Poor little nigger,
He couldn’t get enough.”
By wetting the article of clothing and pulling hard two boys could draw tight a knot which took both hands and all the teeth the owner of the aforementioned article had to work loose.
The General lived near the water’s edge in a little hut of stone and wood. The old shanty leaked so that when the rain fell he and his wife sought refuge under the family umbrella, so the story goes.
Near his house was a spring of good water, but what interested the youth of the neighborhood more was the legend of a cave close by where Captain Kidd is said to have stowed treasure. This was supposed to be at a spot where were more stones than nature would seem properly to have gathered together, and this the boys would now and then pry into, but so far as known nothing came of it but an occasional backache.
Presumably his close contact with the river bred a contempt for water that became more and more pronounced as the old fellow advanced in years, when to the few who can now recall him he was a well known character. Possibly he once drank some water which did not agree with him—possibly he supposed it was only intended for the floating of boats (none has as yet made this point clear), but, whatever the cause, our friend was very particular not to tamper with his constitution by drinking any more of the stuff. Hence the jug which was his constant companion when visiting Newark.
The General had a private path, just above the reach of high tide, which came out on the main road near the Point House, and every Saturday afternoon wife Rachael and he would journey southward. They always walked single file, the old lady some fifty to one hundred feet in the rear—presumably this was to insure the safety of the jug, a rear guard, as it were, to protect the supplies, a precautionary measure which would naturally occur to a military man.
Possibly our “General” was a veteran of the war with nature: that certainly is a satisfactory way to account for his title. Just how he came by the secondary title of “Old Two Bottles” is not quite clear, but it is said that it was the result of high words in the family. Mrs. General, it seems, longed for something more substantial than the rear to guard, and appears to have made an unwelcome suggestion that two bottles would be better than one jug and, being some distance behind the conversation was carried on in an elevated tone of voice, and as the General’s rate of locomotion was about a mile an hour the neighbors came easily by the story.
The General and his wife occupy unmarked graves in the neglected burial ground above the Weiler house.