Morning journal and courier., 1892-11-15
TT Is MUCH DISCOVERED.

But These stray hooks ana Retired
Corners are Inviting Breathing
Places-Cape Cod and Some OF Its
Revelations of Nature-Notes on
Cape God and Vicinity. +
CAPE Con, Nov. 10.
Tothe Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
This il much. discovered world. Each
year sees some hitherto obscure corner
added to the swelling list of well-known
resorts; and as there seems to be no por-
ton of the earth untouched by some dar-
ing adventurer, with the exception of the
north pole and few inaccessible noun
tain peaks, we have no assurance that our
supply of real quaint, old-fashioned places
will hold out much longer.
We find some retired nook in the hills
or by the sea only to return next season to
behold 1t filled with an imported and in
congruous excitement, advertised as a new
resort, and forever lost to real lover of
| nature; to paraphrase an old saying, "the
trail of the boarding house is over them
| ALL"
But there yet linger few places where
one may breathe freely; where nature has
defed progress in large measure; and
| one of them exists in that vague and ex-
tensive locality, ''down on the cape" in
Massachusetts,.
| whose shifting hillseof white sand offer as
| much variety in the landscape as is found
| in the sea. Here man at large has little
| temptation to dwell. Land and sea COM
bine to prevent vegetation. There is little
| or no fresh water::to encourage manufact-
uripg, and hence It is that scarcely out of
| hearing of the roar of great cities lies q
waste Of barren, but by no means unat-
| tractive area.
For rare old cape 1t is, holding treasures
| for the eyes of all who will take the pains
to seek them out.
| There are numerous towns and many
modern houses, but there are also grim,
| weather beaten, old fishers huts, with the
nets drying about the dooryard, fenced in,
perhaps by the long jaws of whales and
shSfks-with few timid plants, Cf in an
exceptionally favored 1ocation), guarded
by rows of clam shells; but the sea is
liable to rise suddenly and leave the door
yard swept clean of everything-so that
horticulture ia not very alluring
But there is an infinitely cosy look about
the old houses; twinkle in the tiny win
dows very like that in an elderly fisher
mans eye; and when at night the smoke
curls up from the open fire place be sure
as genial group gathers about the hearth
as can anywhere be found. There are few
horses, for there is nowhere to go, only
miles of deep sand in every direction. The
little boats answer instead. and people &c
to church in them sometimes, as we do in
carriages.
| The cemetery is sad place-bleak and
unprotected; no trees, no flowers, only 6
l lie
generations of sea captains-probably with
the self-same names descending from father
to son. and certainly the same character
istics. for the whaling trade of long age
bred bold, hearty men, good and honest
but without much mental play-and her,
lie the old sailors, while up by the New
, Bedford wharves lie the huge vessels they
once commanded, rotting slowly, and
source of endless curiosity, with thei
shattered fgure-heads, broad decks ant
general air of past grandeur.
So we pass along the cape, sometime
t1eading magnificent beaches, where tn
sand is firm and hard, and the sea boom
landward in waves of circling foam mile
long, again viewing smooth, neat sranber
~ patches, so prim and correct one Away
thinks what elegant tennis courts the,
would make, then tramping through lilli
putian pine forests, where old, rugge,
trees have struggled up FIVE or six feeta
and every now and then crossing littl
q few hardy vegetables.
Once or twice we find small pond o
fresh water sglow with beautiful PIN
water-lilies; natures compensation
Cape Cod for it's general dearth of flow
ers.
And so we plod on until we attain tn
toe of the cape where lies the village Q
Provincetown, and here, with the ocean O.
three sides of US, we pause. Province
town is like the other villages, only lare
or, better known perhaps, and eomewhs
"modernizsd "-but it's surroundings ca
never change; and as if to remind the PEI
pie of the far past the sea every few year
heaves up the shattered beams of an oil
British warship which was lost on tn
coast nearby, the Somerset" of Revolt
tionary fame. The black live oak timber
look as strong as on the day the ship bon
barded Bunker Hill, but presently th
sand buries them and for years they Il
forgotten.
No one should fail to 30 from Cape Co
to the island of Nantucket. Straight OF
to sea our steamer points. until the Ian
sinks out of sight; then black rim show
far away, rapidly grows larger and MOI
distinct until we enter the pleasant harbt
with old Nantucket before us. It is Gil
of place in its streets. 1t ia full of curio,
places and curious people-some of who
have never left the island; and have grow
grey headed within sight of home; hal
old people, too, for they say Nantuck
folks never debut grow thinner al
thinner and finally blow away.
Here are quaint old mills and huge ma
sions-elegant in their day-where retir,
sea captains lived, surrounded by trophi
| of - 10 81 H.
one, where an old lady used to give reg
lar descriptive lectures of her dead hu
- bands large collection-and I wonder
be found to day.
On each house-top is the raised pls
form where an anxious lookout was Ike
, by the family for the return of the low
ones chip. How much of joy, how mu'
: of sorrow has been felt on these lone
observatories in the years gone by! Nc
5 they are used no more; no longer the shi
, come and go; their masters have pass
away here within sound of the sea, viii
. greeted them when born, sang to them
through life, and finally bore their sou
out on it's ebbipg tide.
There is a little railroad, with tiny tel
graph poles, commanding a grand swe
of surf, but with this dissdvantage-occ
sionally the passengers have to alight al
push through an unusually sandy spc
There is public museum, and, queerest
all, wagons with barrel in place
. wheels!
And when at night one listens to t.
waves on the shore it is easy to imsgi
the Nantucket of long ago, when the shi
of all nations lay at it's long wharves al
foreign sailors clattered noisily up !
steep cobbled streets; and SO We sink
= sleep with the old crier's voice ringing
- our ears, s'The tide has turned, and al
welll'' JOHN D. SWAIN, Yale 'e3.
STATE PRESS ASSOCIATION.