The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1876-08-26
2niscellaneems.
Life On ChincOteGgue.
CORNER "oUT OF THE BURLY-BURLY"-THE SIM
PLIcITY OF A CENTURY AGo-BEAcH AND
sEA-How THE cHINcoTEAGUERs

PLIcITY OF CENTURY AGo-BEAcH AND
sEA-How THE cHIScoTEAGUERs
DWELL IN PEACE.
Correspondence Of the VIII (DeI) Commercial.
CHIScoTEAGUE, Va, August II.
Could man be suddenly transported from
one country to another, as in eastern fables, he
could meet with no more strongly marked and
different peculiarities than he will discover
when a days ride from Wilmington lands him
on the Island of Chincoteague, just eff the
northernmost coast, or Eastern Shore, of Vir-
ginia.
The inhabitants themselves, are peculiar
race, for the most part of sallow, leathery,
smoke dried com plexion, with back and should
ers rounded like bowl of spoon. They gen.
orally roam in bare feet in summer, thus avoid
ing the unnecessary expense OF shoe leather,
their chief costume consisting of pair of ex-
traordinarily patched trowsers, strapped up to
the seventh rib, red or checked shirt and
straw hat with wonderful breadth of brim,
sheltering placid face from the torrid glare of
the sun.
Immediately to the eastward of Chincoteague,
between it and the ocean, stretched Assateague
Island, or, as the natives call it, 'the beach,"
upon the middle of which stands Assateague
light house, frst-class light and one of the
finest in the country.
THE PONIES
for which Chincoteague is so widely celebrated
mostly roam in wild state over the whole
island, though some are now confined by their
owners to large tracts of salt meadows fenced
off, while others are swum across the narrow
channel that separates Chincoteague from As
sateague, to run at large upon the latter island,
which, in spite of its quite heavy pine timber,
is still in many portions unclaimed land.
Land-locked as Chincoteague is, separated
by interest as by water from the rest of Vir-
ginia, its inhabitants seem to have retained the
thoughts and prejudces of the state of civili-
cation of seventy-fve years ago. Not more
than one or two of the older native inhabitants
can read, and though in the last few years
many people from the mainland have settled
upon the island, you may still live there for
weeks without beholding a newspaper, or
book of any kind for that matter.
Among the
QUAINT AND CURIOUS CHARACTERS
of the island is one popularity known as Gun
Gle Ken" Jester, one of the largest pony own
ers of the place, all whose thoughts seem to
bear directly or indirectly upon "beach-hos
ses," and to the one additional topic of whisky.
OF this favored liquor Uncle Ken imbibes on
an average a quart or three pints day, but
drunk or sober he knows all that is to be known
about ponies, and can catch them when at their
widest.
The wisdom evolved from the inner consci-
business of these illterate people is often quaint
and shrewd enough. An old negro who goes
by the names of cole Dan Tucker" was very
entertaining in this respect pencil sketch
of his queer figure was much desired, and he
was offered ten cents as an inducement to stand
still for that purpose. "Look yeh, mass" said
| he in his broad Virginia accent, "reckon rs
ugly 'nough 'out puttin't on paper. Land
knows want money too, reckon. Money'n
take man anywhe's-'cept to Heaven" So
Dan could not be persuaded to "pose," but was
subsequently caught upon the wing, so to speak
| in front of the hotel.
CURIOUS TO NORTHERN EYES
were the interior of some of the houses visited
| on Chincoteague, but with hospitable inhabi-
| tants. On the visitors entrance to the first the
good woman of the house who was smoking
vile tobacco in very dirty short pipe, spanked
a child who was rolling nearly naked upon the
floor, whipped sauce pan and dirty pair o
trousers off a chair and bade her guest sit down
all in a breath. One or two cheap prints, {
highly y-colorod circus advertisement, and bot
ties with red flannel inside them were hung
here and there, ornamenting the walls. Tit
housekeeping arrangements consisted of thre'
or four rickety chairs, sauce pan, a cracked
pitcher, griddle and a coffee pot; the smalle
properties heaped in rickety wash tub in on
corner of the room. Then the bed a volum
inous mass of feathers rising in mountainou
heap quite five jeet in height, with tawny coun
terpane and spindle bed-posts decked at tn
top with bits of parti-colored worsted. So hos
pitable are the owners of these dwellings tina
it requires some ingenuity to escape from tn
pressing invitations to share the meal which
spread their board, consisting of fried potatoes
nodules of fat pork fried and floating in mo
lasses, and conical chunks of bread which the
dip in the same.
SOME OF THE HOUSES
of better class are equally curious in thei
wav. One such is the residence of Captai
Caulk, an ex -Delawarean, frame structure
hexagon shape in front of which is a collection
of immense bones, relics of an enormous whal
that was stranded upon the beach in storm
The Island of Chincoteague claims to hav
been, during the late war,