Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-25
A YANKEE MAIDEN's sTRA1EGEM

The DEATH of Miss Rebecca Bates, ,rIio Sent
a British Frigate AbOut its Business.
Miss Rebecca Bates died at Scituate,
Mass, last week, at the age Of IS years.
In 1912 the borders of Massachusetts
Bay were looked after by a number of
British cruisers. Inhabitants of the fish
ing villages were forced to band them
selves in a sort of military fashion, and
repel by arms attacks made upon their
chicken coops The maritime enemy had
their hearts set on poultry,
which was natural, considering their
long and forced subsistence upon
tough salt meats. To thwart them was
to excite their anger and malice, and not
unfrequently,1 failing to get chickens,
they resorted to harsh measures in retail
iation. In the spring of the year named,
British frigate ran into Scituate harbOr
set fire to some vessels and seized others,
and threatened, if resistance was offered,
to lombard the town. When the frigate
departed, citizens of Scituate banded
themselves into home guard, and forti-
fed Crow Point with brass cannon.
The British took the hint and stopped
away, and gradually, as alarm subsidized,
the home guard went about its farming.
September came. One pleasant evening
that month Miss bates, then maiden of
IS, sat sewing Her sister Abigail, IA
years old, and her mother sat with her.
Captain Simon Bates, the father, likewise
the keeper of the lighthouse, was away,
and the Home Guard were scattered all
about. Mrs. Bates had just said to
Rebecca that it was time
to put the tea kettle on.
The maiden rose and went into the
kitchen CHANGING through the window
as she passed she saw a British frlgate
close at hand and about lowering her
boats In her own narrative of the oc
currence Miss Bates says that she knew
the ship at a glance as La Houge, and she
called out to her sister:
so. Lord the old La Houge is off here
again! What shall we do? Here are
their barges a coming, and they will burn
up our vessels just as they did afore.'
Two vessels lay at the wharf laden
with flour, and Miss Bates, in her nara
tive, says, awe couldn't afford to lose
that in those times, when the embargo
made it so hard to live we had to bile
pumpkins all day to get sweetening for
sugar. IltI duiCh Iuluu uCCldOo W ~ pei
the enemy by strategem. The musical
instruments of the Home Guard were
stored IN the house. she could play four
tunes on the fife, and her sister Abigail
could beat the drum in an exceedingly
wild manner ."Yankee Doodle" was
their masterpiece.
The idea thus conceived was quickly
put through. Rebecca and Abigail. with
the drum and the fife, ran down behind
the cedar wood, and in moment the
quiet September evening was startled by
the most remarkable martial outburst
that ever was heard. 81 looked" says
Miss Bates, "and l could
see the men in the barges resting on
their oars and listening. Then l saw a
flag flying from the masthead Of
the ship, recalling them. Ny sister began
to make speech, and l said: ''Don't
make me laugh, fol- l can't pucker my
mouth When the men in the barges
saw the flag they went about so quick
that one fell overheard, and they picked
him up by the back of his neck and
hauled him in"
A quarter of an hour later the La
Hogue sailed away, the strains of cyan
kee Doodle" pursuing her.