Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-01-17
rr,ot1 NE,iHOES.
The Peculiar Population OF the Isl-
md of M0ntaerrat. 49,


and of MOntserrat.
When we approached Plymouth one
Of the first things saw was "a lQ,s..
stone wall half way up the hill, sur.
mounted. as thought, by q row Of
cannon balls at irregular intervals
But as we drew nearer I 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 50 or 10 feet into the wa
ter and soon the greater part of the
Inhabitants Of the town We're there to
see us lard. Our first effort to throw a
line ashore was failure and the snil-
or who threw it made some cempli-
meatary remarks. This brought re-
ply from the man on shore, who was
supposed to catch tia coal-black ne
gro ct great size"
ooh, plat are We givin' us?" the
black man shouted. BE Jasus, how
can catch the loine whin can't rachc
ity'
There We're shouts Of derision from
the crowd. and every word spoken was
In as rich IN Irish brogue as one could
hear in New York or Kilkenny. The
brogue would have been pleasant re-
minder of home if it's coming from
crowd of West India negroes had not
given it an uncanny sound
why. those fellows talk like black
Irishmen." said to the captain Of the
schooner
"Irish," he replied They're as Irish
rs Bill-be-dam. Nine-tenths Of the
darkies on this island are of Irish de-
cent They say they're the only Irish
darkies in the world"
It was not until l was settled in the
Red Lion Hotel in Plymouth that 1
solved the mystery of these Irish ne
groes. Many years ago a company of
Irish Quakers bought large tract Of
land in Montserrat. and went into the
lime-juice business extensively. They
imported 4 great many Irish laborers,
and 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
give way before it, The original Irish
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 Montserrat family. One
baby is 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. know
white man 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 q beautiful American
girl. and there was mourning in the
family when in due time there was
born to them q child as black as the
ace Of spades The man knew what
it 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 of
to America to be reared and educated
and is here now. and four or five per-
fectly white children were born to the
cn71nlo aftoryyard Now York SIM