Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-07-03
a MIDNIGHT LuLLAsY.
How . Dying Mother and Her Child Were
Found mt Sea-


Found mt Sea-
We were off tho gulf of laramie, on the
southeast coast of Naples, and heading up
for the Adriatic sea, when ut sunset one
evening the last ycstigc of . breeze died
away, and no sailor ever saw moro glori-
GUS night come down. Theheavcns seemed
to blaze with stars, and so quiet was the
ship after tho O'Clock watch got settled
down on deck that the siloncc made one
really lonesome. There was only light
ground swell, and the ship heavcd with
scarcely the creak of a bulkhcad below or
the cheep OF n block aloft. At 10 O'Clock
o light fog settled down to make the stu
alton still more lonely. Ono standing ut
the wheel could Just make out the fore
mast rising from the dock. but nothing
forward OF that IL was In summer. and
tho sailors were without shoes. Now and
then 1 could hear them moving about, and
their soft footballs reminded me Of cats nd
vancing upon their prey. From to IL
o'clock the ship was like n grave. There
was not even the splash of n fish jumping
out of water. At IL or soon after the
man on lookout hailed Z 10 in n voicoscarce-
ly above n whisper, and as went forward
he said:
1--WE heard something very queer on
the starboard bow for the last 10 minutes.
the men who will tell you the same"
what sort OF n sound Is itt" asked.
swell, it's the next thing 20 singing,
should say. At least there's a sort of tune
to it-something like one of our old nurs-
cry songs"
1T can't bc n craft out there, for moth
ing was within 10 miles Of us when the
wind died out Keep quiet now, and
Well all listenl'
One-two-thrcc minutes passed away,
and then all got the sound together. 1t
certainly sounded like n human voice, but
q weak one, and 1t also seemed to follow
the air OF a nursery song.
But it Can't be that, ;" said to the
men, who instinctively drew closer to-
gcthcr and betrayed their supcrstitious
fears. Tho noise may be caused by a
sea fowl or oven n fish. At any rate, it's
nothing we need look into"
Iwalked aft, and for Is minutes all was
quiet Then suddenly caught the sound
again. and this time il was SO much near
| er or louder that was startled. At the
same moment thc lookout hailed again,
and as / went forward found the wholC
watch bending over the starboard bow In
the attitude Of listening.
81 heard It, =" i said r. halted. Al
listen now, and see IL 1t comes again"
1t was fully Ave minutes befsrc the 81
lence was broken, and when thc SOUND
| came again no one could doubs what II
was. 1t was a weak and rasping human
voice crying out in a strange fashion II
an effort to sing. If you have ever hcarI
| q very old person try to sing, you can &c
fair idea of what this voice was like.
was faint and quavcry, and yet there wa
a rasp to it which instinctivcly reminded
me of thirst 1t struck at least one o
the men that way also, for he turned ant
If that isn't splrIi "a it'll be SOM
castaway on a bit of wreckfgQwhosc throa
is SO parched that he cam spnl us hail!
went for my night ginss aud after
long look thought could nuke out al
object resembling boat couldn't
certain, however, but waited Tor the SCUM
to come again. When IL came, called th
captain, and two minutes after he reachc'
| the deck VIC could make out boat 10 th
east of Us, and he ordered = boat lowerc
and sent me of in charge te Investigate
We did not have a cables length 10 &C
We not only found Ii 10 be boat, b,l
there was human being In ii sitting o
the bottom amidships- Tho queor singin
began again as VIC reached the boat, an
while we were making her fast the flgur
moved its shoulders and arms, but not II
position. The motions reminded me OF
mother soothing n child, and yet had n
/ doubt the figure would turn out to
some poor devil of fisherman blown o
shore in n gale. When we reached I'll
ship, one of the men entered the strane
boat to assist the c;Istaway ON deck, but
had not yet laid hands on the sitting flgul
when he started back and shouted:
BLESS my eyes, Captain Cook, but it
a woman instead of sailor, and she
. holding something take to be baby. 4"
, / went down to inspect, and, SUI
enough, it was n woman and baby. 81
had been bending over it and did not loo
up till laid my hand on her arm Exc
In shs darkness / knew abo child ~
dead and the mother very near it, ~
would NOS les % q chs littls dend. ls7d
and suffering had wrecked her mind -
looked aboue In q daEed AID stupid wa
and then sat down on deck and began
rock and sroon. We offered her brundy A
water, but for some hme she would N
touch 1t. 1 moissened sponge and rubb'
il over her cracked lips, and then she all
her mouth, but could not swallow. 81
began to shiveT nnd shake like one With q
aguc, and soOn after shae gave lutheran
to wild, long Shrek and fell over dead
The presence of the mother and child
the boat out thcrc was easily explaihe
IL was pleasure boat, and thoy had drii
ed OF tho coast -Four different erafe We
out i'm search, and they we've In The hie
way Of sailing and steam craft, and y
, they had been four days adrift when ,
brought them aboard. IL was hardly dn
light before VIC were boarded by one
the searching parties. but all we -eou
give them was tho dcad-two corpses bur
cd and shrivcicd In thu hot sun and vast
to skeletons by hunger and thirst.
NJ. QUAD