Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-07

/
81 FEW DAYS PAST I
J: ! !
| "a Ok> had a pleasant ex-
| YAE perience on the canal
IIAw with the McComas
| MN family. Judge Lewis
| S1l McComas was home
T. cxM " from Washington at
N~.. Hagerstown and with
5eNNwN his father was pro-
| $LEM SNSSEA ceeding to visit much
MV&9A SN&NE of the remaining part
FCS- Of the family at the
| SZE@ Big Pool, a mile from
| 2~ the Cherry Run con-
$685. clusion Of the West
ern Maryland railroad. / went along WIN
them. and in forty-five minutes from ma
gerstown was dropped down by mountain
lake, a feeder or bowl OF the canal aoou'
eighteen miles west of Hagerstown.
Instead Of pool, a sluggish pono' iouno
clear. deep, almost stormy water. about
| two miles long, the bowl Of mountain
| springs and the canal. with its old ana
| lofty embankments bordered 1t on one side
only and furnished communication TO ali
| other points on the river. from Cumberland
to Georgetown and the Chesapeake. by
| means Of an ark that l saw at the McCo-
mas camp house. to which they attach
| their horse and go up and down the locks
where the bass are running the best or the
deer and wild turkeys are most reported
| Woodmont club house Of Washington folks
| Is twenty or thirty miles farther on.
| The camp house is a whltewasned struct-
| ure Of up and down boards stripped and
| upholstered. situated above the edge OF q
cove from the pool and fronted with mar
row porch with awnings. from which to
| the shelving roof of the boat house and the
wharf and boats is but a stair.
| A living and eating room. ended by o
| cook stove and galley kitchen, gives access
| n a corridor hOrd1rQd nj
camp chambers on each side. about nine
feet square. in each two single camp beds
divided by a window. In the loft sleep the
| domestics; the refrigerator Is on the front
porch and Mr.. Fred McComas. the judges
| ex-law partner opens IT many times a day
| to drop a pathetic regard upon the rail
birds, coot ducks. wood duck. bass. &C.. he
| has DESTROYED in the fondness OF sight.
| smell and taste. A big ice house near by
pays the expenses Of the dozen acres OF
ground. as a Hagerstowner cuts the Big
| Pool into crystals every winter and stores
it here for his customers and pays rent or
royalty. with freezing politeness.
| We rugged out skin with a reefed sail
In the first twenty minutes and went scud-
ding in sQually mountain breeze that
came In puffs over water which was eight
| fathoms deep. across which the bargemen's
| horns on the canal sounded like the ghostly
bugles Of the warrant town burners who
crossed at McCoy's ferry just below.
Old Fort Frederick.
To my wonder and delight was in a few
| moments set down before old Fort Frcs,er-
lex. LBS years old. a ruin I had beheld from
the year 1867. but had never trodden nearer
to 1t than the B. and o. railroad across the
| river.
Fort Frederick. built rapidly under an In
dian scare at Annapolis before Baltimore
was weaned.r IN the late autumn Of I7s5.
! stood at the summit of a gentle slope,
across the foreground q green cornfield, and
300 to 400 yards away. The river then drop
ped on from the fields into its cascades.
pools and rapids among the woods
The old fort Of gray and brown stones,
masoned In lime. locker irrelevant and un-
employed, like Noah's ark. as it lay across
the background Of three cornered nutty
hills, its river gate a yawning and I'M
linteled opening, and one rude embrasure
half way down the side walls. where a cam
non In the war opened on rebels tearing up
| railway tracks a mile away.
Come on!' said the paternal McComas,
leading his two lawyer sons. Judge Lewis
and Nimrod Fred.
| We went through the rows Of corn like
the apostolic Sabbath breakers. As We
went, the father of this fine family told
how Re had been at Jacksonville. ILL.,. when
got off a coach and asked IL I've could teach
| school anywhere around there. AS this
| was in November, 1888, the parental Nc
Comas saw through an atmosphere OF sixty
old Fort Frederick.
The McComases are Scotch Irish and one
Of that name shot Gen. Ross as he marched
on Baltimore and was in turn killed in 1914.
| Lawyer Fred, when put upon his ethnol-
ogy. said he was a descendant from Comus,
who wore a mask when he went cunning
| but think the word may come from Comes.
the original Norman Latin OF count" or
earl" n title of local magistracy till the
conqueror made 1t hereditary.
| We stood before Fort Frederick and look
| ed of at the blue Virginia hillocks and
knobs and at the soft line OF Alleghanies
| and We entered its undenoted enciente and
paced the distance from wall to wall. near
about two hundred and thirty feet 1t had
four bastions in the corners. where the
garrison may have stayed while the pris-
oners were cautioned along the curtains.
1t is said that stone barracks Were once
here but now a frame hay barn is about
all that can be seen. The walls say sew
enteen feet high inclose near an acre and
a half Of ground quite level. saw no
ditch.
In fact. the place struck me as a sort Of
| a refuge for warrant frontiersmcn. who
could here get a drink and see a show for
| bringing in some lie about the Indians
The Original County Fair.
1t was, no doubt. the original county
fair with its gapers. side shows county
harlots and oft flogged militia 1t was put
in the narrow alley of Maryland so as to
receive struggling and flying settlers, suit
cost s seversl tSnnsan ana n WAS JOB which
doubtable governor of the Calverts. Horatio
Sharpe, who also gave name to the battle
OF SnaTpSburS, or Antletam. and expected
| TO make Sharpsburg a county seat
Sharpe was governor from 1T53 to 1868 and
commanded at Cumberland between WASH
ington's and Rraddock's terms.
| AS much row was made in the province
over the cost of this fort as the good farm
ers now make when they pay their tolls to
evade mud and tophet. to the toll keeper
and the preacher.
| / looked through the embrasure Cen.
| Kenly opened in 1861 and thought how the
wall. near four feet thick. had reyerbera ted
| to the voice Of Washington when he drilled
its company of troops at the age of TWEEN
ty-four, or long ere he met the Widow Gus.
tbs.
The original commander here Dagwortbv
was a Jerseyman. who lived in lower Del
aware and claimed to outrank washing ,on
in the provincial line. 1 saw a tooth OF
Dagworthy exhumed on a shovel at Days
borough church about the year ls75 ali of
him that was found in his grave; and n re-
minded me of Artemus Wards Dissertation
OF another genius. who had but one tooth
and yet this gifted man played on the ba sc
drum"
A colored man, who had bought his own
freedom. purchased this old Frederick fort
three years before the civil war. The leg
| islature first disposed Of the property in
1870. whose only important use was TO keen
British prisoners during a part of the rev.
olution.
Alexander Hamilton was not born when
the fort was built, nor for a year after: nor
| Fulton