Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

they were tame elephants. Of all coast bathing this is the finest I ever saw. The sand, which is like velvet to the feet, has a gradual slope; there is no perceptible under-tow or side current; and the lazy force of the huge waves, which subside rather than break violently, allows the bather to rock and swing upon them with a new sense of luxury. The temperature of the sea was perfect, and nothing but the falling twilight called us back to the shore. W— and C, outside the swells, floated on their backs like contented nautili, and were hardly to be enticed to the strand, even by the prospect of "chickens and sich."

on a foundation of oyster-shells, is the terminus of the road, one hundred and thirty-five miles south of Wilmington and eighty-five miles north of Norfolk. The three steamers left during our stay-one for the latter city, one for the Accomac shore, and one for Wilmington by sea. The small population lives by fishing and by opening oysters during the season. Last year's exportation of oysters, if I remember rightly, was about nine thousand tons. The water fairly swarms with fish and crabs, and the marshes around are a paradise for the sportsman.

I can not recount all the prospects of future growth and trade which were explained to me here, as at the other points touched in our ex

My aim is to describe briefly what I saw, neither disparaging nor favoring any special section of the peninsula. There is very little of it which does not offer a fair field for development. I found every where fewer marshes, less sand, a more capable soil, and greater facilities for improvement than previous reports had led me to believe.

The "sich" being oysters and delicate fish, fresh from the water, we marveled at our land-cursion. lord's modesty. Often as the dishes needed to be replenished, fresh stores never failed, until, filled, refreshed, and satisfied to the very marrow of our bones, we drove back through the darkness to Berlin. The many delays occasioned by hospitality obliged us to again correct the failures in our programme by night travel. But, before going further, I must say Around Crisfield the principal crop was sweeta word about the outside land, known at this potatoes. The land rises very slowly from the point as Sinepuxent Beach, but further south water level; but after we had passed through as Assateague Island. One can travel upon ten or twelve miles of pine, oak, and cypress it, between ocean and sound, the whole dis- forest, with an occasional holly-tree, we found tance to Chincoteague Inlet, finding a habita- beautiful fields and orchards, new dwellings, and tion about once in a dozen miles. Toward its a promise of prosperity, at Westover. Between southern extremity it becomes broader, and is this point and Salisbury there is Princess Anne, somewhat populated. This is the breeding- a small but dignified little place, where we ig place of a race of ponies, which run wild, feed-norantly ran away from and seemed to slight, ing on the strong beach grass, except once a year, when they are herded, the colts branded with their owners' marks, and the mature animals sold. Those I saw were very handsome creatures, of a bright bay color, and about the size of a Mexican mustang. The Sinepuxent expands into the broader Chincoteague Sound, the haunt of sturdy fishermen, of unmixed En- But from the junction at Harrington to the glish stock. The poorer classes of all this re- ocean we were no longer tourists. The trip gion are rough and ignorant, but very good-took on more and more of a social character. natured and hospitable.

Accomac and Northampton are the two counties of Virginia. The same peculiarity of deep inlets on the Chesapeake and sounds and sandy islands on the Atlantic side continues all the way down to Cape Charles. Cobb's Island, a few miles north of the cape, has a large hotel, and is a favorite resort of the people of Baltimore and Norfolk. Here the climate is mild enough for both cotton and rice. In a few more years the Peninsular Railroad will undoubtedly be pushed down to Cherrystone Inlet, within thirty-five miles of Norfolk.

without intending it, a very graceful and generous welcome. The train was again behind its arranged time, with a regular passenger train chasing it; so, taking some of our Berlin friends on board at Salisbury, we hurried back into Delaware for our last branch excursion to Lewes and the Breakwater.

There were fresh guests at Milford, others at Georgetown. The train made à mile a minute. There was fishing on the pier, bathing in the surfless water inside of Cape Henlopen, a distant view of the costly breakwater and icebreaker, and a dinner prolonged over the returning miles. I will not chronicle further than to mention the cordial atmosphere in which men of the most different experiences and opinions harmonized on a common social ground; and there was no new feature of the region to be added to previous observations. We went northward, dropping some of our company at every principal station, until, beyond Clayton, reduced to our original four, we sat down to fresh pipes of reflection, and compared our impressions.

I went to bed on leaving Berlin, and slept soundly until awakened by the incessant noise of rolling barrels. We were upon the pier at Crisfield, and three steamers beside us were taking on their freight. My companions were, I give you the bearing of my own, corrected in addition, tormented by mosquitoes; so we all by three compasses which but slightly varied. arose early and looked about us. The bay here If this shall incline any liberal, clear-eyed, inis a part of Tangier Sound, divided by three telligent summer tourist to run down the Eastlarge islands from the main body of the Chesa-ern Shore and see for himself, I feel sure he will peake. Crisfield, which is a new place, built come back well satisfied with his experience.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

ABEL MERRIWEATHER, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE THIRTY-THIRD DISTRICT
OF INDIANA-LAWYER, WRITER, ORATOR-SOLVES ONE SOCIAL PROBLEM.

SHE isn't half so handsome as when, twenty years agone,
At her old home in Piketon Parson Avery made us one;
The great house crowded full of guests of every degree,
The girls all envying Hannah Jane, the boys all envying me.

Her fingers then were taper, and her skin was white as milk,
Her brown hair-what a mess it was! and soft and fine as silk;
No wind-moved willow by a brook had ever such a grace,
The form of Aphrodite, with a pure Madonna face.

She had but meagre schooling: her little notes to me
Were full of crooked pot-hooks, and the worst orthography.
Her "dear" she spelled with double e, and "kiss" with but one s:
But when one's crazed with passion, what's a letter more or less?

She blundered in her writing, and she blundered when she spoke,
And every rule of syntax that old Murray made she broke;
But she was beautiful and fresh, and I-well, I was young:
Her form and face o'erbalanced all the blunders of her tongue.

I was but little better.

True, I'd longer been at school;

My tongue and pen were run, perhaps, a trifle more by rule;
But that was all. The neighbors round, who both of us well knew,
Said-which I believed-she was the better of the two.

All's changed the light of seventeen's no longer in her eyes;
Her wavy hair is gone-that loss the coiffeur's art supplies;
Her form is thin and angular; she slightly forward bends;
Her fingers, once so shapely, now are stumpy at the ends.

She knows but very little, and in little are we one;

The beauty rare that more than hid that great defect is gone.
My parvenu relations now deride my homely wife.

And pity me that I am tied to such a clod for life.

I know there is a difference: at reception and levée

The brightest, wittiest, and most famed of women smile on me;

And every where I hold my place among the greatest men;

And sometimes sigh, with Whittier's judge, "Alas! it might have been."

When they all crowd around me, stately dames and brilliant belles,
And yield to me the homage that all great success compels,
Discussing art and state-craft, and literature as well,

66

From Homer down to Thackeray, and Swedenborg on 'Hell,"

I can't forget that from these streams my wife has never quaffed,
Has never with Ophelia wept, nor with Jack Falstaff laughed;
Of authors, actors, artists-why, she hardly knows the names;
She slept while I was speaking on the Alabama claims.

[graphic]

"WHEN THEY ALL CROWD AROUND ME, STATELY DAMES AND BRILLIANT BELLES."

HANNAH JANE.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

"SHE MADE HERSELF MOST WILLINGLY A HOUSEHOLD DRUDGE AND SLAVE."

I can't forget-- Just at this point another form appears-
The wife I wedded as she was before my prosperous years;
I travel o'er the dreary road we traveled side by side,
And wonder what my share would be if Justice should divide.
She had four hundred dollars left her from the old estate;
On that we married, and, thus poorly armored, faced our fate.
I wrestled with my books; her task was harder far than mine-
"Twas how to make two hundred dollars do the work of nine.

At last I was admitted; then I had my legal lore,
An office with a stove and desk, of books perhaps a score;
She had her beauty and her youth, and some housewifely skill,
And love for me and faith in me, and back of that a will.

I had no friends behind me-no influence to aid;
I worked and fought for every little inch of ground I made.
And how she fought beside me! never woman lived on less :
In two long years she never spent a single cent for dress.
Ah! how she cried for joy when my first legal fight was won,
When our eclipse passed partly by, and we stood in the sun!
The fee was fifty dollars-'twas the work of half a year-
First captive, lean and scraggy, of my legal bow and spear.

I well remember, when my coat (the only one I had)

Was seedy grown and threadbare, and, in fact, most "shocking bad,"
The tailor's stern remark when I a modest order made:

"Cash is the basis, Sir, on which we tailors do our trade."

Her winter cloak was in his shop by noon that very day;
She wrought on hickory shirts at night that tailor's skill to pay.
I got a coat, and wore it; but alas! poor Hannah Jane
Ne'er went to church or lecture till warm weather came again.

Our second season she refused a cloak of any sort,
That I might have a decent suit in which t' appear in court;
She made her last year's bonnet do that I might have a hat:
Talk of the old-time, flame-enveloped martyrs after that!

No negro ever worked so hard: a servant's pay to save,
She made herself most willingly a household drudge and slave.
What wonder that she never read a magazine or book,
Combining as she did in one, nurse, house-maid, seamstress, cook!

What wonder that the beauty fled that I once so adored!
Her beautiful complexion my fierce kitchen fire devoured;
Her plump, soft, rounded arm was once too fair to be concealed:
Hard work for me that softness into sinewy strength congealed.

I was her altar, and her love the sacrificial flame:

Ah! with what pure devotion she to that altar came,
And, tearful, flung thereon-alas! I did not know it then-

All that she was, and more than that, all that she might have been!

At last I won success. Ah! then our lives were wider parted:
I was far up the rising road; she, poor girl! where we started.

I had tried my speed and mettle, and gained strength in every race;
I was far up the heights of life-she drudging at the base.

[graphic][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »