Why would I do a paper on the New Jersey Devil? The answer to that is quite simple. Ever since I was a little child, I would travel on Route 206 to the shore, this road slices the pines all the way from Trenton to the Shore. Many thoughts entered my mind during this long drive. Will the beach be crowded? Will the salt water make me gasp as I stick my feet in? Will I hear the bells of the ice cream man? But as I asked myself these questions, I could not help to stair into the dense rows of pines. As I got lost in these endless trees, stories began to spring up in my mind about New Jersey’s famous creature: The New Jersey Devil. Ever since those long car rides, I have been wondering about this fascinating creature, and this paper gave me the perfect opportunity for all of my questions to be answered on one of the world’s greatest mysteries. I would not consider myself a scholar on the New Jersey Devil, in fact I barely know anything about the creature. One piece of information that I do know is that the creature supposedly inhabits the Pine Barrens, but can be found throughout South Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. The New Jersey Devil is considered evil and has a hair-raising appearance.
Along with the tad-bit of knowledge I hold on the devil, I have many queries on it. To start off, is it real? What does it look like? Is it dangerous to humans? What is it’s purpose? Is it related to the devil? How has it come into existence? After I am finished my research, no rock will be left unturned, and all my questions on the New Jersey Devil will be answered. My next task was to gather as much information as I could on the New Jersey Devil. To accomplish this task, I had to go through many a strenuous task. I found that it was difficult to do research on a creature that might not even exist. Most of my research came from the internet. For hours at a time, I would slave away at the IBM “wonder machine” and visit all the search engines known to man: Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Dogpile, etc. Information came scarce on all of these engines due to the fact that whenever I used the keywords “New Jersey Devil,” the hockey team would always come up as my answer instead of the mythical creature. Every once and a while, I would discover an excellent site that would lend me all of my information that I needed. I managed to find two books on the New Jersey Devil, but it wasn’t easy.
The Essay on Answers The Question Poem Dark Black
The poem 'Telephone conversation' is staged by a black man who is looking for a flat but ends up phoning to a landlady who is racist but tries to be polite in finding out whether he is he is a dark or light one. When he first speaks to her he feels awkward as he feels he has to confess that he is African. Also I think he feels as though he has been in the same position before somewhere else and he ...
First I went to the Mount Laurel library, and came out empty handed. Then I traveled to the Burlington County Library and had the same results. It was then I remembered that my friend loved everything about the Pines and would most likely have books on the New Jersey Devil. He indeed had books on my topic, two of them. I quickly read through them, gobbling up all the information inside . During my library visits, I stumbled upon a video on the New Jersey Devil. I checked the movie out and popped it in my VCR. Though the sound was bad and the movie atrocious, it produced a lot of information for me. My paper would be more powerful if I had conducted an interview, but in order to complete this task, I would have had to drive out to the middle of the Pines and talk to some nut that does not have contact with the outside world. For my own safety, I elected not to conduct an interview. I finished my research with a poll of the people, “Do you believe in the New Jersey Devil?” Next time I pick a topic to research, I’m not going to chose a topic that people aren’t positive that exists! On a stormy night in 1735, a Quaker woman gave birth during a horrendous thunderstorm.
The room had an eerie feeling to it as the candlelight flickered. The impoverished woman, known as mother Leeds, was believed to have many other children-as many as twelve, and did not want another. As the child was being delivered, strange characteristics appeared on the baby boy. Characteristics such as an elongated body, winged shoulders, a large horse-like head, cloven feet, and a thick tail. According to the legend, the creature killed the half-wife and flew up the chimney into the dark night. The New Jersey Devil was born(NJN Video, Mother Leeds’ 13th Child)! There are many different thoughts on how the New Jersey Devil was created. Some stories are farfetched and a little hard to believe. One story tells of a young Leeds Point girl, who fell in love with a British soldier during the Revolutionary War. The local townsfolk opposed the couple, so they cursed the girl. When she later gave birth to a child, it was known as the New Jersey Devil(James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 25-26).
The Essay on On The Road The Role Of Wome
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, is an honest story of a friendship, and four trips across America. The narrator is Sal Paradise, an aspiring novelist who lives with his aunt in New Jersey. Sal's best friend is Dean Moriarty. Sal idolizes Dean for his laidback cowboy style, his ease with women, and his all around joy in living. Over the course of the book, Dean marries, divorces, makes love to, and ...
Others tell a tale that the Devil himself was “involved” with Mrs. Leeds, and the New Jersey Devil was one of their children. Several people testified that they frequently saw the Devil entering her house( www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/6626/folklore.htlm).
In all of these stories, Leeds Point, New Jersey was linked to the birthplace of the New Jersey Devil. To understand the New Jersey Devil, one must know the place he calls home, the Pine Barrens. This is a remote region extending 1,700 square miles across southeast New Jersey (www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/6626/folklore.htlm).
Many consider this land to be dry and desolate, but it is actually a giant aquifer with dense strands of white cedars. The air is calm, still, and cool. The cedar stands throughout the swamp and stains the streams blood red. With all of these obstacles, people still managed to travel throughout the pines. In early days, travel was extremely difficult, for the cedar swamps were great obstacles. Even though the soil was very sandy, roads were still able to be built. Some roads are old Indian trails, others are old stage coach roads, some roads are paved, and others remain dirt trails. All these roads lead to places that were once booming during the early days of the United States. This is what the New Jersey Devil calls home. The precise origins of New Jersey’s most famous otherworldly creature remain shrouded in ambiguity. But throughout the nineteenth century, tales of his exploits were commonplace. Crop failure, droughts, and cows not producing milk were said to be his doing. He also blew the tops off trees, frightened man and beast, and pierced the still night air with awful screams. Some claim that the Jersey Devil appears every seven years and is the harbinger of evil. Although the seven year cycle for his appearances does not always seem to be accurate, the Jersey Devil does seem to appear before wars. Due to his deeds, the New Jersey Devil has become world famous. Legend has it that Commodore Stephen Decatur, early nineteenth-century American naval hero, traveled to Hanover Iron Works in the Pines to test new cannonballs. While testing, Decatur observed a bizarre creature flapping its wings across the range. With precision, he sighted and then fired a cannonball directly through the Jersey devil. All present were stunned that the gaping hole did not appear to affect the devil in the least (www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/6626/folklore.htlm).
The Essay on High School People Students Week
A Life-Threatening Stereotype Why does stereotyping exist in all parts of the world today? Many people develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. Stereotyping is defined as a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. All throughout history, there is much ...
While hunting in Bordentown, Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Spain and brother of Napoleon, claimed to see the devil in the woods. It is said that the infamous Captain Kidd buried some treasure along Barnegat Bay and in customary pirate fashion he beheaded one of his band, so that the spirit of the former henchman would forever guard the prize. After years of loneliness, the headless pirate apparently struck up a friendship with the New Jersey Devil, and the two could be seen late at night traversing the sands of the Atlantic Shore. Others say they saw the devil with a pirate whose head was still intact (John Shabe, www.nj.com).
Many believed that the devil would disappear and not return in the twentieth century. Not only had the New Jersey Devil not disappeared with the start of the twentieth century, but his influence was to become even greater. Of the two hundred and forty years of this creature’s existence, nothing approaches the magnitude of his appearances in at least thirty different towns in the third week of January, 1909(James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 37-38).
He emerged from his natural lair in the Pine Barrens and wandered throughout the Delaware Valley, sometimes intriguing and sometimes terrorizing the residents. This week is now known as Phenomenal Week. During the week of January 16-23, thousands of people saw the devil, or his footprints. Their descriptions of the monster on his travels varied and most were not the same. As he swept through the area during this unprecedented week, schools and factories closed, people stayed indoors, and newspapers speculated on the events. Most people did not see the devil during this week, they just heard an unusual noise or saw strange footprints. These footprints were not made from any normal animals. They stretched from five story high roof tops and crawled under fences. No-one could explain what caused the prints. Police officers fired numerous rounds at strange winged creatures, but did no damage to the creature. The tri-state area was trembling with fear due to this creature. One man decided to take advantage of this current crisis. This man was Norman Jefferies, who owned a dying museum in Philadelphia (James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 78-79).
The Essay on English Rulers Parliament People James
The English rulers from the time of James I till William and Mary s reign, encountered many problems economically, with parliament and with the people. Many of the mistakes they made have occurred many of times throughout history and could easily have been avoided. By looking at problems endured by the English rulers of this time, one can easily find problems that through simple measures would ...
When the hysteria built up, that was Jefferies’ golden opportunity to cash in on the hoax. He went up state New York to rent a large kangaroo from a friend. He painted green stripes on it and gave it a pair of bronze wings, then covered it with rabbit fur. He stuck the animal in a cage and stated it was Leeds Devil. Next he stuck gnawed bones on the floor and charged people admission to see the devil for a brief moment. He admitted the hoax a couple of years later (NJN Video, Mother Leeds 13th Child).
Numerous others admitted that they placed footprints in peoples yards during this week, but could not explain the other thousand or so footprints that led into desolate forests. The New Jersey Devil has taken a wide variety of forms, shapes, and sizes. Different descriptions are frequent. However, over the years one can see the same elements occurring again and again. His size varies from eighteen inches to twenty feet. He has the body of a kangaroo, the head of a dog, the face of a horse, the wings of a bat, the feet of a pig, and a forked tail (John Shabe, www.nj.com).
He makes a piercing screech that sounds like a little girl being attacked. He has been seen running alongside cars on Route 206, where cars can reach speeds of up to 65 mph. Some say he attacks humans, while others say that he is a symbol of peace and only appears when ever a great tragedy is about to happen, such as Pearl Harbor and World War 1. Whatever people say about him, the fact remains that no-one is quite sure if he really exists. Since the Jersey Devil was first seen, scientist have been developing a theory on his existence. One scientist, Jack E. Boucher, suggest that the Jersey Devil was actually a deformed human being, not a devil. In the deep Pines, whenever a retarded child was born, he wore the label of “another Jersey Devil.” This could explain the series of incidents extending through history far beyond the time span of one mortal (James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 110).
The Essay on New Jersey Pine Barrens
happens because the roots emit pigments of red color into the soil which then runs into the water. Even though the amount of red pigment released is very little, due to the large amount of cedar trees in the Pine forests, the water is affected. The main crops of the Pine Barrens include blueberries and cranberries. There are also many rare plants that can be found in the Pinelands. One of these is ...
Another logical explanation tells that the Jersey Devil is a Sand Hill Crane. This bird weighs about twelve pounds, and is about four feet long, with a huge wingspan of eighty inches. Once common in New Jersey, this bird dislikes man and is now found only in remote areas. If this bird encounters a man, he has the capability of driving his beak through someone’s skull (James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 112-113).
In the twentieth century, the Pine Barrens have been increasingly encroached upon by super highways, the huge Fort Dix complex, housing developments, and Atlantic City International Airport. The population of southern and central New Jersey has been rapidly increasing and extends to the edge of the Pine Barrens. Due to all of these reasons , sightings of the New Jersey Devil have been decreasing since 1909. Many believe that they New Jersey Devil died in a huge fire during 1957. At the edge of a lonely cranberry bog, foresters of the New Jersey Department of Conservation found scattered about, a partial skeleton, claws, feathers, bone particles, and the hind legs of some unidentifiable entity (James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., 96-97).
Many believed that this was the end of the New Jersey Devil. Ever since then, no sightings have been made, only noises have been heard. Was this the end of the New Jersey Devil, or was it the remains of some strange animal? Over the years, many have accepted the New Jersey devil’s existence as fact. Others have doubted this creature’s existence and called it a mere myth, and sometimes made those who believed in it objects of ridicule. But anyone who dares walk the lonely sand trails of the Pine Barrens, or the mist covered marshes, will find their eyes growing ever more alert, and feel just a suggestion of fear taking control of them. It is hard to remain a skeptic after 2,000 witnesses declared they saw the New Jersey Devil in the New Jersey wilderness. An eerie presence is out ther
The Essay on The Lord Of The Flies(William Golding) Vs. Sympathy Of The Devil (Mick Jagger)
Did you ever asked yourself who or what is the devil? What it represents in human Society and whether it exists in any form or not. The book “The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding is compared to the song ” Sympathy for the Devil ” by Mick Jagger in this essay, to show that the devil is in everybody where and how he appears in front of us, that the devil is deadly and ...
