The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-05
TIE ST, PAUL AFL0AT
JERSEY SANDS CATE UP THE OCEAN
 GREYHOUND.

Example of American Shipbnilding-
 Estimates as to What the Accident Cest
 New York. Feb. 4.-The St. Paul shook
 the sands of Long Branch from her bot
 tom at 10 o'clock this morning and
 steamed away for New York.
 Four of the Merritt and Chapman wrecking tugs assisted the pride of the American line to free herself from the
 unwelconae position in which she found
 herself at about 1:45 a, m on Saturday,
 January 25, 1896. In the dense fog, while
 working her way slowly toward th.s
 city, an error of ten fathoms in the sounding prevented her arrival in New
 York somewhat in advance of the swift Campania, with whom she had been doing turn of speed during all the previous day.
 Whole pages have been written and added to the history of the St. Paul since her accident ten days ago. Hun dredS of thousands of persons have journeyed to Long Branch to see her as she remained fast to the sands of the beach. Fakirs of all kinds, shades and | descriptions have reaped fortunes with | in few hundred yards of the captured l palace of the sea.
 1 The St. Paul has been a very large sized magnet for these many days. Old salts have cast a weather eye at her,
 shook a grizzly head and prophesied 1 that the St. Paul was there to stay at | least for this winter season, if not for ever.
 Tugs tried their strength to get the ship af1oat, and failed day after day as signally as though they were ordinary rowboats tied to an iron pier and man. ned by small boys. Even the high tides at the full of the moon lacked sufficient l ly potent influence on the mass of water 10 work the big vessel out to the bosom
 of the ocean.
 But last night came the prayed-for nor'easter A nor'easter assisted the St. Paul to her unWelcoma tarrying
 place. In the high water of a nor'east~
 CT, yanked and pulled and strained at
 by four of the most powerful wreclling tugs of which the metropolis can boast,
 slowly and with much effort the St.
 Paul was gradually kcd.seaward. During the period between sunset and sunrise and after sunrise, by inches and then feet and yards, the St. Paul grad ually came to herself and to a position of usefulness. For a ship isn't land
 going animal. Early this morning the St. Paul found that she could use her
 own steam. She assisted to the full of her bent the efforts of her woud-be rescuers. Her salvation was worked out in the midst of a driving snow storm-to the tune of the corking nor'- easter. And the music was necessary. The crowds that have paid their shek- 1 els and kopecks watching the efforts of l the last few days to float the St. Paul.
 kopecks and shekels that have gone for awful lager beer and the worst whiskey on earth-were not in evidence when the successful nor'easter came along. They were at home. They had long since told their friends that the St Paul would stay where she was and would never again steam up the river and tie at her natural home.
 Even the inhabitants of Long Branch | had lost interest after so many fail- ures. The wrecking companies, work ing for huge money prize-or nothing at all in the event of failure-kept stea- | dily at their business. They didn't even l consult Farmer Dunn for weather fore casts. But the farmer kept them well supplied with bulletins, and when he did give them the right tip last night it only proved that his incorrect prognos- | tications in the past had not entirely ! dulled his edge of prophecy.
 The nor'easter brought high water and heavy sea. It duplicated the con l ditions that prevailed when the St. Paul slid her nose into the yielding sand of 1 Long Branch and made her grounding so near the shore a possibility. Like conditions gave her the opportunity to get away. When hope was almost dead 1 the change came.
 So little expectation was there of this l that many residents of the bleak spot 1 the neighborhood of the abiding place | of the St. Paul for the past week and more-were not aware that their com panion had left them until they saw her l half a mile out at sea, steaming up to- ward New York. They didn't cheer much. The cold weather had frozen their enthusiasm. But when the finest