 4 thriv-
ing place. said to be, next to Salisbury,
the most active place on the Eastern Shore.
Yet with only 1900 people, the commerce
being shingles. crops, understanding, and
"store keeping; here there was a bridge
and an old steamboat laid up, whose desc
late apparitions reminded me that the first
steamboat was put OH the waters of Chcsa-
peake Bay, between Baltimore and Wash
ington, in the year 1918, called after the
name of the bay, and used as a passenger
packet between Washington and Philadel-
phia.
One passenger was a young clergyman
going from Prince Georges county to take
charge of an Episcopal Church at Snow
| Hill. He heard with surprise that anti
cipated having a dull time and seeing a
fossil people on the Eastern Shore.
"Why," said he, they are the proudest
and most intelligent people in Maryland.
They have more towns than the counties
of the Western Shore. Chestertown has
furnished the State with five United States
Senators. Cambridge is handsomer
county seat than Frederick. Kent county
is the garden of our State. Port Tobacco,
Leonardstown, Upper Marlboro, Prince
Frederick, Belair, and Rockville, the court
! house towns on the west side of the bay
are mere hamlets or cross roads, but the
eastern towns are all snug, sizeable, and
venerable
saw nobody on the steamer who had a
yonng look. One grave one person who
had lost about one bundled negroes during
| the war; and who, like all the rest, was
obliging and dignified, said:
"It appears as it l am always restless
since lost my wife,
"A recent loss, suppose, sir:"
eyes. She has been dead about thirty
years"
Another old gentleman was observed to
be depressed and suffering. asked if he
had the rheumatism.
NO" was the reply, ''it's his money
that's troublin' him. He's got so much
of it it's unsettlin' his mind.'
How much9'
swell, about thirty thousan' dollars.
| He loves it nightly, but he won't take
more than 6 per cent. for it. Hes a law
| abidin' man. A person came to him last
fall year, and said: Mr., you've got
| some money lynn idle
"'Yes, SIR
"'I'll give you 90 per cent. for it. ~
| "'You can't have it, sir. \ man who
will pay that for money amt honest. 1
had meant to lend it to you when you first
spoke, but now l want no dealings with
you. am afraid of you, sir. -
"Thats the kind of IA man he is
One old gentleman, of genial exterior,
, asked me where was from.
! New York"
| "Why," said he, "rve done business
with New York. May be you know the
firms: Jock & Durbin, and Leatherhead X
| Co..
"What are they engaged in?'
LOTTERY business. bought numbers
from EN-
Seeing me smile, the old man said:
"Oh! did we'll at the lotteries. Imade
money like smoke. I got silver coffee
pot and a galvanic watch"
After all, I thought to myself, why
should | take the illusion out of the good
old gentleman's tin and copper. Resolved,
| that ignorance is bliss.
SNOW HILL.
Everybody on the steamboat seemed
anxious to be explicit in affording me
information, and the day was broken up
by three square meals spread down the
long saloon, all of which were juicy and
bountiful, the steward being quite an
artist, and he had the bearing of an Adj
miral There was no bar on the boat, but
little quaint cupboard off the saloon,
where liquors were kept, and, so far as my
observation went, there was no drinking
by anybody; indeed, never saw so sober
community as in that part Of Maryland.
The river was growing narrower all the
time, and heavy shores of timber were
planted along the channel to facilitate the
steamer in making abrupt turns, and pre-
vent her from running aground. About 4
o'clock, we came in sight of Snow HILL a
scene almost Floridan in its character the
whole foreground being full of black water,
and deep green patches of tuckahoe, while
the town itself showed white and fresh
under the dropping fringes of willow trees,
while it's cupolas revealed amidst the gol-
den foliage of old balsamic forest tops. A
cypress swamp confronted the town OH the
opposite shore, and Il bridge with an island
in the centre closed the vista. On this