The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-12-29

Tie eNlplON - .Ol NgOolJeI ~ new itb. at
once pull it down, in this way thin
fning but the number of shanties;
tnothing is ever done to the shanties
which are occupied.
In the winter some of the gang occa-
sionally put in few days work at
cutting ice, but this is not often the
ease, most of the laborers being
brought from some distance. 1t is a
remarkable fact that few of the re-
spectacle residents in the neiohbor-
hood keep any chickens or other poul
try, for the keeping of them would be
attended with serious difficulty Oc-
casionally some exasperated resident
fixes gun trap to shoot persons who
come to steal: one of them tried this
ON q short time ago and found the fol-
lowing morning, to his disgust, that
the gun had been stolen.
The hotel proprietors are greatly
annoyed by these characters, and
nothing but pistols or clubs are eff
fective against them. MIR. William
g. .DeGraw, the proprietor of the
Lakeside House, found it necessary
to thrash nearly every one of them
before they would give him any
peace. Some of the descendants of
the aborigines have intermarried with
this gang, and number of the char
acters have Indian blood in their
veins.
I When provisions or liquor are con-
signed to any of the hotels at the lake
the persons to whom they are con-
signed fetch them as soon as possible
in order not to give the natives a
chance to levy tribute on them.
The station at Cooper's is frequently
broken into, and whiskey left there
over night is almost sure to be heavily
taxed Only few days ago some of
the gang broke into the station and
carriedlaway several pailfuls of whisky
which they obtained by removing a
hoop from a barrel and then boring
into the head. The only evidence
that could be obtained as to who per-
petrated the theft was the fact that a
portion of the gang remained drunk
for several days. The railroad com
pany very rarely attempts to punish
the offenders knowing that it is
almost impossible to capture any of
them.
Mr.. }. II. Wiley, OF New York, spent
the past summer at the lake and
stopped at Fuller's Hotel, near the
place where the natives hold sway.
He said to a reporter:
II have done a great deal of travel
ling during my life; ! have been all
over the country and always devoted
time to studying the characters of the
inhabitants, and | must say that /
never saw such God-forsaken, crowd
in my life. The men are thieves and
the women prostitutes; it is. very sell
dom that any of them can be found at
any kind of work. There are here
seVeralscoFes of children who never go
to school and who have never heard
abe name of the Almighty except in
the form of an oath. 1never saw such
a horrible state of affairs anywhere. |
Wrote to my friend, the Rev. Mr. Kel-
lar, of Arlington, N. j., the chaplain
to Bishop Starkey, of the Episcopal
Diocese of Newark, on the subject and
he came here.
-ssWhen showed him what was go
ing on he was Mortified; subsequently
he asked me to send him the names of
some of the children who never had a
chance to be educated, and | sent him
twenty eight; this list did not include
the names of a lot of young boys who
have no education except that of
fascaiity, nor of any number of small
\ Ter children too young.to go to school.
He is going to do his best to have a
school established here. | never, saw
a place where missionaries We're
wanted worse than they are here, ~ ~,
For the purpose of ascertaining why
the school authorities of the county
had not taken action in this matter q
reporter drove oyer to see Rev. y. g:
Crffikshank, the County School
.cJr,.
Browertown, about four miles from
old man, but lie is still very active in
the discharge of his duties. After the
reporter had stated the object of his
visit, the reverend gentleman said
K "a have just returned from the place
you speak OF; my attention was called
to the matter some months ago, and
since that time | have visited the
place several times and have done my
best to induce the trustees of the dis
trict to take some action in the mat
ter. The state of affairs there is a
great deal worse than heathenism and
the immortality is something frightful.
| was told today by the man who
drove me over to the lake from New
foundland that one half the men
could not read and that the children:
were being brought up the same way.
''The district has one school, located
near Hewitt's; | was there today and
told the children that | pitied them,
for they were compelled to use the old
benches which served as pews in olden
times; they are more uncomfortable
in them than chickens on roost, for
the chickens put their feet on the
roost, whereas these children are com
PEELED to sit with their legs dangling
down. | want those trustees to do
something, but cannot do it myself.
''In order to have school at the
place it would be necessary for the
trustees TO meet and declare an assess
ment; they could fix the amount at
any sum they deemed necessary, and
could at once get the money from the
State Fund Mt Trenton, so that they
would only have to pay the interest
on the investment; they could pay off
the capital as they found convenient.
.lssf L