Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1896-01-02
.,APE GODS ALBlNo COLONY.


/ CAPE GODS ALBlNO COLONY
n II About $50 Years Old and at One Time
n Numbered About FIFTY Persons.
Since the appearance of albino girls
IN side shows and dime museums the
general public has INDUCED in consid'
cradle speculation az to where the
managers Of these freak aggregations
procure their frizzly- haired specimens.
| Although seldom met with at other
places. there is at Cape Cod settle
ment of these pink-eyed and white
haired people. For generations the
| Pittsley family, known in the section
as the ''white-haired Pittsleys," have
been albino. They have intermarried'
and. although clannish in the ex
IRENE, years ago took into the family
fold man named Reynolds, IN whose
children the popularity cropped out
and addedthe .'white-haired Reynolds
to the little army Of Cape Gods human
curiosities Until quite recently a
dozen or fifteen Pittsley albinos might
have been found within half as many
miles Of each other and sometimes UNI
der the same roof But the families In
which there are albinoes have scat
tered lately and spread over the most
lonely parts of the country from Free
town to Wareham, at the entrance r
Cape Cod.
The museum albino and the albino
in real life have little in common. The
albino at home is disappointing. His
or her hair ism t. crimped to the muse.
nm limit. 1t doesn't stand out la
Circassian. In the natural Pittsley
state the albino hair is dingy, because
they don't know any better, and il
they did they probably wouldn't adopt
the modern methods of washing hair.
The eyes of the albino 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 it is
difficult to get square look into the
eye itself. When the eye is opened the
lid is lifted only for a second, and it
takes quick look to discover tina. the
pupil is dark red and surrounded with
lighter red ring, while the ball Of the
eye is pale pink and surrounded with
the pinkish rim of the eyelid. The eff
feet would be thoroughly pink If the
eve remained at rest. 1t is almost inn !
possible to obtain a 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 century and half since,
the appearance of the first albino was
recorded in the Pittsley tribe. Since
that time probably more than one hun
bred have been born bearing this
name or having mothers from this
family. Atone time it is estimated that
only few less than fifty albinos were
living within radius of twenty-fi FIVE
miles. Barnnm might here have held an
albino congress if he had been able to
all the people with the won
derful wine-red pupils 1t has always
been among the legends Of the coun-
try that the great Snowman did recruit
his collection from this locality, but
to-day the proud Pittsleys deny indig-
nantly that Barnum ever had money
to engage even one of them to
pose in public.
The origin of the family is connected
with one OF the wickedest episodes of
the history Of the new world. There
is even chance that some Pittsley
was relative or friend Of the sweet
and pious Evangeline. When the Eng
fish deported from the wales of Acadia
the families of French neutrals and
scattered them in almost every settle
nent from the mouth Of the Penobscot
around to Louisiana. Freetown, which
was near the colony of Plymouth, had
lot been able to send its full quota of
men to the army. So in the distribu-
ion Of the French from Acadia fifteen
men, with some women and children.
we're left in Freetown. The bitterest
If all was the separation and splitting
Up of families. The people were filed
With detection, and the poorest of
hem apparently built some rnde lodge
n the forests and took no care how
hey lived None spoke their Ian
|
.uage. They were strangers in habits
md manners. Men had been separated
rom wives and daughters, and wives
eft without their husbands.
just what the name of the French
leutral ancestor of the albino Pittsleys
nay have been no research has ever re-
called. On the town records, until
within fifty years, the name has been
'iggsley. In many cases the name
'iggsley has been corrupted into
The first appearance of pink eyes
nd white hair was in Robert Pitts
ey, somewhere in the first half of the
Eighteenth century. Some place it as
arly as 1871. From that time on the
lbino characteristics have been con-
inually reproduced. 1t is believed :
hat continual intermarriage has been +.
argely instrumental in handing down
ink eyes and white hair. The Pitts
eys were clannish. They wouldn't
lingle with other families, much less
AXE wives from them. They dubbed
" themselves, but oftener one family
made home for itself in some desert
d house or jucket house in lonely
o,t f,f tho Al. | |