The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-01-27
A VANISHING RACE.
The Hoosiers OF Posey County. Indi-
ana, and their Speech.

Edward Eggleston, the novelist, con-
tributes the following to Cincinnati
journal
In the southwest corner of Indiana,
between the Ohio and the Wabash, is
Posey county. Nearly ten years since |
remember in the the center of Posey. l
north of where taught, people to rnu
down their children with dogs once q
month to put clean clothes onthem and
in them apswe used to draw at school,
we laid Posey, off in childish comedy:
"Civilized Tribes" "YaAoas," Munge-
rooms" Unexplored Regions. had sixty
record shows eighty-fve corporal pun
ishments inflicted" and the bulk of
that fell on three boys. "Lickin' and
larnin'--hckin and larnin'," was the al
lucrative philosophy Of Center town.
ship, in Posey County.
In this part of Indiana and Illinois
the original Hoosier fourished. Flat
Greek, Hoop Pole, Dog Hollow and
Lick Skillet are all here. No stage
caricature ever represented the Hoosier
to one who knows him he is sui gen.
er is gaunt of person, pale yellow of
hair, loose of joint, long drawn out
and shaky, with inimitable voice, and
foot which is destruction to cut
worms. I know the Hoosier well, and
can talk about him as I please, for
WAS born-with him, partially brought
up with him; I narrowly escaped being
one Of him. His language is a deriva-
tive and compound dialect, consisting
of equal parts of literally traslated
Pennsylvania Dutch idioms, Carolina
and Kentucky nige erisms, and good
stocky English. Webster has no vowel
sounds which will fully represent the
Hoosier dialect. Its grammar may be
partially illustrated by the conjugation
of the word 'sto do" AS thus
Present tense-Reg1llar as in En-
glish.
Imperfect-I done it, you done it, he
done it.
Plural-We' done it. you'uns done
it, they'uns done it, etc.
Perfect gone done it, etc.
Plural-We'uns gone doneit, ETC.,
Pluperfect-I bin gone done it, etc.
Plural-We 'uns been gone done it,
etc.
First future-I gwine to do it, you
gwine to do it, etc.
Plural-We'uns gwine to do it, etc.
Second future-I gwine to done it,
etc.
Plural-We'u gwine to gone done
it you'uns gwine, etc.
The Hoosier enjoyed corn stockings,
circuses and "spellin matches" his
greatest dread was the ''fever'n ager. ="
In my boyhood this terrible scourge was
both epidemic and endemic both
chronic and sporadic. In some neigh
borhoods it came only at the ''turn of
the season-along in August-when the
vegetation begins to part with its juices
to the air in other places it was to be
expected at any season of the year, any
hour of the day. These last were speci-
fically known as the agernahborhoods;"
new Corners were solemnly warned not
to get in such, and every village cherish
ed traditions of some other village not
far remote where the ''town bell rung
every two hours for folks to take their
quinine."
Now one may live for years in almost
any part Of Indiana before seeing case
of ague. But it comes back sometimes
in rather a startling way, and this ap-
pears to have been one of the years for
it. met young people of my acquaint-
ance who had never seer a case of it be-
fore their own, 1t had SC nearly vanished
but recognized it in a minute as the
same old, mean, sneaking, freezing dis
ease. Cognate with the Eager" was the
''milk sick, " that strange, unaccountable
affection which seized upon milk kline,
and, through their milk, butter and
flesh, upon man.
That, too, seems to be nearly extinct.
Indeed, never hear it mentioned now;
but it was the cause of many lingering
deaths and still more shattered constitu-
tons twenty five years ago. A thousand
times I have heard the farmers discuss
the various theories, as to whether it was
in the water or the air, or the vegetation
OF all three, and for aught I know the
question is unsettled yet. The Ho sier,
too, is almost extinct, and since the
school law of 1856 went into operation
a young generation of educated people
have come upon the stage.