Cape Cod Albinos

Sílice the appearance of albino girls in side' shows and dime museums ilio general public bas indulged in considerable specnlation as to where the managers of these freak aggregations procure their frizzy haired specimens. Although seldom met with at other places, there is at Cape Cod a settleinent of these pink eyed aud white haired people. For generations the Pittsley family, known in the section as the "white haired Pittsleys," have been albino, ïhey have intermarried, and, although olannish in the extreme, years ago took into the family fold a man named Reynolds, in whose cbildren the peculiarity cropped out, and added the "white haired Reynolds" to the little army of Cape Cod's human ctiriosities. Until quite recently a dozen or 15 Pittsley albinos rnight have been found within half as rnany miles of each other and sometimes under the same roof . Bnt the famüies in which there are albinos have scattered Jately and spread over the most loneiy parts of the country from Freetown to Wareham, at the entrance to Cape Cod. The miiÉïim albino and the albino in real life have little in common. The albino at home is disappointing. His or her hair isu't criinped to the museurn limit. It doesn't stand out a la Circassian. In the natural Pittsley state the albino hair is dingy, because they don't know any better, and if they did they probably wouldn't adopt the modern methods of washing hair. DJ. IA. JLLJ.LJ-HJ_ÍO JX tTUCJUU IllHi. The eyes of the albino in this región prove their albinisra beyond question. Ihey are usually described as pink, like rabbits' ey3s. They are extremely weak and alraost closed, so that it is difficult to get a square look into the eye itself. When the eye is opened, the lid is lifted ouly for & second, aud it takes a quick look to discover that the pupil is dark red and surrounded with a lighter red ring, while the ball of the eye is pale pink and surrounded with the pinkish rim of the eyelid. The effect would be thoroughly pink if the eye remained at rest. It is alraost impossible to obtain a direct look into the eye, because from the eye of the healthy albino red lights seem to dart, while the pupil qnivers and dilates and seems to move unceasingly- It is over a centmy and a half since the appearance of the flrst albino was recorded in the Pittsley tribe. Since that time probably more than 100 have been born bearing this name or having mothers from this family. At one time it is estimated that only a few less than 50 albinos were living within a radins of 25 miles. Barnum might here have held an albino congress if he had -been able to engage all of these people with the wonderfnl wine red pupils. It has always been arnong the legends of the connty that the great showman did recruit his collection from this locality, hut today the prond Pittsleys deny indignantly that Barnnm ever had money enongh to engage even one of them to pose in pnblic. The origin of the family is connected with one of the wickedest episodes of the early history of the new world. There is even a chance that parhaps Bome Pittsley was a relative or friend of the sweet and pions Evangeline. When the English doported from the vales of Acadia the families of French neutrals and scattered them in almost every settlement from the month of the Penobscot aronnd to Louisiana, town, which was near the colony of Plymonth, had not been able to seud its fnll qnota of men to the army. So in the distribution oí the Frencb. from Acadia 15 raen, with some woraen aud children, were leít in Freetown. The bitterest of all was the separation and splitting np of families. The people were fllled with dejection, and the poorest of them apparentiy built some rude lodges in the foresta and took no care haw they lived. None spoke their langnage. They were strangers in habits and manners. Men had been separated from wives and danghters, and wives leít without their hnsbands. Just what the name of the French nentral anceetor of the albino Pittsleys may have been no research has ever revealed. On the town records, uutil witbin50 years, the name has been Piggsley. In many cases the name Piggsley has been corrnpted into "Hoggsley. " The first appearance of pink eyes and white faair was in a Robert Pittsley somewhfiíe m the first half of the eighteenth centnry. Some place it as early as 1731. From that time down the albino characteristics have been continnally reprodnced. It is believed that continnal intermaxriage has been largely instrnmeiital in handing down the pink eyes and white hair. The Pittsleys were clannish. They wonldn't mingle with other families, much less take wives frorn them. Tbey clnbbed by themselves, butoftener onefainily made a home for itself in some deserted house or jucket house in a lonely part of the woods or out of the way end of a township. They rarely came to town to live. In tbeir ways and their love of cutdoor lif e those people show many of the characteristics of the gypsy, and auother point which allies them to the wandering clans is their ability to "swap" horsee, a business at which most all of the males are esperts. They are illiterate and account for their physical pecnliarities by the theory that one of their ancestors had his'hair turn white aftcr a fright and bequeathed his curious hirsnte poseession to his childien. - Philadelphia Times. We love musio for the buried hopee, the garnered memories, the tender