DELAWARE

Its effect is gradual, stealing almost imperceptibly upon the senses, yet altogether enthralling once it asserts its power. Unfortunate indeed is the traveler who, as too many do, dashes the length of the State in four hours on the main highway without pausing to savor its graciousness. Such a traveler may not even see a native Delawarean; for 82 per cent of the trucks, 66 per cent of all the motor vehicles n the highways are from outside the State.

Perhaps the Delawareans are a little to blame for not making themselves and their treasures better known to outsiders. They are a delightful people, genuinely hospitable, but not effusive.

Houses exquisite with the patina of age are to be seen everywhere, but few of them are "restored," set apart as shrines, and labeled. They are homes that have passed from father to son for generations, growing old gracefully, receiving necessary, not disfiguring, repairs, and keeping silence concerning the famous persons they have sheltered, the stirring events of their past. True, the Delaware Historic Markers Commission has placed tablets here and there, but these are unobtrusive. To appreciate the real glamour of the State, one must bide a while and-forgive the pun-absorb "Delawareness" from the people.

Delaware is not obvious in its bid for attention. Measured by population and area combined, it is the smallest of States, having more square miles but fewer citizens than Rhode Island, and more people but far less territory than Nevada. It is only 110 miles long, and its width varies from nine to 35 miles, but its citizens are forward-looking and its industries far-reaching.

A wit in Congress once referred to it as a "sandspit on Delaware Bay, with three counties at low tide and two at high." William Penn bought it from the Duke of York for 10 shillings, and Lord Baltimore disputed the ownership, claiming it under a prior grant from the King of England. Because of an ill-fated Dutch settlement in 1631 near the present site of Lewes, Baltimore lost the case; for his grant of hactena inculta specifically excluded land previously occupied by white men.

From its very beginning Delaware has been a subject of controversy. The families of Penn and Baltimore went to law over possession of "the three lower counties on the Delaware," and their claims occupied the attention of the courts for years. Penn landed at New Castle on October 27, 1682, and received from the citizens of that thriving village a bowl of water, a piece of turf, and a twig as earnest of his undisputed possession of the land, water, and forests within an arc described on a radius of 12 miles from the New Castle Court House. Thus was established the northern boundary of Delaware. Later Penn was awarded the southern part of what is now the State.

Unfortunately, the surveyors who described the arc did not designate the exact length of the segment. The result of their oversight was more than two centuries of litigation over boundaries.

After the United States came into being, New Jersey and Delaware began to squabble over certain water and fishing rights on Delaware River and Bay. Delaware claimed possession of the river and bay to low water on the Jersey side, and New Jersey insisted the boundary should be fixed at midstream.

Courts were in a quandary, shifting the boundary first to one side and then to the other. Both States sent commissioners to…"