San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-12-02
THE WIVES OF CAPE COD.


Many of Them Sailed Around the World
Several Times.
Cape Cod is the home of the pioneer
/ yachtswomen of this country. The So
eiety woman who has made trip
around the world in her husbands
yacht is looked upon as a very much
travelled parsonage, but there are cap
tains' wives who have made one or
more voyages to Japan and China, and
| have been able to discuss the Chinese
and Japanese war with easy familiari-
! ty. Many of them are widows now
who lost their husbands by shipwreck
on a trip when the captain, with, it
would seem, almost a foreknowledge
of coming events, had refused the
wife's plea to sail again with him. In
the palmy days of Cape Cod shipping
every captain took his wife on at least
| one voyage, most of them on long
| trips lasting year or more. The cap
| tain's wife often became the good angel
| of the fo'cas'le.
She dosed the crew when they were
| i'll, wrote letters home for them. looked
after their morals, and on Christmas
saw they all had some gift. Others
lived in an aristocratic way and never
| interested themselves in the affairs of
| the crew, never went into the gallery
| to arouse the ire of the cook, Such
| women had piano aboard, with IL
brary and household pets, and devoted
their time to fancy work.
When their sailing days were over
the wives came ashore to their native
villages and settled down to lead what
| to outsiders seems tame existence.
In almost every village from Province
| town to Fairhaven there is some old
captains wife who has no one of her
| own to look after. She mothers the
whole village. Everybody sends for
her first on all occasions of joy and
| woe, of life and death.
When she is approached rightly, and
| the mood moves her, she delights the
younger generation with tales of ship
wreck and storm, of adventures in
China, Japan, India and many strange
| countries barely known even now to
the civilized world. But, best of all,
are the stories that are illustrated by
some old silk gown or piece of antique
| jewelry, a fan or handkerchief or
shawl from India, such as Queen Vic
| toria has made famous as bridal gifts.
At the summer home of Capt. and
Mrs. George Lunt, at Chatham, is an
| illustration that never fails to satisfy.
| 1t is Pop. In winter Pop lives with
his mistress and Capt. Lunt in East
Boston. In summer he comes to Chat
ho Do hi ,Nnc tn1,
ly respected existence, pampered and
lacking nothing that so dignified dog
can desire. Pop is hero among the
| rest of the dogs in Chatham, because
| he has not only been great traveller,
but has had thrilling escapes from
| danger by sea.
Capt. Lunt has been famous Cape
Cod captain, and Pops mistress sailed
! for years, as many as twelve, with her
husband wherever the ship went. She
is very handsome, white-haired
woman, very attractive and refined.
| She sailed around the world five times
in her husbands ship, and made sew
eral voyages to China.
For the last five years of her sailing
| Mrs. Lunt made her home on board the
ship United States. She has had all
| the refinements of home about her,
and always had several pets aboard.
| 1t was over ten years ago that the cap
tain of the ship signed in Liverpool for
a cargo of Lancashire coal, which was
to go around Cape Horn and
across the Pacific ocean to China.
One of the mysterious something's
with which Cape Cod men and women
are so familiar, yet never attempt to
| explain, impelled the captain not to
| sign for his wife. The captains wife
didn't like it, but she always believed
her husband knew best how to run his
ship So the United States sailed
| away, carrying the captains wife's
piano and all her dainty belongings in
| its cabin. Then there were her pets,
consisting of favorite cat, a canary
bird and dog. But the captains wife
sailed for New York by steamer, came
TO Cape Cod. and about the fiftieth day
went to Boston to engage sleeping
! car section for her trip across the con-
| tiuent t; San Francisco, where she
was to meet the ship. In the street
she read bulletin board: ''Ship
| United States burned at sea, and all
| on board lost. "-Philadelphia Item.