Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-11-12

WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH
OTHER MORTALS-THEIR Lam
GUAGE A VERNACULAR OF THEIR
OWN.
Harrisburg (Pa.) Cor. Chicago lIerald.l
About thirty-fve miles east Of the
capital of Pennsylvania, upon the
mountain fastness of the Blue
ridge, the correspondent found a
family of wild people. Within a
dozen miles from the village Of
MyerstOwn, Lebanon County, these
unclvilized persons make their
home. Their name is Laub, two
sisters and a brother. The latter
is probably fifty years old, and the
women, Hannah, fifty-fve, and
Mary, forty.seven. They all ap-
pear shy, and whenever any person
nears their retreat they hide among
the bushes or seek observation in
their cave. Uneducated and un-
cultured, they are mid and harm.
less. The man is tall and heavily
set. His eyes bulge out like a
bulldogs, and his retreating fore
head indicates the idiot lie is. Ills
face is flabby and sparsely covered
with whiskers, and his hair is al
ways in whirlwind Of confusion.
His skin in every part Of the ex-
posed body is tinged with the life
color of the hardy mOuntalneer.
The clothes he wears are of that
peculiar kind which startled Rip
Van Wrinkle when he awakened
from his famous sleep. His hunt
ing piece is an old tllnt-lock.
The women are not unlike their
brother. IIannah's hair is of raven
darkness, and stands straight on
end when alarmed or excited. Her
complexion is sallow, with neck
tuited with large brown colored
goiters. Mary, the youngest of
fhe trio, has light hair, which is
strangely matted, overcast with a
mixture of tints-brown, gray and
yellow-caused by the rays of the
sun. Her eyes or blue and deeply
retired, giving the expression of a
haunted, frightened and saddened
soul. The two sisters are general
ly clad in plain skirts of coarse
material and rudely put together.
Their heads and feet are always
bare in summer time, and in winter
their shoes are made out of hides of
ANIMALS, such as the brother can
kill or trap. Their arms are bare
and brown and hands coarse vein
ed, with fnger-naiIs protruding like
claws of wild beasts.
The family consisted Of five per.
sons-the father and mother and
these three children. The early
history of the family will always re.
main a secret. No resident in the
neighbOrhood appears to know any
thing concerning the tribe beyond
the present generation. There is
no possible way to ascertain what
caused the family to rendezvous in
this isolated region. It is readily
perceived that no man or woman
would eve; have come out of a civil
lied condition to at once deteriOr-
ate into such a barbarous state as
that Of the Laub clan unless driven
to it by an atrocious crime. Meth
er one of the three has memory
beyond their daily wants. Their
speech is a vernacular Of theiI own,
and vet with enough Pennsylvania
Dutch interspersed to understand
the bearings of their answers.-
When spoken to their answers come
in doleful tones, and their eyes are
cast to the ground. They have no
knowledge of the most ordinary
things in life, and are only able to
tell their names.
Benniyell is the name of the man,
and the sisters manifest much love
and concern for their brother. The
same afectionate bearing comes
over all when spoken to of their
dead parents. The death and sub.
segment burial of their father and
mother are firmly imbedded in their
remembrance, and at times when
visited will take the adventures to
the house where IN former years
they resided. 1t is but short dis
tance from their present abode, and
entirely concealed behind thick
growth of large and small trees
1t is the simplest structure imagin'
able, rising to the height of a man,
and about fifteen by twelve feet in
dimensions. It is an old fashioned
bake oven shaped structure and
overgrown with mOsses and thick
cts IN profusion. IL is plastered
with clay on the inside, which since
has hardened like rock. There is
no window, no opening Of any kind
save the aperture known as a door.
Unchristened and untutored as
these beings are, they do reverence
to the memory Of the dead. No
one IL allowed TO go inside the
house. 1t was from this building
that their parents were carried to
their final resting place. Since then
neither one of the children has en-
tered the home to abide. They fear
the spirit of the departed.
Into an old barrel they pressed