The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-02
A VISIT VISIT to to The
EASTERN SHORE
Sunny Pictures of a
Bounteous Region.
AVERY GODS COUNTRY
But The Glory Of the Eastern Shore is
in Her Historic Past OF Which
She Has Many Venerable
Relics 10 Show to The
Curious.
BY Rev. j. III. HENDERLITE.

All ABOARD LOT the East
ern Shore," The captain did not
say as much, but that is what we hao
in mind as we followed the last barrel
of PrincessF Anne celery up the gang
way from the Norfolk dock and push
ed past that dignfied official on oul
way TO the spacious saloon of the
Pennsylvania" 1t is a nice trip from
Norfolk to Cape Charles for the man
who enjoys a short sea-ride and q
Whit of salt air. First there is hall
an hour to get supper and still be out
on deck in time for the approach to
Old Point. 1t is worth risl1ing a cold
from the sharp wind that whistles
across the deck to do this Hampton
Roads is beautiful sight then; the
brilliant CLEAN of perhaps half q
dozen search-lights playing back and
forth through the darkness; now
flashing across the FURNISHED mirror
a pitilesS eye on some strange craft
looming up on the shores edge is the
great pile of the sumptuous Cham,
berlain its thousand eyes of incan-
descent lights twinkling through the
night; on your left the innumerable
lights of Hampton and Newport
News showing in the distance, while
10 the right are the frowning walls and
escapements of Fortress Monroe.
Then we face about and pillow
through the choppy waters of that
terror of landlubbers, the Horseshoe
where the Bay and Ocean meet and
greet in somewhat too hilarious
fashion for the peace of bilious travel
lers; and in two hours and half from
the time she left Norfolk, the penn
sylvania" rubs her patrician nose
against the yielding bulllheads of the
Cape Charles dock, and We are ready
to set foot on one of the most inter-
esting and historic bits of terra firma
i'm America.
Jutting down from Maryland be-
tween the Chesapeake Bay and the
Atlantic, is a narrow strip of the Old
Dominion eolloquiafly known as the
Eastern Shore of Virginia. Old Gov
ernor Henry A. Wise called it 1.-THE
land of the myrtle and the pine" but
il is better known to the epicure az
the home of canVaS-back duck and
diamond back terrapin. Here no man
need starve. Earth. air and sea join
i'm placing their bounty at your feet. OF
every kind of fish and shell fish, and
all sorts of duck and waterfowl, the
sea pays its liberal tariff. and mother
earth is not far behind old Father
Neptune in caring for the children
all that can come from garden or
field or orchard is theirs without stint.
When the easy-going Eastern Shore
man has fed himself and his guest he
ships off the rest to the city markets:
carloads of melons. berries. peas
onions and all kinds of truck; not for
getting potatoes. He raises not simp.
ly hills but mountains of them ana
ships away over two million barrels in
a season. Should everything else fail,
he falls back on musk-rats. The fas-
tidious call them marsh-rabbits, but
they are nothing but musk-rats, ana
good eating, too. A musk-rat form
makes a good investment. and the
hunting of them is closely restricted
by law. The late Senator LIE Cato
once introduced a bill in the Virginia
Legislature for their protection, at
which the Richmond Solons turned up
their noses with an audible sniff. So
he invited party of them to musk :
rat dinner at Murohy's. The next
day the bill was enthusiastically pass
ed and this humble denizen of the
marsh for the first time in his life be-
came the ward of the Commonwealth.
We are inclined to think the inhabi-
tants are not far wrong in calling this
Gods country" We have never seen
place where living was quite so easy
matter. A competent witness de-
cares that the common road to for
tune over here begins with a meat
skin tied to the end of string. With
that you start to grabbing. The cap
tured crabs will buy fishing tackle, and
with the proceeds therefrom an old
row-boat is purchased. This the fish
erlnan soon exchanges for sail boat
out of which he can with some effort
lift himself to the deck of a schooner
and finds himself bound under full
sail to fortune. The northern sports
man has not neglected this paradise
of hunter and fisherman. Grover
Cleveland used to run down here To
Hog Island TO shoot duck when the
duties of the White House grew irk-
some. Accomac and Broadwater
iclub-hoTses and one or two other
Iuxuriously appointed hunting lodges
are kept up by some New Workers and
PittSburgerS who do not mind SPEND
ing a few thousand for days shoot
ing at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But the glory of the Eastern Shore
is i'm her historic past. of which she
has many venerable relics to show the
visiting stranger Here are some colo
nists, by the way. who did not come
over i'm the much-crowded Mayfiower
English people were living happily on
the Eastern Shore, each man under
his own vine and fig tree, when the
elastic timbers of the Mayfiower were
vet growing in the forest. While Ply
mouth dates from 1920. jamestown
was founded in 1907. and some of the
first corners to Virginia settled on the
Eastern Shore. Capt. John smith
made many visits there and piled his
canoe back and forth among its num-
erous bays and creeks Indeed, ne
made a map of the Eastern Shore
which is still eXtant and is notable
for it's accuracy. Descendants of many
of the first settlers are living there
to-day and can very truthfully call
themselves F. F. VS.. Some of the
most familiar names can be traced
straight back to the original colonists
-Wises. Sarbroughs, Custfses, Bay
lys, Parramores, Fletchers. Drum
monds, Butchers. Jonesses, Upshurs
Nottinghams, etc. John ). Wise, OF
New York CITY, himself distinguish
ed son of Accomach says in his book