Nag's Head

[Nag's Hcad Oor. New York Timf.] There is hardly a foot of land on the whole coast of North Carolina, but has, at some time or other, been covered witli the debris of a wreek. Cape Hatteras extends fnrther out into the sefi than any other land upon the Atlantic coast except Cape Cod, and seamen havo always thought it well to give it as wide a berth as possible. The whole co.ist of the State is a dangerous one, shoals and bars running parallel withthe main, and the bays and inlets thus formed changing their position with almost every storm and unusually high tides. This place, Nag's Head, eight miles north of Oregon inlet, has always been considered one of the most dangerous on the coast. So many vessels have struck in this vicinity, and so many lives have been lost, that one of the first life stations on the Southern coost was located here; and in the first annual report of that service itwas recommended thatanother should be established only six miles south of here, two miles north of Oregon inlet. Since the establishment of these stations no lives have been lost bv shipwreck in the immediate neighbörhood, except in the case of the Huron, a calamity that is still fresh in the minds of the public. The heartlessness and criminality displayed by some of the i gnorant fishermen ia the vicinity of Nag's Head and Kitty Hawk at the time that the Hurón was lost. and Lieut. Walton's exposé of severa! of the worst cases, particularly that of Evan O'Neil, who after discovering the wreek waited for it to go to pieces, in hope of plunder, instead of warning the life-station crew, have brought to recollection some of the old traclitions of the place, in which the fishermen on the coast figure in an unpleasant light. It has long been said that when a wreek carne ashore, no matter whether lives were lost or not, these men regarded it as a public benefaction ; and that some of the supposedly religious ones went about saying that God was always good to His children, for another wreek had come ashore. It is not so well-known, however, that the very name of Nag's Head came from the rascality of these men. and one of their peculiar methods of bringing vessels ashore on their coast. Since the recent terrible disaster the story has become common property again, and maRy old resir'ents in tlie neighborhood remember the old man and the white horse that are the héroes in the tragic story. Among the fishermen who faimed a little piece of land back of his cabin, was Thomas Bider. Rider was rather better off than his neighbors, older than most of them, and lived alone iu his cheerless cabiu. He was reputed to be rich, and he had the reputation of fastening his clutches on everything that came within his reach, and giving nothing up in return. He was a mean man, as his neighbors thought, and he was generally shunned, even by the ignorant and and careless fishermen. The conduot that is imputed to him in the later years of his life shows that he was more villain than miser. Eider owned an old gray horse, with which he plowed his land in the spring and did other odd jobs about his little farm. After a succession of seasons of bad luck, the fishermen became desperate, and resolved to take some measures to coax an unsuspecting vessel ashore. The building of bonfires on the topa of hign mus, to aeceive marinera who were out of their reckonng, was not unknown to them. Indeed, ; was one of the first letters in their al?habet. But thetrick was old, and not ikely to deceive any wide-awake ekipjer. Hunger sharpeued the brains of lie sleepy üshermen, and they devised new pieoe of villainy. If a light could be taken along the shore on dark nights, t about the speed of a sailing vessel, ,hey thought, other vessels within sight woiüd believe it to be the masthead iight of some distant coasting schooner, and eokon themselves miles from shore, when, in fact, they were almost on the beach. But the light must have the upand-down motion of a ship riding on the waves. This difficulty was soon overeóme. Old Thomas Rider had a horse, and a small bribe of gold, or the promse of uuusual privileges for sacking the u-6t wreek, would soon make him a party o any bargain desired. Rider was induced to take his old gray nag, whose motion was slow and unsteady at best, and ride him up and down the beach every dark night, with a lantern hung about his neck. To givo the light the greater appearance of a ship's lantern, one of the horse's fore feet was fastened with a short rope to one of his hind ones, to that whenever he stepped tho sudden stoppage of one of his feet brought his head and back down, and gave, the lantern the exact "bobbing" motion of a ship on the waves. For a whole winter, it is said, this North Carolina vampire walked his horso up and down the beach, in the hope of enticing some vessel asliore. to be plundered. And the rapacity of the men was not satisfied by merely saoMng the vessels. That ' ' dead men teil no tales " wasoneof theirfavorite sayings, and who could teil whether th bruise on some shipwrecked sailor's temple was the effect of a blow from a club or of being thrown violently against some floating spar ? When no soul carne ashore alive from the wreek the vampires were thankful, for they wore saved the pain of murdering them on the beach. Thomas Bider's lantern was always darkened ou the land siiïe, so that the few honest people on the shore would not know what was being done. But the trick was at length disoovered, and from tbis circumstance carne the peculiar name by whioh the place is known. Unfortunately, the North Carolina coasthad no law in these early days to bring Thomas Rider to justice. But tradition has it that he met the f ate at last thathe scema lichly to have deserved years before. On one of the nights that he was making his patrol of death up and down the beach, some of his thieving neighbors broke into his cabin, oarried away what they conld, and set flre to the shanty to conceal their erirne. Bider saw the blaze, and, being on horseback, reached the place bei'ore the thievea could escape. He attacked them, and in the fight thatensued Bider was killed. This tradition has come down through eeveral generations of fishe.rmon, many of whom are as great villains as Bider himself. It may have been elaborated in its long journey, or it may, on the other hand, have lost some of its terror; but the character of the murderous men along the North Carolina coast at this time bears out the story, and gives color to the history of Thomas Bider and Ma gruy nug. Thebe is a negro in Glasscock coanty, Georgia, about 50 years of age, whose face, hands, and feet, and most of his body, have tnrnerj completely white. He was onr e black all over - said to have been very black. When a boy a white spot appeared on his body, and since then he has been gradually tuming from Ethiopian to Cancasian color. There is a similar oase in one of the counties of Central Kentueky.