Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1885-06-13

de has gone far away from the worlds
Aad we'll write as his epitaph, Scissors
~ and Gum!"
THE LEGENDARY SHIP.
a Tale of the Early Days of New Haven
Colony.
An unexpected and very profitable
growth of business made the immedi-
ate purchase OF "a piece of land neces-
sary. My partners requested me to ne
gotiateior a few acres in the vicinity of
New Haven, and / at once began to do
SO. An annoying delay occurred owing
to the illegibillity of a record making
3 it impossible to obtain q perfect title.
was about to abandon the attempt
( to buy the property, when I was remind
led chat gentleman well known to me
might be able to give the information
gthat could not be deciphered from the
record. This person was a professor
in the college, a man of wide repute as
a scholar, and an ardent student of the
colonial epoch OF the town.
found him in his library and he.
without tiny hesitation, gave me the.
information which / sought, and told
me where, [ should find such legal
proofs of clear title as desired. was
impressed with the accuracy Of his
learning and the readiness with which it
responded to his demands, and [ ven
tured to say to him that the acquisition
of such a mass of names and dates
must have cost him great labor. To.
my surprise he replied that 1 was mis-
taken, the truth being thathe mastered
such incidents with ease. His great
mental efforts, he said, were required
by the processes of analysis and com.
parison which were necessary to sepa-
rate truth from the rubbish and chaff of
tradition and record, and by the
reasoning necessary accurately to trace
causes to those results which, when
gruped constituted trustworthy history
''For instance said he. 81 have
here document which will cost me the
most severe application before l am
through with it.
L had observed that there lay upon
the table Il roll of manuscript. The
table was Uttered with pamphlets, doc
lments, aged and wormeaten books,
ana Go not know why my attention
roll OF paper. TWAS plainly an aged
manuscript. The paper was ribbed
and unruled, like that in use a century
or more ago; and if it once was white,
the years had faded it to a dull, buff,
leathery hue, while the care with which
= he afterward handled it indicated that
it had little tenacity of fibre. [ knew
that he referred to this old roll of
manuscript, and, as expected, he took
it up.
81 have here,' he continued, ga
remarkable historical narrative, which
found among some refuse in garnet,
where it has lain for more than
hundred years. 1t is an account of
strange, unnatural occurrence, of
which have heard by tradition, and
which is even casually mentioned in
'Mather's Magnalia.' Ihave, however,
always regarded it as unworthy of
serious consideration, believing that
there was either no foundation for the
tradition or else that it could be traced
to the Authorizations of disordered
brain. [ now, however, have an
account of it which | cannot ignore.
1t was written by clergyman Of the
most godly character, man who
could not, even in jest, speak false
hoods, and he asserts that he was HIM
self an eyewitness of what he describes.
How, then, can refuse to accept this
recordP 1t gives all that historian
requires to satisfy him Of the, authen-s
ITCHY of any alleged occurrence. 1t is
the genuine manuscript of man
whom | know to have lived, ss.d it is
not hearsay account. If we are to
to put faith in any of the records of the
past, we must accept this one. I do
not know of an established fact of his
tory that has any better basis than this
document gives to substantiate the
wonderful phenomenon which it
records.
81 confess continued the Professor
with some ,,llimatiofr >of speech, ssthat
such problem as is presented by this
n manuscript has never befofe5etn1 given
to me to- solve. As a historian, Il am
compelled to accept as true WhatI here
read, while as q physicistI must regard
the record as the widest and most i'm
probable of ronnances. Were it based
on the testimony Of one person it could
easily be rejected asa vision or alienation