The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-16

beyond the shadowy mysteries of
pioneer history in a new world, we all
bare our heads to the woman who
bore on the virgin soil of this Virginia
Carolina the first child of English par
entagc known to have been born in
North America. The first place in our
romantic affections is given to Virginia
Dare. And there are some of us who
wonder if the blue blood of the colonial
leader, be not today mingling in the
veins of some of the Croatan tribe
of the Old North State Secretary
Strachey's incidental statement in his
book Virginia Britannia" published
by the Hakluyt Society, and to which
| probably was the first to direct at
tention, at least in North Carolina,
and so far as / know anywhere, was
that this colony after awaiting a while
for the return of their friends from
England went up river believed to
have been an affiuent of the Chowan
or the Roanoke, and blending with
the Indians erected houses of two and
three stories in height, with windows
and other improvements upon alb
original architecture. This was more
than twenty years following the dis
appearance of the Lane Colony. The
learned secretary of the Virginia
Colony received this story from credi-
bic witnesses and says in his reference
TO 1t that he intends in a subsequent
publication to give a circumstantial
account. / have not been able to find
that he did SO, though my enquiries
ceased after an examination of the
collection then (several years since)
in the Library of Congress-
In his MISSIONER Papers Col. Byrd
of Virginia, who assisted in running
the boundary line between Virginia
and North Carolina, gives a most un
prepossessing account of the men and
women along the swamp border in
North Carolina. But as the men got
the worst of the description, tiie wo-
men had less to complain Of Colonel
Byrd was sadly prejudiced, | fear,
against his Southern neighbors. / will
not, however, undertake to say that
these poor women were not snaggle-
toothed, underfed, sallow, or that they
did not dip enormous quantities OF
snuff when they could get it, Between
taking care of lazy husbands and
keeping themselves from shaking to
death of fever and ague the sex had
as much to do as it well could do in
a raw. new country. not overly rich
in natures opportunities. | strongly
suspect that the rich William Byrd
master of Westover piled his paint
brush too freely in laying on the
heavy dark strokes of his portraiture
quite certain that not even his own
romantic daughter, so finely portray
ed in Miss Mary Johnstons novel
of Audrey" was a better representa-
tive of the Southern early type of wo-
manhood than some of the danes and
damsels of Edenton. Bath, and later
of New Bern, Brunswick and Whining
ton.
w Gilmore Simms in his splendid
romance of Pocotaligo, "'Tbe Yemas-
see" has drawn some fine colonial wo-
men of the heroine class. He has
even a South Carolina Puritan
skctched to theevery life. Well, read
ers of the early history, even those
who have read only Simms's small
history and the single large volume
of Rivers. know that among the early
settlers on the Cooper and Ashley and
at Beaufort there were Puritan church
men from England as stern as any In
dependent Ironside who followed the
Protector.
As we are not going at a regular
pace and as we are touching the
Palmetto State, why should we not
consider another heroine of that same
writer of fascinating stories, in a
style better than Cooper's? All South
ern folk ought to know how the British
indigo, conserving to the tobacco crop
in Virginia. The fair, youthful
Carolina, his native State. In the
stories, THE Partisan" and Katharine
Walton Col. Hayne is Colonel Wal
ton His noble daughter, beloved by
the partisan chief Singleton, one of
Marion's trusted lieutenants. is
heroine in both tales and marries af-
ter the lameuted murder By military
law of her distinguished and patriotic
father.
The danes of that old time were
taught to use the distaff and the
harpsichord; they could dance the
minuet with grace, sing an anthem
the following Sunday in church. and
aid the mother in any and all neces-
sary household duties. There were
colored women and girls and boys to
do all needful chores; but the daugh-
tiers of the house had to learn how
work was done, so that when they
themselves were placed at the head OF
households of their own, they would
be competent to control them. 1t is
both instructive and amusing to read
in the old memoirs how many yards
of cloth were woven by the black
weavers how many suits of woolsey
or jeans were made up into garments,
and how many sheep, beeves swine,
and poultry, and how many barrels
of flour or bushels of corn were the
plpQuCI III tie ldTII- toOIiG-
times the housekeeper was minute
enough to descend to the number of
eggs sent to the village stores, but this
was not of frequent occurrence. 1t is
interesting to learn that in the colonial
days only such things as teas wines,
spirits. laceS, fine broadcloths and
velvets were imported. The staple
goods were home manufactures as the
bulk of the table then came from the
farms and dairies. The Carolinians
We're self-reliant and raised their own
meal. flour, meat and provender. The
indignant and it is said the
daughter of prominent South Caro-
iinian sent to Barbados and exported
the first indigo plants. She started the
industry in lower South Carolina and
did. not desist until many others had
embarked in the enterprise and its sue
cess was assured beyond question.
While no doubt the fair DANES of
that elder time were not arrayed
as fashionably always as their relatives
and social equals in London and Paris,
there can be no question that. they
were not in primitive stage either of
dress or manners. The mothers We're
often educated abroad and even if it
were not considered prudent to send