Smyrna times., 1872-02-21

ness and vOluptuouSnesS, the beautiful SasSa-
tras, with its low bluff banks and changing !
woods, is also agitated with leaping perch,
which make the waters populous as the orchard, |
and the game-birds of autumn begin also to I
twltter when the tide. is low. Then, in the s
the twllightS, the laden steamers bear down the
hong coves these thousands of caskets of un-
equ'ed fruit, which drew its juices from such
unpretending soil, to give taste of the East
ern Shore to people in distant cities, soldiers
for it.
The total population of the Chesapeake
Peninsula, Delaware included, is about $780,
600; in super6cies it is $50 miles long and from
half score to three score miles wide. 1t has
nearly 800 miles of railway.
The reverence in which this old region is !
held by those who have wandered from it is |
eXempllhed by late remark of William HI |
Hooper, delegate in Congress from Utah, and |
a Mormon, though not polygamist. He was
describing the virtues of Eastern Shore cook
lug, when one said =
the old peninsula ?"
Never, Madame, since left it thirty five
years ;vp ago" :,
the place, | should think you would want to
slip over there at least once every session of
Congress-"
Never, Madame l never wish to see it
again for might be disappointed. l always
want to remember it as it appeared to me last
in the days of my youth; the most beautiful
f spot under the eyes Of Providence"
, The queer phrases and pronunciation of this
region are of habit and no longer of ignorance
do no but" is mild form of affirmation.
"A DANCED sight good deal is an ambiguous
, estimate of quantity. won't 'mung We come
> to see me ~ is a somewhat querulous renewal
: of an invitation. p" What for sort of man
! is hardly indigenous, but sounds suspiciously
like an imitation of . Fidelity or "Baltimer"
business talk. Who can define an i'll COM
meoned day except upon the theory OF natur-
al volubility unrelieved by dictionary? "An
: else " is transposition of unless. Right
/. smart is of universal currency: it applies to
a man of sagacity, to quantity, and to distance
occasionally the word - peart takes the place
of smart, to signify animation. "Cleverness"
u in Delaware means hospitality and good-fellow
ship solely, never skill, and it is the next
! diploma below the impossible grade of "a
= = gentleman"
COusinship is a feature of good family life
! on the Peninsula, the remark being common
= = of " So and So is my fourth cousin" Extra
ordinary cases of human longevity occur here,
a Notwithstanding the prevalency at times of low
. . fevers; but the Eastern Shore is healthier than
|, society was tranquil during the war; Northern
y y immigration is welcomed, and observes no
e prejudice
q A literature of the Peninsula did not exist
r except in the journals of Fox, Whitefeld, and
ii the itinerant preachers of the Colonial period
ar and in passing references in general Maryland
- history, until the life and letters of George
70 Read, published in 1871, illuminated the north
ern half of Delaware. DIR. Bird playwright
= and +. D. g. barley, the artist, were Della
wareans. Washington diary gives clear ac
" count of the former alternate road between
d Wilmington and Virginia, passing down thC
~ Eastern Shore by Christina bridge, Head o
~ Sassafras, Chestertown, and Rock Hall, anC
n. thence ferrying over to Annapolis; he nearl.
a. lost his life crossing the bay by this route ii
10 1890. The biography of the Peninsula pro
n. badly contains no stronger name than Samue
- Chase, subject and hero of impeachment unde
q. jefferson; Henry A. Wise and Secretar.
. Upshur came from the Virginia portion
no Stephen Decatur, the naval family of Colds
,rs borough. Frederick Douglas, the colored orator
10 Benjamin Bannaker, coored mathematician
! Postmaster General Creswe, Justice Davis
inf and the original Bayard of that family G
q Senators came from the Maryland part DELI
as ware, being a whole State, has had a goo
tic share of national honors. and Dupont, MAJ
,al DonOugh, and many other good names orni
nv ment its pages The name of Thomas Holl
ne day Hicks, of Cambridge, genuine Easter
vi Shoreman, will be forever memorable for Il
,us timely decisiveness with which he used ii
ost executive authority of the State in favor of ii
ern nation in 1861. The only public statue on ii
M Peninsula marks his grave. John u. KenneC
,ad is the foremost literary character of Marylan
has unless we consider Edgar A. Poe and Jar'
led Sparks, Marylanders Kennedy wrote son
los beautiful legends of the Chesapeake. Sever
hy of the itinerant Methodist preachers ha,
the made desultory books upon their peninsul
Of experiences and the richness of clerical biogr
+ ply should lie in the lives of Hersey, Wiltshir
q Captain Thomas, and some of these old circu
= md riders The Ell piscopal parishes of Maryla
10Th are the subject of volume. queer geniu
4 George Lynn Lachlin Davis, has made CO
azv tribution to Maryland genealOgy, and Edwa
c;ty ID. Ne in Terra Inlride, has drawn togeth
vare in digni6ed form much that bears reference
moo the Il ,stern Shore. Maryland in my jud
the the mcnt, is State Of fine literary Temperament
,nds Baltimore could be the Boston of the Sout
mol if the local prejudices gave way to encoura
+ to broader intellectual life, but we must W
Mi. for the uncompensating animOsites of the "
D;nr to expire There was poet, sO-caed,
h;a Delaware, writing under the name of IT
the Milford Bard he had vOluminOusness a
old ardor-little more. For annals of proxim
ns a reference to the subjects of this sketch, nc
Nav. in our neighborhood collections, excel the
clan, tory of Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Is or devotion and labors not always apprecia
q no near home, no man in letters is wOrthlel
,rcb. respect than Bayard Taylor, whose pictures
neo Southeastern Pennsylvania life are also true
will Northern Delaware. The Eastern shore
h;le laud to love by one reared in it loving i
os o need not, for its sake. exat the expectation
it of strangers unouly apouC IT. Cney can never
r the up the clod winch gaEe US sap ana see
them Juices there we see. H ls lanu Oh serel
tone apu uiEnlty, uul Tvs ooEnues ~ are wv hailo"
nov. Ii has no imperial possibilities.
ry,-