The Saint Paul globe., 1899-07-16


fox upon those wild nights when
merchant ships. driving their prows into
the sand, burst asunder and distributed
their freight Of costly goods and human
souls upon the relentless waves. Upon
such occasions Leeds devil was seen in
the companfonship Of a beautiful golden
haired woman in white, or yet of some
nerce-eyed, cutlass-bearing disembodied
spirit OF a pirate who two centuries ago
had been wrecked upon the shore Of Cape
May county as plying from the Spanish
main his galleon had gone to destruction
Again this same son of Satan shared his
haunts with a headless seaman whom the
Barnegat people say Capt. Kidd decapi-
tated, and whose stiffened trunk that very
pirate king left standing, as a sentinel
over his buried, ill-gotten gold
AT other times Leeds devil like a bird
OF prey, lowered over a silent, star-be-
spangled pond in some silent recess Of
the cedar swamps, blasting with its foul
breath the lives of hundreds of fishes
round hoat1ng next day upon the surface
tainted and unfit for food. Again the
dreaded fend half ran, half flew through
the shadowy vistas Of the pines. while
before 1t to their coverts hurried pam
ther and deer, rabbits, squirrels and Wild
song birds.
THE DEVILS HABITAT.
entire pine forest which extends from
FREEHOLD, in Monmouth county, through
burlington, Ocean and Atlantic to the
the upper part of Cape May county
preferr1ng the lonely roads through the
cedar swamp region, but frequently it
mace nocturnal onslaughts upon tho
frontier villages, playing havoc with the
stock and farm crops as it went One
tradition has it that it was particularly
active during the Revolutionary period
but one more distinct is that it was BAN
lshed for century and did not reappear
until about sixty years ago. According
to this latter account, is was advised by
some old colonoial wiseacre learned in
antidotes for witchcraft, that if some
pious man could be found with virtue suf-
hc1ent he might exercise an enchant-
ment and Danish the evil one for 100
years. Such q man was found and his
enchantment was believed effective by
many who heard Of subsequent reappear-
ances with skepticism. But the date set
for the elapse Of the century became for
gotten when an epidemic of the evil re-
turned, and family records and traditions
searched and recalled proved that the
enchanter had prophesied correctly This
was about 1910.
who believed in Leeds devil has as vet
remained unstudied, save by Francis B.
Lee, lawyer and dialectician from Tren-
am indebted for much Of my material.
Mr.. Lee is covering this territory for the
dlalect commission, and is finding many
words and expressions which, while in
limited use among the settlers Of two
centuries ago, are now obsolete elsewhere
In America. These expressions alone
would illustrate the primitiveness of the
people. An example is the Swedish word
saad1 pronounced ''saddy''-used $50
years ago along the banks of the Della
ware to mean thank YOU These peo-
pie also adhere to "spung," and ancient
Word meaning submerged meadow land:
to blickie," an Anglo-Dutch word mean
Ing small bucket; to green corn" In
which the word corn" refers, not to
maize, but to oats, wheat and rye, ex-
actly as applied by certain English farm
ers; to spoon" an Anglo-Dutch word
meaning to display oneself, as when q
vessel spoons before the wind; to "titi-
yate,' an old English word meaning to
pr1mp;' and commonly, to 'sophistf-
cate, or qualify" in the sense Of "adul-
terate." The Piner "sophfsticates" or
qualities" his Jersey lightning" with
water, though infrequently All ''w's" ara
pronounced as VS." in the Pines dialect
Primitive in all respects and isolated
as they are from outer civilization, there
IS little wonder that these foresters ad-
here to the eXtravagant superstitions of
the fanatical days of witchcraft They
are utterly different from all other
Americans in customs and characters
tics. as we'll as in language, and their
vast sylvan territory awaits a deserved
recognition in literature, science and art
To a large extent they are descendants
Of the earliest settlers of Central and
Southern Jersey, of English and Scotch
ancestry, with a slight infusion of
French Huguenot and with mere traces
OF early Dutch and later Scotch-Irish
blood Their revalence in such q Sc
GUIDED area IS partly due to the fact
that particularly in West, and to a GER
tain extent in East Jersey, real property
descended in Colonial times by the law
OF primo geniture to the eldest son.
Younger sons thus cut off from their
patrtmony drifted
OFTEN INTO RECKLEsSNEss.
and. not wishing to entirely estrange
themselves from old associates, but vet
desirous Of personal independence. mar
rled and drifted into the pines, then a
sort Of mo mans land" where they left
numerous and impecunious progeny.
Added to this element were foreign emf
grants, who, after serving their contract
time with masters in this count-the lat
ter having paid their passage money
had purchased of the cheap pine land
tation owners. Many others were dis
charged soldiers and sailors Of the Revo-
lutionary War and some were deserters
from the British army when the latter
and Its attendant mercenaries We're in
camp In New York and Philadelphia
The presence in the pines of names fam
Gus in the annals of the Delaware river
valley is accounted for by the fact that
many young men, disowned by the So
ctety of Friends, read out of meeting
and ostracised for services rendered in
the Revolution, and for marriages not in
accordance with their religious tenets
sought the peace of the forest and here
began life anew. Lack Of association.
absence Of highways, scarcity of money
infrequency of mail communication, ster-
ility of soil and a genial but somewhat
enervating climate, have produced from
these original stocks q race who, while
inheriting the native mental vigor Of
their ancestors, have at the same time
been unprogressive. No manufacturing
town, no internal improvements of any
kind. are to be found in their region.
Kindly disposed, warm-hearted to strang-
ers. without stimulus to hard work, but
seeking the necessities of life where read
fly found and not always disposed to re-
gard with care and discrimination the ex-
actneSS of the phra Seology of the game
laws, they maintain normal standards of
living, although unaccustomed to luxur-
les, but practice a close intermarriage
among cousins; which in the long run
cannot prove beneficial.
Their vast forest area originally covered
600 square miles, being so miles wide by
10 long, but Is now somewhat reduced by
clearings. Deer and bears were abundant