The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-27
POVERTY In JERSEY.
Wretchedness and ignorance
to Be Found in Mountain
Districts.
PASsAIC CHARCOAL BURNERS
'Hovels and Dug-out Their
Homes = An Island
Hermit.
PASSAIC CHARcOAL BURNERS

~ AEtAA tPoat NAt( 49, ~ ~
whites in the mountains of Georgia, Ten
nessee, Arkansas and other wild and out
the way places are much interested in the
Pictures of poverty and rural simplicity,
and Invariably think Of the matter as
something far away from civilization, and
entirely outside of their WI lives. They
do not realize that hundreds of instances
OF just such poverty and rural simplicity
exist within fifty miles of the greatest
city in the United States, right in our owa
State. Poverty as marked as any in the
mountains of Georgia, and ignorance as
dense as that in the depths Of the poor
est county in Arkansas can be found in
either Bergen or Passaic counties, and to
find it still worse we have only to pene-
trate the pine woods Of the lower coun-
ties. says the Newark Sunday Call"
Hunters and surveyors are about the
only city people who see some of the
r~aeanes novels in New Jersey, because
they are nearly always situated far from
public roads, and only upon rare occa-
sions do either take the trouble to investi-
gate the manner of life of the occupants.
A Newark sportsman who was tramping
through the mountains of Passaic county
last week tells Of his experience in one
Of these little shacks as follows:-
II was separated from my companions,
having left them in trailing after a
wounded partridge which kept just ahead
Of my dog for over half an hour, and was
always out of gunshot until L tired him
out and shot him.. Meanwhile a drizzle of
rain had turned into a smart shower,
which seemed to pretend a severe storm.
l turned in a direction which l knew
would bring me back to my friends, and
hunted fast and carelessly over the noun
tain, feeling miserably lonely and defect
ed. The rain beat down harder and hard
er, and I plunged ahead, shooting occa-
sionally to see if [ could get an answer
from my companions. Finally my call
was answered by the barking of a dog,
and / turned in the direction of the sound
10 force my way through some dense
sprouts into a little unfenced clearing
containing the most miserable specimen
of a cabin I had ever seen in Jersey. 1t
was not more than eight feet by twelve,
and had a small lean-to back OF it. The
house was built of henlock boards. with
q roof of the same material battened with
two-inch strips. 1t was evidently quite
Did. and in a bad state OF repair. l would
not have believed that il was occupied but
| for the dog and a few chickens and q pen
with two gaunt pigs in it. There was one
window in the rear of the house, but 1t
was nearly devoid of glass n SO stuffed
with rags<and paper that it seemed 10 be
Of little use for lighting purposes / went
around the house and found a door in
'front.', upon which / knocked. 1t was
opened by a most slatternly looking young
woman. who had a baby in her arms,
while four other little ones clunggto her
and gazed at me in open-eyed wonder. |
asked to be allowed to stop until the rain
abated a little, and she seemed confused.
but made way for me to enter and told
the boy to put some wood in the stove,
Then she put the baby on the bed and
draw a chair from behind tha fable. Now
I have mentioned every stick of furniture
in that shanty, a chair, q table, a stove
and a bed.
Il asked where her man was, and she
said he was tending a coalpit for some
body whose name [ did not catch. He
was a charcoal burner. On the table was
tho remains of the dinner, some pork
rinds and potato skins, and a small piece
of fried dough which went for bread. |
learned that she had been married eight
years and had lived in that cabin ever
since. She said that she had been to
| Paterson once in all that time. and had
never seen New York in her life. Her
husband sometimes brought home a news
paper, but she never had any time to
read. Two of the children went to school.
but they were staying home until pop
could get them shoes, as it was too cold
to go barefooted any longer. School was
two or three miles away. and they were
over half a mile from the road. I specu-
lated on how seven persons slept in the
small space, and concluded that the four
children slowed themselves away upon a
mattress which | saw ~protruding from
under the bed. The lean-to seemed to be
a mere cupboard, in which there was a
pork barrel, some packages on a shelf, an
old gun and a pair Of rubber boots. She
said. in course of conversation, that pop
went to the village to vote on election
day and got hurt in a tight, but he
WOULDN'T have fit if he hadn't drink't too
much to be good for him. The last visitor
to the cabin was a man to see about
taxes. of Whiah she had a most indistinct
i9aa and did nor think SlO1li6 he mid Inv
poor folks. The children had never seen
a show of any kind, but she once saw a
circus, and would like to see another. That
was what she went to Paterson for. They
raised a few eabbages, potatoes, tomatoes
and other simple garden crops, but the
main dependence was upon an acre patch
the hillside about 800 yards from the
cabin. She did not know who owned the
wanted it much. as nobody had ever come
looking for any rent. There had been
some surveyors through there about five
years ago, but nothing ever came out of
It. h said that none of the family had
ever been sick a day except the old man,
and he was only sick with a big head.
and she hardly knew what she would do
if any of the children got sick.
Before leaving the shanty as the rain
was letting up a little, I asked her what
she would like to have most, and her face
really frightened up as she said she
wanted a COW. She had been hankering
AFTER Il COW lOI years, DuI luGy ildO HGNJi
been able to save up money enough to get
it Her nearest ~neighbor, another squat
ter. had a COW, and the children occa-
sionatly got milk, but it was not often,
and they seldom saw any butter, except
when pop was flush and Bought a little be-
fore he got to buying whiskey. Nearly
all of these mountaineers drink whenever
the opportunity affords, and they are not
particular what it is they drink so long
as it has the effect. They are fond of
watered alcohol, and seem to think it just
as good as applejack or rye whiskey. |
asked this woman how much she supposed
ii cost the family a year to live, and
she said that she didn't know, but reck-
gave the children a nickel each and left
them. | did not think of much else but
this family for the rest of the day, and
when I rejoined my friends late in the
afternoon j spoke TO them about my ex- |
perience, and Nate our guide, said that / |
had seen only one of hundreds of similar !
native homes, and perhaps not the worst
one at that. He said that he knew of a |
family of four living in a dug out under
a hill, and that they had neither pigs or
chickens. He said that a squatter with
pigs and chickens was comparatively rich, |
and he didn't wonder at the woman's as
She was quite prosperous, because many
of the women he had seen appeared to
have no ambition at all"
One of he men ws1T listended to his
story remarked that he had often seen
such places as he described, but had
never visited but one of them. and that
proved a genuine surprise to him.. II was
fishing on Wawayanda Lake one day
when q hard shower came UP, and /