The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-07-08

And here, ON the very scene or the horror.
the son Of its author was domiciled under
the cabin walls OF that long lost ship
Yonder It's fgurehead Knocked him with
staring eyes
"The hull Ia breaking upl" IL Is no Ion.
ger the fisherman house but the cabin
OF a sinking ship See how the timbers
strain and wrench as the keel pounds on
the remorsoless sand, hear how the waves
thunder on the deck above. as though TO
crush the trembling fabric; listen to the
creaking OF the overstrained timbers The
water Is slowly rising yonder, where the
cabin floor is lowest. Who are these that
crowd down the companionway-wom
scantily clad, terror In their eyes, their
hands bleeding, their naked feet raw from
contact with the cruel ropesf One Is an
aged gentlewoman who leans feebly on
the shoulder Of young man; her gray
hair streams over her brows, her dim eyes
look with a mothers tender love on her
sons resolute young face All these poor
creatures are chilled with exposure, weak
with suffering Two Of the women lead
another carries "a child Better 10 drown
here, " says one bitterly, than TO freeze to
death on deck " (Baxton does not hear
these words. but he sees the lips move and
knows what they are saying.) Then the
little group huddles close together in tho
gloom, the mothers gather their children
to their breasts, and one, an ancient gen
tlewoman, prays silently as she locks
hands with the STRIPPING Il pray thee, q
Father, IL IL be thy will, take me and spare
him."
Now the pale lips OF the woman are still,
her head sinks on her breast and the son
rises with the terrible cry (Baxton cannot
hear that cry, but he sees the mans awful
eyes and knows what he says), my mother
Is deadl" Then the waves pound harder
on the deck, the timbcrs shrink and croak
and groan, the fabric l:fts and falls with
dull, terrible thuds-it is high tide-tho
ship Is breaking up. Although IL is day
the cabin grows darker and darker. The
water rises higher. Baxton must save him
self lie staggers across the heaying floor
where mother and son lie dead in each
others arms, reaches the- compaDionway,
gains the deck-and then, before him,
over the shattered bulwarks, TO which
cling half "a hdudred miserable, drowning
creatures, looms "a great towering wall OF
| gray green water. dashed To the mizzen
| shrouds. the captain, trumpet in hand
rests only on the face that is emerging
| from the companionway-Bax face.
Casting of the rope that holds him to this
| place of safety, with livid stare and blaz-
| ing eye, he points straight at Baxton
| "See, see, he cries, 1.-THE murderer Bax
| toni Curses on you-curses on you
| cursesp' In a second it Is over. The mon
| strous hill of water, the double wave that
| marks the flood tide, strikes the shattered
| ship full, fair blow mounts as high as
| the yardarm, clear over the decks, skaters
| the weakened hull to fragments and bears
| down mast and bowsprit in one common
ruin, amid an awful grinding and crush
ing and a splintering of timbers. Then
rises "a great shrek that pierces to heaven
| over the tumult OF the sea (Baxton cannot
hear that Shrek, but he feels it), followed
by the boiling seethe of waters, and the
wave passes on, leaving naught to tell the
fate OF the Bucephalus save few scattered
spars, few battered corpses (ghastly play.
things of the tide) and-that is all.
L
The following Is from The Daily Record
Of April 2s, 1896:
"A strange accident happened at Coffin
Beach on Friday last. Mr. Clarence Bax
ton, a well known New Yorker, went
down on Thursday for n bit of snipe shoot
ing, expecting to return that night Pre-
vented from doing so by the storm, he
sought refuge i'm "a flshermans cabin on
the beach, where the life patrol left him
at 10 o'clock in the evening comfortably
housed and provided with light and fuel
The tide rose to an extraordinary heigh,
during the night, so much 50 that the iloot
wave las the last wave Of the high tide i,
called) swept clear over the sand dune,
that line the beach, overwhelmed the cab
In and swept IL out to sea, carrying will
it the unfortunate gentleman, whose body
was cast up on the shore by the returning
tide next morning Not vestige of tn,
cabin remained save the fgurehead of q
ship which formed "a part OF the structure.
II is curious TO note that the succeeding
ebb tide, which was an extremely low one,
exposed upon the beach the hull of large
ship. supposed to be the remains of the
clipper Bucephalus, which was wrecked on
the sands some 40 years ago The deceased
was the son of the late H. b Baxton, a
prominent merchant of this city. Van
ity.