Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-11-12

decks with emotions which he in vain endeavors I,
conceal. A friend in the boat greets him with
smile and says, "Captain, your family all WELL
Or perhaps ne says, Captain, have heavy news
Tor you, your wife died two and a half years ago.
young man left this island last summer, leav-
ing IN his quiet home young and beautiful wife
aud an infant child. The wife and child are now
both IN the grave. But the husband knows not
and probably will not know it for some months to
come. He perhaps falls asleep every night, think
ing OF the loved ones left at his rcside little ina
| ginning that they are both cold i'm death.
| On bright summer afternoon the telegraph an
nounces that Cape Horn ship has appeared in the
| horizon, and Immediately the stars and stripes of
our national banner are unfured from our flag staff
sending wave of emotion through the town. Ma
ny families are hoping that il is the ship i'm which
their friends are TO return and all are hoping for
tidings i-om the absent. Soon the name of the ship
is announced and then there is eager contention
with the boys to be the first bearer of the joyful tid
lngs to the wife of the captain, Tor which service
silver dollar is the invariable fee
And who can describe the feelings which must
then agtate the bosom of the wife2 Perhaps she
mas heard OF no tidings from the ship for more than
a year. Trembling with excitement she dresses
herself to meet her husband. els he alive" she
says to herself, cor am | widow and the poor
children orphans ? She walks about the room I'M
able to compose herself sufficiently to sit down
Eagerly she is looking out of the Windows and
uo"h SlIeet Sne sees q man with hurried step
turn the corner, little boy hold of his hand
Yes, 1t is he; and her little son has gone down
to the boat and found his father Or, perhaps, in
stead OF this, she sees two of her neighbors re-
turning slowly and sadly, and directing their
steps to her door. The blood flows back upon her
heart. They rap at the door. 1t is the knel of
her husbands death and she falls senseess to the
floor they tell her that her husband has long since
been entombed in the fathomess ocean.
This is not fiction. These are not extreme cases
which the imagination creates They are facts of
continual occurrence-facts which awaken emo |
lions 10 which no pen can do justice.
few weeks ago ship returned to this island
bringing the news of another ship that was nearly
filled with oil that all on board We're WELL and
that she might be expected in neighborng port in
such month The wife of the captain resided in
Nantucket, and early in the month, with a heart
throbbng with affection and hope, she to greet
her husband on his return.
AT length the ship appeared dropped her anchor
In the harbor, and the friends OF the lady went to
the ship to escort the husband to the wife from
whom he had been SO long separated. Soon they i
sadly returned with the tidings that her husband
had been seized with the coast fever upon the isan
OF Madagascar, and, when about week out on his
return home, he died and was committed to his
ocean burial. A few days after, called upon the
weeping widow and little daughter in their destin-
ed home of bereavement and anguish