Lead Simple Lives
Tangier Island, Va., July 12 -- The old saying "Live at home and board at the same place," is certainly practiced by the people of this island, a body of land three miles long and one mile wide. If there is a spot on earth where one is made to feel that he is entirely out of the world, Tangier Island surely must be that place. There is a population of about 1,000 people, old and young, male and female, and many of these people have never been off the island, and know as little about the civilized world as a child. Men and women now on the shady side of life have spent their entire existence on this small piece of land, and to some of them this island embraces the whole world. Yet they are happy and contented in their primitive manner of living, and have no desire to know what is going on in the great throbbing, busy world which lies beyond their water-bound surroundings.
On this island the British invader made headquarters for several days in 1814, and not far distant is Deal's Island, where good old Parson Joshua Thomas was informed by the British General Ross that it was his intention "to eat supper that night in Baltimore or in hell." The man of God prayed that General Ross might not reach Baltimore, and, as the General was killed at North Point before reaching Baltimore, the people were quick to believe that Parson Thomas's prayers had been answered.
How much farther back than this did the people of this region put implicit faith in prayer the writer does not know, but he does know that the inhabitants of Tangier Island are intensely religious, and at the same time the most superstitious people in the world. As illustrative of their religious convictions, it need only be stated that a few years ago they were worshiping in a small, ramshackle cabin, but a preacher from the Virginia conference was assigned to the island and he has succeeded in starting up one of the best charges in the conference district.
Where the small cabin stood is now a handsome $12,000 building and the preacher receives more that $1,000 a year to look after the spiritual affairs of the inhabitants. The islanders are always ready to contribute liberally whenever the parson finds it necessary to have the contribution box passed.
The church is the biggest thing on the island, and more interest is taken in it than anything else. Whatever the parson says is law and gospel, even with the roughest oystermen and crabbers, who will occasionally smuggle whiskey on the island. The very strictest prohibition laws are enforced, not by officers, but by the churchmen. During a recent protracted meeting -- and they are of frequent occurrence -- some roughs carried a canoe of whiskey and beer to the island of the purpose of selling it, but a crowd of church-people -- men and women -- captured the boat, threw the whiskey in the bay, and administered sound thrashing to the rum-traders, who were glad enough to escape.
The women nearly all go barefoot. When they attend church they carry their shoes and stockings in their hands until church is reached, when they sit down and put them on, removing them as soon as service is over. Their dresses are of the plainest calicoes or ginghams and are cut without flounces and frills. Bustles or tie backs are something they never heard of. There is, however, an abundance of gay ribbons in the make-up of the Sunday costume. Equally plain and old-fashioned is the dress of the men. They are satisfied with the copperas or jeans pantaloons, which are always cut on the high-water principle, never reaching below the ankle. If the men wear shoes on any occasion, there is nearly always an absence of socks, and the shoes are the regulation brogans. Their coat or jacket is a cross between a boy's blouse and the old-fashioned "round-about" coat. Seasons come and seasons go, but the regulation clothes for both sexes of Tangier Island never change. For ages they have dressed this way and but few attempts have been made to change. Whenever a young Tangier Islander strays over to Crisfield, Md., and is persuaded by some of the merchants to invest in some garment other than the regulation, he is laughed and jeered at so much that it is soon discarded. There is one article of service and adornment that a male inhabitant of the island is never without -- a red handkerchief. It is always with him, around his neck, sticking in his pocket, or in his hand.
The homes on the island are of the rudest kind, mostly log cabins, but the interior is always scrupulously clean. The furniture is often not worthy of the name. Many of the bedsteads are of the crudest kind, made by the head of the family with no tools save a saw and axe. Usually the home is too small for bedsteads, if the family is large, and they sleep on mattresses and quilts spread on the floor. The cooking is done in the fireplace, the utensils consisting of a frying pan, a kettle, and oven, and possibly a few pots. Cooking stove, sewing-machines, and such modern conveniences are unknown to many of the inhabitants. A large number of the people, both old and young, cannot read, but the new preacher has succeeded in advancing education to a large extent.
Girls here 16 years old will measure 6 feet and weigh 200 pounds. They are strong and healthy, well mannered, and, above all, are taught from earliest childhood to regard virtue as above everything in the world. For twenty-eight years past there has not been an illegitimate birth on the island. The men are peaceable and quiet, but there are two things for which they will fight quicker than any other. It is death to the man who attempts to or succeeds in despoiling a home, and crabbers and oystermen who poach on the grounds near the island are sure to get into serious trouble. There have been few occasions for trouble from the former cause, but in years agone it was almost a weekly occurrence to have desperate and bloody battle about the latter. In recent years these have become far less numerous, but occasionally blood is made to flow. Only a few days ago Bain Webber, a Deal's Island oysterman was shot and killed on the Somerset county shore by the mate of a police boat. This war has been going on for years between the people of this region and many lives have been lost.
These people live by crabbing and dredging for oysters and interfere with no one so long as they are let alone. They are, as stated, very superstitious. They have signs for everything, and almost worship the moon, by which they foretell storms and all kinds of disasters. They have a mortal dread of an owl, and the hooting of one by day or night is an omen of ill-luck. If it is heard at night and answered by the howl of a dog, it is a sign that one of the family will die soon. As soon as the hoot of the owl is heard a chair or stool is overturned, and if the hooting ceases at once it is a sign that the danger has been warded off for a time, but if the hooting continues, there is weeping and wailing in the home of the islander. The howling of a dog at night is the omen of ill-luck also, but it is not a sign of some impending danger unless it is answered by the hoot of an owl. Biliousness is cured by boring three holes in a carefully selected tree and walking three times around it, saying "Go away, bilious." It is a matter of the utmost importance whether the one who performs the spell walks with the sun or against it, but no one knows which is the approved direction. A soiled stocking tied around the neck they believe will cue sore throat, as will also seaweed wrapped in red flannel and put under the bed. An Irish potato with a hole bored through it is a guarantee against rheumatism on the island. They believe that a shoe turned sole up under the bed will prevent cramps, as will also the tail feathers from a white hen burned over the coals of a slow fire. These people have hundreds of just such superstitious beliefs, and cling to them with all the tenacity born of ignorance.