October, 1845
The Ottawa Free Trader. (Ottawa, Ill.)
(Excerpts)
I was traveling on the eastern shore of Maryland, a district renowned for female beauty and insect voracity- and on a certain Sabbath afternoon, in the month of July, I arrived at a diminutive village, on the shores of a stream called the Pocomoke, which seems to me to be an earthly duplicate of the river Styx; being dark, sluggish and tortuous, and swarming with musquitoes as the infernal flood was said to swarm with spectres. Every village hearabout, however small, has its church or meeting house; generally a neat white wooden tabernacle of extremely moderate size, with a pulpit at one end and a singing gallery at the other; the intermediate space being furnished with pine benches, never painted and sometimes scarcely planed. Altogether these temples would not be to the taste of those Christians who formally renounce the pomps and vanities of this world, while seated comfortably in handsome pews, decorated with crimson cushions and rich brussels carpeting.
It was not yet time for the afternoon service to commence, but the congregation had commenced to assemble. I took a position at the door among a crowd of devotees who were waiting there for the arrival of the minister. I was amazed at first to see the little throng in constant motion-- twirling and twisting about, in what I thought a rather heathen-like manner-- more after the fashion of a troop of dancing dervishes than a Christian assembly. The mystery was soon explained, for scarcely had I taken my stand, when my face and hands were covered with colonies of musquitoes (as spelled in article), which began to eat me up alive in a way which showed me the expediency of keeping up some muscular motion to interrupt their sanguinary operations.
Most of my neighbors were sadly unprovided with defensive armor to repel the attacks of the multitudinous foe. It was not the fashion in those parts for the ladies and gentlemen to wear shoes and stockings in warm weather, and their garments being made of homespun, or factory cotton, as is commonly called, are such penetrable stuff, that the musquitoes never consider them as any obstacle to the gratification of their appetites for blood.
By and by the ladies began to arrive; they were dressed in domestic plaid; but some who were particularly inclined to show off, were decked out in calicoes of the gayest colors. These were the belles of the neighborhood. They wore straw or chip hats, decorated in extreme cases, with gaudy ribbons and feathers of all indigenous kinds that forest or farm-yard can supply; the plumage of the peacock, guineafowl, pheasant, and rooster being most conspicuous. The feet in all cases were uncovered. Never did I see such a delightful example of loveliness unadorned, as those shoeless and stockingless little feet exhibited. Commonly the foot unused to cotton and kid-skin bondage, expands rather much to suit our ideas of feminine delicacy, but with the eastern shore girls it is not so; the soil is soft and sandy, and yielding gently to the feet it neither indurates or enlarges them.
Being remote from all the corrupting influence of city life the people are incredibly innocent, and unsuspicious of course. Every stranger is considered a decent fellow until he proves himself otherwise; whereas, in places where human nature is better understood, it is the shrewder and safer practice to hold every unknown individual as a rascal until he gives some evidence to the contrary.
May, 1977
The Morning Herald (Hagerstown, Md)
DEALE ISLAND, Md. (UPI) - The marauding salt marsh mosquitos in Somerset County got a temporary reprieve from death Wednesday, but the state still plans to fight the Mosquito War of 1977.
A malfunctioning pump prevented a DC-3 charter plane from entering into pesticide warfare against the mosquitoes Wednesday morning.
The mechanical problems disappointed state officials who feared the flight might have to be canceled because of bad weather.
The light winds favored the pesticide sprayer Wednesday and state officials hope that Thursday's weather would be just as perfect for the $10,000 project.
The buzzing, blood-sucking insects have plagued the residents of the marshlands around Deale island, Chance and Dames Quarter.
State agricultural department officials said the broods began hatching early this year and that the population has increased well-above counts in the past 20 years.
The huge swarms have forced most area residents to seek shelter in their homes to avoid the bite of the female mosquito in search of protein meals for her eggs.
March, 1908
Steubenvile Herald Star (Steubenville, Ohio)
Prohibition Strikes Maryland
Snow Hill, Md., March, 23.- Worcester County has voted on the prohibition question and gone dry by a large majority. This brings the last of the wet counties of the eastern shore of Maryland under the prohibition banner.
September, 1961
The Salisbury Times
(Excerpts)
$200 Miilion Project Moves Ahead
First Of Tunnel Sections To Be Placed In Bay Bed
KIPTOPEKE — This is one of the big days in three-year project that will bridge and tunnel the Virginia Capes at the mouth cf Chesapeake Bay.
The first of 37 sections of pre- fabricated steel and concrete tunnel will be put in the bay bed. Work has been going on with this $200 million project for a year now.
When finished, the 17.5 miles of tube and the bridges will have two lanes of traffic on a 24-foot roadway and the tube's inside clearance of 14 feet will accommodate any known truck.
Tunnel sections are being fabricated in Orange, Tex., and are towed here in the open ocean.
The Virginia Capes bridge-tunnel will replace the world's largest ferry fleet and cut substantial time off the north-south travel on the Ocean Highway.
Virginia engineers are pleased that Delaware is ready with its link of U.S. Route 13, dualized from border to border.
Maryland has dual roads to a point below Pocomoke City and is rapidly dualizing to the Virginia line to be ready for the opening in the fall of 1964. Virginia has a large part of its dual highway now and is building missing links.
September, 1910 (Time Machine archive)
(Colorado Springs Gazette- Colorado Springs, Col.)
SHAME THE WHITTLERS
From the Baltimore Sun
The women of Pocomoke are having the streets cleaned and the weeds pulled up and the fences whitewashed while the men whittle.
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