Peninsula Enterprise, June 27, 1896

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Sea -- Shellfish - Crabbing : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Crabbing : Law enforcement

A party of lawless men from Maryland, as appears from the following dispatch published in a late issue of the Baltimore Sun, invaded the State of Virginia last week and carried away by force a batteau in the lawful custody of our officers:

"About thirty citizens of Asbury, near Crisfield, Md., went to Holden's Creek, Virginia, Thursday last for the purpose of retaking the batteau in which Aaron Byrd and William Moore were captured by the Virginia State fishery force on June 10th. They arrived at their destination about 7 o'clock in the morning and at once made inquiries about the boat. They learned that the object of their search had been placed on rollers, carried far inland and concealed among the reeds. They pressed a team of oxen into service, placed the boat back on rollers again and soon had her back into the water."

Their action in this matter is well in keeping with their past conduct in our waters. Men who avail themselves of every opportunity to invade our territory and take our oysters and crabs, of course, would not hesitate to recapture, if they could, property forfeited to the Commonwealth of Virginia, in which they made their depredations into our waters. In other words, they wanted the boat and urged on by the small fry politicians who knew they had no right to expect that it would be returned to them by the State of Virginia, they came like freebooters and took her. Such being the facts, it will occur to the average Virginian that the good offices of the Governor of Virginia which they have invoked to the end that the crab thieves now confined in our jail should be released, should be in the other direction. Marylanders have no just cause of complaint because of the arrests recently made, and they know it and there could be no more flimsy excuse than that upon which they seek to escape punishment for their acts. Beacons on the shore, even if the waters are not marked by buoys, indicate too plainly the dividing line between the two States for them to make the mistake of getting over a mile in Virginia as those did who were recently captured in our waters. If Marylanders were caught dredging in Pungoteague creek there are some of them who would be willing to swear that they were so near the line, that for the sake of the good relations which ought to exist between the States no punishment ought to be meted out to them. Our Governor may be tender-hearted, but he cannot afford to lose his head in this matter, and he certainly cannot commit the folly of encroaching upon the prerogatives of the judiciary, as he has been requested by the Governor of Maryland, and have a nolle entered in the cases of the prisoners recently captured.

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Infrastructure -- Public : Schools

In our last issue we had something to say of the successful work done at the Margaret Academy during the session just ended, and we took occasion to call the attention of the people of the Eastern Shore to the merits of this school and its claims upon them for a generous patronage and support. The best evidence of the excellence of an academy is the success that attends its pupils when they have passed into the higher colleges and universities of the country. Measured by this standard, the Margaret Academy has a record of which her officers and instructors may be justly proud. Every year some one of her old pupils wins distinguished honors at college or university, and sometimes there are more than one to share these honors. During the past few years pupils of this academy have been studying at the University of Virginia and at Harvard University in Massachusetts. The last named is the oldest, richest and most illustrious educational institution of America. It has more than three thousand students representing almost every State in the Union and many foreign countries. In looking over the list of graduates and honor men at the University of Virginia, we find that Mr. Sidney Kellam, of Onancock, was graduated in the departments of chemistry, mathematics, French, and Latin, and Mr. Griffin Holland, of Eastville, Va., received the degree of Doctor of Medicine and the gold medal of the Washington Society for the best debater. Mr. S. Upshur Hopkins, of Onancock, who has been attending Harvard University, has been appointed instructor in that great school, and to add to his high honors already achieved, he has secured through the recommendation of the Harvard faculty a very responsible and lucrative appointment for the summer months from President Roberts, of the Pennsylvania railroad, who desired to secure a man of high scholarship and strict integrity to do special work of great importance. There are, doubtless, others of the old academy students who deserve honorable mention here for the progress made and success achieved last session, but the examples cited above are enough to show that we have a school here on the Eastern Shore which challenges comparison with the best academies in the land, and which, measured by the standard of success achieved by its pupils in the higher institutions of learning, shows that it is fulfilling with admirable efficiency the functions of a great preparatory school whether for college or the active duties of life.