New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-23
ISLE DOUTEUSE.
OUR HOSTESS CONvERSES.

This is one Of the first sentences we read in the
| guide-book which we bought on our way up Main
St. from the wharf. Doubtless this hospitality
IS still famous, but the old families must have
| moved somewhere els. TO exercise it. They have,
however, left some of their houses. which are
very large. IL almost seemed TO us that it would
be impossible to build larger structures for the
| residence of the human being. Those old whale
men must have greatly objected to restriction
when they were on land. We pass over nights
| on the island in one Of these houses which has
now been reduced to the ignominy of taking
lodgers instead of offering that Historic hospitality
| Of which so much is heard and so little known in
these days. 1t has platform on the roof of
| course Those loo<outs are 10 me more pathetic
than the grass in the streets or the eagerness
Of people to entertain you-for money
They tell such tales of anxious hours of hopes
never fulfilled. as well the joys Of seeing, far
of over the water the first glimpse of the home
| coming sail And then who had lived and who
had died during that long VOYAGE / could write
pages about these lOOkouts, only that / know
no one would read them when they were written
| for the world is getting rather hardened con-
corning these old houses in Nantucket. Even
| the mention of the name Starbuck or Coffin or
Macy ceases TO thrill the general world with
amazed admiration, but this fact is not usually
known within the limits of the island Here the
old fetiches are still in active operation. If
you arrived at the town bearing credentials that
your veins ran full of pure Guelph blood the
people would hesitate. They would scan you
anxiously; they would ask if any of your folks
were any related to the Collins or the AIitchells
But who can blame theN? They do not have
whales any more; they have only the memory
of the time when they did have whales; and
| lofta
up from the landing every time the boat comes
in but even with the best intentions these visitors
cannot take the place of those creatures which
| filed vessel with oil and the pockets of the
| owners with money.
We found slime marked differences between tie
strangers this island and those on Marthas Vine
yard We were Startled at the very wharf by the
sight of an enormous Topping hat covered with red
peoples. Here was a girl without navy cap
We studied her attentively, thinking she must be
the effect of some defect of vision on our part.
But no we walked up the street behind her; all
the way Tne hat brim Hoped the peoples nodded
nothing changed into fat cap.
She must be Starbuck,' said my friend.
She went into a great, great house far up on
Main-st. This house appeared to occupy acres
Of land afh1 il had lookout on the top OF it.
An island which can distinctly remember the
century may be pardoned for thinking
a good deal of itself Few of us have had
calls from Norsemen as long ago that And
Champlain and Poutrincourt came a few hundred
years later, but still far back in the past IL
was they who named these sad shores Isle Dou-
teuse"
II was my friend who CLEANED these items from
the guidebook and then communicated them TO
me with the air of always having known them.
have noticed that this is the air most people |
assume Immediately after examining on a certain |
subject.
The whole island has touching air which re- |
minds one OF woman once lovely and caressed |
but grown old and well nigh forsaken There |
are some places which have this effect upon one.
1t is quite dreadful that Nantucket is now re-
duced TO living upon the spoils wTested from the |
summer bosrder. In the future to many of
these families there is the hope of a fortune from
the French Spoliaton claims"
"Oh WELL" said weatherbeaten fellow who
took us out in little sailboat, u guess when
them claims are settled l Sha'n't be down here
lettn' boats in such kind of a way as this.
I sh'll be up in town Twin on my interest"
We asked innocently what claims. He told us
in the clearest of terms how the COMMENT owed
for them ships that took by the French"
And he told the truth, too IL seems as if
half the people here will be rich when them
cairns' are settled. Meantime it is like living
In the hope of fortune from lottery or the adj
justment of case in chancery; it ruins the out
look into the future; it takes the energy from
man. Why should / work too hard? BY and
by there will he that money from &" the Claims
Our landlady was expecting a share in that
money. She told us all about the reasons why she
expected it on the first night She was lying
in wait for US in the hall when we came in from
1ur stroll through the town.
Her face was thin and eager: she had the | .
appearance of never having had a chance in all {
ler life to talk as much as she desired She ,
eized on US as if we were a cool draught and
The dying Of thirst She did not want to hear
sentence from We made two or three
forts TO utter a solitary word now and then
'ut nearly all our poor little attempts were
drowned instantly; they went down in the flood (
without gasp.
We were made TO take chairs" and she placed i
erself opposite. Her husband, long ago swamped Il
" her deluge Of talk, sat leaning far back in q Il
tuffed rocker BY window He apparently did ,
lot hear anything she said. He looked so weary I
f it all that wanted 70 wheel his chair some c
where and shut him up where he could not hear !,
hat voice. She said he had an awful attack 3
the la grippe" last winter. She didn't think il
2 would ever get 'ver it. She thought he was in Il
decline. She had the la grippe herself. and !
he hadn't been so well day since She related Y
very detail Of his illness, from his seizure up to n
he present hour. Occasionally he would correct O.
er statements. When she asserted that there was o.
ne day during which he did not take two
of nourishment in the whole twenty
,ur hours he said: 8
Sarah, that amt so. l did take two teaspoon s.
lis; but only two" d
She turned TO him. W
Thomas, you were too weak 20 recollect. II So
ant two. | know because measured il out g
II you, and / remember the doctors sayincN-" a.
Sarah, / want never 50 weak but | had nv II,
ind S clear IS a bell l." ii
" Thomas, don't you think know what the ii
)ctor said that very night? He said" ~