The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 79

4TNPAY, NOVEMBER 8, How Brooklyn Got Its Start Counterfeit Wampum and Oysters, Clothespins on Tongues Imagine! By Jane Corby LISTEN you and you and you and you how do you suppose Love Lane (speaking of Brooklyn) got Ms name? Well, since you insist, we'll tell you. It was like this: Once upon a time there was a pretty girl omigosh, yes named Sarah De Bevoise. who lived with her two old bachelor uncles. Uncle Robert and Uncle John had a nice little place, about fourteen acres in all, extending from the East River to the Old Road (Fulton Street), and from Love Lane to pierrepont Street. Only Love Lane was just a path then and Pierrepont Street was nothing to boast of either.

Uncle Robert and Uncle John bless em adored their pretty niece, but they couldn't stand the lads who came a-call-ing. The De Bevoise homestead was an old-fashioned farmhouse, with but one loom in which any one could hope to find a comfortable perch. So when it was all cluttered up with Sarry's young men, poor dear Uncle Robert and Uncle John couldn't read the evening paper for lack of a parking space, to say nothing of what went on in the way of conver England or direct from the old country. They made lovely laws. "No man shall sell any liquor, but such as are deputed thereto by the towne, and such shall not lett youth and those under authority remaine drinking att unreasonable hours.

"No Indian shall travel up and down, or carry any burden in or through our towne on the Sabbath Day, and whosoever is found see doing shall be liable to corporal punishment." As for "false witness," the unlucky offender was to "have done unto him as he had thought to have done to his neighbor, whatever it be, to the taking away of life, limb or goods." Now, can j'imagine woman coming to live in a town like that and saying that her husband had brought her to a place where there was neither gospel nor magistracy? The insult of it. But East Hampton was avenged. The critical newcomer was sentenced to stand one hour with a closepin on her tongue. "That'll learn her," the honest townsfolk told each other. And would you care to know what Man-hansack aha qua shu wornock means? It means "an island sheltered by islands." In other words, Shelter Island.

Tee hee. And of course you knew that the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street is haunted? Omyess. It was haunted by the spirit of a murdered man. Of course there was a fort on that spot. Cobble Hill Fort, so it is not very surprising that somebody passed out at that point.

But Just to show what an old meanie the ghost was: A little over a hundred years ago there was a speakeasy located on what is now Carroll Street, between Henry and Here the bad young men of Brooklyn used to eat oysters and drink to excess. They also roystered ate oysters and roystered. One night when an extremely roysterous party had been oystering and roystering for. hours they discovered, just before midnight, that the supply of liquor had given out. It seems that there was no other oasis that side of Brooklyn ferry and the only thing to do was to draw tots to see who would make the long journey past the The critical newcomer was sentenced to att hour of punishment I 3 sit sation.

80 what did the jolly old uncles do bat build their niece a cute little playhouse, where she and the boy friends eonld have fun. The path that led to this little house lay between the De Be-votoe estate and the Pierrepont, next door, and the fence, on either side, in an taeredibly short time, was practically cut to nieces by the artistic efforts of the ardent callers, who carved intertwined hearts and initials and flowers, with baautiful effect. In no time at all the UtOe road came to be known as Love -Lane and Love Lane it is today, and Sally married two of her admirers one at a time, of course. "And now," said Uncle Bob, when the Hurry of the first wedding was over and Bally had apparently settled down, "now for some peace and quiet." But he was doomed to disappointment. The town was growing and the deserted lane was that way only as long as it took the sons and daughters of the neighbors to stop, look and linger.

"There oughta be a law," grumbled poor Uncle Bob, trying to read his newspaper above the giggles and the sighs, the sobs and the shouts that enlivened the air for blocks around. So Uncle Robert moved way, way out on Pulton Street, and finally retreated to Jamaica, Long island. When the De Bevoises departed from Brooklyn Heights they took away one of its most colorful characters, De Bevoise's Black Peg, -who used to toddle up and down the Old Ferry Road (Fulton Street), shouting "Hot com! Piping hot!" or "Baked pears!" Dont ask us how it happened that the family cook had time to cook and sell these delicacies to the townspeople. Now, what else would you like to know? What Long Island town had but one church and one place for wor-aUp for two hundred count "em two hundred years? We know the answer to that one: East Hampton. Strict Purf- put in their time manufacturing wampum for their less fortunate brothers.

When the white settlers first took possession of the island they found immense shell banks, made of broken shells, tossed aside by the Indians after making wampum. French settlers once undertook to kid the Indians out of their wampum by manufacturing porcelain money, but the wily redskins soon discovered the trick and spurned the counterfeit wampum. Then the Dutch and the English stepped in and, with their mechanical aids, soon gave the Indians all the wampum they wanted. As a result the savages very promptly went off the wampum standard and began demanding payment in pennies. Lake Ronkonkoma got its name from its beach of white sand.

"Sand Pond" is what the name means. Canoe Place was just that a place where the Indians carried their canoes cross country, from the ocean to the Sound side. It was worth good money to Southampton folk to find a wolf at their door not so many years ago there was a bounty of twenty shillings on said wolf's head. And now that we've taken up the subject of money in a -big way we may as well let you in on a secret: Captain Kidd stopped off at Gardiner's Island, on one of his voyages, and in the presence of the owner of the island, Mr. Gardiner, and under the most solemn injunctions of secrecy, buried a chest of gold, silver and precious stones.

That done, he asked Mrs. Gardiner to roast him a small pig, which she did, very nicely. In return he presented her with two pieces of cloth -of-goki, which was in perfect condition a hundred years later. Long Island towns would have none of them. Southold, the first town settled on the island, (we guess), fixed up a committee to regulate the admission of new settlers.

No one disapproved by this committee could settle In Southold. and other towns followed suit and held out against people they didnt like as long as possible. Meanwhile the Indians were dying out all over the island. It was getting so that there were no savages left only Indian peddlers who came around with brooms and brushes they had made. Wyandanch, "the white man's unwavering, friend," a mighty chief, lived on a place of that name.

The Shinnecock Indians gave their name to a bunch of hills, and the Montauks got Montauk Point named after them. The Rockaway Indians fared better they managed to grab off Far Rockaway, Near Rockaway. East Rackaway, Rockaway Beach and Rockway Point and Rockaway Boulevard, which was the new name of Rockaway pass after it ceased to be a mountain pass and turned into an ordinary road. No, we don't know where the mountains through which the Rockaway Pass passed have gone maybe they're around somewhere yet. Of course you know that Long Island's principal industry was once the manufacture of wampum.

That's Indian for money and the unlucky redskins who jved on the island had to keep plenty wampum on hand, against the visits of friends, the Mohawks and the Pe-quods, from the mainland. The Indian name of Long Island was Seawan-Hacky, or "Island of Shells." With all the opportunities the Long Island Indians had for gathering shells, their neighbors failed to see why they couldn't haunted spot. Young Boerum was the lad elected and he rode away on his horse, waving the empty gallon jug and boasting that no ghost could scare him. Two hours elapsed. By this time the oysters, too, had given out and the other roysterers.

with a good deal of apprehension, set off in search of their missing paL They found his horse leaning against a fence not far from the ghost's territory, and Boreum himself on the ground, within it. He was not dead but apparently suffering. He lingered without regaining consciousness for a couple of day; and then died without giving any of the details of the ghostly encounter, which however, every one just knew had occurred. And anybody who thought that maybe his distress was due to too much liquor plus too many oysters knew better than to broadcast the heresy. Characters who roystered were all very well in Brooklyn, but the other 1 settled the place, coining from new.