Connecticut western news., 1885-11-04
AMONG THE CLAY-EA1'ERS
A Queer People Who Live in
 Maryland and Delaware.
An Isolated Existence in Swamr, Wh ere
 the Houses are Built on Piles.

A curious region of the Eastern shore is the great swamp that extends through Sussex county, Delaware, and portions of Wicomico and Worcester counties, Maryland. This swamp pro- duces a fine cypress, and is also the home of the most venomous snakes, such as rattles, moccason and copper heads. It grow the best huckleberries in the world, and. it is said, contains some wild cats and bears.
 A gentleman who was reared in the lower part of the Eastern shore gave a Times reporter an interesting account of the inhabitants of the swamp region. "The swampers," he said "are as hardy as otters and almost as ignorant as Hottentots. As general thing they can neither read nor write. They live in small log huts chinked with clay, and subsist upon game, little corn meal, coarse meat and whisky. The last, next to apple brandy, they regard as the best thing in the world. They know nothing about politics and few ever come out of their lairs to vote
 Many of their houses are built on piles, and they reach them in boats through the lagoons. Men live to a ripe old age in that swamp. and die there without ever being beyond its boundaries. These people are never reached by the Tax Collector, the As sessor. the preacher, the book agent, the busy politician, nor the lighting rod agent They have nothing in com mon with the outside world. Their whole being, of course, is saturated with malaria But though they shake with ague half the year through, and have their skins the color of saffron, they seem to be insured against other dis ease, for it is rare to hear of any other form of sickness in the swamp than ague.
 "When the men do any work at all they generally make shingles. In the summer the women and children gath CT huckleberries. The shingles and berries are sold at the nearest country stores, the sums realized being con- verted into cheap wearing apparal, corn meal, bacon, tobacco and whisky. Nearly all the women use tobacco in every conceivable shape, and drink corn juice with the best of men. These swampers fight among them selves, but do not think about going to law. They settle all their disputes in the primitive fashion-by the might of superior strength and physical ad- dress. Many of them are clay-eaters, too. Inever could understand the ap- petite which craves clay as a diet. The clay-eating swampers are misera- ble specimens ofhumanity. With legs that are mere sticks, narrow hips, fall ing chest, and bluish-yelIow complex ions, they present about the lowest type of the white race found in the United states. I remember that Swamper, who himself did not eat clay, had boy that began to droop. He took him to the nearest country physician, but the doctor could not re- lieve him. After while the swamp CT took his boy to Salisbury, and con- suited Dr. s. F. Dennis. Dr. Dennis thought he saw the little shayer's trouble at once.
 Boy said he, you have been eat. ing clay
 "'Deed and deed, hain't, sir.
 "Pointing to a skeleton in the room, the doctor said:
 Boy, do you see that.
 "'Yes, sir,' shivering with fear.
 "'Well, now. I'll give you to that for supper if you are telling me story. Put out your tongue and I'll soon know if you have been eating clay.
 The little wretch put out his tongue. The doctor immediately ex- claimed:
 "'There, didn't say that you had been eating clayP'
 "'l didn't eat much, sir whimpered the boy.
 Having arrived at the cause of trouble the doctor prescribed for the patient and told his father to keep him from eating clay and he would get vel" Baltimore Times.