The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-10-17


came, but he got no word from her. He
wrote her upbraidingly. After this
there came another fortnight's storm,
and the mail boat was not seen again for
fifteen days. When she did arrive she
brought bulky delayed mail, and the
late New York and Boston papers were
eagerly sought for by the ship owners
and business men. In one of them Fred
Parker found dispatch from st. Johns,
N F., then over two months old. 1t
read as follows:
The Nantucket barkentine Cynthia, Clinhy,
master. was abandoned three hundred miles
of this port February 10, in a gale. She was
waterlogged, with seven hundred barrels oil
loose in the hold. On the night OF the Eth,
in a storm, the Cynthia was in collision with
the British brig Highland Mary, Landon. from
Liyerpool for New York. The brig lay by the
| Cynthia the following day and, the gale IN
creasing, took the crew off and brought them
| to this port. The Cynthia was q new Vessel.
| She will probably break up.
Vessel insurance was not popular in
those days. There was not cent on
Fred Parker's interest in the Cynthia,
and it was with blanched face and reel
| inc BRAIN that he read the tiding which
made him worse off than poor man
debtor without cent in the world.
| People talked about his misfortune, but
he said not word to any one. The
next trip of the mail boat carried him
to Edgartown, where he at once repair
ed to the home of his intended bride.
| He arrived Just in season to see shower
of old shoes and rice thrown ont of the
front door upon little party that was
clustered about carriage in the street.
The carriage drove rapidly away toward
| the harbor as he went in. He inquired
for Mary. Her thin-lipped, gray-eyed
mother struck him down as with a
thunderbolt by announcing that she had
just been married. Then, while he lis
tened in dazed sort of way, she told
him coldly that the storm which had in
tercepted Nsntucket's mails blew into
Edgartown Bangor ship bound to the
East Indies. She halted for repairs and
her delay was heightened, while the
Captain wooed and won Mrs.
Collins daughter. The ship had sailed
from New York, but was driven out Of
her way by the gale. The Captain
brought ashore late papers, one Of
which contained the account of the loss
of the Cynthia. By the advice of hel
mother, Mrs. Coffin coldly said, Mary
at once concluded to give up the young
grocer, and after three weeks court
ship she became the stranger Captain
wife, and had sailed away with him il
his bonnie ship that very day
The same norther which bore the false
hearted Edgartown girl out past thu
painted clay cliffs Of Gay Head drove I
light fishing dory from the Vineyard
over to Nantucket. In it was seateC
the now broken-hearted Parker. H
reached Nantucket in the night, and !
is said he was never seen there in tn
daylight again. His disappearance wa
commented on, but as he had no nea
relatives no search was made for him
The following summer, however, h
was found installed at Quidnit, in tn
little house of to-day, one that had bee
built for wreckers early in the century
There he lived ever after, silent man
The storms fed him with wreckage
which he pulled up, and which still II
mains about the castle. Nailed up o
the habitation are score OF faded gil
name-b boards of vessels which have bee
driven over the treacherous shoals i
the last half century. Many lives h
, saved by burning fires at the head c
the sheltering little bay near his doc
, for the guidance of shipwrecked sailors
I and many were the blessings and T,
wards he received. Of himself, how
ever, he would say nothing, and final
= his story became as much of myster
], to the fresh generation of natives as
L the stranger Twice year, and alway
In the night. he would go into tow
y and visit the loft of the old Macy stor
> wherein some furniture and papers
II his were slowed. He was always aws
from view before daylight and back
9 his well-greased little stove and Il
. single shelf which constituted his pantr
. With the influx of summer visitors Il
y old hermit sprang into notoriety whi(
yearly increased, until he became one
: the modern historical features of Il
u island. His ancient blue-edged plate
IL his odd collection of cases and the cul
u Gus ''art square" in the oaken floor
u his bedroom, made by mailing down co
~ per coins, caused him to become spec
I lily famous, and drove paying trade
y pulling up the coins and selling them
u his guests.
Of Until the last the old man preserv
ID the sphinx-like mystery which hui
,e about him. His dead body was foul
III one bright summer morning sitting u
Mt right in an oaken chair by the fireplaC
A ray of light from the single ollie
ID paper windows shot over his should
ed and fell upon the closed Bible upon
id knee. His bowed head was upon |
". breast shrouded in white hair, viii
or reached far below his shoulders, and
CIV wonderful, heavy, snowy beard rippl
i down almost to the floor. He was cl
ed in his customary threadbare coarse g
mentS, the matches on which ware nil