September 17, 1909

“Time writes no wrinkles on thine azure brow,
What blushing Eve beheld thee there art now.”[i]

The above is part of my quotation to the flowing brooks them [empty] into the upper Lake Fanganzyki. This water is not so fierce and serpentine as Tennyson’s Babbling Brook, but it is energetic nevertheless, and partly drains a scope of country extending nearly to Georgetown. As I stood this morning on the improvised bridge, while the dog Cicero was swimming around, enjoying himself in nature’s element, my thoughts were active; and ran back to the past. The quotation that heads this article brings up a subject for study, and discourses to us thoughts more eloquent than ever fell from human lips. We can but imagine what “blushing Eve”—Eva[ii] now—the new name for the old word, thought but we know that our reminiscences were pleasant, as we looked back, not so far as to “blushing Eve” (Eva) but to the narrow limits of our own life. And as the waters gurgled past beneath our feet, what memories were conjured up between the confines of a few decades! These memories are always pleasant to us. We have no dark background to look upon, no startling [phantasm] to disturb our equilibrium, no flood goblins to annoy our status quo. There are some dark pictures of the past, but they are trivial when compared with the brighter pictures of life that are brought up our subconscious cerebration; and they are dispersed away like the morning dew, before the effulgence of brighter things. Yes we would be a boy again! We would be a young man again! Yes we would live life over again.

At the regular monthly business meeting of the Y’s on Tuesday evening the following officers were elected: President, Miss Mamie Conner; Vice-President, Miss Annie Davidson; Second Vice-President, Mrs. Emma Davidson; Secretary, Miss Mary Mason; Recording Secretary, Miss Sarah Atkins; Treasurer, Edward Davidson; Organist, Mrs. Emma Davidson, Miss Mary Robbi9ns was elected delegate, and Miss Mary Mason alternate to represent the Y’s at the W. C. T. U. State Convention to be held in Asbury Church, Wilmington, September 29th and 30th, and October 1st, 1909.

Dr. W. J. Hearn of Philadelphia has been spending some time at his cottage on Broadkiln Beach. He returned to the City on Thursday.

John McMullin, wife and two children, of Philadelphia, have been visiting Mrs. McMullin’s father, Mr. John Magee.[iii]

Last fall someone shot a buzzard near town and broke one of its wings. Being unable to fly it took up its quarters around the bridges and has since been acting as a scavenger for the families contiguous thereto. His friends and patrons feed him, and call him “Rodney’s,” and he appears to know his name. The town dogs that at first were [disposed to dispute “Rodney,” right to the street have become reconciled to their new neighbor, and give him the right of way, and treat him with becoming respect. As his misfortune prohibits him from roosting he sleeps on the ground around the Anderson cannery, or on any little out-of-the-way place that appears handy. “Rodney” has become a fixture in this locality.

J. R. Scull and the Misses Ella and Margaret Scull of Newport News, Va., have been the guests of their uncle, Captain James B. Scull, and their cousins the Misses Lydia and Mary Stanton.

Miss Mary Leathers and Mr. Harry White of Overbrook were married at the home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. S. Leathers, at Nassau, at noon, on Wednesday September 1st.

Mayor Jones and the Milton Town Council have received an invitation from the Hudson-Devries Commission to be present at the tercentenary celebration of the arrival of Henry Hudson in Delaware Bay, and the unveiling of the Devries Monument at Lewes. On Wednesday September 22nd, 1909.

Devries monument at Lewes, DE
Devries monument at Lewes, DE; more information on the DeVries Colony can be found at this link

One of our Milton geniuses who does not understand reportorial hyperbole said, “I wonder of Peary seen the flag that Dr. Cook nailed to the pole.” “I don’t know,” said I. “O, well!” continued he, “the wind blew pretty hard up there, and may have blown it away.” “Yes,” resumed I, “or a polar bear may have eaten it. Polar bears are not used to such pretty things as the “stars and stripes” and such would be a delicacy to one.

The Second Quarterly Conference of this Conference year was held at the M. E. Church on Friday afternoon. Only routine business was transacted.

On Saturday at noon quite an excitement was created at the home of Mrs. Edwin P. Johnson, when Miss Laura Mitten Conner, while brushing off a window, came into contact with a honey bee. The bee in seeking a hive got into this vivacious lady’s pompadour with the result that her cries brought three sisters to the rescue. The pompadour was demolished and the long tresses were flying hither and yon. The bee escaped. W. H. Leverage on Saturday brought to town an ordinary tomato basket filled with twenty tomatoes. We did not count them, but take the prediction of Prof. W. H. Welch for the truth. And from the looks of the vegetable there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the account. The tomatoes were very large—over large, and like extraordinary people, are of no account.

The property of William Ott on Chestnut Street was offered for sale on Saturday and bought in by the owner at $875.00, not as much as the owner thought the property is worth in Milton.

It appears that spooks or hobgoblins had invaded the colored camp at Lavinia. All of Friday night spells and incantations were the fete. It is supposed the “old curs” that were on the previous Sunday put a spell on the camp. The lights kept burning even up to eight o’clock on Saturday morning, Will Mosley and John Wesley Derrickson have charge of the hobgoblins, and they say they have driven them to the upper part of the lake. Notwithstanding nearly all of the colored community who could raise money went to the camp at […] on Sunday. Even the colored folks should know when to stop a thing.

And the Milford Public Schools propose to have […] drinking […] for the pupils. This is not an invention nor a new ideal possibly a revivicator [sic] of an old one. When I went to school fifty years ago, I with two other friends always kept our glass on our desk and drank from it, and no one […]. O, yes! There is a young lady living in Frederica—young then—who can vouch for the authenticity of this story. She would say “Dave give me some water out of your glass,” she got it. […remainder of paragraph illegible]

[…next paragraphs illegible…]

[…] to stop business except the Goodwin works; and this cannery had been furnishing cans to the Royal Packing Company for a week, demonstrating a Christian spirit to the one who has been doing all it could against them. The noon train on Sunday brought cans for the Royal Packing Company, and then the extraordinary sight of running cans from the depot by teams was witnessed. About 8 o’clock the factory started, and by this move have nearly saved their accumulation. The “more holy than these” gang see lots of dire disaster in this, but we believe the company is justifianble in saving their goods; as it was not their fault that they accumulated, except perhaps, in not being long headed enough to order goods far enough in  advance. But where there is no business head to a firm one cannot expect much from it.

The whiskey thief was in evidence again on Saturday afternoon and got tapped this time. Mayor Jones appeared, unexpectedly, and took the parties to their home. Later, an amicable adjustment was made and the affair ended. Prohibition in Milton is a failure. We say this without publishing “Bill” Robinson’s snake story. During the last week there have been over one hundred gallons come to Milton for private parties. We see the express matter but, honestly, we don’t know who they are for and we don’t try to read the superscription on the packages.

The colored camp at Lavinia closed on Sunday night. It continued just one week too long. They think so themselves now. On Monday fifteen dogs was a part of the remnant that went through Milton as a “survival of the fittest.”

Rev. Bryan of Harbeson preached at the M. P. Church on Sunday evening; and District Superintendent Morgan talked to the M. E. congregation on Sunday evening.

William E. Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Johnson, died in Coolspring on Friday of typhoid, aged 6 years, 1 month and 8 days. Funeral services at Weigands Chapel on Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Bryan of Harbeson, and Sepulture in the graveyard by S. J. Wilson & Son.

Prof. and the Captain of the burnt district, H. W. Welch, with his omnipresent pipe, will leave for his Ellendale School on Monday. While we will miss the pipe, and possibly the man, Ellendale is the gainer. Mr. Welch is a noble specimen of the genius homo and Ellendale is a gainer.

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[i] This quotation is confusing. The first line is found in Canto CLXXXII of Lord Byron’s Pilgrimage of Childe Harold, but the second line reads: “Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.”

[ii] This name Eva is intriguing. David A. Conner’s wife’s maiden name was Mary E. King. There is no record of what her full middle name was, but it is possible that it was Eva and that this is what the writer is alluding to in this rambling “reminiscence.”

[iii] Mrs. McMullin was the former Viola Magee, who was one of the Sunday School window girls in the Milton M. P. Church.