Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1895-06-26

in providing for the many wants of the
pleasure seekers. The season is brief
from two to three months only. There
after they resume possession of their do,
main unenticed by the display of wealth
and fashion, happy to return to their
toilsome duties, their primitive ways and
simple pleasures.
Forty or fifty years ago Nantucket was
a prosperous place. The whale fishery
was then a valuable source of wealth.
The hardy islanders prosecuted it with eX-
ceptiondl success as also kindred indus,
tries incident to it, refining the oil, the
manufacture of sperm and stearin candles,
Shipchandlery, cOOpering, and also the
smaller fisheries, all Of which prospered,
yielding fortunes, as much considered,
perhaps, in that day as the menacing and
Eoastrous accumulations of the present
Among the greatest of the shipOWners
We're the Lords, father and son. Lord &
Son was the title Of the firm, but the
father was really the sole manager of the
hrm, the son having so far departed from
the traditions of his ancestry as to sur
render himself to a life of pleasure and
dissipation. Such a falling from grace
WAS rare indeed at that day. True, the
young fellows dissipation would have
been considered mild from our standpoint.
1t was rarely indeed that he was intoxi-
Gated, but he led an idle, purpOseless, use
Sess life, clothed himself in the height of
the fine broadclOth of Nantuckets fore
most tailor not being good enough for him,
and paraded "Gentility Row" every after
moon in resplendent boots, gloves and a
late silk hat. There was not a man in
Nantucket of that day but deemed gloves
the height of effeminacy; they might have
passed the boots, and even the hat, but
gloves for q mani They christened him
Beau Lord, Buck Lord and Pink Lord,
for he was rarely seen without Glove or
d white pink in his button hole, whenever
those flowers We're Obtainable.
On Sundays Beau Lord was in his
glory. On week days the aggressive in
.cessant, all prevailing industry of the
community, oppressed him. The young
1feAows of his own rank were all busy in
the stores or counting houses. To keep
himself in countenance he encouraged two
or three imitators from the ranks. Like
all inventors they copied the defects
and overlooked the virtues of their model
They were equally Idle and a great deal
more vicious than he. But on Sunday
when all the young fellows and all the
Young girls were dressed in their best
he shone the cynosure of all eyes. To be
a few seconds late at church was the
utmost license that he dared permit him.
self. but those few seconds suficed. EY-
eryone could behold him, as, undismayed
1by the reproving chances of the good pas
tor. he sauntered leisurely to his pew and
blurred his face in his shining hat before
booking around to meet the admirine
chances of the young and thoughtless,
or the stern disapproval of the elders.
Ii was rumOred that he was insenSiblG
10 the attra ctiOns of the many fair admir-
ers. but in those days even the most fash
ionable young man about town was NOR
tai. and at length he surrendered to the
charms of one of the loyeliest and sweet
est of Nantucket's fair maldens, Pru
denee Lyman, daughter of the presiden
of the Bank of New Bedford. 1t wa
I'm church that he received the first shaft
g shy, half-admiring, half-reprovin;
glance from beneath the doye-coloret
6onDet. and thereafter Beau Lord de
serted all the rest of the fair ones am
haunted the street in front of the man
sion of Banker Lyman early and late
At length he mustered courage to NEE
her on the steps of the church and evel
to accompany her home, but no invitation
TO enter was ever accorded, althOug
there was not another door in Nantucke
but would have been thrown wide ope
to welcome him. He soon learned tn
reason, if he had cherished any doubt o
the subject for one Monday mornin
Banker Lyman called him into his privat
office and requested him to diScontinu
his attentions to his daughter.
ssWhat are your objections to me as
suitor? he boldly asked.
Your character, or rather your want {
character You have no business, no o.
cupation. You are idle, and, if repOl
speaks true, dissipated. You associat
with young men of low character. 1O
are on the road to the devil, Mr.. Lore
IF 10 one else has interest enough