Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-04-26
A glimpse Of old PA,l.d.lphi..

Inere was very little stir OF any sort
| in the village. We find a curious ac-
count of it written by one Gabriel
Thomas soon after his landing. There
were thirty carts in 1.-THE only vehi-
cles excepting Penn's calash. Laboring
men were paid three times as much as
in England, Gabriel himself having to
pay two shillings for a pair of boots.
Women's wages he writes down as
"most eXOrbitant-frOm E5 to f10 per
annum." They had the game in their
own hands, as ga wench, if not paid
enough, will take land and turn farmer.
There are no beggars nor olde maydes,
neither Lawyers nor Doctors, with
lycense to kill and make mischief"
Gabriel and his fellows were wont to
assemble at the Blue Anchor Tavern to
gossip; and the news, brought once in
six months, had flavor of mystery and
dramatic horror lacking to the kilograms
in the daily paper of a country town
nowadays. The village lay on the edge
of an impregnable wilderness stretch
ing to the Pacific Ocean; on the other
side was the river, an open highway to
the sea, where Kidd and other pirates
ragged to and fro-a highway 30 open
that several Of their ships, bearing the
black flag, were used to winter as near
the town as Cohocksink Creek, the
pirates themselves, having their allies
in the town, and in but scant disguise,
frequenting undisturbed the lower class
of houses, and storing away their
plumber in certain dens along the river.
Chief among these was the famous
Teach, or DrummOnd, known as Black
.t k..I - n,
of humanity: Blackboard had none.
He was, however, an educated man,
gay and reckless in his ferocity. Old
portraits represent him with three brace
of pistols slung over his shoulders, and
the black name of a beard tied up with
scarlet ribbons. He played the role of
gentleman on the Carolina coast success
fully for a while, married into a good
family, and left his fair wife presently
with the information that she was one
of fourteen! Tradition gives as the first
known ancestors of one or two of the
proudest of Virginian and Carolinian
families members of Blackbeard's gang.
A visit from the bold buccaneer, cut
lass, red ribbons, and all, sent quake
of terror through the town of Philadel-
phia on many n winters day; and there
was public rejoicing when news came
that his ship of forty guns, the Queen
Anne's Rerenge, had been captured by
Maynard, of Virginia, the pirates head
cut off and carried home in triumph as
grim figure head on the conquering
vessel. The skull was made into a
punch-bowl, bound with silver, and
used for years in the Raleigh Tavern, at
Williamsburg, Virginia.
At long intervals came to the settle
ment men of means, cadets of respecta-
BILE families driven by persecution from
England, or emigrants from the Bar
BADGES, bringing their slaves and house
hold goods with them. OF these were
Nicholas VAIN, Samuel Carpenter,
Robert Turner, and Thomas Budd.
Honest Gabriel writes home with de-
light of theirs big housen aud orchards"
The Quakers were "gOod providers"
then as now. The bins and pantries Of
their plain houses were filled with sub
stantial fare, not forgetting wine from
the PrOprietOr's vineyards. When
James Logan, i'm the old slate-roof
house, or Samuel Carpenter, or ary of
the three or four village magnates, bade
the others to supper, there was much
settlng forth OF nne napery, and glitter
ing pewter plates emblazOned with the
family arms and heaped with "vensiOn
and smOakt hams," with liquor of all
kinds to wash it down. People of the
baser sort gathered in the Blue Anchor
or Penny Pot house, and talked of the
arrival of Jonathan Dickinson and his
who had been wrecked on
the savage Florida coast, and wandered
for year among the cannibals. The
story went that the lives of the party
had been spared for the sake Of Dickin-
sons baby, and we may be sure the
laughing, ruddy boy of two
was closely watched when his black
nurse carried him abroad. Or they
tried to spell out the Almynack just
printed by William Bradford, wherein
the date of Noah's flood was given as
1879 years before We Almynack, and
ye rule of We Lord Penn as years be-
fore ye Almynack." This was the
"first practice of We Mystery of Print
ing" in the province. and Penn COM
manded Bradford peremptOrily to let it
be the last, 'as danger to the printer
and to the country"