The Lake County star., 1876-06-22

and then hurrisdly 20 back. In a few
minutes every passenger was crowdinl
onto the stern, even the ladies appearing
though in unfinished costume. Excla
nations of the EXTREMIST astonishment
broke from all, and then silence fell, al
the crowd stared at the hideOus creature
The children, at the first sight, ran back
below screaming, and some refused to
come again on deck, though their nurses
and ayahs-desirous of looking on them.
selves-used all possible means to make
them. Some, however, returned, curl.
osity overcoming fear, but even these
looked on in perpetual tremor of terror.
and held themselves ready at the first
movement of the thing to rush away. I
noticed at this time that the captain was
not present, and turned to an old Euro.
pean sailor by me and asked him to 20
and tell him. Captain won't come, no
fear OF that, sir" replied the man. l
asked If he was navigating the ship
NO, ne was not navigating the ship"
said the sailor, "but he would not come
for all that; however, he would go and
tell him. But though he went, the cap
tain would not come. We all remained
absorbed in the strange sight till the first
breakfast bell rang at $50, when we had
perforce to hurry away and take our
chance of bathing at that late hour. Up
to this time the thing had kept steadily
In our wake, its movement continuing
absolutely smooth and constant, and the
sPecks of light in the glaring eyes never
changing a hairs breadth from their posi-
tion. At breakfast / sat one removed
from the captain. We began, of course,
talking of the thing we had seen, but the
captain, for some reason we could not
then understand, seemed to dislike the
subject, and soon we abandoned it, fall
ing then into absolute silence, for we
could talk of nothing else. When we
went on deck again-we were only few
minutes at breakfast-we found the thing
still following steadily in our wake. The
children had IN great measure got over
their fear, and had made long line by
joining hands, and the whole lot of them
would now crouch down and then sud-
denly rise up, open their mouths at the
thing, and cry out at it. No notice ap-
parently being taken of this they grew
bolder, and at last their cries increased
Till they shrieked shrilly. Suddenly the
1ideOus creature seemed reused by these
cries, it raised its head in the air, uttered
| strange below, and came forward at
great pace toward the ship. None of us
'ould at first move from fear; the thing
eemed to have grown in size, its eyeballs
we're more burningly bright; the chill
lren fell on the deck crying, and some of
he women tainted. But we who re-
NAMED standing, suffering though we
we're under intense terror, still could not, |
Vhen we at last were able to move, re- |
reat, or even take our eyes off the thing.
t came swiftly up to the ship, always
lttering the same peculiar cry or below.
When but few feet from the stern it
uddenly turned and came up close on
he port side. Here the side awnings had
cen put up to keep off the sun, but
lree of us rushed up to the awning and
uickly got it down that we might better
atch the thing. For myself, l must say
nat while doing this was still suffering
om extreme fear, but my curiosity was
, intense, so irresistible, that | could
My act as did. No sooner was the
hing level with us than it raised itself
ith sudden movement high out of the
ater, till its head was thirty or forty
et above us. 1t still uttered the same
ocular cry or below. Under our in
,nse curiosity we stood out on the bull
arks to follow its movements. 1t opened
great mouth, cried more loudly than
etore, and made three blows at the main
last. The last of these touched it, and
aused the ship to sway violently, so
lat we were nearly cast off into the
ater. When we again looked for the
hing it had gone. There was no ripple,
0 disturbance of any kind in the water
, show where it had been. It was gone
osolutely. We looked constantly for it
uring the rest of that day, but not the
ightest trace did we discover.
And now let me state shortly why I,
Dt over facile in writing, or fitted for the
lbject by knowledge, write this. At
fin of that same day, just as we were
sing to return on deck, the captain rose
nd asked us to remain for few minutes.
hen he shortly referred to the strange
ght we had seen that day, laying stress
! the fact, however, that he himself
I'd not seen it, and he went on: "Now
,ne of you can doubt what you saw
1T l advise you not to talk about it.
hat was the sea serpent you saw. But l
ouldn't talk about it if 1 saw it. 1t
,ly leads to making people laugh, and
e papers take it up and cut jokes Oh it,
i'd it won't do you any good, and it
ould not do me any good. But then
l did not see it, so I've moth
& to do with this one. But, if you
Ike my advice, you won't talk about it.
unch took up one sea serpent, and
at captain never got over it-never.
emember, though, / didn't see this
e."
You will see now, Mr.. Editor, that if
u don't publish this, a most extraordi. ,
Try fact may be lost to the world. This
count, l may state, has been read over
some of the passengers, and their
sagreement from what have written ,
only what would necessarily, under :
e circumstances mentioned, be ex- !
cted. To show that have no fear of ,
iicule, / give my name.
MATTHEW STRONG. ;
! may state that when the thing raised :
elf up and struck the mast, it was .
parent that the sea-weed.like mass J
Is long, coarse hair, covering a dark, :
ick neck. But the thing could not pos. :
bly, have been a serpent; for, to raise 80 s
odigious length of neck above the )
rface a huge body below the surface :
rs of course required.
LOUISVILLE Courier journal: The
exican revolution seems to have suf.
red shipwreck. In Oaxaca, where the