The record-union., 1891-03-08

the Mayor, High Steward, Recorder,
Sub-Steward and other municipal Off
GERS, which was only changed as late as
the middle of the present century. An in
quest of twelve persons was formed by
placing the names of twenty-four free
men into four hats. Then a person called
an innocent" usually child, drew
three names from each of the four hats.
These twelve persons formed the inquest:
and they We're literally incarcerated in
the city hall without meat. drink, fire
or candle' until nine of them agreed upon
the municipal officers; and there was no
appeal from, or contest arising out of, this
primitive procedure.
The Dutch have left their mark plainly
upon old Yarmouth. Indeed one will find
similar traces of continental influences,
though very old and remote, to a number
of the seaports of Great Britain. In Ber-
wick, Scotland, and in many of the fish
ing villages OF the Firth of Forth, as well
as in old Edinburgh itself, you will find a
type OF face, manner and occasionally sug-
gestings in ancient architecture, which
point straight and true to progenitors and
builders from the Norman French. At
Plymouth and Penzance, in Cornwall, the
old Hebrew strain is clearly discernable,
though the Jews were never in Cornwall
in numbers less than 500 years ago, when
they found source of wealth in the tin
OF the Cornish mines. Up in Aberdeen,
Scotland, the Morse blood still tells mar
velously, in complexion, hair, figure and
in local names of places and men. Away
up in Lerwick, Shetland, all the old por-
tions of the city are as typically Dutch as
the Oldest portions of Harlem and AM
sterdam. AT Cork you will find traces Of
the French. Away over at old Galway,
on the west coast of Ireland, the faces and
forms of the Spanish fishermen of BARGE
Iona are reproduced in those of the fish
wives and men of Claddagh; and you
will find bits ofarch, column, balcony and
tiny patios or courts, in Galway, as
Moorish as any in Grenada or Seville.
minded of Holland in Yarmouth. Am
sterdam lies but a little way distant,
straight across the North Sea. The great
dutch Fairs of olden times brought
hither all the provincial folk of Suffolk
and Norfolk and of the North Countree."
Many Dutch factors and merchants set
tied here, married and became merged
with the local population. Yarmouth
herring-fishers copied the Dutch method
of taking the fish, and the curers, their
process of ''pickling'' the herring. The
grand plan of the harbor was executed
under the direction of JOaS johnson, a
Dutchman. And everywhere among the
ancient shops habitations and tishermen's
homes of Yarmouth are numberless
tain must be found folk with tasseled
caps, short skirts, bodiced waists, wooden
shoes and the marvellous pipes of Hol-
land.
This is nowhere more noticeable than
in the narrow maze of streets intersecting
the main thoroughfares from east to west.
There are nearly 200 Of these. They are
feet IN width; the most are less than six:
and across many friendly hands can be
shaken. ! believe that it was Dickens
himself who, in Household Words, said
yarmouth is one vast gridiron, Of which
the bars are represented by the ''rows."
AS a rule this portion Of the city
houses the lowiy. At nearly every door
some indication of the fisherman's life is
apparent. Bits of wreck are lying in this
one to be transformed into lighters" or
kindling. Sinkers and buoys are piled in
another entrance. Models Of anchors,
smacks and full-rigged ships adorn the
ground-foor windows; while from the
easements and meager balconies above
everything that can hang and dry in SO
little space, from suit of "oilskins"
swaying like fisherman-scarecrow. to
a quarter-mile herring-net in folds, or a
mainsail OF smack, flaps and slaps the
faeades on either side in easy and friendly
familiarity.
There is but one vehicle in all Var
mouth which can traverse these shadowy
"rows," many of them as close and dim
as the sunless thoroughfares of old AL
giers. This is called the yarmouth
cart" 1t is genuine antique, but re-
mains in general use, because necessary
for service in "the rows" 1t has but two
wheels, low and heavy. The stout rack
or frame which they support runs rear
ward and upward at an obtuse angle, and,
to the front, the same distance, at the
OLE ha ~
shafts. One horse only is used. The
cartman usually balances the cart in load
ing directly over the wheels, but if not,
accomplishes the same by the addition of
his own weight. The shafts are of extra
ordinary length, like those of the curious
Cuban Voldnte. You will frequently find
them fully fourteen feet long from tips to
socket, where they really begin. A cav
alcade OF these empty carts, Gathering
down the quaint old streets on their
homeward way at eventide, with the
dimly-detined perspective of ancient IA
cade and tower, will easily flash into
ones fancy the suggestion of a procession
OF chariots returning from the Roman
races of old.
There is little at Yarmouth and round
about for actual identification OF the
things and folk Dickens made you feel
were here, save in all the seawise flavor
of objects and men. In that respect you
can at once find innumerable families of
the Peggotys. To be sure you can come,
as did, along the level Suffolk highway,
over the same road on which Dickens,
Mark Lemon and John Leach first trav-
eled during their famous exploring expe-
ditiOn to Yarmouth. Over there between
Yarmouth and Lowestoft, you will find
the little thatched hamlet of Blundeston
the Thunderstorm" village Of David
Copperfield's" birth-and all along the
way you will see lane, farmstead and
quaint old house, where Barkis the
"willin'" carrier set down his packages
and bundles. When you have crossed
the Yare and wandered into the city, here
and there you will find, just as in "Cop-
perfield's" time, the same quaint shops of
the ''Drapers, Tailors, Haberdashers, Fu-
neral Furnishers," etc., as the one over
which the CHEEKY, asthmatic Mr.. Omer
presided. But the dear old boat house is
gone. First the city pushed down across
the sands and hid it. Then, twelve years
ago, the roofs from some tumble-down
pecting its existence, the crumbling hulk
was discovered. There it stood just as
Dickens knew it and peopled it; the side
door preserved; the little pane of glass
where the rudder had run through, un-
broken; the very same window intact in
which the candle was set for little Em'ly's
return. The upturned keel was torn to
pieces by the workmen; but it could never
be destroyed. Among all fadeless things,
with its light and love and sadness, it
will remain an endless beacon upon this
stormy coast. EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
Woman.
knew n certain Ounce