Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-02-27
NEwFouNDLAND's ISOLATION.
Oueer Ideas of Some of the People Aboul
the Outside World.


Oueer Ideas of Some of the People Abou>
the Outside World.
1t is probable that no English speak
ing people is at this time so utterly
isolated from all the things of ad-
vanced civilization as the folk who
fish from the little harbors which lis
along that stretch of the east coast
harbors between Cape John on the
south and the straits Of Belle Isle on
the north. There are no roads, no
paths, leading from harbor to harbor.
The land is wilderness, dense, track
less, infested with black flies and mos
quitoes, which brave men dare not
challenge for many days in hot
weather for fear of their lives. Shore
fishermen would rather take their lit
tie punts through 40 miles of tossing
sea than suffer the fatigue and terrors
of a two mile tramp inland. Commu-
nication, indeed, is only by punt and
skiff; and so rarely do the people go
from place to place that woman who
went from home with her husband to
settle in harbor five miles distant
did not see her relatives again for
Is years. Moreover, the mail steamer
touches at but two of the more i'm
portant settlements, and that only at
fortnightly intervals in June, July and
August. The news of the world, in
distorted form, is passed along by word
of mouth, long after it has ceased to
be acutely interesting to the people
of more favored lands.
"'Tis said," said an old man of
Round Harbor who had heard of the
first British defeats in South Africa,
that the English do be beaten. Do
the Beers be after capturing st. Johns
yet? Do they be fighting there, tell
me?"
One meets such absurd misconcep-
tions upon every hand. To many of
the men of that coast the world, which
is fiat and almost circumscribed by
the horizon, is world of sea and rocks
and punts and fish. Their Imagination
carries them no further, and they come
into touch with the things of other
places SO rarely that they cannot COM
prehend the information which the
new and passing association has
brought to them.
Does they catch fish with squid or
caplin for bait in New York 'arbor?"
was boys question at Englee.
An attempt to describe circus to
this lad, few moments later had to
be abandoned. 1t would have taken
the whole afternoon to define the
terms. What was sawdust? What
was a tent? What did horse look
like? What was uniform? What
was springboard? What was an ac-
robat? What was band? What was
horn? Was it like the bait skilf
conch? What was a drum? What
was a chariot? What was a process
sion? What was peanut? AS for
clowns, lemonade, elephants-these
were incomprehensible. Questions, po-
litely put. interrupted every sentence.
The lad was soon in a maze out of
which he could not be led. The at
tempt had, indeed, to be abandoned.
But the writer did succeed in describ-
ing brick, sidewalk and a plow
When it came however, in the even
ing to helping the lads mother to an
understanding of the lives of the wom-
en- of New York he was overwhelmed.
They tells me-" she said, that the
women up there do be good hand
t split fish. Now, how many quintal
can they do in day."
She did not doubt that she could
split more than any of them, and she
was proud that she could.
MY daughter Maria" she went on,
as if in challenge, "can lift a barrel of
-four"
Maria, muscular young woman of
IS, with dark hair, large blue eyes and
fine pink and white complexion,
blushed and admitted that she could
She had rowed the punt IL miles that
morning, she said, and could sail it il
gale like man.
That she can, sir" said her father.
"She can sail it so well as me-
Ainslee's Magazine.