River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-01-29

"This is Nipsy," he said. "He's a
cross between spaniel and bull, and
he's mighty bright dog.
"He keeps me company on my watch
in good weather, but whenever he
sees me put on my sou'wester, he runs
and hides behind the stove. But if
there's a wreck, and he sees us taking
out the beach apparatus, no matter if
it's blowing a gale and the rain cuts
like knife, Nipsy follows and works
with me-
"Nipsy has done a good many pref
ty bright things, but the best thing
he ever did was to save life two years
ago last August, when a coal collier,
bound for down east from the Della
ware capes, foundercd several hun
dred yards off shore.
."We launched the surf boat and
made for her as soon as we saw her
distress, but before we reached her
and just before she went under q big
wave broke over the ship and washed
the crew of four overheard.
ct was stiff work, but somehow we
managed to pull three men from the
sea before they'd shipped enough wa
ter to drown 'em. The fourth was
nowhere to be seen, and after looking
around for awhile, we gave him up
for lost and headed for the shore
''When we landed Nipsy was run
ming up and down the beach where
he knew we'd come ashore, barking
like all possessed. He jumped all
around me, nearly knocking me over,
and between jumps he'd run eastward
on the beach, as if he wanted me to
go with him.
Finally 1 said to myself: 'Nipsy's
found something, and maybe it's the
missing sailor L said, just for some
thing to say. Well, anyway, I hui
mored the dog and followed him and
he ran about 500 yards down the beach
and stood still and barked.
pretty soon I came up to him and
what do you think [ saw lying there
in the sands? My nephew.
"Nipsy took ma = aim just in time
and SO we saved his life. He was the
missing man from the collier and he
had been tossed ashore by the break
ers."
Carter looked at the clock
Almost eight o'clock" he said.
''Rudd, We'll be on patrol in few
minutes and won't be back before mid
night, so speak up before we go.''
"Yes-yes," John w. Rudd, No. g,
drawlingly responded in Long Island
vernacular, and then continues:
81 started out for patrol duty on the
first night of the '8S blizzard. It is
only a matter of so or 60 yards to the
beach from the station house, but the
snow was so binding and the wind
SO high that it took me Is minutes to
reach the beach.
''Then I headed for the patrol house
about a mile to the Westward. My
idea was to get there and stay there,
because that's allowable in such
weather.
Il thought I'd never reach that
house. I fought against the wind I'M
til | was almost ready to drop, and
the only thing that kept me up at the
end was the thought that I'd freeze if
[ didn't hold out.
"The snow kept me from seeing
ahead-I couldn't have seen the cap
tain if he'd been walking alongside
of me. I feared all the time that I'd
go past the box, because I knew the
lamp light wouldn't be visible.
$50, when I thought I'd almost
reached it, I stuck out my arms in
front as far as I could and walked
that way until they ached, so I
thought 1 couldn't keep them up any
longer. And then kerplunk! went a
fist against the patrol box.
'Guess how long I'd been GOVERN g
the mile" Rudd was fastening his
sou'wester under his chin. "Just two
hours" he said, as he slung a Coston
signal over his shoulder and opened
the door. "Yes-yes."
James G. Smith, No. 5, to whose lot
fell the replenishing of the wood fire,
spoke up as he clattered the stove lid
back into place:
Don't know why, but I'm reminded
of yarn that / heard at Cape Cod
station few years back.
''Seems that an English frigatA was
wrecked off the beach, where the sta
ton is, 200 years ago. One day, four
or five years ago. the hull of YES
sci all at once stuck itself above the
water in full sight of the station,
and musket and pistol butts, like
those used before the revolution, and
old style woodwork was thrown up
on shore.
cts the hull of the English frigate
thrown up out of the quicksands,' the
life-savers said; and then they sent
word to the people in the village.
"They came trooping down to the
beach and began putting out to the
wreck, in hopes of securing the treas
ure that is said to have gone down
with the frigate.
''But before the first boat was fair
ly under way, and just as suddenly
and silently as it had appeared, the
hull sank back into the quicksands
And it hasn't been seen since.''
"Yes-yes; and the crew of that
same station-it's the one closest to
Highland light-lost their lives about
Is years ago." spoke up George J.
Caffrey, surfman No. 4. "It happened
in this way:
"An italian bark was blown over
one of the bars and on to the other.
The crew shot out the line and flew
signals and all that, but the Italians,
it turned out, didn't know the first
thing about our work and so they
i 4.