The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1900-05-31
Written for The Prison M1YrOr.
Rip Van Wrinkles Land.

He who is possessed of the wander
ing spirit often chances upon freaks
and characters that, to the stay at
home, seems almost inconceivable. I
venture to say that should the roamer
assert that, in this great and progress
sive country of ours there are COM
munities miles in extent where time
has come to stand; where for a hun
dred years or more scarcely any
progress has been made, he would no
doubt be classed as liar or idiot Yet
it was my good or evil fortune to
chance upon such spot several years
since. Taking passage upon one of
the Chesapeake Bay steamers, running
out of Baltimore, Md, landed about
one hundred miles down the Bay at
place known as Wingate's Point, and
verify 1 had stepped into Rip Van
Wrinkles land.
There exists no village at the point,
unless houses distant from each other
quarter of mile or more and ex-
tending twenty or thirty miles along
the coast, could be called a village.
And such houses! Old log structures,
chinked with clay, with broad old
fashioned brick chimneys covering
about One-fourth of the side on which
they were built, looking like the pic
lures of the early settlers houses that
used to adorn the pages of our old
school history. To make it more COM
plete there was yoke of oxen at
tached to an old two-wheeled cart
driven by superannuated old negro
The roads here are all covered with
small tree trunks laid crosswise, for
the land is one vast salt marsh as far
as the eye can reach except in few
of the higher spots which has been
selected for building sites.
Very primitive indeed is the living
gained by the natives, which consists
of oyster dredging for about four
months of the year and perhaps one
month of crab fishing in the early
spring. The other seven months are
devoted to "jes putlerin aroun' de
hOus', an when de weddah am wahm I
lays undah de trees all day." as a
native explained to me. Everybody of
the male gender in this locality is a
captain of Gunner, bateau or just a
yawl. All are related to each other by
marriage, and for twenty miles or
more every four out of five people met
will respond to the names of Wingate,
Jones or Hedge. The Wingates pre-
dominating.
These people are queer mixture of
intelligence and ignorance, and while
they are almost fanatically religious,
they are also superstitious to degree
and hold human life in as little grace
as butcher does a sheep, always pro-
viding there is some slight pretext to
work upon. While intensely ignorant
as far as education from book is con-
cerned, they are possessed of the
yankee trait of sharpness in bargain
ing. Of schooling they have little or
none and that never extending farther
than the three RS. The writer was
offered the magnificent salary of twen-
ty-four dollars and board around
among the scholars for four months as
school teacher, but not being philan-
thropist, we were compelled to decline.
While these people are very indus
trious during the oyster season, they
are also very backward in picking up
anything new, as native said to me:
"Wot wuz good enuf fob nah gran pa
is good enuf foh me-" I failed to see
a store any place during my stay. The
old-fashioned fireplace and spit is
everywhere in evidence. Though ig-
norance prevails it does not mean that
morals are loose by any means, for just
the opposite is the real facts. A man
might as we'll sign his death warrant
as to make an improper proposal or
offer insult to any female in that
region. Their language or rather dia-
lect is a sort of mixture of English.