The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-10-22
THE LUSCIOUS HuckLeBgRRY.
The Great Marsh in Northern Indiana :
Lads and Lasses Picking Berries.

lfuLSDurg DlSpaLcnI
THE great huckleberry marshof north.
ern Indiana is a curiosity, said AIr.
Howes, telegraph operator, of Wilkins
burg, To reporter
II understand the crop is small this
season, he continued, but last year it
was very large. During the season from
5000 to 5000 persons men, women, and
children-take up their quarters in and
about the marsh, and remain until the
berries are all picked. Some build shan
ties. some erect tents, and all provide
themselves with everything necessary for
a residence of several weeks. The come
from all parts of the country within
radious of twenty or thirty miles
Do tho pickers find ready market for
their berries2"
York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Chicago,
Cincinnati, and other cities Formerly
the berries brought very low prices-3 or
4 cents quart-but now, owing to the
great demand for them, they bring or
6 cents. Some of the pickers make So
or 81 a day.
~How do the people amuse themselves
when not engaged in picking berries?"
"There Is no lack of amusements.
Dancing is one of the principal diversions,
and the way the Hoosier lads and lassies
trip the light fantastic would cause a
PittsbuEg dancing master to grow green
with envy half a dozen fiddlers, more
or less, strike up some wellknown air,
and the human mass begins 10 move
through all kinds of figures, and some
times no figures. Everything is of the
go-aS-yOu- please order. though fragrant
breaches of propriety seldom occur
Dancing is kept. up nearly all night. the
monotony being varied by an occasional
fight for the possession of q girl or on &C
count of too much whisky having been
imbibed by the beligerents. Once in
while general row breaks out. when
fists, clubs, and sometimes more danger
Gus weapons are used with telling effect
what else do the pickers do to amuse
themselves"
@They all gamble. Fakirs from all
parts of the country flock there with their
gambling paraphernalia and remain
throughout the season. l have seen hun
dreds of faro, huck-aluck, poker, old
sledge and other games in progress at the
same time The stakes are small, of
course, but as the sharpers nearly always
win heamount of their tleecing during
the season is considerable. When the
pickers have no money they stake their
berries, and accept success or defeat with
Ill the stoicism of an Indian. They may
lose everything they have. but between
begging and borrowing they generally
manage to raise stake for the next night
The majority of the pickers are poorer,
If possible. at the end of the season than
at the beginning.
Il should think it would be fine field
for counterfeiters to ply their voca-
tions?"
at is. Showers of the queer are al
most as numerous as gamblers The peo-
pie are too ignorant to distinguish be-
tween good money and bad, and hence
accept almost anything that is offered
them. In this way thousands of dollars
worth of counterfeit money is worked off
every year.
Are the berries as good as those of the
eastern stateS?"
Better, think. They are very large,
sweet and juicy. Es Is