Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-05-01
BERRY PICKERS
MIGRATE SOON.
Already Looking Forward To
Annual Trips To The Fields
Of Anne Arundel.
BUSY TIMES AHEAD.
Furniture, Bed Clothing, Pots,
Pans And Children Are
Taken Along Atop Of
Big Wagons.

Up in Baltimore. coming out East
ern avenue and the route of the An
napOlis Boulevard toward this city,
one of these fine spring mornings in
the near future there will start the
first of a series of caravans, headed
toward but scheduled to stop short of
Annapolis.
There will be a string of large, un-
covered wagons not unlike the prairie
schooner" of the days gone by except
for the curved canvas cover Each of
these wagons will be piled high with
household furniture, pots and pans
and bedclothes and the favorite fire
side rocker That article held most
dear always crowns the load. In
some instances it may be the family
cook stove; in others, perhaps, a
phonograph or even yet a healthy,
Growing youngsteT tied fast to keep
him from topping off. Each of these
wagons will he driven by an elderly
person or o-o apparently in delicate
health, while beside the caravan will
stride middle-aged men and women,
in twos or threes, evidently the own
ers of these vehicles. Children-boys
and girls-hordes of them, will be
everywhere, shouting, laughing, skip
be off for a lark.
The initiated will pass these cara
vans by with perhaps only a casual
glance. People who cast their eyes
on them for the first time, however,
will wonder.
"A circus?" they'll think
No, wrong the first time, will be the
answer.
"Gypsies?"
Almost-but guess again.
"A lot of people who think it is
cheaper to move than it is to pay
house rent?"
''Never!"
And then one of those wise ones"
there's always one around) will prob
ably vouchsafe the answer to all those
questions with which you are cudgel-
ing your brain
why, it's the annual pilgrimage of
the berry pickers!"
Down in old An Rannel, out on the
Eastern Sho and away down the Bay
those big. juicy, luscious "berr's,' the
kind for which Maryland is famous,
are just beginning to blush that deli
cate shade of crimson, promise that
they are "chock-full of sweetness and
just awaiting for the sugar and
cream"
Those berries which bring delight to
the eye and that satisfied feeling after
ward, of course, have to be picked.
They have to be boxed and Grated.
Though many who enjoy them may
not realize it. the berry picking in
Maryland is done principally by the
Bohemians, Poles and Slovaks who
live in East Baltimore Hence the air
of busy bustling that prevails in that
| section yearly just about this time
Hence the increased percentage of
truants reported in the schools of that
neighborhood, and, above all. it ex-
plains the subdued feeling of happi-
ness that hoveTs about the colony,
threatening to burst out at any
moment
The yearly exodus of the berry pick
ers is like festival to them. 1t means
they're going to the country. 1t
means they will forget the feel of
| cobble stones. of heated pavements
and the noise and rumble of the big
city In other words. with a dozen or
more cOngenial families of them
gathered together on some big farm,
this going away in the springtime is
just about to them as the annual exo-
dus to the summer resorts is to the
| yacatiOnists