The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-16
THE JERSEY BEACH.
Story of the Days Before
Saving Stations We're
Established.
ANCIENT MARINERS TALE
How Wrecks We're Dealt With
in the 0lden Time Drowned
Mems Graves.
ANCIENT MARINERS TALE

the G~aVernMent put up the lie saving
stations
The speaker was Captain Jim, the sum
burned skipper of the yacht Mary 3. We
We're fishing for tide runners in the thor
oughfare by Loveladies' Island, just be-
low Harvey Cedars, and while waiting
fer the big weakfish to materialize, l was
| ~endeavoring to draw on Captain Jim's in
| exhaustibie store of fact n legend of
storm-beaten Long Beach.
when a ship came ashore here in them
days" continued the ancient mariner,
the chances were about ten to one that
all hands would be lost, and there isn't
a foot of SAND from Barnegat to Egg
Harbor that hasn't been the resting place
OF a drowned man. 1t wasn't hat the
people on shore didn't do all they could
to save the wrecked ones, for they did,
and all them old stories about Barnegat
pirates were durn lies told about as big
hearted a lot of men as ever lived. 1t
stands to reason that the shore people
never lured ships ashore with false lights,
because the sailors on board the ships
were just as likely to be their own flesh
ana blood as not. There was hardly a
family along shore that didn't have some
NA~Aa-1NA aACilr iiio I'LL iihCiy lilCy u
take the chances of drowning their own
sons or brothers for the sake of what
wreckage might come ashore. Them
stories did certainly give this part of the
coast a bad name, though. I remember
one ship that came ashore here about
forty years ago. Three of the sailors
managed to get to land, and were found
next day hiding under some tall berry
bushes. When the men found them the
poor devils began to beg for their lives.
They thought they had fallen into the
hands of the Barnegat pirates, and would
be killed for certain. But they changed
their opinions before they went away.
did you ever hear about Andrew Adj
ler?' asked Captain Jim, as he restored
his plug of nav to his pocket, after
biting off a generous chew. mo? Well,
l thought maybe the story might have got
into the papers sometime, but l reckon
not, for it happened a long time ago, n
newspaper reporters were scarce around
here in them days. Andrew Adler's was
one OF the queerest cases that ever hap
pened along shore, and while we're wait-
ing for them burned weakish to turn up
LII tell you about him. 1t all happened
years before l was born, but I've heard
the story many a time, md l can remem-
Der seeing old Andrew when I was a boy.
1T was somewhere about 1920, when
one November night, in a tremendous
storm a ship came ashore on the beach
There was only about half a dozen peo-
pie lived on the beach then, and they
could do nothing but watch the ship go
to pieces and try to save any of the peo-
ME mar n1iUnt M F1Gf Inn ON tho cnn6
1t wasn't long after the ship began to
break up before the bodies commenced
to come ashore, n there was a lot of
them-pretty nigh 200, If | remember right
but Of them all there was only one
alive This was a man about 80 years
old, who was dashed to a spar. and who
was breathing when a couple of men
plunged into the surf and dragged the
spar ashore. He was SenSefess, and had
a big cash in his head, where he had
been hit by one Of the timbers. The men
carried him to q little shanty there was
behind the sand hills, where there was
q good fire, and it wasn't long before
he came to. but he never said a word.
To all the questions put to him he made
he could hear well enough he couldn't
speak a word. The men bandaged his
head as well as they could and managed
to get him to swallow some whisky, and
then he went to sleep. He slept all
night, all next day and the next night,
and then he woke up, but still he was
GUnlD. IL SGCAlCd just IL llOuSll ~ icU
forgot how to talk. He would put his
hands up to his head in a dazed sort of
way and, when somebody would speak
to him he would look at them sort of
wistful like, just like that setter dog of
mine does when | talk to him. Well,
they took him over to Hawkin, and old
DR.. Hankinson was sent for. He KAN
ined the man and then said that the
blow on the head had in some way up
set the poor f~eller's brain, and made him
forget everything he ever knew. They
say he was a splendid looking man, tall
and powerful built, with yellow hair
and beard. The only thing that came
ashore to tell anything about him or the
ship was a board on which was painted
the name Adler They say that is the
German word for eagle, and 50 it was
supposed that was the name of the ship.
From this the people began to speak OF
Andrew Adler by everybody.
zone of the men Who found him on the
beach was Sam Baremore, and Sam took
him home to his fathers and there he
stayed. He was just like a great big
baby. He knowed enough to walk n
eat, but that was about all, and he just
all over again. Sam had a sister. Ruth,
who was about eighteen, and was ac-
counted the prettiest girl in Hawkin.
Ruth was sorry the worst kind for poor
Adler, and took a heap of pains to teach
him things. And it was astonishin. how
quick he learned after his head got well.
In a couple of months he could talk as
well as anybody, but as far as his mem
ory was concerned his life began at the
time when he first came to his enses on
the beach. OF where he had lived before
that. what his name was or his trade, he
hadn't a mite of knowledge. For all he
knew Andrew Adler was his name, and he
had been born and raised in Hawkin. 1t
wasn't long before he began toS snow a
liking for tools, and went to work for a
cabinet maker in HaWkin, but he hadn't
been there many months before he could
beat his boss all hollow. He just natur-
ally took to wood carving, and there
wasn't anything he couldn't make. He
| set up a shop of his own and one day a
| New York man who was down here
| cumming happened to stop In to get the
stock of his gun fixed. Andrew had just
finished carving a clock case that he was,
| making to give Ruth Barelaore.
TN give you $50 for that says the
AZ, yoa Won't says Andrew; 1T
amt for sale
sThen the New York man told him he
would give $50 for one just like it, and
| Andrew agreed to make it. That was the
beginning of Andrews prosperity. The
New York man was rich, and told his
| friends about Andrew, and they ordered
to get him to go to New York, but that
was no use. Andrew had fell in love with
Ruth Baremore, and she with him and
| nothing could get him to leave Hawkin
He was getting such good prices now for
| his work that he was well able to keep
\ a wife, and so he and Ruth were married.
and there wasn't a happier couple in ali
New Jersey.
"Wen, time went on:-Andrew's bust
ness Gourished, and ten years later there
was four yellow-haired children in the
Adler home, two boys and two girls. One