instantly broken. Josiah Ward, the villain who escaped
punishment for the murder of the man Wady in your county, came
into Delaware, broke into a shoe-store, succeeded in stealing
one pair of shoes,--was arrested, got sixty lashes at the post,
was made to stand in the pillory one hour, is now serving out a
term of two years' imprisonment,--and _he never got the shoes_!
The pillory is certainly a terrible and cruel punishment, and,
while I heartily favor the whipping-post, I think this savage
punishment should be abolished.
"Since writing the above, I have heard that a colored woman was
convicted of murder in the second degree last May, and on
Saturday the 17th of that month received sixty lashes on her
bare back, and stood in the pillory one hour.
"What do you think of Delaware law, after what I have written? I
have written enough for the present, so I will close, ever
remaining,
"Yours very truly,
P. P."
For twenty years past, Delaware and Maryland farmers have given much
attention to peach culture, which has gradually declined in New Jersey
and states further north. There are said to be over sixty thousand acres
of land on the peninsula planted with peach-trees, which are estimated
to be worth fifty dollars per acre, or three million dollars. To harvest
this crop requires at least twenty-five thousand men, women, and
children. The planting of an acre of peach-trees, and its cultivation to
maturity, costs from thirty to forty dollars. The canners take a large
portion of the best peaches, which are shipped to foreign as well as to
domestic markets.
The low lands and river-shores of the peninsula exhale malaria which
attacks the inhabitants in a mild form of ague. During the spring,
summer, and early fall months, a prudent man will not expose himself to
the air until after the sun has risen and dispelled the mists of
morning. The same caution should be observed all through the low regions
of the south, both as to morning and evening exercise. Chills and fever
are the bane of the southern and middle states, as this disease affects
the health and elastic vigor of the constitution, and also produces
great mental depression. Yet those who suffer, even on every alternate
day, from chills, seem to accept the malaria as nothing of much
importance; though it is a well-known fact that this form of
intermittent fever so reduces t
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