Show A DEGRADED PEOPLE the of indian blanks in mew york state half babeo who aart from dr udd laople and khouy upon of U hiat the little store at Slay backa bettle ment in the wild about the headwaters of the delaware river in delaware and sullivan counties has among its customers some who are undoubtedly the queerest lot that ever had occasion to trade at store says a delhi N Y correspondent of the new york sun they are a race entirely to themselves and live in the wilderness far away from any other human habitation if their own habata lions may be dignified with the name of human for they are the rudest of huts built of old tree trunks brush mud and odds and ends of slabs and other refuse lumber none of these huts are more than eight feet high and chimneys or windows are unknown to them there are about two hundred of these people men women and children and they are all related to one another related in such a way that they are of an extremely low order of physical and mental development they are known by three family names the the and the Macart ya but how they came by them no one knows there origin was peculiar more than a century ago while a good many indians still tarried on their old hunting and fishing grounds in the upper delaware wilderness a family named shannon settled near the headwaters of the Po branch of the delaware they were father mother and three daughters the mother died soon after they came into the region the eldest daughter left home and lived with an indian hunter known as shanks who had a cabin in that vicinity some time after that her father was found dead witha bullet through his brain vh was his murderer was never found out nis other two daughters joined their sister at the indians cabin and for several years the three women lived with the hunter leading the life of savages each of the sisters had nine children by their indian lord and when he left the region and went to canada never to return they remained and there are people living in delaware county today to day who remember them aa old women begging and thieving about the country their numerous progeny intermarried inter married and the present wretched colony in the mountains beyond the settlement are descendants descend anta of them to the third and fourth pener aaion no one ever knew one of these people to have money they have no use for money they are expert fishermen trappers and hunters they bring fish game furs nuts and berries into the store and trade them for auch things as they require and their wants are few tobacco cork and ammunition are the chief items in their supplies they all chew and smoke the women and children as well as the men and the stronger the tobacco the better it suits them they are not given much to strong drink but even under the stimulation of alcohol they are dull and sullen A peculiarity of these half savage i their indisposition to talk whether they are communicative among themselves is not known but with others they use no words beyond what are necessary in their business dealings there are many mutes among the children of the present generation and deformities are almost the rule the moment a stranger approaches any of the huts of chii colony every man woman or child who may be in sight instantly scurried scurries ries away and disappears but presently unkempt heads will be seen cautiously appearing at chinks and aracka in the ramshackle hovels and wild eyes will peer out at the intruder there are no useful domestic animals to be seen anywhere about but many wolfish looking dogs as wild and suspicious as their owners crowd and whine about the huts the complexion of this strange tribe is uniformly a muddy yellow in color it is a singular fact that notwithstanding the lack of moral sense and responsibility among those degraded people they have apparently no inclination for the commission of crime against the community at large as the records of the courts for liala a century show they live absolutely by and to themselves and neither care for nor know any thing beyond the bare obtaining of a subsistence which at its best is but scant |