The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-06

the food gates of memory. simply can
not talk They like to hear stranger
talk. though; also to sit perfectly still
and apparently Indifferent, weighing
every word he says, and ready TO with
err him up with perfectly annihilatlng
remark If he says anything which
they know to be foolish or untrue. But
they are not inspiring company, espe-
cially to one who is desperately hazard
ing remark after remark, in the nope
of hearing them talk, and who is be-
ing gradually frozen stin by the CAIN
interpretive stare of those deep-set
eyes.
So 1t came about that after a brief
endurance of that silent gathering, 1
babe them good night and turned back
through the brightly-lit market place.
with the band doing its utmost, and
the finely dressed throngs sauntering
or lounging in the sweet summer night
air, and so into the deserted streets
behind. Again imagination came to
my aid, and l gazed up at the ever
recurring turrets OF observation,
perched eyrie-like upon the SUBMITS
of so many of the houses, built thus
in order that the inmates might have
a clear view over the sea of the COM
ing and going of the ships, which bore
all they held dear of father, son,
brother or lover, or carried the whole
of their fortunes between those sturdy
ribs of live-oak.
1t needed no very active exercise OF
fancy to see those deserted minarets
re-peopled with the ghosts of CEN
fury ago, sweet-faced Puritan women,
whose self-restraint gave no indication
of the anxieties raging beneath snowy
wimple or lawn stomacher. How many
of those tender hearts have broken
at last when, after months OF fruitless
watching from the high tower. the
awful truth was forced upon them that
the devouring sea had again claimed
it's toll, and this time the lot had fallen
upon them. How many agonized
prayers have assembled from those lit
tie, four square structures, empty now
forever since the reason OF their being
at all has fed. In days gone by the
report of a home coming ship, returning
from the other side of the world after
years of absence, filled the watch tow
ers with eager straining eyes. From
the absence of telegraphic communica-
ton and the uncertainty of movement
inseparable from the trade, it might
be one of half-dozen ships: and this,
of course, is added to the anxiety, since
uncertainty is one of the prime evils
OF life.
And when night fell before the lab
oring speck, just discerniole in the
ofing. had won her way near enough
to make some temporary haven, when
with the passing OF day came, as IT. so
often does in these ATTITUDES, the ire
sistible fury of a winter gale, the
watchers tension of mind must have
often strained to the breaking point.
1t is most difficult for us in these days
to realize what those patient ones had
to endure, knowing as they did to the
remotest detail all the dangers that
were set round about their beloved.
These women of Nantucket. Martha S
Vineyard Rhode Island and the neigh
borhood knew what a hell of torment
ed waters their maze-like vicinity be-
came under the stress of winters
gale, knew how on the finest night the
intricacy of the channels and the
vagaries of the currents, to say nothing
of the impenetrable whiteness of fog,
made navigation there one of the most
difficult of all arts to practice.
Yet there were compensations. There
always are. Safe anchored off the
shallow bar, the "camels" (curious pom
toon-like structures used for lifting
the ships into a harbor too shallow
for them), are secured on either side
Then up anchor" pump out the
camels." The grand. weather-beaten
vessel rises, gay with bunting fore and
aft, the quiet crowds, well schooled In
the art of self-repression, line the Ions
wharves Gall deserted and forlorn to-
day) and another chapter in the his.
tory of Nantucket is closed and has
| passed into oblivion.