The record-union., 1895-09-14
PINK EYED ALBINOS.
White-Haired Pittsleys of Many
Generations.
Folk on Cape Cod-The
Most Remarkable of ALI Examples
of Inherited Albinism-Clann1sh,
Migratory and Horse-Traders.

|
erations. They have intermarried fire.
quently, and there are SO many Of them
pink-eyed, like rabbits, and with white,
silvery hair, that for fifty years iD the
neigh borhood where they have lived they
have been spoken of as those white
headed Pittsleys." More of them are
living to-day than can be found in all the
dime museums and circus sideshows o.
the country. The freak-hunters know
| that pure albinos are scarce.
Until quite recently dozen or fifteen
Pittsley albinos might have been found
within half as many miles of each other,
and sometimes under the same roof. But
the families in which there are albinos
have scattered lately, and spread over the
most lonely parts OF the country from
Freetown to Wareham, at the entrance to
| Cape Cod.
Accompanied by a Constable who knew
the country, a World reported off on q
hunt for these queer people with pink
| eyes. The Constable was desirable
escort, because the Pittsleys are migra-
| tory, and it required some one who knew
their haunts, hidden away in the woods,
to find them. Then, too, the families III
which there are albinos are very illiterate
as we'll as clannish and likely to set a
dog on visitors. The town or county
officials are about the only persons for
whom they entertain anything like toIer-
! alton.
The museum albino and the albino in
real life have little in common. The sl-
bino at home is disappointing. His or
| her hair isn't crimped to the museum
| limi.. 1t doesn't stand out a la Circas-
sian. In the natural Pittsley state the
albino hair is dingy, because they don't
know any better, and if they did they
probably wouldn't adopt the modern
methods OF washing hair.
RED LIGHTS IN THEIR EYES.
The eyes of the albinos in this region
prove their albinism beyond question.
| They are usually described as pink, like
rabbits eyes. They are extremely weak
and almost closed, so that IL is difficult to
| get a square look into the eye itself.
! When the eye is opened, the lid is lifted
| only for second, and it takes quick
! look TO discover that the pupil Is dark
red and surrounded with lighter red
| ring, while the ball ofthe eye is pale pink
! and surrounded with the pinkish rim OF
| the eyelid. The effect would be thor
oughly pink If the eye remained at rest
| 1t is almost impossible to obtain direct
! look into the eye, because from the eye OF
the healthy albino red lights seem to dart
while the pupil quivers and dilates and
seems to move increasingly.
1t is over a century and half since the
! appearance of the first albino was re-
corded in the Pittsley tribe. Since that
! time probably more than one hundred
have been born bearing this name or
having mothers from this family. AT
one time il is estimated that only few
less than fifty alDinos were living within
radius of twenty-five miles. Barnum
might here have held an albino congress
if he had been able to engage all OF these
people with the wonderful wine-red
pupils. 1t has always been among the
legends of the country that the great
Snowman did recruit his collection from
this locality, but to-day the proud Pitts
leys deny Indignantly that Barnum ever
had enough money to engage even one
of them to pose in public.
Now that the Pittsleys have intermar-
ried with other families, the albino char
acteristics seem to be disappearing or
stead of only one family Of white
headed Pittsleys," there is another of
NV hite- headed Reynoldses."
Albinism has been decided by doctors
to be caused by lack of coloring pigment
in the blood. 1t has also been accepted
that as freak it is hereditary. In that
case nature has been kept very busy
THE ORIGINAL PITTsLEYs.
The origin of the family is connected
with one Of the wickedest episodes of the
early history of the New World. There
is even chance that perhaps some Pitts
ley was relative or friend of the sweet
and pious Evangeline. When the Eng
lish deported from the wales of Acadia
The families of the French neutrals and
scattered them in almost every settle
ment from the mouth of the Penobscot
around to Louisiana. Freetown, which
was near the colony of Plymouth, had
not been able to send its full quota Of
men into the army. So in the distribu-
ton OF the French from Acadia fifteen
men, with some women and children,
were left in Freetown. The bitterest of
all was the separation and splitting up of
families. The people were filled with de-
lection, and the poorest OF them appar-
emily built some rude lodge in the forests
and took no care how they lived. None
spoke their language. They were strang
ers in habits and manners. Men had
been separated from wives and daugh-
ters, and wives left without their hus-
bands.
Some of the families still have descend
ants living in Freetown who are fairly
prosperous, and their names may be seen
on an old sign-board in the village. one
of the family names was Jacquet. This
was at once corrupted into "Jucket" No
one of that name is now living, but they
left the name behind them. The Jucke cts
usually lived in a shiftless way, in small.
rough houses. Now, whenever the peo-
pie thereabouts pass house of mean ex-
terror they call it a ''Jucket house." and
the people who live in it are "Jucze ct
folks" Many of the Pittsleys are
"Jucket folks"
Just what the name of the French neu-
trail ancestor of the albino Pittsleys may
have been no research has ever revealed.
on the town records, until within fifty
years, the name has been Piggsley. In
many cases the same Piggsley has been
corrupted into "Hoggsley."
The first appearance OF pink eyes and
white hair was in a Robert Pittsley.
somewhere in the first half of the
eighteeth century. Some place it as
early as 1871. From that time down the
albino characteristics have been continu-
ally reproduced. 1t is believed that con-
tinual intermarriage has been largely in
strnmental in handing down the pink
eyes and white hair. The Pittsleys were
clannish. They wouldn't mingle with
other families, much less take wives from
them. They dubbed by themselves, but
oftener one family made home for itself
in some deserted house or jucket house in
lonely part OF the woods or out-of-the-
way end of a township. They rarely
came TO town TO live.
MIGRATORY AND HORSE TRADERS.
They showed all the characteristics of
gypsies. They were ever migratory.
and the father, mother and nine or ten
children, who lived one day in some such
romantioally named locality as Paddock
City, Shutdown or Pilterlown weren't to
be found within four or five miles the fol-