Evening star., 1911-08-20
BY WILLIAM E.. CURTIS.
Chicago

| PROVINCETOWN, August .. 1911.
| Provincetown is the longest place you
fever saw for its size and this Is of ne
cessity and not from choice.
TWO-Street There are only two streets.
~ and very narrow ones,
AV"A. which follow the contour
4 of the shore of the bay very closely for
| two or three miles between the water
| and a ridge of sand which is 50 uncer-
tain in its tenure that nobody dare build
upon it, The sand dunes behind the town
| rise to the height Of several hundred
| feet. The soil is loose, and drifts like
snow, and in early times there was q
law requiring all citizens to plant beach
grass. which resembles the buffalo grass
| OF the western prairies. upon their prem
ises. In order to prevent the sand from
| advancing and burying the town. AS
far back as 1901, DR.. Belknap. in de-
scribing this phenomenon, said:
This volume of sand is gradually roll
ing into the wood with the wind, and as
it covers the trees to their tops, tney
die The tops Of the trees in many places
appear above the sand but they they are s,s,v al,
covered the bark and twigs still remain
| from others they have fallen on; some
| have been so long whipped and are SO
worn out with the sand that tnere Is
nothing remaining but the heart ana
knots, but over the greater part OF TINS
desert the trees have long since disap-
peared."
In 1902 the humane society erected
hut of refuse at the head of Stouts creek,
hut the strong winds blew the sand from
under it's foundations and the weient u
| the chimney brought 1t to the ground.
| In certain places there IS evidenliy
nourishment in the soil. for TN the .aas sama
whortleberry and blueberry bushes,
| laurel and wild rhododendron. In June
| the Towering of these plants gives
glorious color to the landscape ike that
in similar regions OF irelana. ,,,,es tMe pu u,;ld
| strawberries of excellent flavor are iouhu
| on the borders of the cranberry marshes
! and many nutritious plants grow on tue
| bottom of the ponds The cattie are So
| fond of them that they will plunge their
| heads into the water up to their horns
| to eat them.
The United States Navy makes Province
town it's summer rendezvous, ana tnls
| wear the entire Atlantic
Sailor fleet. numbering more than
| sixty vessels have been
VlsltOIS. engaged in maneuvers IN
the neighborhood. This brings great
deal of good money into the town. ior
| sailors are liberal spenders, although
there is very little that they can puy.
| There seems to be an abundance Oh
| post cards and several restaurants.
| where fish and lobster dinners are
served. There are moving picture es-
| tablishments. which are popular with
| the Jackies but the boys seem to spend
| most of their time on shore liberty by
promenading up and down the one
| long street and flirting with the girls.
They are always orderly and conouct
| themselves like gentlemen. wnlcn ex &
cites the pride Of every American who Is
familiar with the disorderly conduct OF
British and French and German ]ackles
| when they are allowed liberty.
In revolutionary times ProvlncetoWh
was the headquarters OF the bfiuoh
| FIFTY per cent Of the population OF
| Provincetown are Portuguese, VINO pc
| gan coming over here from the Azores
and Madeira Islands half a century ago
| to engage in the fisheries, and now prac-
| tically control hat industry. Ihey are
as dark as mulattoes and nave orien.ai
features. The women and giris, WIN
their swarthy compilations and gieaminS
black eyes, look like gypsies. The young
ones are very graceful and sylpniike IN
their movements. but they soon grow IA.
and ugly. The men are exceilent cni1ens,
Industrious, law aoidlng ana nra lily con- ~
their habits. They are much more con-
scientious in the observance OF thelr re-
llfeious duties than the Yankees ana are
devout Catholics. OF recent years the
difficulty of making living IN Province-
town has caused them to scatter over
the cape and many have bought up old
lhomesteads and are cultivating tne
ground. They are natural farmers ano'
with the help Of their wives ana oaugn-
ters in the fields. they are ape 10 Car. carry
| far together without
Ineglecting either. The women 1urnisn
the hands for the canning factories
everywhere on the cape.
| Cane Cod has always been considered
a good place to emigrate from, although
| no part of the country has
Cape Cod ever furnished more or bet
ter men to build up empires
| feOpIe. in other parts OF the uni
verse and none are more warmly at
tached to the place Of their nativity.
This is the rule in all parts of the world,
however. Where life has the least COM
pensations, where a subsistence Is most
! difficult to gain, there you Will find the
strongest and the best men and the
purest quality Of patriotism. Switzer-
land and Norway are good illustrations
| of this phenomenon and Cape Cod Is an
| other.
Half the area of. the Cape Is a wilder
| ness of sand, although In spots 1t pro-
| duces good grass and of late years truck
| gardening has been adopted with consid-
| erable profit. Thoreau. who wrote most
charming accounts of his experience on
| the cape, calls the peninsula the bared
| and bended arm of Massachusetts" and
| there is a striking resemblance to
skinny, emaciated arm, with the bony
| elbow at Chatham. the wrist at Truro
/ and the half-closed fingers at Province
| town.
| Provincetown was originally called
Cape Cod harbor. and it was visited by
| several explorers before the Pilgrims
| came Capt. John Smith called 1t Cape
| James, and French voyageurs gave II
several names, but that which stuck was
| attached by a bold mariner named Capt
| Gosnold, who came along this way about
| 1902 and anchored in the harbor FOL
| several weeks. There Is q tradition thai
| the Goldfish aristocracy did not originate
| on the cape, but that is a mistake. Catch
| ing Goldfish has always been the leading
| industry, although cranberries are now
| pushing it out. Champlain relates that
| the aborigines Of Cape Cod fished with
| lines made of bark and a bone hook
| fashioned like a harpoon. In early days
| Goldfish were so plenty that the farmers
THE TREATIES.
| From the Providence Journal.
It may be gathered from the report OF