The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-08

and observant Northern stranger might
easily mistake for difident humanity.
Nothing quite like the manners OF thees
men is often encountered farther North.
and the rural New Englander. with all
his native goodwill and sturdy self
respect. rarely exhibits such breeding. II
is the perfect flower OF Southern democ-
racy a purely race democracy. be II
remembered, which strangers ind II
hard to understand. Meet II in the same
courteous and unsuspicious spirit and the
man opens out to you with delicious
frankness. Show any touch OF reserve
or hauteur and he relapses into a cloudy
silence from which ne cannot be drawn
Constable and Prisoners.
Just as the vessel approached a deeply
enIbayed wharf the Eastern Shoreman
disappeared. and when hs walked down
the gang plank he had handcuned TO
him a negro man, while a negro woman
marched by the side OF the pair. That
mild-ma nnered and well spoken white
man was a local constable returning
from Baltimore where he had arrested
the colored man and mis- wife. both ac-
Cused of completely in a recent serious
shooting ARRAY. The negro and his wife
held their heads down as they passed
through the curious little crowd on the
wharf but one could see that the woman
was graceful and decently dressed and
that her face OF smooth chocolate brown
was comely and written over with sad
ness and sha me. The doC!le pair OF prs
Oncrs and the constable. who seemed 50
much above the unpleasant duty tnat
ne was disCharGing with faithfulness and
without unkindness-supplied a concrete
iIIustra ton of the conditions lately
discussion on deck.
Beneath the eclipsing straw mats or
nearly all the white men whom one saw
at the half dozen wharves at which the
vessel stopped wore faces Of unmis-
takably British type. In the whole white
population OF these Eastern Shore coun-
ties OF Virginia there are at most only
a few score of other than native Amer
car stock. Not many years ago one or
these counties had but nine persons or
alien birth. The temporary sumner
population now includes good many
aliens who come to do their share in the
work of the canneries. but the perra-
nent Inhabitants are still almost eXclu-
sively Of NATIVE origin. Furthermore, the
whites for the most part are descended
O. the seventeenth century settlers. All
families here are old. Even the suns
OF nearly three centuries have not SUI
feed 10 darken the original Saxon type.
and in spite Of the "chtlls and fever
that used to attack a considerable part
Of every community and that still finds
victims. the fair. clear complexion OF
the ancestral English yet persists.
though darker types are not uncoTl-
mon. Tall. spare count-ynen. silent.
rough handed provincial OF speech and
clad in garments that would not fetch
g. II offered at auction. had the native
-ourtesv Of their race. These men would
hardly have looked out ~ place in
rural community Of New EngiaCi,
though they had not the rigid feature
Of the Puritan.
Country Folk Religions.
As matte ~ fact. however. the
country folk ~ the region are much IN
terested in religion. and it is favor.te
topic OF discussion wherever men gather
There has been among the plain people
OF the Eastern Shore more than full
century OF te-vid Methodism. II records
laws. which have placed every county
Of the Pen nSula. save one. from VII
n!nCton to Cape Charles. in the dr.
column. Men set rich by the 'tolation
NJ the law but local sentiment is strong
" n favor OF its continuance.
At one wharf little crowd OF loater-
,Sh-lookinc fellows came wiping their
mouths from warehouse a few Yards
from the waters edge. which was closed
Just as the vessel came to her moor
ings Everybody understood that here
was a s1eak-easy. hut nobody volunteer
Il TO explain why the thing was So
openly maintained
As the captain and purssr had prom
iscd. the night was one o. peace Sml-
ing co!ored boys served the evening r1ea!
with cheerful courtesy that left the
single passenger more than ever CON
WINGED that the voyage had been under
taken solely in his interest rather than
IN that Of the ..5Hn barrels Of potatoes
between decks. No ribaId words cane
in at tho wide-open stateroon window.
ard. indeed. no sound less soothing than
the mid watery corumo,i"n Of the SIGHT
~ troubled Chesapeake. and TIL SOFT
tones Of the watch" Is re now ana len
exchanged a word with a fellow of, ~.