Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-08-28
The LUSCIOUS HuokLEeEaRx.
The Great Marsh in Northern indiana
Lads and Lasses Picking Berries.

Lads and Lasses Picking Berries.
lPittsburg Dspatch.l
@The great huckleberry marsh Of north.
ern Indiana & a curiosity, said Mr..
Howes, telegraph operator, OF Wilkins
burg, to a reporter.
II understand the crop is small this
season, " he continued. "but last year it
was very large. During the season from
5000 to 6, 900 persons-men, women, n
children-take up their quarters in n
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
q residence of several weeks. The come
from all parts of the country within a
radious Of twenty or thirty miles.
"Do the pickers find a ready market for
their berries?"
"Yes; buyers are there from New
York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Chicago,
Cincinnati, and other cities. Formerly
the berries brought very low prices-3 or
4 cents q quart-but now, owing to the
great demand for them, they bring 5 or
s cents. Some of the pickers make So
or 81 a day."
"How do the people amuse themselves
when not engaged in picking berries2"
"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
Pittsburg dancing master to grow green
with envy. Half a dozen fddlers, more
or less, strike up some well-known air,
and the human mass begins to move
through all kinds of figures, and some
times no figures. Everything is of the
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 n girl or on &C
count of too much whisky having been
imbibed by the belligerents. Once in a
while a 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, chuck-a-luck, 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 the amount of their fleeing during
the season is considerable. When the
pickers have no money they stake their
berries, and accept success or defeat with
all the stoicism Of an Indian. They may
lose everything they have. but between
begging and borrowing they generally
manage to raise a stake for the next night
The majority of the pickers are poorer,
if possible, at the end Of the season than
at the beginning.
II should think 1t would be a fine field
for counterfeiters to ply their voca
tions?"
ut is. Showers of the queer are al
most as numerous as gamblers. The PEG.
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 of
every year.
"Are the berries as good as those of the
eastern states?"
Better. l think. They are very large
sweet and Juicy"