Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-08-22

taken various shapes ana many sizes,
but is never taller than ships masts.
The general contour IL that Of ship
under full sail, pyramidal, and it is Of
varying degrees Of brightness, now dull,
and again so lurid that a book can be
read through window on land by its
light. This phantom flicker it was that
caused the fendish wreckers to roll I'M
easily in their cots and recall false bea-
con lights and flaming wreck, while
their families innocently wondered at
the phenomenon. twas this that final
ly drove Marks Dodge insane. He was
the last of the wreckers TO die. Before
he became a maniac he was always
silent when the name Of the Palatine
was mentioned, and many Of the island
ers firmly believe that the phantom
ship was sent by an all-powerful
hand especially to punish him.
His later life was one Of alb
ject terror, and on the night he
died the phantom was seen in greater
brilliancy than ever before or since.
That night it appeared against the
blackened northeast sky, noble ship
with sails Of almost fiery whiteness.
coursing, as she inevitably does, toward
the fatal spot on Sandy Point. Before
reaching it light fame shot up from
her hold, enveloped her sails, ran up
the cordsge, and licked the shining yell
low spar. And then, bower Of fam
ing splendor, she reeled beneath the
waters, followedby sad wall of terror.
Dodge raised up on his couch and point
ed at the strange scene, and, as the ship
sank from sight, he uttered a shrek,
and dropped back dead.
Another tradition is that the throat
Of the woman who was burned in the
W eek was cut before the ship was fired.
So superstitious are the natives in re-
ference to the story that they all agree
that the houses wherein the passengers
were sheltered were afterward haunted,
and the Dickens family, which lived
near the Palatine Grove, willingly gave
to Rhode Island gentleman a mortar
made from a lignum-vits block from
the Palatine, because it performed such
fantastic freaks that they were afraid
to keep it. This, now famous as
" the dancing mortar" is in Brown
University at Providence. The mortar
was fashioned by the islanders for
grinding corn. II is fourteen inches
high by ten inches in diameter, and
holds four quarts. On the oaken floor
of the old Dickens kitchen before the
hearth it would suddenly tumble over
on its side, and, rolling out into the
apartment, it would set itself up and
break into a gentle heel-and-tOe polka.
Warming up with the excitement, its
would quicken, and higher
and higher it would bound I'M
til it reached the rafterS overhead.
Then it would remain passive some
times for weeks and months together.
Till now the ghost of the Paatine
has not been seen since one stormy
winter night in 1874. Mr.. Mont
gomery and Mr.. Wyllys, as well as
others, agree that it was a whitish
flame, pyramidal in shape, and very
much tie size and form of large ship
under fall sail. 1t was about ii o'clock
at night when they noticed it. The
flame seemed to shoot out Of the water
off Southeast Point, and, impelled !
doubtless by the easterly wind,
moved steadily and rapidly across
the harbOr toward Sandy Point, !
and there sank or faded out !
IF sight. During at least five min
ltes Of the time the silent flame tow
cred aloft with sufficient yigor to light |
up the land, and it was possible to |
read common print, such as is used in
he Times, by it. At this point it was
l very beautiful light. Mr.. Montgom-
Try is much pleased at being privileged /
70 witness this curious phenomenon OF .
he island, which he, in common with /
many others, has been interested in. |
out never expected to see.
The phenomenon is accounted for sci
as being caused by a gas
which arises from the bottom Of the
ea through the water, and which. du-
ing certain peculiar conditions of the
before storm, becomes ig-