The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-11-30
CHARCOAL BURNERS OF NEW JERSEY.
Many Live Miles From a Town and Hsv.
Yet to See Locomotive.

In New Jerseys great pine belt,
which extends through Burlington
and Ocean counties, are hundreds of
men who earn their living by burning
charcoal. Their families live in the
woods, in some cases twenty miles
from town or city. Many of the
women and children, according to the
JeaOete7''s Weekly, have never heard the
shrek of a locomotive whistle, nor
walked on fagstone pavement. In
the homes of these isolated people
many quaint and ancient timepieces
and articles of jewelry are treasured
with a love which is mostreverential.
Sundays the women remove these
heirlooms tfrom their hiding places.
and bedeck themselves. Other days
of the week not an ornament is seen
excepting the wedding rings.
The wives and daughters of the char
coal burners are very proud of their
jewels, most of which have been in
their families many generations. Sit
ting before their cabins on fair Sun
looking women with sallow, brown
faces, reading worn testaments and
bibles. From the ears of nearly every
woman hang long pendant earrings,
some of gold, others of chrystal and
many of jet. Oldfashioned cameo
brooches are pinned above the breasts
of many of the women.
The rings the wives wear are gen.
orally bands of gold worn thin with
age, having served as wedding tokens
given brides of many generations.
The young women wear little iewelry,
hT1t oil " NJ ~,
bought from peddler creates a stir
in the settlement. In the houses there
are few clocks, and these are cheap
timekeepers which have done long SER
vice. Here and there may be found a
man who owns watch. These are as
antique as the ornaments of the wo-
men. They are generally of the old
"bulPs eye," open face style, and they
have done service many years.
Next to death the most startling
family watch is proken. Then the
women weep, the children are thrashed
and the owner of the timepiece is in
consolable until it is repaired. One of
these old watches frequently acts as a
time standard for a colony of fifty
families. Be it an hour slow or fast it
is the recognized time, and the days
work is governed by it. More than
one murder has been committed in the
pines when father having two grown
sons has died and they have fought for
the possession of the envied timepiece.
The men, aside from their watches,
own no ornaments, not even a collar
button. A stranger wearing a dia-
mond stud who wanders into one of
their settlements is Immediately sur
rounded by gaping throng, and his
visit forms d theme for freside dis
cussion several months after his de-
parture.
The charcoal burners of New JERSEY
are long and lean, and but few have
had any schooling. They gather their
wood, dig their pits and watch the
fires until the timber has been reduced
to charcoal, then they hitch an old
horse or mule to curious looking
wagon and start for town. Trenton is
their favorite mart, and the trip usu-
ally requires three days. Each load
of charcoal realizes about Sc.
The roads leading to the settlements
in summer are hub deep with sand,
and only horse raised in the neigh
borhood can tolerate the bites of the
huge mosquitoes and savage green
flies. In the winter the roads are i'm
passable, the sand either being frozen
into great jagged ruts or covered by
drifts of snow.