Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-09-18
BENEFICIARIES
OF CHANGE
Separated by the Great
Galveston Storm.

I-s>s->-s>-s-<s->i->> -t>.s>-f>i.>s<t@
Torn from each others terrified clasp
by the seething waters Of the Galveston
food at midnight: mourning one another
month after month as dead; meeting sud
denly face to face in the sunlight on the
street of a New Mexico town, their sor-
row changed to joy Unreasonable in that
one amazed glance of mutual recognition
such is the romance that marks the re-
union of Frank II. Parrish and his pretty
young wife.
The story of that tragic midnight part.
ing and its sequel, the happy MONDAY
meeting. is strange story Of chance
a story that cannot but revive hope in
any despairing breast. for it proves that
although there may be only one chance in
many millions of attaining the hearts
desire, il is worth while to wait and
watch for it,
Frank Parrish and his wife, swept
ssunder in the tempest's roar and the
darkness of night, without one clew to
follow in finding each other when the
morning dawned and consciousness re-
turned. gave up all thought of meeting
again in this world. There was no ap.
parent reason for supposing that either
had survived the horrors Of that fateful
night.
And yet there was a chance-dim, un-
certain, well nigh improbable, but never
theless a chance-that neither had gone
down into the tombless graveyard of the
sea.
But so slight, SO shadowy, seemed TO
them that chance when weighed against
reason and considered along the line of
ordinary occurrences that the heartbrok-
en- husband and wife cast it aside as an
impossibility, the hungering thought of
which merely Knocked their despair and
made their loneliness the sadder.
They had not then learned how strange,
how elusive, how kind a thing sometimes
is chance.
To chance they owe the reunion Of THEN
parted lives. Chance, slenderest of all
threads though it be, has linked the bro
ken chain that bound them. Ii has brought
about their second honeymoon. for Frank
Parrish and his wife are Just now as
supremacy happy a pair of welded lovers
as could be found the world over.
When the tide rushed into Galveston
and houses were splintered in the mighty
grasp of the storm; when caught in the
teeth of the tempest and stunned by the
dashing waves. men, women and children
were engulfed and lost forever to the
sight or cast ashore. like human drift
wood, the breath of life beaten out of
their bruised, broken bodies; when the
world itself seemed to come to an end in
chaos most horrible, these two. shaken
from their slumber, without time for
prayer or farewell word, were hurled with
their house into the angry flood. Clingins
to each other in the darkness, they were
flung into the very vortex of the inrush-
ing sea. The last instant of consciousness
was fraught with anguish keener than
any hurt to their bodies, for each felt the
other slipping, slipping weakly away into
the black, desolate waste of waters. With
their cries choked in their Threats, with
even the wish TO die together denied
them. the man and the woman lost each
other in the fury Of the food.
The catastrophe occurred in September
of last year, ten months ago.
The other day, by the one chance that
these two Borrowing souls had never
dared to hope for, they found each other
alive and well In the town of Roswell,
n. NJ.
With all its millions of inhabitants this
old world is "a small place." after all,
when two of the atoms that crawl over its
surface, suddenly thrust apart in the
night, are as suddenly brought together
amid surroundings entirely different and
in the full light of day.
II was like awakening from a shudder-
some nightmare TO sweet, sunny reality.
When the flood came. Mrs. Parrish was
caught and pinioned by the swirling wa
tiers in some wreckage that drifted back
within block Of the spot where their
house had stood. Here she was finally
rescued, badly bruised and hurt, but
without broken bones.
Her husband was carried the breadth
Of the bay and far inland, where he was
found by kind hearted stranger. farm
err, who at first thought him quite dead.
But the nearly drowned man partially re-
covered consciousness, murmured the
name of his wife and sank into a semi
comatose state and wavered between life
and death for six weeks thereafter.
Meanwhile he was tenderly cared for
In the home of the farmer upon whose
hospitality and humanity the sea had
thrust him unlimited.
Two months passed before the sick man
was able to return to the scene of his
former happiness. Saddened and desc
late he wandered over the ground whose
landmark had been swept away by the
anger of the elements, ground once so IA
miliar, now so strangely altered. He lin
gered by the ruins OF his dwelling as by a
new made grave. Everywhere be asked