The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-09-13
THE Hermit OF CAPE mALEA.

THE HERMIT OF CAPE MALEA.
There IS one feature OF Cape aIales
that rarely fails 10 attract the notice Of
the most careless voyager doubling it by
] day. a touch OF human tragedy and
| pathos, belinging IN point OF chronology
20 our own time, but in universal interest
! to all ages. At the extreme pitch OF the
| Cape a stupendcus cliff rises sheer from
| the frotting waves for about 2 hundred
! feet Then comes an irregular plateau
| CT shelf, Of perhaps TWO acres in area,
/ the mountain rising again abruptly be-
/ hind Il TO q height Of about 2.o00 feet
! This plateau is apparently inaccessible
I and yet. perched upon huge bowlder in
| its center, a mass Of rock detached from
! the mountain ages ago, is a house. Il IS
rudely built of wooden fragments inge-
niously fitted together, but its outlines
convey at once the idea Of its designer
/ having been an ADglo-Saxon- II must
! be firmly built toe, for Il is exposed TO
( the full fury of wind rebounding from
the mountain face, and the observer in
I stinctively wonders why, if house must
be built on that shelf, so terribly exposed
a position was selected. Then, if he be
fortunate he VIII hear its story.
About twenty-five years ago there was
a young sailor. who. by dint Of hard work,
| integrity OF character and frmness OF
OF his Notwithstanding master of
what would then be called a good-sized
steamship. some 800 tons register. Upon
this accession 10 good fortune he married
the girl of his choice, who had patiently
waited for him since as boy and girl
sweethearts they parted on his first going
TO sea. And with rare comp1acency his
woners gave him the inestimable privi-
lege of carrying his young bride 10 sea
with him. How happy he was! How deep
and all embracing his pridae as, steam
ing down the griny Thames. he explain
ed to the light OF his eyes all the won
derS that she was now witnessing for the
first time, but which ne had made IA
miliar TO her mind by his oft-repeated
sea stories during the few bright days be-
tween voyages that he had been able to
devote to courtship. The ship was bound
to several Mediterranean ports, the time
being late autumn, and consequently the
most ideal season for a honeymoon that
could possibly be imagined. Dadiz, &C.
nOa, Naples, Venice, a delightful tour
with not one weary moment wherein to
wish for something elsei Even a flying
visit to old Rome from Naples had been
possible. for the two officers, rejoicing
in their happy young shippers JOY, saw
TO Il that no unnecessary cares should
trouble him, and bore willing testimony
in order that he should get as much de-
light out of those halcyon days as posi-
bic, that the entire crew were as dOcile
as could be wished, devoted TO their
bright commander and his beautiful wife
Then at Venice came orders to proceed
to Galatz and load wheat for home
Great was the glee of the girl-wife. She
would see Constantinople and the Da-
nube. Life would hardly be long enUogh
to recount all the wonders of this most
wonderful of wedding trips. And they
sailed, with hearts over-brimmiug with
joy as the blue sky above them seemed
yelling over with sunlight. Wind and
weather favored them; nothing. occurred
TO cast a shadow over their happiness
until, nearing Cape Malea at that fatal
hour Of the morning, just before dawn,
when more collisions occur than at any
other time, they were run into by
laundering Greek steamer coming the
other way, and cut down amidships to
the waters edge. To their peaceful sleep
or quiet appreciation of the nights sill
vern splendors succeeded the overwheim-
ing food, the hiss and roar of escaping
steam, the suffocating embrace of death.
In that dreadful fight for life all per
ished but one-he so lately the happiest
of men-the skipper Instinctively cling
lng to d piece Of wreckage he had been
washed ashore under Cape Malea at the
ebbing of the sCanty tide, and his strong
physique, reasserting itself, enabled him
to climb those rugged battlements and
reach the plateau. Heller he was found
gazing seaward by some goatherds. who.
in search of their nimble-footed focks,
had wandered down the precipitous side
of the mountain. They endeavored to
persuade him to come with them back
TO the world. but in vain. He would live.
gratefully accepting some of their poor
provision, but from that watching place
he would not go. And those rude peas
ants, understanding something of his
woe, sympathized with him so deeply
that without payment or hope of any
they helped him to build his hut and
kent him supplied with such poor NOR
sells Of food and drink as sufficed for his
stunted needs.
And there, with his gaze fixed during all
his waking hours upon that inscrutable
depth wherein all his bright hopes had
suddenly been Quenched he lived until
quite recent years. the world forgetting
by the world forgot" a living monument
of cOnstancy and patient, accomplishing
grief. BY his humble friends. whose Ian
guage he never learned, he was regarded
as saint. and when one day they came
upon his lifeless body, fallen forward up
on its knees at a little glazed window
through which he was wont 10 look out
upon the sea where his dear one lay,
they felt confirmed IN their opinion Of
the sanctity Of the hermit OF Cape
Malea.-F. 7. Bullen, in the Spectator.