The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-03-20

For Primary Department.
Prepared March, 19O6.
MARTHA 3. GILLIss.

When the first white men to Maryland
They found things here were not very
The first thing they did was to put up
And thank the good Lord they'd not had
AS over the wide ocean they sailed across
8.
cleared land.
And began to plant corn with right willing
hand.
these Indian braves
When they moved westward took with
Lord Baltimore honestly respected the Red
And proved those Red Men could be trust
ed as far as the whites.
Wen tell you Of other things that seem
That in those old times we're all very clear.
The whites had no houses that they could
They hadn't so much as a barrel to creep
So they bought of the Indians their old
wigwams
And moved in with them without forks or
tongs.
From history.
Some of them took poles and rough wooden
And built for themselves nice, warm, dirt
Yes. and how to cook corn was taught to
white ladies,
By red. Indian squaws with papoose-
They made beans and corn into succotashes
And they baked good corn cakes right In
IL. as = E'-.5e.
They drank out of cups. mugs. kettles and
And baked good ehOrt-cakes on Johnny
The white women did these things with
beautiful tact,
But wouldn't carry their babies tied up on
'neif 'aeA H.
While our women learned these things the
men planted stakes,
Cut down trees, hoed corn and killed rat
tlesnakes.
lin proper places we explained how
beds were made upon bed-posts Of stakes
planted in the ground. how Indians felled
trees, how the first settlers cultivated the
land without ,plows. and how in early
spring time when snakes were sluggishly
coming out of their dens, troops OF men
pared for the snake hunt by raking leaves
dressed in buckskin and leather 80 as to
protect themselves to the waist, went In
with clubs, switches. guns. etc.. and killed
thousands of rattlesnakes IN one hunt. This
kind Of history is easily taught In this
way. and the little rhyme serves as a kind
The hunter in those days found, here and
there
Opossum, wild cat. wolf, deer, panther and
And some of the men who had loafing hab-
Went out with lazy Indians to hunt little
rabbits.
In those far off times the. hunter found
And. if he did no poaching, was never
brought to court.
Explain poaching and the contrast Of
now and then.
When the weather was murky
He found wild turkey.
10.
When the night was dark and foul
He had to fight the biz speckled owl.
~.
In Indian summr pleasant
He hunted the very shy pheasant;
20.
And the poor in oil wooded regions
Just killed whole barrels full Of pigeons;
FL
They used neither cap nor cartridge,
Yet they shot many Luce partridge;
%.
They even set snares and traps and boxes,
But they couldn't catch the shy old foxes
%.
Little barefoot boys with rod and reel.
Caught many a great big. squirming eel;
"a.
The fisherman along the grassy banks of
stream and Bay
Fished for the herring the sucker, the
club, and the sunfish gay;
They ished up turtles in marshes that
were moister,
But they hadn't much use for the crab nor
the oyster
The women dried apples, knitted mits out
of good wooden yarn.
Laughed and played. and sometimes dane
ed at shucking-bee in barn.
27
The men wrestled. ran races and played
They kicked up the hall higher than you
can kick it
But I'd rather live now and play as one
chooses,
Than to have lived then and have played
.nan