The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-24
JEKOSSEE ISLANDS STORY.
The Island Blessed with Rice and Cot
ton and All Manner of Wild Fowl.


Jehossee, island is a little barony Off
the South Carolina coast, set round with
sturdy palmettos and great reaches OF
cane rush and marsh, which can nelth-
er be stepped upon nor sailed upon,
writes Olive f. Gunby in the New York
Commercial Advertiser. The birds
know the place. 1t is set down In 1tal-
les in all the guide books for bird trav-
elers going south, and there is bound TO
be more than one foot-note as to the
quality of the food to be got there and
the points of interest most worth VS.
dit. The wild duck and wild goose lega-
tions always patronize Johossee. Inc
wild turkey dotes on 1t. And the
morsh hens, poor Joes, the garnets
cranes and other delicate steppers with
a taste for fish like the locality so well
that they keep lodgings there all the
wear round. AS to the rest of the
world, the island is of Importance be-
cause of the fine quality rice 1t grows,
and the long-fiber cotton, first cousin
to silk, that is coveted by European
manufacturers, there being also hand
full Of people who know the place as an
old governors property, famous for the
beauty of it's grounds and the admira-
BILE management which kept nine hun
bred slaves together there in comforta-
BILE temper mad condition, yet so we'll
trained and habituated to system that
the fertile lands were made to yield to
the utmost
You can't take Jehossee by surprise
and walk in on her whatsoever you
IL IN Nov
York or the national capital or other
place betrayed to greatness. No tick
cts are to be got having Jehossee
stamped as destination and guaran-
teeing to land you there. The way is in
cipher known only to the initiatedand
the visitor must make sure he is want
ed and have his camping prepared for
Then, once under the agents care, land
ed safely on a sandy little bluff among
THE rushes where a stout horse and
buggy wait in charge of negro, who
will pilot the way, a unique experience
is in store. There is this about the
rice-field horse to begin with:
"Tdod her sort of tight, sah,' the man
cautions, as he turns over the rens.
.'Rice-field horse does move quick,
less'n he bog. Highland horse, now,
will slow up for a bad place, but dis
here kind will step off faster the worse
he find the road"
And sure enough, the powerful, will
dng creature strides over the ground
quite reckless of consequences, no mat
ter how dubious the way.
The road through the woods is tortu-
Gus, soggy, doubling itself to avoid fall
len trees and quagmires, then it is ex-
plained that this is the back entrance
to the plantation proper, and that the
roads used commonly for hauling the
stores and provisions for the planter lie
on the other side of the island dis
here cook-kitchen woods and dey is
powerful feared up from de Storm" the
guide observes "'Fore freedom de
black people was fetch out here to |
camp whenever there was sickness
breed 'mongst 'em. Den dere was good
clearin' made and de road keep de
right course, but nobody comes through
here much now 'ceptin' to hunt"
The cook Kitchen woods are stocked |
thick with palmetto, laurel and bay |
trees, great, sinewy cypress knees and |
keen-bloded Spanish bayonets glisten
dng over ground black and productive, |
but so stiff and sticky that it is no |
wonder the horse steps gingerly and |
gets over it as fast as possible. The |
paImettos shoot upward as tall as the |,
pines their trunks tough and resistent, |
their shocky crests well aloft to catch |
the light. The last turn in this most |
shut in of forest ways brings the house |
place into view and the horse, certain |
now of footing, trots free and clear
over a level roadway, winding between
well-tended cotton fields and past cab
I'm doors where shy-eyed pickanfnnies
look out and timid hens marshaling the
wears brood take alarm at the vehicle
and scurry for shelter.
1t takes years on years and good
stock and paying out at the start to
give place the look of these Jehossee
grounds. The island is all one patri-
mony of four thousand acres. 1t has
never been divided up into ten and
twenty-acre lots and parceled out to ne
6yoes, 40 WAS the case with neighbor-