The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1894-10-13
7RiSH NEGROES.
The Peculiar Population Of the ISL.
nnd IA A6o-A--

The Peculiar Population of the ISL
and of Montserrat.
When we approached Plymouth n
'of the first things I saw was a long
stone wall half way up the hill, sur
mounted, as I thought, by a row Of
annon balls at irregular intervals.
But as we drew nearer / found that
my supposed cannon balls were the
heads of colored gentlemen who stood
on the ground behind watching our ar
rival. A delapidated wooden pier
reached out 30 or 40 feet into the wa
ter and loon the greater part of the
inhabitants of the town were there to
see us lard. Our first effort to throw q
line ashore was a failure, and the sail
Or who threw it made some compli-
mentary remarks. This brought a re-
ply from the man on shore, who was
supposed to catch it--A coal-black ne
gro Of great size"
ooh, phat are We givin' us?" the
black man shouted. BE Jasus, how
can I catch the loine whin 1 can't rache
it?'
There We're shouts Of derision from
the crowd, and every word spoken was
in as rich an Irish brogue as n could
hear in New York. or Kilkenny. The
brogue would have been a. pleasant re-
minder Of home IL its coming from q
crowd of West India negroes had not
given it IN uncanny sound.
"Why, those fellows talk like black
Irishmen,' 1 said to the captain of the
schooner.
Irish" he replied. They're as Irish
as Bill-be-dam. Nine-tenths Of the
darkies on this island are of Irish de-
cent. They say they're the only Irish
1arkies in the world"
1t was not until / was settled in the
Red Lion Hotel in Plymouth hat 1
solved the mystery of these Irish ne
groes. Many years ago a company of
irish Quakers bought a large tract of
land in Montserrat, and went into the
lime-1uice business extensively. They
Imported q great many Irish laborers,
and q large proportion of these men
were unable to resist the attractions
of the native women and married and
settled down there. Their children Of
course. were half Irish and half negro
but the Irish blood was the stronger
and the negro characteristics had to
SifC way DcIoIt 1t. Liz OllSiudl 1IlSu~
men have been dead and gone for
years, but their descendants have re-
peopled the island, and the brogue
and other Irish characteristics remain.
The physical results of this union Of
two races are often startling. Some
Of the Irish negroes are almost as
white as you or I, and others are coal
black. There's no telling what may
happen in a Montserrat family. One
baby Is a typical African, and the next
is a fair little thing with straight red
hair. 1t is not only in Montserrat, eth
er, that such things happen. 1 know a
white mar on one of the other islands,
a man of wealth and refinement, with
out the slightest sign of any black
blood in him, whose father was per-
fectly white and well educated. This
man married a beautiful American
girl, and there was mourning in the
family when in due time there was
born to them a child as black as the
c of spades. The man knew what
1t meant. and he had to explain that
there had been a trace Of black blood
in his grandfather, which had lain dor
mant through two generations, but had
thus made itself painfully manifest
in the third. The child was hurried off
to America to be reared and educated
and is here now. and four or five per-
fectly white children were born to the
couple afterward.-New York Sun.