The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-11-18
CITY We us
ATLANTIC STORM
PR0VOKES A YARN
HOW GEORGE MARCHANT BROKE
UP HIS OWN FUNERAL.

He Was Cast Away Down Near the
Horn and After the Most Heroic
Hardships Reached Home Just as
Funeral Services Were Being Con-
Quoted For His Benefit.
L Breaking up his own funeral service
was the strange fortune of George W.
Marchant, finance clerk: of the postofec
fee, when he was q sailor boy out OF
Martha Vineyard, in 1862.
81 have just finished reading the &C
counts of the storms off the Atlantic
coast,' said Mr.. Marchant this morn
ing, ''and can tell you that no one
has any ida o what What's those no Atane
I remember a storm we ran into. off
Staten Island on trip round the horn
to the Sandwich Islands, in the early
summer Of 1862. The hurricane, caught
us just off the outer cape, and blew us
head on toward the breakers.
81 thought that everything was up,
but I guess we were saved for another
wreck, for just as we were within a few
hundred yards of the shore, the wind
%es4 o SnS we ce hSp9sa gp " h ha
a good passage from there to- the Cape,
and then ran into another blow that
simply beat anything I ever hope to see.
First our masts went by the board, then
our small boats sailed Ie away like bal
"We expected every minute to go
down, but finally the storm blew itself
out and we were left for four days,
floating around. d On the fifth day we
sighted a sail and were picked up
ef s oar old hulk f to slow Where v
pleased aud boarded the Southern
Rights, which took us to South Amer
i'? IT P had lost everything and when we
took passage back to Philadelphia, all
I never touched q bed or got a chance
to take off my shirt, except during an
occasional rain storm, which was used
as washing day. ....-4
Stranded in Philadelphia.
"Finally I landed in Philadelphia
without cent or q friend. There l.
was in December with straw hat,
overalls. The first person I saw was
a sea captain who didn't know me, but
I braced him all the same and asked for
| help, telling him my story.
"HCome right along said he.
finally got IL in the residenee e district, and
the first thing I knew he stopped in
front of big brown stone house.
Come right in.
"FWell, should think not, man
aged to say, and sta rte, to run. IN, He
was quite party of young people there
and they insisted upon my sitting down
to dinner with my blue overalls. They
made me tell all my experiences and
after my embarrassment wore off, en-
8 (oyed tie WHOLE ole thing hugely: The
my staying all night, and the next day
r I left thinking that I could get passage
: to New York.
: "When I tried the railroad company
/ the, superintendent turned me down GOLD
York. J. knew could never walk it
some sailor. The first fellow that ]
met was an old salt, who was just going
to ship. I told him l must have three re-
- but he could not see it that way. Final
ly offered to sell him my shirt, which
he accepted and told me to peel. Tha
gave me ticket to New York, but lief
q me only my undershirt.
h without having had a thing to eat TO
10 two days. I walked into a restauran
r, near the Bowery and got good break
h fast and walked up to the proprietor.
is - n . d. you do to people tina
L
le All right said I, go ahead, 70
Or I haven't a cent r.
n, NHe told me to wait a minute, an
n | thought he had gone after a copper
ID but in a few minutes he returned an
had lunch packed up for couple o
EARNED with. the lunch, I started 70
the steamship line to Boston and mar
IL aged to get a chance to help load; ]
IN bOatswaln put me on the train tina
II II would land me within striking distanc
ID Of home. After I got to the island
rd took the short line, and when saw tn
ue old conductor whom 1 had known a
my life I curled up, and pretended t
eod nree%ded me TO once sRe
said that didn't have q ticket.
ay 3" Funeral in Progress.
es "When he saw my face you shou]
no have seen him jump. He thought W.
m g ghost, and when T persuaded him thu
70. I was alive he told me that that ve1
Il. day they were holding funeral servic.
T. fer E} my lost body at my fathers HON
the station was va, couple Of miles Il
other side. When got within hailir
and yelled for all was worth:
y IT never saw a funeral service brea
D. up like that one did. They al reco
m station I had only gone little way b
IS fore they all met me. I discovere
then that my letter from South Anne
lea had never reached them, having hs
to 90 by the way of London.
'tThat night we had great reunic
and dug up the gravestone. I had NJ
f. slept in a bed but once for months, ar
Fl my mother told me that could slet
as late as l. wished the next mornin
But when tried to sleep I felt as
the bed would break my back. I got
81 blanket and slept like top on the f1o
r. and was out watching the sunrise tt
r mex: morning, before the family W;
up.' -