The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-26
LOVERS DROWNED TOGETHER.
iWT Va IOt RAJ IONE THtIR
IUES ~ RIRIFN NJ
saihrrInr STRIKER AMI tll,rri Trs'i IaIi
Wrrboand WhIr Pro,abI, Sk,isfhlnS
tea, Wa Fird ~ 81 oyster stake
-Thr UIrI Wadr tHuVi ~ save Trssl,

kEYpuRt, y !. June "a II las heen
tho iinmc,nuni ll custom ~ Young luvets
here "a do much ~ their sparkling on placid
nights In rowboata IN haritah Hay usually
lcsa than n mile from the bsaCh, The
mother Of Katherine Stryker nArl 10 81 on
Oh the bay with her husband H. her girl.
hood. and when Katherine herself, who was
ono II the bellies ~ the town. started for "A
trip on the water last night with Allert
Tesst Mrs Stryker thought II was the
proper thing to let the girl 60. She and
Tesst had been sweethearts two years and
had been to Coney Island together and
often had gone buggy riding to New Bruins
wick. They always returned to the Stryker
home before II O'Clock at night.
Katherine and Tesst took a narrow and
cranky boat that the girls. father had
owned and headed out for the oyster beds
az 7:3O O'Clock last night. The young man
took of his coat, folded it on a seat and
put his hat on It. He wanted to take the
oars, but the girl. who could row we'll.
wouldn't let him. He sat in the stern,
sheets and gazed at her s~unbrowned arms
gracefully welding the oars and listened
to her singing Waiting at the Church"
There were many other girls and boys
going out in boats and they say there was
not a merrier couple than Katherine and
her beau.
When darkness fell they we're seen sitting
together on the same thwart. The boat
swung on the tide from the painter, which
was made fast to the stake marking the
oyster bed Of Scott Hopkins, o a half
mile of shore. At midnight Katherine
had not come home and her mother became
uneasy. Daylight came, but did not bring
the girl, and the mother dressed and went
down to the shore. Nobody had seen or
heard anything of Katherine and her lover
since early last night.
Scott Hopkins awoke at 0 o'clock this
| morning, and looking out Of a window
fronting the bay he saw an empty boat tied
to his oyster stake. He wondered II any
body had been taking his oysters, and
jumping in one Of his own boats he owe
out. He found the coat and hat OF Test
where the boy had placed them and looked
around for traces Of their owner. Almost
under the boat, in less than four feet OF
water-it was low tide-the dead face OF
Test looked up at the oysterman. Hop
kins had his oyster tongs aboard and he
grappled the body, brought 1t to the surface
dragged it into the boat and landed IL on
the beach almost at the feet Of Mrs. Stryker,
who realized also that her girl was dead.
She urged Hopkins to make another trip
TO his oyster bed. Within less than twenty
feet of the spot where he had found the
lover he discovered his sweetheart and
brought her ashore.
There were bruises and small outs on
the exposed flesh of both bodies, and his
inspired the local correspondents OF New
York papers to weave a yarn OF murder
and suicide about what Coroner Tetley and
Drs. William f. Johnson and g.. g.. Hoag-
land declared was doubtless a case OF ac-
cidental drowning. The outs were caused
by contact with the sharp edges OF oyster
shells that form a large part OF the bottom
of the bay,
Test was unable to swim and the girl,
according to her mother, could swim a
little. Some of her friends. however.
say she was unusually proficient for a girl.
1t is surmised that Katherine, who was
froliosome and given to skylarking, had a
mock contest with her lover in the cranky
boat and it tipped, that Test tumble
over the gunwale into about seven feet
of water, that his sweetheart impulsively
jumped after him and that he dragged
her TO death. Test was 81 years old and
worked for a butcher in Keyport. The
0irl waa iA