The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-08-14
BALTIMORE, MD., Aug. 5, IA

|
Sc elrching ancient Records is no less la
borious than "rail splitting" or cleaning
and repairing old wall sweep clocks"
| Those huge books are very heavy to
handle, being about Is BY "A inches, and
containing from 800 to 1900 pages Of
heavy paper. Imagine if you please the
amount Of close application it requires
in following those 2-foot columns, keep
! ing the eve on a strain for hours, and
| the body distorted and / shouldn't won
der II might say the face contorted; oc-
casionally Striking OIL and iotting
down the result in our memoranda; the
Recording department here is at present
undergoing repairs, and the accommoda-
/ tions are necessarily circulnvented some
what, however, we have already found
matters of great interest 20 the "ChiIcote
family" for we Hnd the investigation
made in ~, per Perley r. LoYejoy, Esq,
is correct and honest; ! have had the
pleasure to meet that gentleman, and
find him to be a lawyer of frst-class
qualifications, by the way ] could give
no better pen picture Of him, than mere
ly state that he very strikin9ly resembles
our worthy townsman, J. L. Sheridan,
in figure, feature, movement and action.
We compared notes with him, and found
his sheet and ours to compare favora-
bly,. The reason Why Mr.. Lovejoy stop
ped his work, at that time ('72) WAS sim
ply this he found the family branching
possibly follow it up without correct
line of genealogy of the right branch of
the family, for which he applied TO the
d. rites from whom he received his au-
thority to work, and if they could not
furnish the same and he Of course
could not afford to seek further, until
that particular data were furnished. We
are now armed and equipped with that
Implement, and can proceed. All records
here aeem 70 be in exceile1t order. Mr..
L. informs us, however, that at Annapo-
lis, such is not the case, that some years
ago there were DratiLations mode by parties
not overly honest in their intentions;
and laterly they are only examined by
clerks in the States employ. This per-
haps accounts for the fact of the indefn-
iteness of a certain "lense" which we are
particularly interested in, and Of which
we will make mention in the future.
Metropolitan life could be relished bet
ter by US, if we hadn't 80 much labor to
perform yet We take stroll occasional
ly to sec the sights.
The harbor here is quite interesting
to such as we, and after our first days
labor was over, we took glance at innu-
merable quantities of steamers, steam
boats, brigs, ships. tugs, ferry-boats and
sail boats as they piled their ayoca-
tions along the wharf and in the bay, as
an arm of the Chesapeake extends up
well into the city, so that the lading is
contiguous to the vital centre of trade,
and this makes matter ri importance
to all parties interested in this great
city; by chance We passed the steamer
maggie" as she was taking on her car
go, just prior to her departure west. A
son of "Ham" was having difficulty with
a horse he was endeavoring to get on
board; and in his frantic Tearings and
struggles to resist, he was unfortunately
allowed to back of the plank, and fell
| into the water with splash; he at once
| struck out, for dear life, and with snort
and groan, dodging under the guards Of
the vessel made for the centre Of the
/ harbor. Ali was now excitement and
/ confusion, both on the steamer and
wharf; men, women, boys, niggers and
dogs, each vieing with the other, in pro.
dncing the most Babalonian confusion, a
sturdy boatman however, lying on his
oars, took in the situation, and now plies
his oars to the rescue; deck hand leaps
into the boat as it passes and here they
20 after the noble horse as struggling for
| life he shies away from our brave boat
man, thinking, no doubt, cit looks like
the same whale that swallowed Jonah"
The time seemed long to us, as we fear
ed from the snorts and groans issuing
from the horse, that he would be COM
pelled to ink, his head only is seen and
it seemed to grow less and less until
only the nose protrudes above the dark
blue water. Our sturdy boatman, how
ever, is along side, the darkie grasps the
rope halter, and now a struggle takes
place in the water, adding fresh fuel to
the already intense excitement among
the spectators, whose numbers so rapidly
increased that il seeemed a thousand
eyes were gazing at the thrilling specta-
Gle. We looked for our boat TO capsize,
but Just at this juncture, another skif
appears on the scene, and by uniting
their efforts they succeeded in convincing
our noble horse, that his fate should be
unlike the hero Of Nineveh, IL he unlike
Jonah obey, but obey the PowerH that
be. He seems at once TO yield compli-
ance, whereupon he was towed about six
furlongs to the southern side Of the ba.
sin, to a slopins surfaced shore, and in
few minutes he was on the wharf again
struggling against an over-powering
number Of blacks, and was eventually
stalled safely on board; the bell and
whistle sounds, and away the monster
steamer hies, freighted to her guards
nearly, with all manner Of goods and
chattels, passengers and crew being
among the grander sights which rarely
/ meet a landsman's view.
We were agreeably surprised at the
magnitude of Baltimore, and aiso hei