The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-02
NoAH,s IDEA oUTDoNE.
Ashe Proposes TO Save Himself by
Ills Ark and Make Money Out of
IL. Too,
From the Nav York sun.


From the New York Sun.
Cardvil!e Me, March 29.-Charles T.
Ashe, who lives In the bottom of a steep
gully half way between Cardvlle and Cos
tigan station has predicted great food
in Northeastern Penobscot county for
some years. He argued that whenever the
snow was more than four feet deep In the
woods on March 20 and the lower waters
of the Pasadumkeag streams were piled
up with short logs for the pulp mills, a
sudden rain would turn the floods loose
from the hills and the encumbering logs
on the stream below would form a jam
above Olamon, inundating the towns OF
Greenfield Milford, Greenbush, and Pasa-
dumkeag. This spring the deluge-making
conditions are all present, and though the
flood still waits among the snow-banked
trees, Ashe has his ark nearly completed.
and says he Will get his household goods
on board as soon as the river rises enough
to overflow It's banks.
The craft in which Ashe and hts chill.
dren hope 10 escape Is long decked scow,
made of spruce planks caulked In the
seams and painted all over with coating
of boiled oil and coal tar Framed amid
ships is a 6x12 house. which rises four feet
above the deck. This Is entered on the
containing windows. which may be shield
ed by heavy outside shutters. From the
top of the house rises a sheet-iron stove
pipe, and the range Is screwed to the bot
tom of the scow. The provisions are to
be slowed away under the watertight
deck, and mattresses are also spread here
so those who are not on duty may sleep in
safety, no matter how rough 1t is outside.
He proposes to start away i'm his scow
ae "a q
NIT hts passage over the rocks half mile
below. After this he will float down to
within a mile OF Olamon, where he ex-
poets the jam to form, and anchor on the
lee side of a point until the logs break
away, when he will glide out on to Penob-
scot river, and go down to Old Town. There
he will exhibit himself and his family as
the survivors of the latest deluge. By
charging small admittance fee he hopes
to get enough money to pay him for his
work. IL he cannot sell his scow for
houseboat to some of the well-to-do peo-
pie of OLD Town, he will risk taking 1t over
the three dams between there and Bangor.
and pass the summer giving shows around
the seaside resorts on the Maine coast.
Should he get his price for the boat in
lOd Town. he will return TO his home and
live on his farm until he can build another
ark.
1t would take large book to tell all
the stories of the arks' which have been
built in Maine. Most of the men who
have undertaken such tasks have been
crazed by religious excitement. In the
summer Of 1857 David Crockett returned
to his home In Bucksport after an abb
sence of twenty years at sea- He had
been on a whaling ship In the Pacific and
while there his vessel had been captured
by pirates, who put the captives in irons
and placed them between decks. During
the night the men managed to free them
selves from the handouts and went on
deck, where they succeeded In overpower-
ing the pirates after a terrible fight. Dur
ing the fight Crockett received a blow in
the head which disabled him. Returning
to New York, he was converted and
started down East, telling the story OF
his adventures in every town. From
Bucksport he went North, saying he was
going to convert the unchurched masses
who were settling on the wild lands in
Aroostook county.
Nothing more was heard OF him or his
whaling stories until the summer of 1853
when the farmers who lived along tho
banks OF Aroostook river were alarmed
by seeing what they took to be a rebel
gunboat float down the river on its way
TO st. John The craft was a long Sew
bearing fantastic house on it's deck, and
on the level deoked space. fore and aft of
the house, were grouped pairs Of deer,
moose, foxes, rabbits. woodchucks and
other native animals. On top Of the
house stood Crockett, bare-headed and in
his shirt sleeves, crying out to the people
to flee from the wrath to come. His hair
and beard, which had not been trimmed
for years, flowed out and about his head,
giving him wild and uncanny appear
ance. Crockett and his ark and his ami
mails in pairs Heated down as far as Fort
Fairfield, where the selectmen, seeing
that he was insane, arrested him and sent
him to an asylum. The rotting ark sill
lies upon the shore just above the village