Evening star. [volume], November 28, 1915, Page 4, Image 85

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
MANY OLD COPPER MINES
IN VICINITY OF WASHINGTON
THERE have been a number of ref
erences recently to the gold-bear
ing rocks and soils of the District
of Columbia, Montgomery county, Md.,
and Fairfax and Loudoun counties, Va.
The gold fever which raged along the
uppon Potomac and the rocky streams
pouring into that river is well remem
bered by thousands of persons, has not
completely burned out in the minds of
some ardent and hopeful folk, and the
fever may sweep through that section
again if some lucky man happens to hit
on a pocket of rich ore.
The first touch of the gold fever was
felt in the vicinity of Washington in
3S61, when some soldiers in Oregon and
California regiments, encamped near
Great Falls on the Maryland side of the
Potomac, panned out gold in numerous
places in the country adjacent to the
falls. But in the excitement of the ci,vil
war thoughts of gold mining were given
over, and there seems to have been no
recurrence of the gold fever until in the
eighties and nineties, when some pockets
of valuable ore were found and a great
deal of money was thereafter invested in
prospect and development work, and in
mine buildings and machinery. In the
American Journal of Science, in 1830, there
is a reference to the discovery of gold in
Maryland, but the part of the state in
which the find was made is not men
tioned, and very little excitement seems
to have ensued. The announcement was
this:
"A letter just received from a cor
respondent in Baltimore informs us
that gold has recently been found in j
Maryland. It is known to exist in Vir
ginia. and these localities, with those |
of North Carolina, appear to form a
straight line parallel or nearly so, it is j
believed, with the Allegheny range, j
yuartz is abundant in the region about
that discovered in Maryland, as is the
case also in that of North Carolina."
*
* *
The memory of the gold craze is fresh !
In the minds of many persons, but only
a few old-timers remember the copper
fever that swept over parts of Virginia
not far from Washington, and "which
spread all over the southern states in
3854-1 S5<? as a result of the discovery of
rich block copper ores of the "gossan .
lead" of southwest Virginia and of
Ducktown. Tenn. A great deal of money
was invested in copper mining and cop
per prospecting in the Blue Ridge and
Piedmont regions, but at the beginning
' of the civil war all mining operations
were suspended and were not resumed
for twenty years or more.
Keith, the geologist, noted the exist
ence of copper ores in Virginia and in
1894 he wrote: "Deposits of copper in j
the schists have long excited interest
and led to mining operations. The
amount of ore. however, appears not to
have justified any considerable work.
Such deposits have been worked on the
Blue Ridge east of Front Royal and
along the northern end of South moun
tain."
Walter Harvey Weed, in a bulletin
issued by the United States Geologi
cal Survey in 1911, said that "recently
numerous attempts were made to work
ores in the vicinity of Front Royal.
Benton ville and Luray." Mr. Weed
wrote that in the locality of Luray
a property near Ida was developed
by a shaft 3^0 feet deep, but with this
exception the workings up to 1905
were relatively shallow. "So far as
information is available," he writes,
"none of the shafts exceeded ninety
feet in depth. This shows that al
though much money and effort have
been expended the work has been com
paratively superficial and the extent
of the ore bodies in depth had not
been satisfactorily answered. In 1905
six companies were prosecuting work
and some prospecting work was in
progress by private individuals, but
up to 1906 no producing mine had
been developed. Numerous stock com
panies have been formed to acquire
and work such properties, and both
local and outside investors have fur
nished considerable sums of money
for development purposes."
The presence of copper in the Blue
Ridge country of Virginia has been
known for centuries, but. as in the
case of the gold fields of the Potomac
valley, few persons are believed to
have made a fortune in getting the
metal out of the ground.
I'rof. W. B. Rogers, who was state
geologist of Virginia from 1835 to
1841. whose labors and studies covered
many more years than those included
between the dates given and whose
books on Virginia geology are still
standard, devoted some work and study
to the copper deposits of the state, |
and from the many pages which that :
distinguished geologist wrote on the
subject the following remarks are ex
tracted :
In many part* of the Blue Ridg*\ in the
of the transverse belt whose gen
eral <-:iara?-ters I am describing, virgin copper
an<! rh?- creen ?-ar1xmate have been discovered
in thin vein* and small misses in the Ijodv of
quartz**-/*- arx! ?-p'dotlc r<M-k. In the neigtil>or
of Sr-my Man. one of the loftiest j and
wildest jM-aks of this ran>re. near Swift Run
jcai?. ai.'l at several other points, small speci
men* have been picked up and their richness
J m the metal and ils carbonate have in
s# u tln* sanguine with a <-ontklent belief
or the existence In the bosom of the mountain
or treasures of thin nature of exhaustless ex
}? , . in r<'^ar^ '?? all Hitch anticipation
it should be l>orne in mind that the quantity
is not loss important than the quality of the
ore to stamp it with real value, and that until
far more minute and extensive researches in
regard to these ores have hern made in the
localities where they have been found than
nave ever hitherto been attempted it will be
unjHissiMe for having any grounds for judging
of their extent, and it will be as unwise as
hazardous to engage in expensive schemes of
mining on their account. Vet I would not
have it understood that such researches are to
he considered as hoj>eless or inexpedient. I
would rather rejoiee to see such investigation
active: at the same time. In duty to the public
interest. I would eaution against that pre
cipitate and ever-sanguine spirit?a spirit which
in no instance is more likely to terminate in
loss and disappointment than when excited by
objects of this uature. involved as rhey may
be. even to tlie diligent scientific explorer, iu
j ?uinvoidable obscurity and doubt.
i The main Blue Ridge copper region
.lies in the northern part of Virginia,
j extending; from near Front Royal
southward and including- parts of War
) ren, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Madi
j son, Page and Greene counties. Since
the earliest settlement of the country
nuggets of native copper of all sizes
from small particles up to masses
many pounds in weight have from
time to time been found in rocky ex
posures and inclosed in shattered
j boulders over many parts of the Blue I
Ridge, This native copper undoubtedly
furnished the Indians with the metal}
for their ornaments, ornaments which
led some of the early European immi- i
i grants to come rashly to the conclusion
that Virginia was rich in gold and
other metals. In colonial times the
copper ores were known to various set
tlers. and it is recorded that a number
of attempts were made during that
period to extract the metal.
*
* *
Attempts-were made in the early part
of the last century to mine the copper
ores over parts of Loudoun, Culpeper
and Orange counties. The experts of
the Lnited States geological surWv
have written that in places in these
counties the area of mineralization is
extensive, and considerable work has
been done. No veins have been found
and no well defined horizon exists. The
ores occur for the most part as films
or thin coatings of malachite on the
joint surfaces and as disseminated
grains of the sulphide and phosphate
of copper through the rock. Some rich
specimens of copper glance and copper
phosphate are obtained, but they are
ra re.
Five miles east of Leesburg, near Su
garland run. Loudoun county, the tri
assic rocks include greenish or bluish
calcareous sandstones and shales, in
tercalated in the red rocks. These
light-colored beds contain films or thin
coatings of malachite, which is green
carbonate of copper, on joint surfaces,
and locally carry specks of the phos
phate of copper and of copper glance
commonly associated with carbonized
vegetable stems and imperfect leaf im
pressions. Arthur Keith of the geo
logical survey wrote that "the area of
mineralization is extensive, but the ore
is too generally diffused to be profit
ably worked."
There are three copper belts in
Maryland which were of considerable
importance before the incoming of the
Lake Superior mines. The first belt ex
tends from New London, in Frederick
county, northeastward to Union Bridge.
The second extends from Sykesville
through Carroll county to and beyond
Finksburg, and the third is in the Bare
hills, north of Baltimore. In the west
ern belt the New London, Liberty, Dol
ly Hyde and Union mines have been
extensively worked. The middle belt
is distinctly traceable across Carroll
county from a point south of the Patap
sco river at Sykesville to Finksburg,
in 'Carroll county, and less clearly to
Bluemont, south of Whitehall, on the
Northern Central railroad, and to Coop
town, in Harford county. The Spring
field mine, at Sykesville: the Mineral
Hill mine, and the Patapsco mine, near
Finksburg, were good producers in
their day. The mine at Sykesville was
operated from 1849 to 1868, and be
tween those years yielded from 500 to
1.700 tons of copper a year. The Bare
hills copper mine, near Baltimore, was
opened in 1866 and was operated until
1887, and produced thousands of tons
of rich ore. Every now and then plans
are made to unwater and set this old
mine going again, and it may be that
it is producing now.
The copper mines north of the Poto
mac seem to have been better paying
propositions than those south of the
river. In addition to these Maryland
mines copper deposits have been prof
itably worked in Pennsylvania and
nearly all the eastern states. It is said
that the deposits in Warren county,
N. J., were mined in a small way in
the seventeenth century by Dutch set
tlers, and that during Washington's
New Jersey campaign the revolutionary
army which made its winter camp on
Watchung mountain, near Bound
Brook, obtained from the bed of cop
per ore outcropping at that place
enough metal to make a brass cannon,
which was afterward used in the siege
of Yorktown.
Wh@ini IjadBmi Shrill Mbimej
Wai? Cwinmft m Ntew Eeri&inid
THERE is a noticeable Inclination
on the part of large numbers of
the American nation to turn
back to a consideration of the
inhabitants of this part of the world
before the coining of the whites. There
seems always to have been a consider-,
able degree of interest in the matter
??f the money of the Indians, the earlj
Europeans perhaps being more interested
in that than in the language, customs and
habits of the natives whom they found
here. And it is curious that the In
dian word for money?"wampum '?en
dures, and a great many persons know
the significance of that word who
know nothing else about Indians All
jndian money was not called wampum.
There being different languages among
The Indians, they had different words
for the medium of exchange, and it
may be that the words which are pre
served are not the words the Indians
? ;sed, but the Indian words as they
sounded to the generality of the white
people. Wampum seems to have been
New England Indian money, while Ind'aVa
money ?n the south was called "roe
noke," and In the parts of the country
where the Dutch were predominant
this form of money was called "sea
wan." j
Historians do not .seem to have deter
mined the question beyond the possi
bility of being reopened whether In
dian shell money was currency In the
Potomac country. It is clear that that
form of Indian money called wampum
v. a.-; legal tender in New England, for
Connecticut received wampum for taxes
in 1 ?W.7 at the rate of four to the penny,
and in 1*>4b Massachusetts adopted the
Connecticut standard of white wam
pum to pass current at four to the
penny and blue wampum to be legal
tender ai the rate of two to the penny.
There are records which show that it
was in current circulation with silver
in parts of New York as late as 1 704,
and one of the reasons it passed away
was that there being no restriction on
making it, the white people began to
manufacture it or "coin" it, arid it is
said that some thrifty Dutch began to
turn out the various forms of wampum
by machinery. Wampum made by the
New England Indians was used by In
dians in the great lake region, and per
haps it was known to the Indians still
farther to the west. Indians of the
Pacific coast made money from mussel
shells.
.Several authors, notably W. K. Weed
ed and C. L. Norton, have written in
the years gone by learned treatises on
"Indian Money as a Factor in New
England Civilization" and "The I?ast
Wampum Coinage." Wampum consist
ed of cylindrical beads made from
?bells. The shell of the New England
clam called "quahang" was used in the
making of th? wore valuable wampum,
or the wampum of the highest denomi
nation. The purple spot in the clam
shell was used for this form of wam
pum. This was called "dark wampum"
or purple wampum or blue wampum.
With the Indians the making of this
wampum was no "get-rich-quick"
scheme, because there was a good deal
of quite skillful labor required in the
making of the beads and each one rep
resented about so much human labor.
There was a white wampum, which
consisted of the same form of beads
turned from the shell core of whelks or
periwinkle. The shell beads were high
ly polished and through the cylindical
shaped bit of shell a hole was drilled
lengthwise. By means of this hole the
wampum was strung together either on
a string made from fiber or the sinew
of some animal.
The value of wampum In its relation
to copper or silver coinage varied
slightly in the early days of New Eng
land. There was a very early legal en
actment which made dark wampum re
ceivable at three for a penny, and a
"string" of wampum, which was also
called a "fathom" of wampum, passed
current for f? shillings.
Too Up-to-Date.
MISS ALICE H. CHITTENDEN, the
well known anti-suffrage leader,
.-.aid at the Colony Club in New York:
"When a young mother becomes too
scientific arid up-to-date *he appears
both cruel and silly.
"A caller said to a young mother of
thi* type:
" 'Your baby has been crying for two
hours Why don't you take it up or
something?'
"Take it up!' said the young mother.
"Ah, you don't understand! There's cry
ing and crying, and the kind baby's
doing now is the very best hygienic,
lung-expanding, scientific, vocal-chord
developing exercise in the world." "
Outgrown.
TT* BEIiHY WALL, his top hat pushed
back and his hands on the knob
of his stick, regarded from the window
of a Gtk avenue club the endless pro
cession of beautiful girls moving grace
fully up and down in the golden sun
shine of a cold, still, windless October
afternoon.
The beautiful girls all wore frocks of
the latest fashion?quaint, rather high
waisted frocks with very short skirts
that revealed the excellent fit of their
white-topped or gray-topped or brown
topped boots of patent leather.
As a half dozen girls passed in un
usually short skirts a young man said
to Mr. Wall:
"How nice they look in their new fall
dresses, eh?"
"Yes," Mr. Wall agreed. "Yes. they
look very nice. They seern to have
grown a lot, too, don't they?*'
LONDOM'S MANTLE OF DARKNESS
MORE DEADLY THAN. ZEPPELINS
SCENE IN TRAFALGAR SHL ARE, SHOWING HOW THE CURBS HAVE BEEN WHITEWASHED AT REGULAR IN
TERVALS, A STEP MADE NECESSARY FOLLOWING THE DARKENING OF THE STREETS AS A PROTECTION
AGAINST ZEPPELINS. THE SAME THING IS DONE THROUGHOUT LONDON.
Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, November 15, 1913.
EN Whitehall, just outside the war
office, a few nights ago, a British
staff officer, while crossing the
street, was knocked down by a
taxi and killed. The driver of
the 'cab, who declared that owing to
the almost pitch darkness of the street
resulting from the new regulations re
garding lighting he never even saw the
officer, has been exonerated from blame.
No wonder, for since the latest "dark
ening" order came into effect, the me
tropolis by night has been plunged into
truly Egyptian gloom. Fully three
quarters of the street lamps are turned
off altogether, and the glass globes of
the remainder are painted green most
of the way up. so that they emit only
the dimmest of illuminations.
Sky signs are forbidden, all lights in
* ' i
A TWENTIETH CENTURY
PROBLEM.
BY DR. FRA*K CRANE.
(Copyright, 1U15.)
I: ? n
What can a man own?
There are two extreme answers to
this question. One group of thinkers
tend toward th.e view that the indi
vidual should be allowed to own as lit
tle as possible. The state, the com
munity should own; the people should
work for the state, all drawing wages.
In the direction of this opinion there
are convictions in varying degrees.
Single-taxers would have all land prac
tically state owned, by making the tax
approximate the rental value. Many
believe that a limit should be set by
law to all fortunes. Others would pro
hibit, or at teast regulate-, inheritance;
governments, by the inheritance tax,
partly adopt this theory. In fact, all
taxes imply the right of the state to
limit private ownership. Tax is essen
tially confiscation. Socialists insist
upon communal ownership to greater
or less extent.
Opposite to these more or less so
cialistic ideas are the opinions of the
individualists, including most property
owners and those persons whose living
and prosperity depend upon property
owners. They constantly resist all "so
cialistic" tendencies.
The latter group are in accord with
our Anglo-Saxon traits. It is bred in
our bone that government is to inter
fere with private concerns as little as
possible. We don't want to be taken
care of by government, but to be let
alon,':. The state is merely the umpire
in the great competitive game of get
ting on.
The practical economic truth will be
found in neither one of these extremes.
Our people are not y/?t ready to turn
all property over to the state and go
to work for labor certificates. And,
on the other hand, we are realizing that
the desire for private property must
not go unchecked.
Modern politics is a continuous ex
periment to find the golden mean.
In an earlier day we were so anx
ious for the "development" of the coun
houses must be shaded and every win
dow must be provided with the thick
est of blinds, through which not one
ray of light must be allowed to pene
trate. The result may be imagined. It
is next to impossible to distinguish the
coins in one's hand when buying a
paper from a newsboy at night, and
absolutely impossible to tell whether .a
person approaching be man or woman,
| to say nothing > bout recognizing a
j friend.
All this is done to protect Londoners
from the aircraft of Count Zeppelin, for
which all of us who were here dur
| ing the last air raid have now a pro
found respect?respect, that is, for their
i capacity for murder and destruction?
but it is a question if the remedy is not
worse than the disease. For the num
ber of street accidents owing to the
darkness is multiplying by leaps, and
more deaths and disablements resulting
from this cause in a week than would
be caused by regular Zeppelin raids
for the same period.
And we thought London was dark be
! try that we gave away reckiessely our
natural resources. Millions of acres
were presented to railroads. Water
rights were handed out freely to those
who asked. Street car franchises w$re
distributed lavishly and without re
straining clauses. School lands in city
centers were sold cheap, afterward ris
ing to fabulous values, to enrich the
i speculators.
A Berlin magazine cites the caw of
the village of Wolzig. The town owned
a magnificent lake from which it drew
a considerable revenue. "On the op
posite shore lies an estate that belonged
to a family of millionaire farmers.
The owner of the estate liked the lake
and bought it of the community for
the low price of 2,400 mark?. Then he
rented out the fishing privilege for
5,000 marks a year. Neighboring in
habitants whose land reaches to the
shore are not allowed to go boat riding
or to bathe \r\ the lake. They cannot
even buy fish at retail from the tenant,
since he sends his entire supply to the
Berlin markets."
We are awakening to the truth that
there can be no common prosperity
without a communal consciousness.
The state cannot thrive under condi
tions of a free fight and devil take the
hindmost. It can bring general wel
fare to Its people only when they learn
that the high woj-d that should govern
human activities Is not competition but
co-operation.
certain* amateur aviator talked
recently about a flying trip with a
professional, when he fell 1,200 feet into
the water without knowing it.
j "I wasn't frightened," he said with a
smile. "I thought that our swift de
scent was a piece of fancy flying. I am,
in fact, as ignorant of aviation as the
little boy was ignorant of history.
" 'Describe the Order of the Bath,' his
teacher asked this little boy.
"It's very ancient,' he answered. 'It
goes back to the time when they didn't
take no baths except by order.' "
George w. per kins, in a y. m. c.
A. address on temperance in Chi
cago, began:
"A corking time is a good time for
any young man, but may Heaven de
liver us all from the kind of corking
time that means an uncorking one."
Compulsory.
Deliver Us!
fore! It comes to this: that if the
war' oyer ends. ;md thin?rs become
normal again, we shall not know what
10 make vji uriiliantiy lignted streets.
We shall have become like a lot of
moles and shall blink for a long time
to come on being deprived of the
opaque darkness that, by nipht, has
come to be our natural element. Mean
while it is proposed that all curbs shall
be whitewashed, particularly at street
corners, so as to minimize the number
of accidents that happen through pedes
trians not knowing where the pave
ment ends and the roadway begins.
Needless to say, theatergoing by night
has been deprived of 50 per cent of its
pleasure, owing both to the darkness
and the uncomfortable feeling that a
Zeppelin bomb may come through the
roof at any moment. The writer was
told today that on the night after the
last big raid, the takings at two the
aters housing two of the biggest suc
cesses of the season dropped to the
extent of $250 a night, and never have
picked up since.
S there something malicious about
even the fairest and kindest of
neutrals?" said Booth Tarkington in
Indianapolis.
"Does a neutral, in the very nature of
things, incline to rejoice a little over a
warring sister nation's misfortune? I
hope not.
"I hope not. and yet. in thinking of
neutrals. I can't help thinking of two
boys who stood the other day and
watched an enormous safe being raised
up to the twenty-sixth story of a sky
scraper.
"The boys watched the safe rise slow
ly. dangling at the end of its wire rope,
and when it reached the twentieth
story the older lad turned away in dis
gust.
"'Come on, Joe,' he said. 'We might
as well move on. They ain't a-goln' to
let her drop.' "
'HOMAS MOTT OSBORNE, the prison
U authority, said the other day at a
luncheon in New York:
"It is only by getting into personal
contact with a prison that you can
find out the ^abuses, if any, existing
there.
"This personal contact often brings
you discoveries as' shocking as th;it
made by the slum visitor. She asked
a little girl:
" 'A ml so your father is working now
and setting $11 a week! How nice!
And how much does he put away Sat
urday night?'
"'Six beers and four whiskies, ma'am,'
the little girl replied."
Mayor john purroy mitchel
said at a .dinner in New York:
"The memories of camp life are a
very pleasant thins to any soldier.
Even the little vivacities of camp life
seem in the retrospect pleasant enough.
"Thus I often laugh about a banker
who was being drilled one day at
I'lattsburgh by a broker-sergeant.
" 'What'll you give me,' said the brok
er-sergeant, an old Yale end, 'if I take
that hump off your back?'
" 'I'll sive you,' the banker answered,
with a tart laugh, 'something to make
your hair grow, sarge.' "
Neutral Spirit.
His Reserve.
Drill Amenities.
As It Looks to the Man Who Is Trying to Sell His Old Car.
By WEBSTER.
1 M ALMOST 6-IVIW6 AWAy
this car'. itco5t*(|00
And it &GES ToTMe FiEST man
CA5H, There- are
3 EKTRA Tipe 5 A-NpTwE
MOTcR 15 in PRIME CON?ITlON,
I i feel uice a philanthro
pist SEu.in6.IT/AT Such
I A RIDICULOUS PRICE
V e-rc., ere
* |T5 A GOOD CAR.
all RIGHT BUT YfTiTEE
P/VY I VVA5 GFFUKEP A
*G?QOO FeiTiAH-MENDS
that had Been driven
3U5T ZOO mile 1>.THe
price" WiVi *IZ*.fc7
ArtP I TT+ou&hT it a
LITTLE Hl6rHCOH5|Pee
,iriG- it HAP BEEN U5ED '
* WHY", A FRiEN 0 GF
Mime picked up a
iqife GREASED li6w
MING- -TwinSi*
That cost *5o<?9.io(
new Foe * ^s^s-.
it HAP *500 WOPTH-J
of ACCESSORIES Crf j
it Too ''
I WAS OFFERED A
*5"OCO CAR "the 0TWOS
PAy THAT HAP OMLY
I3EEN DRIVEN fe
Block5 .the man '
WAhTEP *5"<0 FOR it I
BUT I PEClPE.flTfc
WAIT amp Pick up 1
A ftAR-6-AiN later-j
IN "W? veAiz- - r-J
(Copyright. It is, by h. T. Wfhsltr.)
TRAVELETTE
BY NIKS AH.
Jekyl's Island.
Jekyl's Island, off the Georgia coast,
is one of those bits of the earth which
seem to have been made for the pleas
ure of men. Blue, sheltered bays lap
ping1 white sand beaches, groves of
palmetto and live oak, a balmy climate
which lulls the energies and courts the
senses, all combine to give it an Eden
like charm.
In the bravo days of the southern
aristocracy certain wealthy planters
discovered this island and built a club
house there. Gambling was the lead
ing sport and stakes were high. For
tunes often changed hands in a night.
Then the war came, the gaming plant
ers went out to fight, and when they
came back they were too poor to
gamble. Jekyl's Island was left to
the lapping waves and the soaring
gulls.
One day a wealthy New Yorker,
southbound on his yacht, was ship
wrecked there, and Jekyl's Island was
reborn. The marooned millionaire was
not slow to see the possibilities of
the place or to tell his friends about
it. They came trooping to it in force,
accompanied by swarms of English
butlers and governesses and French
cooks and poodles and villas and au
tomobiles, and all the other appur
tenances of high society on an outing.
These details are not guaranteed, as
no one with an income less than $50,000
a year ever gets to Jekyl's Island, un
less he goes there to work as a but
ler or something like that. But at
any rate, the millionaires have settled
there in droves and Jekyl's Island, aft
er its years of drowsing in the south
ern sun, is alive and awake again. If
the hearsay printed in the Sunday
newspapers can be relied upon, the
high jinks of the gaming planters were
tame doings as compared to the car
ryings-on of the new jjopulation.
Indian Town.
Twenty-four miles to the east of
Richmond, Va., winds the sleepy I'a
munkey river, snakily coiling itself
around a bit of land which contains
800 acres.
Upon this land dwell 110 Indians,
descendants of the tribe of the great
Powhatan, who was sire to Pocahon
tas, most famous Indian princess i|i
the annals of America.
So lost to the world are these In
dians that some years ago the repre
sentative in Congress from the district
in which they dwell denied their ex
i istence. For 200 years they have been
forgotten.
'Indian Town is the center of this set
tlement. It is but a group of such
dwellngs as might house any rural
j American village in such isolation.
Strangely, this tribe of pure-blooded
Pamunkey Indians speaks but one
i language, and that is English. The
native tongue is lost. The few words
j that survive ha ve been taken into the
language of the conqueror. Among
these are "moccasin" and "tomahawk."
j Indian Town is nominally under the
control of the state of Virginia, but
no authority has ever been exercised
land no taxes are paid. Each year the
tribe sends to the governor a deer or
a brace of wild turkeys as a testimo
nial of friendship.
In the springtime a forefathers' fes
tival is held at Indian Town. The
tribe goes into the woods and re-en
acts the story of Pocahontas and Capt.
John Smith. Some maiden of the tribe,
probably today much like the princess
of old, plays the leading part.
Along the banks of the James, far
up the Potomac, sometimes even into
Chesapeake bay, at the season of the
year when the shad are running, may
be seen the swift canoes of expert
fishermen?dark and swarthy and si
lent. They pull in their nets and sell
their catches at the various wharves
of the region. Few notice the pecu
liarities of these men or learn that they
are from Indian Town, that quiet,
lonely little place where a handful of
true Americans still live on the land
their fathers held before the white
man came.
East Grand Forks.
Crepe is on the door of East Grand
Forks. Main street is a bleak and desert
ed waste. The cattle from the range
graze undisturbed among its shacks.
Here the skulking coyote may gnaw his
bone in peace and howl unmolested
through the night.
The "wickedest town in America" is left
in the muck of its own evil reputation.
For a decade East Grand Forks was
the first and last and only chance in
all that part of the world for the man
who craved the flowing bowl.
It is on the Minnesota side of the Mis
souri river, just across from Grand Forks,
which is in North Dakota. Nearby are
Fargo and Morehead. All are towns of
considerable importance, all are dry as a
bone, and all are populated by men who
have the fiercest kinds of fiery thirsts.
East Grand Forks came into being for
the sole purpose of relieving these thirsts,
and for years it has well served its bibu
lous destiny. Here one could go and
click a glass and still another one and
stagger homeward at any hour he liked.
The suspender drummers and fruit tree
agents, working the dry country for their
firms, always looked forward to the big
night when they reached East Grand
Forks.
The hands on the harvesting outfits
that opened the threshing season in Okla
homa in June and worked their way
northward through the hut. dry country
used to lie awake nights and brag about
how they would whop it up when they
finally struck East Grand Forks.
But, alas! Their longings and their
boastings are now in vain. There's noth
ing doing this year, boys. The shutters
are up and the lushera are all gone. Ix)cal
option carried at the last election in
Crookston county and East Grand Forks
is now as dry and abandoned as the
Sahara.
Stiakespeareana.
WILLIAM DEAN HOW ELLS, con
gratulated in Boston on his Strat
ford-Shakespeare book, told a Strat
ford-Shakespeare story.
"In Stratford." he said, "during one of
the Shakespeare jubilees, an American
tourist approached an aged villager in
a smock and asked:
" 'Who is this chap, Shakespeare, any
way?'
" 'He were a writer, sir.'
" 'Oh. but there are lots of writers.
Why do you make such an infernal fuss
over this one, then? Wherever I turn 1
see Shakespeare hotels, Shakespeare
cakes. Shakespeare chocolates, Shake
speare shoes. What the deuce did he
write?magazine stories, attacks on the
government, shady novels?'
"'No, sir; oh, no, sir.' said the aged
villager. 'I understand he writ for the
Bible, sir.' "
The Little Matter.
CERTAIN captain of industry, com
plimented <?n an immense war con
tract, said in New York:
"One beauty about these contracts is
their strict honesty. There are no
palms to grease.
"It wasn't always so in war contracts.
In fact, they tell a story about a war
contractor who once broke the silence
jf Ids club reading room with a dread
ful sigh.
"'What's the matter?' a brother con
tractor asked.
" 'Alas, alas!' said the first contractor;
I've just bought 5.000,000 pairs of shoes
it $1 a pair and sold them to the army
for $6, and I'm afraid the loss will ruin
ne.'
" 'Loss? IjOss?' said the other con
tractor. 'What are you talking about,
Han? On 5,000,000 pairs of shoes, with
i five-dollar profit, how can there be a
ess?'
"?My dear fellow,' said the first con
tractor, sadly, 'you forget the little
natter of commissions.' "
New York's forest preserve contains
,825.000 acres and is valued at $*?.
00,000.
AMAZON WOMEN ?ID NOT
LIVE ON AMAZON RIVER
<56
A
MAZON" and "Amazonian" as
applied to belligerent women
are words which easily come
from the lips of a vast number of per
sons who have rather a feeble and in
distinct acquaintance with them. Habit
guides most persons into the appropri
ate use of the words, but the story of
the Amazons to most of them is in an
unopened book. The word Amazon
makes its appearance frequently in
print in these days of war, and this
is particularly true when the cables
bring news of a woman fighting in the
battling hosts of Europe.
The original Amazons did not live in
Brazil on the banks of the Amazon
river. In this belief there is a slight
confusion of names. They lived in that
region where the flames of war are
burning, where Russ and Turk, Briton
and Turk and French and Turks are
fighting.
It was over in the Black sea, or the
Euxine country where the war god
Ares dwelt, and where the Argonauts
had many of their remarkable adven
tures in search of the golden fleece.
It was said many, many years ago
that the Amazons dwelt in Pontus, but
these fierce, yet in some ways senti
mental women spread themselves over
numerous districts and they were re
ported to have been in northern Asia
Minor, Colchis. Caucasus, Thrace and
Scythia. and they seem to have been
unusually industrious among the is
lands of the Aegean. As the founders
of cities they, displayed commendable
activity and classic reporters or classic
scribes whose stories are even now held
in high esteem credit the Amazons
wfth having founded Ephesus. Smyrna.
Cyme and Myrina. No doubt they laid
out and built other cities, but it is not
necessary to lengthen the list to prove
the achievements of these women as
house builders, if not as home build
ers, and as town managers.
The people of remote antiquity had no
doubt about the reality of these women
and many circumstantial stories were
written about them by Homer, another
author whose name has come down to us
as Arctinus, and old Herodotus devoted a
good deal of space in his history of the
world to these women.
The first home of the Amazons as deter
mined by various classic authors was near
the River Thermedon and they were the
offspring of Ares, the war god. and the
naiad Harmonia. The first city which
they built, and which might properly be
called their home town, was Themiscura.
which stood in the neighborhood of the
modern Trebizond. Their country was a
no man's land. Only women were ad
mitted. They were governed by their
own queens, several of whose names may
be read, and thus it might appear that
they were the original suffragettes,
though unquestionably of the militant
variety.
The Amazons were not altogether man
haters. They had some interest in those
men called Gargareans, from whose name
one might reasonably guess they were
not mollycoddles. It has never been
charged that the Gargareans used powder
puffs or slept with a pink rose in their
hair. If they used any cosmetics at all
they probably, like the Budini, in some
way related to the Scythians, painted |
their whole bodies with a deep blue and i
red. I
The Amazons used to pay an annual
visit to the Gargareans at Mount Cau
casus, thereby showing that it was an
early custom for women to propose as
well as call first. The male children of
the Amazons and Gargareans were sent
back to be reared by their fathers or
mercifully put to death. The girl babies
were taken in hand by their mothers and
brought up athletically with a view to
constant preparedness. Here is a very
early example of daughters being more
highly esteemed than sons.
Homer had something to say of
Amazons mi the Phrygian and Lycian
*
* *
story. It is said that when the Amazons
invaded Lyria, Bellerophontes treated
them in a most ungentlemanly way ?
actually butchered a horde of them.
The Amazons arc said to have fought
the Trojans in the youth of Priam, and
the Trojans very likely complimented
the women on their ability as fighters.
There was one very serious trouble
that the Amazons pot into and that
was on the Island of l*euee, at the
mouth of the Danube. It is a matter
of history, as history was written sev
eral thousand years ago. that the Ama
zons were expelled from l?euce by the
ghost of Achilles. The ancient chron
iclers say that the Amazons were ex
pelled from and not scared out of
Leuce by Achilles' phost.
It was the ninth labor of Hercules to
take the Amazonian queen, Hippolyt**.
and Ret from her the girdle which was
the emblem of her authority and which
had come down from the war god,
A.res. Theseus also had a "run-In"
with the Amazons and drove them back
to Asia, but then Theseus could do al
most anything he set his hand to.
*
* *
The fourih book of Herodotus says:
"When the Grecians had fought with
the Amazons < the Scythians call the Ama
zons Aiorpata, and this name in the
Grecian language means man-slayers j.
the story goes that the Greeks, having
been victorious in the battle of Thermodon.
sailed away, taking with them in three
shnas as many of the Amazons as they
had been able to take alive; but the Ama
zons, attacking them out at sea, cut the men
to pieces. However, as they had no
knowledge of navigation, nor any skill in
the u*e of the rudder, sails or oars, when
they had cut the men to pieces, they
were carried by the waves and wind and
arrived at Cremni. on the l^ake Maeotis.
but Cremni belongs to the Scythians. Her*
the Amazons, landing from the vessels,
marched to the inhabited parts and seized
the first herd of horses they happened to
fill in with. and. mounting them, plundered
the land of the Scythians."
Though it is l>elieved that all the Ama
zons of which Homer and Herodotus wrot?
have passed to their reward, it is also
believed that they have worthy descend
ants in the world today.
It was a wonderful region the Amazons
dwelt in. If a man can comprehend and
have perfect faith in all the remarkable
happenings in that wonderland he may
also accept without suspicion the hoary
and antique story of the Amazons. Th?
marvels of the region furnished themes
for many of the old writers, a knowledge
of whose very names and ability to pro
nounce them are in some ways accepted
among moderns as one of the hall marks
of culture. For one thing, it was the
region of the golden fleece. The ram of
the golden fleece flying through the air, per
haps at a greater altitude than aero
planes reach now, and carrying Helle and
Plirixus on his back, dropped poor Helle
into that narrow body of water which to
day, in memory of that accident, is called
the Hellespont.
The golden fleece was nailed to a beech
tree in the war god's grove in Colchis, a
land by the Black sea. or the Pontis. or
the Euxine, which we now call Circassia.
The ram of the golden fleece came from
somewhere in the clouds when Ino, who
was a cruel woman, was about to alay her
stepchildren, Helle and Phrixus. who. we
are assured, were the children of a cloud
nymph and a Minuan king.
They used to call the Gallipoli peninsula
the Thracian Chersonese, and scattered
around in that part of the old world were
the lands of Scythia, Thrace. Bithynia,
Paphlagonia.. Colchis. Media. Parthia.
Aria, Sogdiana. Dactriana, Gedrosia and
other lands whose names have a strange
sound today.
It was into the land of Colchis and the
realm of Ares, associated with the early
Amazons, that Jason, Heracles. Hylas.
Tiphys, Butes, Castor, Polydeuces. Caineu*.
Peleus. Thetis, Zetes, Argos, Orpheus anrt
other old friends of the good ship Argo
went for the golden fleece, and, in spite
of brazen-footed bulls breathing flre, ser
pents' teeth that sprang into armed men,
and a serpent thicker than a big pine tree,
they got that fleece.
UNTRAINED T10GPS ALWAYS
TWISTY ON LONG MA1CH
UPPLYING water to the troops In
western Europe is one of the co
lossal military problems which
the armies have faced and overcome.
Supplying- water to the Anglo-French
forces on the Gallipoll peninsula is a
problem of extreme difficulty, that be
ing an arid territory, and it is not
clear from accounts that the problem
has been solved. There have been in
the reports indications of suffering
from thirst.
The water question with troops on
the march and in the field is one of
greater difficulty than civilians know.
In few ways does the superior effect
iveness of hard and regularly trained
troops show above raw or untrained
troops than in the matter of water
discipline. The regular American sol
dier will make a day's march on his
canteen of water. If he has been in
the service long he will carry his rifle,
ammunition and pack over a shadeless,
dusty road through a sweltering day
and come to the end of tile march in
fit physical condition. He has learned
to make that canteen of water answer
his needs. It may have been a hard
lesson to learn, but he has learned it.
If the regular is a recruit, he is learn
ing the lesson, and on a march no
I doubt suffers the discomforts of thirst,
' but the lesson may be learned. If the
soldier is in the cavalry or the artillery
he may share that canteen of precious
water with a horse, using some of it
to sponge out the animal's mouth and
nostrils or his dock, or in wetting down
his head. Many officers make it a
practice to drink water at the begin
ning of a day's march and "not to touch
a drop until the day's march is ended.
There are officers who on a march will j
permit their men to refill their can
teens when it is perfectly convenient j
to do so and the water supply is above
suspicion, but this procedure is more j
for the purpose that the men sfyall f
have cool water than that they shall
have more water to drink.
?
* *
When the soldier has learned to do
with the minimum of water he minis
ters to his comfort and health. Cut
ting down the water below the real I
needs of his body causes the man to j
lose flesh, but in a very large number I
of instances this is beneficial, most j
well fed men having llesh to spare.
Deprivation of water can, of course, be
carried to ;in extreme, and a man may
lose so much weight that his health
and strength will be impaired; but a
canteen of water will carry the aver
age man through a day's work if he
has learned how to use that water.
The untrained and undertrained man 1
on march or maneuvers under an ar-'
dent sun is always calling for water. !
He is always thirsty, always drinking, i
always sweating, always drinking j
again, sweating more and getting!
thirstier. The more he fills himself 'up
with water the more water he wants.
The usual class of untrained troops
will gather around a pump or spring,
and if the water is cold will drink
themselves full, even if that pump or
spring should be placarded with a no
tice that the water, though clear and
cool, is rich and deadly with typhoid
germs.
The average volunteer, before he has
become a soldier, will empty safe and
palatable water out of his canteen be
cause it is somewhat warm, and will
refill it at a suspicious well because
the water is cool. lie will try to slake
his thirst with anything in the line of
drink that he can get. A lot of disci
jline goes to smash when undertrained
troops feei thirsty, and lowered effi- ;
ciency and sickness result. A good
measure of the discipline of troops is
the way they will go by a roadside
pump while on a hot and dustv hike. ?
It is better for a man to be dry on a
march than to be always guzzling
ivater. To be ?'water wise" is one of 1
:he accomplishment? of a good soldier
Much less water Is required by the '
human system than most men think,
and tr"oops from hot and dry countries
march and campaign on a surprisingly
small amount. A writer telling: of the
Beluchis, several regiments of whom
are with the Indian contingent of the
British army in France and Flanders,
has said of them:
"Their most extraordinary physical
characteristic is the facility with
which, camel-like, they can for so lon^
a time go without drink in their burn
ing country?a draught of water once
in the twenty-four hours is sufficient
for them even on a journey. They
march with a rapidity which it is im
possible to conceive, and will walk
taster than the best horse."
Tongue in Cheek.
GEORGE H. STEGE, president of the
Society for the Prevention of
Municipal Waste, says that he could
easily save New York $17,000,000 a
year. *
"To praise New York's economy,"
said Mr. Stege the other day, "one
would have to speak with the tongue
in the cheek?like the girl at the
dance, you know.
"A fat man panted to a girl at the
dance: 'It's very kind of you to hesi
tation with me?me, the worst hesita
tioner in the room!'
"Here he trod on her foot for the
eleventh time, and the girl answered
sweetly:
" 'Oh, how can you say so? Why,
you hardly seem to touch the floor!" "
Jolly Optimist.
LOI*D READING, at a dinner given In
his honor in New York by 'Joseph
H. Choate. was asked how ^ong the war
would last.
"It will last a great whi!? or a littl*
while, according as you are an optimist
or a pessimist." said Lord Reading.
"Let me tell you a trench story.
"Two soldiers were smoking under a
tree somewhere in France.
" "This war will last a long time yet,"
said the first soldier. 'Our company has
planted rose bushes In front of our
trench.' .
" 'Oh. you jolly optimists!' said the
other. 'We've planted acorns in front
of ours.' "
A Golf Story.
AN ardent golf enthusiast recently
told" a golf story.
"A New Yorker and a Philadelphian
set out to have a round of golf at a
Georgia winter resort," he said.
"As the Philadelphian holed oat at the
first green, the New Yorker asked care
lessly:
"'How many strokes did you take?'
"'Nine,* said the Philadelphian.
" 'Then it's my hole.' said the New
Yorker. 'I only took eight.'
"The Philadelphian made no comment,
but at the second green, when the New
Yorker asked him again how many
strokes he had taken, he shook his
head and said, with a knowing smile.
" 'No, you don't. I understand the
rules of the game, my boy. It's my
turn to ask this time.' "
The Wreck Tender.
FEDER1CK PALMER, the war cor
respondent, said at his apartment at
the Brevoort in New York:
"The British censor is beyond me. He
is just about as absurd and illogical
as the wreck tender.
"A man, visiting a wreck, said to
the tender:
" 'What cargo did the poor old boat
carry?'
"'Corfee,' said the wreck tender.
"'Coffins? Did you say coffins?' asked
the man.
"'Corflns? Nah!' said the tender.
Corfee?what yer makes tea out of.' "