Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-26
DAILY STOR Y
SHE SAVED THE BOWERiE.

oOdti Ous, W IltS bCt"SCh L<cllS
Island and Fire island, hired an old
fisherman to take me out in his boat.
He was queer character and told
some stories about the early history,
of Long Island that interested me. He
had lived in the same location all his
life. and his father, grandfather and
great-grandfather before him.
Day after day he sat in the stern
with one brown hand OH the tiller, the
other OH the main sheet. Keeling off
yarns as his little sloop reeled off
knots. This is one of them:
There was time when piratin' was
much more respectable trade than
it is now, and right here the pirates
used to come in through the inlets and
bury their plumber. They bought
lot o. provisions and such things as
they needed, and as they was good
pay what few people there was about
in them days was very glad to trade
with 'em-tliat Is. when they wasn't
bent on murder and robbery. One of
our family who knowed how to write
writ down Il good many things in II
blank book. and there was 4 lot in it
about the pirates. That's how / got
what I'm goin' to tell you.
cone o the farmers, an old Dutch
man, had a farm, or bowerie. rs lie
called ii, about mile from the house
my ancestors built. only nearer the
bay One fall IL niece of his'n-I cont
remember her name. except the first
name was Katrina-come out here
from New York to visit her uncle's
family. Bein' town bred, she was Il
leetle too good for the folks about here;
in fact, my ancestor. the writer, de-
scribes her as a high stopper. She
must "a been one o. them Vans that
has since considered themselves the big
toads in the New York puddle. Any
way. Katrina. though her uncle tried
hard to give her q good time. turned up
her purity nose at the farmer people.
/ don't exactly know why. SEEM that
tillin' o the soil is as respectable as
tradin' in the skins o wild animals,
which her people did.
"Howsomedever her uncle got up a
big dance for her on his bowerie. 1
think they had to do the Gancin' IN
the barn, seem there warn't no other
place big enough. Katrina, she jist
went around with her nose in the air
and wouldn't hev no attention from
none o the young farmers, and her I'M
Gle come up to her and tole her that
she was too high and mighty for the
simple folk about here and he'd send
her home the next day.
"AH of n student there was a barkin'
O the dogs and hollerin' o. the mig
ger slaves outside, and in another mo-
ment in comes n lot o. men in sailor
toy with cutlasses. and one o. 'em
with pair o. mustaches a foot long
cries out:
""All you men git, out o. here onless
you want to walk Il plank from the
roof laid over the wellv
''They was pirates that had come in
at the inlet and come ashore for amuse-
ment and plumber. The farmer men
got out mighty quick except the fid-
dlers. for the chief ordered 'em back.
He must "A been the cap'n. Then the
pirates tole the fiddlers to play, and,
goin' up to the women, each cuttlroat
chose pardner and swung her off into
the dance. The cap'n he spied Katrina
Settin dignified and naughty, and
when he seen her-so the story goes
he made a step aft and put his hand
up to his foreead like they does In the
theater and gasps. Katrina see the
cap'n and set bolt upright as though
he warn't nothin' to her. Then he
walks up to her, sort o cringin' like,
and when he gifts where she was he
sweeps the floor with his hat and says
to her so low that nobody
couldn't hear II, and she says some
pm to him, and he says somep'n' more
to her, and they kept 1t up awhile; then
she gifts up, and lie leads her out to
dance.
1.-The chronologer says that they was
the highest steppin' pair that ever
paced through a dance in the colony,
the man and the girl bein' both blue
bloods sure. The other women forgot
their fright and danced like country
jakes, which they was, only they made
sneerin' remarks about Katrina, sayin'
that now she'd got pirate they hoped
she was satisfied. They wondered
what the two had been talkin' about
but Katrina didn't let on She jist
walked through the dance as poker
like as ever, and the cap'n was as
IL u
queen of England. She didn't seem to |
fear him, and she didn't say nothin' to |
him. She jist danced as if she was |
walkin' around with yaller dog.
'There was jist one dance. Then the |
rap'n give a signal to leave The men |
looked kind o. hard at him and wasn't |
goin' to go. The cap'n walks up to one
On 'em and was bringin' his cutlass
down on him when the Teller dug out,
and the rest follered. The cap'n he
went last, and before he did he turned
and give Katrina one look. My scrib-
Dlin' ancestor says 1t was like the look
4 man might give his sweetheart list
before he was goln' to be swung off.
"And that was the next thing that
happened to the cap'n. A man-o'-war
vas watchin' for him outside and
,ooav>a1 tho xxyhnIo 0on0 I'm ont 4