The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-31

/ pfiSlnS Yankee SPECULATION m OliOAS was
| a leading industry in the neighboring town
of Bristol. The entire width of Bristol
neck was, indeed, one vast market garden
! of this strange but highly priced edible.
! Through the long hours of summer the
sturdy farmers industriously tended their
| onion patches and during the short winter
days they sat in their barns and topped
| and punched" the vegetables. Rather
long tops were left and by the aid of
straws the onions were braided together in
punches measuring nearly a yard an
length. These were termed ropes" ana
they found a ready sale In foreign ports.
The potato was the rival of the onion. A
| particularly large and fine variety known
as the shipping potato" was raised espe
cially for expectation. Cheese, apples au1
Goldfish were also marketable wares.
Having disposed of his ''ventur," the
sailor generally laid out the proceeds in
sugar, coffee, or some other commodity,
and upon his return home he saw no harm
in transporting these goods from The Ves-
sci TO any desired location without taking
the trouble 10 inform the representative
OF the government of their presence among
his effects. The customs collector was not
very popular with the Jack tars, and get
ting tie best" of him entaied no Qualms
of conscience. The most ingenious devices
| were resorted to in order 10 defeat his Wig
lance. Tradition has handed down tales
| of mysterious signal lights flashing o
| nights out of the darkness of the Barring
| ton shore, of the dip of mufIled oars at
midnight, of chests with false bottoms and
of poke holes in chmneys and crevices
In attics where bags and boxes might re-
pose secure and unsupported. The wary
mariner was pretty sure 20 receive a time
ly warning from some friend when raid
upon his promises was contemplated. On
| one occasion the customs collector decid-
ed to visit a certain Water street resident
in whose house he had reason TO suspect
some contraband" goods had been stor-
ed. Upon arriving al the house ne found
the sidewalk freshly strewn with a pale
brown substance that crunched crisply be-
meath his feet. He bent down and tasted
il. Seems to me-" he said to the owner
of the premises, who at that moment APP
| peared al the door, 'it's dad burned sing
Ter that you should sprinkle the street
| with suger." '"Sugarr' echoed the sus-
pected smuggler in tone of amazement
rs that sugar? l bought il for sand. Now
amt il a pity he adde, sadly, as the dis
! comfited officer turned away that
| whole barrel of good sugar should be
wasted? My! N.Y.
Another story is told of an official who
contiscated a sack of sugar, not for Uncle
! Sans, but for his own use. The angry
seaman from whom the prize had been
wrested determined to have his revenge,
| and, accorc>Sgly, when he returned from
| his next voyage. he allowed a similar sack
| to be seized. This second trophy was put
IN a public vandue," but upon its con-
! tents being sampled they were found to be
nothing more tooths0me than sand. For
months after the preparation of this Jest
| the agent of the government found life
| burden, for whenever he appeared on the
streets some urchin would greet him with
the query
Say, Mr.. -, what sort of stuff do you
| sweeten your coffee with nowadays?"
During the early portion of the century
| large numbers of horses were annually
| shipped to the Antilles. 1t used to be
! said that no one in Bristol county ever
! killed an old horse after il had become
! unfit for service. The animal was simply
put aboard a West Indiaman. If he sur
vived the voyage, his owner was pretty
certain to realize some thing upon him But
| the poor equine often failed to reach the
desired haven. What modern geographers
designate the Equatorial Belt of Gains"
| was known to the ancient mariners az
| New England by the much more common
| place name of the horse ATTITUDES and the
| Old sea dogs thus accounted for the SIN
| guar appellation. Vessels becalmed in
| these "latitudes" often ran short of water
| ana provisions, and in many instances IL
| NUMBER oil the horses which formed a nor
ton of the cargoes, and to throw the car
! c9sses overheard. So many animals were
| thus disposed of that way, that part OF
the Atlantic within the limits of the calm
| belt came at length to be sort of marine
morse emetery-hence the name horse
| lautude.' Captains were careful TO re-
tain one forefoot of each quadruped killed
on their vessels in order to prove the cor
G6cfnpSC inv
Oldest and feeblest equine specimens were
selected for sacrifices to Neptune.
Every West Indiaman included among
| Its cargo a quantity of flags" 'hoon-
poles and Shocks" The marshv lands
bordering the Warren and Kicken9int riv-
ers furnished the flags, Warren coopers
the shooks, while the hoop-poles were
mostly cut in the primeval woods Of Re
ho6oth The hooppoles were merely
young saplings stripped of their branches
| and split lengthwise. During the winter
months heavy OK teams laden with these
poles would journey down from Rehohoth
over the snow-covered roads 10 Warren
The motion of the teams caused the hoop-
poles TO move up and down with a pecu-
liar sound that heralded the approach Of
load of them long before il appeared in
sight. Upon a vessel reaching its destina
ton in the West Indies the shocks were
quickly converted into casks by the "ship's
cooper" who placed flags between the
slaves to prevent leakage and bound all
firmly together with the hoop-po'es The
casks were then filled with molasses and
rolled on board the ship where, during the
return voyage, they hobnobbed in
friendly manner with boxes of sugar. bags
of coffee, pineapples, oranges and bana-
mas
Voyages to the Antilles were beset by
many difficulties and dangers. The ma
rine lists of old Warren newspapers
abound with reports of casualties al sea.
Now the captain or mate of some we'll
known craft would be washed overheard
during gale again some member of the
crew would succumD to the dread ravages
Of yellow fever, and sometimes, yet not
often, gallant ship would 90 10 the bot
tom Of the deep with every soul on board.
But the elements were not the only enc
mics the mariner had to contend against.
From the beginning of the revolution to
the close Of the war CT 1912 he was unrner-
cifully harassed by John Bull Many a
Warren boy who had served in the "cust
guard" or alarm companies" or as a