Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-11-13
PIRATES OF THE COAST.
MEMORIES or A MAN WHO WAS
ONCE 4 WREcKeR HIMSELF.

Bygone Days-A New Jersey Yarn.
On the spacious yeranda OF the Parker
house, In Forked River, n j., there sat n
small wiry man, with the loquacity of a
phonograph and the general dried up and
shrewd aspect of typical south Jersey.
man His face, spare and bronzed, held
sharp, penetrating eyes. His beard was Of
that unique pattern that gives its grower
| the facial expression Of baboon His
shoulders were stopped, and 1t was noticed
that his gait NJ he came up the main street
and slid into the hotel was OF quick.
nervous order, half walk, half hop, and, rs
the freshman would say, the other half n
jerky skip.
This particular specimen Of the inhabit-
ants Of this particular spot IL known the
| length and breadth Of Ocean county prob
ably IA Charlie No matter what other
name may necessarily have to accompany
| this to make the full cognomen strictly
! legal, 1t is enough to know, and ample for
all purposes here, to refer to him simply M
Charlie, the doer of odd jobs, the village
errand runner and chore expert OF Forked
River
"Wrackin'2" said he, with an expression
Of surprise "piratin'i Yes, sir yes, sir.
dead loads OF It, Everybody round here
WAS into it up to their chins Why, II was
~ common ~ breathn' in them days,
when the coast patrol was skinny. All
| you had to do was to go over to the beach
and help yourself, and then--look out you
wasn't ketched That was all, fur they
was pretty spry, was the underwriters
agents, gettin' about rs soon AS 1t was
known ship had gone on.
How'd we do iti Well, ye see, we'd
keep our eyes and ears open when there
was IA storm, KNOWN somethin' must go
wrong for that was about the deadest sure
spot for gettin' astray in that there was ON
the coast--barrin' some further to the
southar'd, OF course. Some of us along
the main was always sailin' out over the
bay, flsbin', clammin', oysterin', or just
lynn low, and il there was any wrackage
fresh up Oh the beach or bobbin' round in
the bay, why, it wouldn't be three SWITCHES
of II cats tail before tho shore would be
covered with fellers Pirates2 Not exact
ly BnzzardsS Oh, no, we couldn't call
'em that. just loterin' around like, look
in for good things, and not too conscien
tious to live--no, sir no. sir; not ballasted
too deep with scruples
we generally went out in pairs-some.
times thered he three who could trust one
another, for you know when it came to
the divvy we'd be likely to pull ears, or
peach, or do somethin' else that might hurt
II there was any baekcappin' goin' on. 1t
was one big scramble AZ soon as the news
would get along the main that there was a
ship goin' to pieces, and the ones as got
out first as likely as not got the choicest
pickin's
We'll as | was a-sayin, we'd slip over
the bay in our cats rs soon rs we heerd of u
wreck, and preferred gon' at night, for
| then things amt quite IA noticeable as in
daylight 1t was surprisin' what lot of
catboats would be found along the meadow
banks inside the bay, and what a parcel of
men would he seen sneakin' round, haul
in boxes. barrels casks and parcels of ev
cry description out of the surf up high and
dry beyond the water 1t is perfectly lie
climate, of course, to wrack on salvage
protectn' the goods for the underwriters
and gettin' Il fair per cent. of the proceeds,
but on the whole we wasn't wrackn' on
them terms
WED get the goods over the hills and
out of sight, and bury them deep in the
sand, then go back for 'em in few nights
aud run EN- over To the main, where they
would he again buried, and deeper than be
fore, and good luck to the officer of the
law that ud turn EN- up But chances
was that we'd no sooner get 'em under
sand among the beech hills than some
other pirate. not satisfied with his success
'ud sneak around after we was gone uu
cover EN-, roll 'em to some other spot and
bury 'em again to his own account.
What did we get, MOSTLY Well, we
wasn't 80 pertickler. let me tell you We
warn't any too well off on general princi
pies and about anything we could fetch
was acceptable, barrin' umber-that
wasn't much good. and was too much
trouble, anyway, Boxes of silks, satins,
velvets, ribbons, linen goods, India shawls,
kid gloves, boots, shoes, rubber goods and
liquors all came in handy, and rs rule
brought in pretty fair returns.
Course some was damaged, but large
quantities was in prime order The WON
en- folks all along the main used to have
plenty OF silk dresses then, for they could
be had cheap II we got our finds over
here we'd bury 'em on the meadows, or
bring 'em right here to town and plant 'em
in our gardens or send EN- way over into
the state twenty miles from here. where
in good time they'd grace the shelves of a
country store
Get richY Well, I'm not sayin' much
on that pint | didn't, but there's lots
around here who got their start out of
wrackage picked up on the sands around
Barnegat light might go over the list
OF some of our best citizens, who have lots
o land now, and you'd hardly believe that
1t come 10 EN- with money got that way.
Turing vessels on TO the coast? Well,
now, that's p'inted question. as the law
yer would say, and one Teller might kick
ag'in' False lightsf Who told YOU soY
Oh, you heard some one say so, did We?
IN not sayln anythiu', They used to tell
about the lamps in the old lighthouse 20
ing out some foggy nights, and lamps DO
ing planted right out on the north point
o beach, and of vessels in distress being
deceived in other ways, resultin in their
going to pieces on the sand bars out there
But it warn't all cheerful gatherin' up
those boxes and barrels and such like. We
used to run often upon stray body rolling
up and down with the surf all bloated and
battered and perhaps fish eaten WHY.
there's thousands of poor bodies which
found their death out there buried in the
sands and in the cemeteries here and nj
other points along the main, mostly no
names, no epitaphs, nothing but I'm
known, drowned at sea- Whenever we'd
hnd one the first thing was to get it high
up beyond the surf, and then lay IL out, tie
IL to stake, aud come over to the main
for the coroner. who'd go over and, finding
the body there as reported, would pay us
S. apiece for 'em
1T was pretty big blow to the chief in
dustry of this section when the new life
savin system got established all along the
coast, Tor there wasn't any more opportu
nifty to get hold of things as we used to.
aud as result the business had to fall Off
We was too closely watched; underwriters
could get bigger returns, and thrifty beach
seArrhers Mera left ont in tie cold Nai,.a