Milford chronicle., 1883-07-06

human lives, more or less, during that
era of human slaughter?
Our adventurer still chung to life and
to a shattered spar. The sea became
smooth and calm; small crafts put out
from the shore as soon as the thunder OF
the explosion was heard. and he, with
some twenty others, was picked up and
carried into Tripoli, to be held to slavery
at the will Of the pirate sovereign.
Life used to relate many of his adven-
lures while a prisoner among these
"Ish'm lites" as he called them. He
was not little proud Of the fact that he
was no ''seryant of servants" but was
attached to the personal staff of the great
Bashaw himself.
Finding no loophole Of escape, he was
held five years in the service of the
tyrant, who, he admitted, was more
merciless than Joe Pinkham. His heart
beat high with hope at the first appear
ance of the hostile American feet in the
year "three"; but hope was destined to
be long deferred, and during the war
that ensued, his position and treatment
were still less endurable than before
Among the prisoners taken with Balm
bridge in the Philadelphia frigate, be
recognized one of his former comrades
on the Sirius, and found an opportunity
for a short conversation. His appear
arce in the flesh was, of course, like a
resurrection to his astonished shipmate
It was known that Life had been walk.
ing in the hurricane house, and had
uttered one cry of alarm, after which no
one had seen or heard of him. 1t was
naturally supposed, as the whole foun-
dation beneath him had been demol-
ished, that he must have been killed or
knocked overheard at the moment of the
collision. They had no knowledge of
the name, nation or fate of the ship
which had thus come in contact with
theirs Life Edwards, was, beyond all
dispute, dead, and was so reported on
their arrival home.
It was something of blow to the
poor slave, even though he was not I'M
prepared for it, to learn that Rhoda Joy,
after giving two years to his memory,
had married another; but he did not |
suffer what might be called a boyish
disappointment to weigh long on his
spirits. 1t was only what he ought to
have expected, and no one was to blame,
on either side. He soon forgot to grieve,
as he listened to the music of the Con-
cannon, and lodged the mis-.
5iles thrown into the city.
1t used to seem strange to me to think
that the old teamster, whom met every
lour in the day, shouting his "Git up p
md "G'long /" to the lank, hollow-back
iteed, had really been an actor in such
Icenes, had beheld the terrible effects of
he bombardment, had looked upon Old
in blaze of angry fire, and
lad listened to the night explosion of
he Philadelphia when blown up by De-
atur, and of the little sketch in which
he devoted Somers and his associates
net their mysterious fate. Thrilling in
idents which seemed so far away in the
,ast, as I read them in my school history,
we're brought almost before my sight
r&en the old man talked as carelessly
bout them as he would of hauling Mr..
smiths ton of coal yesterday
When the humbled Bashaw sued for
eace, Life was included in the ransom
nth other prisoners, and returned to his
ountry after six years absence. Itdoes
ot appear that either he or his old love,
lready a wife and mother, made fools of
as heroes and heroines are,
1r the most part, licensed to do in simi-
u cases. They accepted the situation, I
nd made the best of it; which course
lay have been more or less heroic, as the
rite may choose to consider it. !
Life followed the sea for many years
fterward, and, in due time, married.
Lis worthy dame, as also the Rhoda Joy ,
the story. both honored by numerous
were still living at the .
me 1 learned these facts from the old n
own lips.