Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-05-24
SINGULAR PEOPLE.
Odd SPECIMENS OF HUMANITY ARE
RAMAPO MOUNTAlNEERS.

Albinos of the Milkiest Haired and Pinl
est Eyed Variety Are Common Anon
Them-TheS Are the Best Hunters an
Fishermen In the Land.
People who have never been up i
the Ramapo mountains can have littl
Idea Of how strange a race of peopl
live back in those high and rocky hills
miles from any village, and with not
rod OF road by which their huts may b,
reached by wagons. In other words, i
is not generally known that within 8;
) miles of the heart of New York cit,
there is a community as curious almos,
as can be found in the remote mountain
recesses of Tennessee or North Carroll.
ma. 1t is a sort of lost tribe, or, rather,
an amalgamation of two lost tribes.
If Il can imagine what sort of beings
would result from more than q century
lntermarrying of American Indians and
Guinea negroes, with an occasional dash
OF white blood added to the mixture, he
may form a notion of the people that
live back in the rugged hills that rise
about Suffern, Ramapo, Sloatsburg,
Woodbourne, Tuxedo and other places
III the Ramapo valley. But it would
take a pretty brisk imagination to pic.
ture some of the queer specimens of hu-
manly that have resulted from this
mixture.
Albinos of the milkiest haired and
pinkest eyed variety are common, and
the dino museums recruit their curio
halls in that line from among these
mountaineers, as did the great and only
Barnum before them.
Back in the last century and during
the first quarter of the present century
slaves were common in that part Of
New York state and the adjacent region
OF New Jersey. These slaves were treat
ed no better by their old Dutch masters
than were their fellow bondsmen in the
south. They were worked long and
hard, and the lash was not spared. Con-
sequently runaway slaves were many.
These runaways invariably sought the
OF the surrounding mountains.
1t is a very difficult thing to make
ones way up aud among the Ramapo
mountains even at this day, and it was
almost an impossibility in the slavery
days. AS q result, when a negro once
in hiding there he was as safe
from recapture as if he had gone to
Canada, although he might be within
sight and sound of his masters home,
scores of runaways in time peopled the
inaccessible hills, and in the spots
where they threw up their first shelter.
ng huts of bark or fallen trees or found
'efuge in caves their descendants dwell
oday.
The woods had their Indian dwellers
lready, and the two races mingled. I
'hese arc the strange people who are :
cen now and then in the little villages :
long the Erie railway In Rockland and j..
ne adjoining towns of Bergen and '
range counties, and whose homes are :.
II back in the hills. A characteristic T.
these people is that the names of the .
ID Dutch families in which the orig. y
lal blacks were slaves have been re. g
lined by them, generation after gener. :,
lon. The most numerous family of -
'e race goes by the name of De Groat, "
there are De Freeses, Van Hoevens =
I'd many other Des and Vans. !"
In the summer time you might climb -.
10 Chamber and stumble up the steep {"
des and over the rocky SUBMITS of the
amapo mountains all day and not see va va
solitary sign of a habitation, although -
ere would be many on all sides of ~,
u. They are SO deftly tucked in -
long the rocks and hidden by the trees 81
d 1oIla9o that only one acquainted o.
tn the ways of tho mountaineers could VA
d them. In the fall, when the trees 81
bare, the huts stand revealed to any tu
10 may pass that way, and such are W.
v, for although there is no better g. g.,
fed grouse shooting anywhere than a.l
these mountain businesses the weary .L>>
nblng necessary to get to the haunts Wv
these birds Is more than the average no
cares to undergo. 81"
here Is no ground that might grow w.. w.:
thing about any of these huts; not a sn nl
or a fowl of any kind; not az
n a pig. But there are dogs without Ia t
l~t-mongrel, wolfsh looking dogs, o,t
Il as might hang about Indian camps Wv ~"
always from one to half q dozen ZIG :
naked, eerie, elish looking chill ,
who, at sight or sound of a stran- oa..'
scamper to cover in the hut, in the s:1l
'h or among tho rocks, disappearing -.o'
completely as a startled brood of w."
lg quail. BIO
ow do these people subsist? Thew WYE
the best hunters and fishermen in .;..
land, and game and trout are abun. pi."
all about them. They hunt and "Ho
Q grouse and rabbits and catch trout 1ois
he market during the season. The wan
en- and children pick berries. For @"n ,
PRODUCTS OF the forest, streams and au e
patches these people obtain store s oo'
the nocossor;as ~ 1uH"i1os Chic
~ whisky and tobacco, the former
meal and cheap dress goods. For
own home providing the possum ca
he coon are plentiful at their very o'i"'
farms and v;llooos = $3.50 in a
accessible Nv, 49, M".nH systel
mr. Van so,nohodn a. a.nDo A col
inf m do ,yorL ~. ~" VIZ and c
ked unon hv his foIIo,, ~ 10 bly, is
g q deoenerato 49, Lor.N mated
EN- grow IN bo ortuomo1n L., .slnalo and "
,banelv vonno uo,no" l,'A :. hold !
there are any marriages among ao"i'
people outside of their own race. sooi"i
y York SIM -"oo' forme
- and p
A Useful Caddie.
golfer at Singapore has train. "a