Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-05-12
Enoch Arden.
BY "FAr Contributor.

Enoch was seafaring man who IN his
youth fell in love with Annle Lee,
1.-The pretticst little dainsel in the port
az Mr.. Tepnyson SO prettily informs us.
The prelticst little dam sci in the port
now is the logwood thoy make it of; but
that is neither here nor there, though it
is prsbably more here than anywhere
else. Enoch had rival in tho person
Of Philip Ray, whose father run grist
mill. This circumstance probably made
Philip little n,eoly moathed about telling
his love, and Enoch beng good talker,
why e Knocked him clean out of time.
When little children, the three used to
play at keeping house, in
"a narrow cave zen in beneath .he cliT''
Enoch was man of the house one day i,
and Philip th. next, An lie being mis-
tress all the time. As there was no
other woman in the house for her to
quarrel with, she was entirely happy, or
would have been had it not been f,r the
men folks carrying on SO. Eroch
wanted to boss the house all the time,
and Philip thought they should boss it
by turns. Then they quarreled about
the rent, and disputed thair gas bills. To
make peace in the family, she said she
would be little wife to both," ignorant,
apparently of the prevailing laws against
bigamy. But when they grew up, this
tn angular housekeeping wouldn't do
of course not: and so Philip never told
his love, or anybody else; but Enoch did
and was accepted on the word 60. And
Enc. got to be fisherman, catching
great quantities Of black bass off Put in
Bay, white-fish, Lake Superior trout, etc,
which be sold in the market and put his
money in the bank. Before he got to
have vote in his ward he owned his
own boat, which was a thimblerig5ed
schooner with top gallant jib-poop,
clewed abaft Il keel to the mizzen yard,
and very remarkable sailor it was, too,
as we are told. Then Enoch and Annie
were married, all the fishermen coming
to the wedding and dancing Fishers
Hornpipe" until nearly morning.
Happy years passed away, as the years
will pass away, whether they are happy
ones or not. Then Enoch met with an
accident. In match game of mast
climbing. for the championship of the
state aud the champion mast (gold
mounted and inlaid with pearl. he fell
and broke his leg. During the illness
that ensued he was offered the position of
boa swain on Chins-bound vessel. He
accepted, and recovering sufficiently to
CT NIB mast with the assistance of a
pair Of crutches, he went first setting
Annie up in business in small grocery,
AID that was the last heard of Enoch for
many long year. Mrs. Arden strug
g ed on against adversely, tho only Ray
of hope or happiness that lighted her
dark path being Philip, who very gener
ously sent her children TO the select
school TO be educated at his own expense
When all hopes of Enoch's return were
relinquished, Philip, whose love was IN
diminished, proposed to the Widow
Arden, and was accepted. That night
she had vision. She dreamed she saw
Enoch under tho palm" (ike the sur
repti;ious bower in the hand of corrupt
euchre- player, but this did not delay
preparations for the wedding. They
were married, and for tho second time
the bells went ringing for Annie.
But Enoch, what Of him.? His ship
was wrecked and be cast away upon the
Island of Juan Fernandez, which, how
ever rich in historic associations, having
been the summer resort Of the late Il.
Crusoe, was rather lonesome to one of
social habits. There Enoch lived in sol
itude for fourteen long years, doing his
own cooking, washing, ironing and mend
ing. OCCASIONALLY he deserted sail in
the distance, but, alas it would prove to
be sale in which poor Enoch was the
only article "soId." AT length vessel
did put in at the island for wood and
water, and found the . long haired.s long
bearded solitary" for it must be remem-
bered there was mt a barber shop on the
whole island.- Him they took on board
and brought home.
They found him strangely ignorant
regarding what had been going on in the
world during the past fourteen years.
He knew nothing of the firing on Sumter,
didn't know there had been q war, had
not heard of the Fifteenth Amendment,
and wasn't posted on the Bible question
He was incredulous in regard to the At
lantic cable, didn't believe a word about
the Pacific Railroad, derided "Route No.
o." and, great heavens! couldn't sing
"Shoo FIy!"
One pleasant afternoon Enoch reached
his native town, where be learned that
his present wife, supposing her late hus
band to be dead, had married another.
What did Enoch do? Did he get drunk,
90 tearing into the house, stand Philip
on bis head and walk off on his ear?-
Did he 90 into the courts to get posses
sion of the children, who don't want to
be got possession of-as the most of the
Enoch Ardens do who turn up in the
newspapers-and make an ass of him
self generally? Not any. He took one
look at them through bow-window, re-
elized at glance that they were not
at all
"Lonely tonight, love, without thee
and so, like a sensible man as be was, de
termined not 10 say anything at all about