New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-08-25
aeTHE RIBS OF DEATH"

1.-THE RIBS OF DEATH"
Three months before | was born my
fathers boat went down in a sudden
,squa4l, within sight OF home and OF my
another who, with the rest of the fish
,srmen's wives, awaited the landing of
the little fleet.
Perhaps this was the reason had
such an instructive horror and dread
of the sea, even while it fascinated
~.and drew me to it in it's stormlest
.moods- It was queer feeling that
possessed me. When away from the
ssight and sound of the breakers was
srestless and unquiet, near them was
sawed and melancholy, but some crav-
ing OF my nature was satisfied, and |
was comparatively calm. l believe
many of our people, who areintensely
superstitious, looked upon me as
doomed in consequence of this. ''The
.sea always swallows what it gets q
shold Of" they said among themselves
with sorrowful fatallsm. We can
hardly help being superstitious and
sgloomy-we who are born and reared
san Cailermouth. Nature is so stern in
efler moods and so cruel in her way of
expressing them.
Miss Ashford, our Wears daughter,
lis very cross with me for saying things
hike this, but cannot help thinking
that even she feels them to be true
sometimes during lifelong and stormy
Winters on this northeast coast of
ours. She is very kind and good, and
las she is always busy working among
,us perhaps t&.ai 81 -. through.
Ut was she who ,;,ne,.., 49, how to
write and put sentences together so
as to make this story ineligible, and
it was she who wished me to write it.
Why, I do not know. When | told it
fso her first I hardly expected her to
'bdiieve it, but she did and helped me
Through the bad time which had aft
'er-but that must bide until [ come
TO it.
Callermouth is only cluster of cot
tages around a. little harbor, with
fpier and lifeboat house below. About
"a mile to the north is the ugly sharp
ridge of rocks which bears the signifi-
cant name OF cribs O. Death Many
a Gne vessel has struck and ground
her timbers to matchwood, many q
poor clinging life has been washed off
those fatal RIBS They do say that in
the old times many a ship was lured
there to it's destruction too; but I can
scarce believe the grandfathers of our
brave fellows, who lived by and on
the waters just as now, could be inhu-
man enough to trade upon the danger
ard deaths Of fellow-mariners Only
4 must say that even yet, while any OF
our men would risk his life without
thinking twice about it to save anoth-
or, he woulden't have any very def
mite ideas on the laws OF salvage.
1 was not comedy lass in the es-
'ttimation of the village critics Intact
when saw my little white face, with
It's big dark eyes, in the dim old look
ling Mass which hung over the mantel-
lpieee in our front room, and compar-
sd it with that Of Bell Carr, our biggest
and best looking girl, | used to feel
very small and insignificant. She was
81 true fisher lass, tall and strongly
made, with a swim ging walk and saucy
smile, and ready word for every one
gentle or simple. The artists who
came here sometimes to pain us in our
characteristic blue fannels always
selected her, and passed me over. l
was not a fttype" and she was, they
said!
Well, [ was glad OF it, for Willie
wouldn't have liked me to act as a
model!
Spite of my want Of beauty, l had
two lads came counting me, and Willie
Aisle was the one l favored. Edam
stAdam) Carr was too much of my
own temper for me, too gloomy; Twas
afraid of him, had the same sort of
tznistrust of him that had OF the sea,
and perhaps a little of the same idea
"of his possible power over me-
But Willie, with his bonnie yellow
curls aud his blue eyes, and his sunny
smile, what girl could have resisted
him? He brought his brightness into
my life, and it seemed to go out like
the sun beneath cloud on the day
he sailed in the Rowena, bound for
China and the East Indies, from the
Tyne.
all our most energetic and enterpris-
singy0ung men become sailors, if they do
mot feel satisfied to become fishermen
rs their fathers before them. 1t never
seems to enter into any of their heads
that there are other means OF liveli
hood than these two callings. They
cannot tear themselves away from
the sea altogether, however they may
abuse it. They lnhale its salt breeze
with their earliest breaths, its foam
and spray beat on them, until it be
comes part OF them, as 1t were, anc
They are as much creatures OF tht
q K e s K 81 ! 3