Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-10-24
Special Correspondence

~ K y lNGSIOS, JalilatSsi. y -
loneliest man in the World IS
dead His melancholy exist
- etice, deprived Of wife, child
rcn and or all coinpanonship, with the
exceptionSof three half savage Bahama
negroes, came to- an end in the storm
thar wrecked the wretched collection
OF tin-roofcd huts known as Mathew
town, on the Island Of 1nagua, re-
Gently.
,ihe hurricane that Hooded the town
iuilt smashed inc big TANKS. In Wfi1ctt'
the rainy season water was collected
for the arid summer months on tfle
desolatc send pit that is5lnaGua, ats ,
+. obtjterateu tie loucliest mans hemp
plant, where Fcr years he strug sisa
ts alone to makesa success of growing
sisal The struggle LOS. rim ms WIZ
his children the remnant Of ahis1-oict.
large fortune. which he made as %
F)orida planter, ana IinhtS as I.sa'
been said. his life.
Flank Z. carter was the reciusc, tile'
news of whose death reached mere ny
the British steamer Ajax wl'lct'.
storin- battered, put into lnagua 70 sii2
10 for repairs only to find the lt>ise.e7
bic little collection of nuts "ibea o'it
and carter. whose melancholy perso.i-
aliJy and story were known To piacl.5
y
3 Nest Indian waters memory only.
tarttl VAS zntne siX-lou.ti. bus ms
oncc huge frame had been raeked py
the fever carried by the WIND tiliiI
blows across lnaSua from the SaVah-
mains OF tlie interior till his white duck
clothes hung on him like cerementa
and the pitch helmet he habitually
wore was down to his ears. He had q
long lnustaclie. which WAS bleached
by the wind and spulne of#the mlsera
Z biezrainS seasons t1li II feselnbied noun
ing more than d }risp Of Spanish mos;
He was II figure 10 smile atsonly VII
YOU knew his story.
RUINED BY BIG FROST
Carter's Florida property, an I'M
nicnse orange plantation, was eXter-s
minate; in the famous frost OF 1850
He found himself practically peilniless,
His wife and two children. who hnd
lived in luxury. as was BETTING the
family of y well-to-do planter mad 10
realize one day that the man they fad
looked To Tor everything was n bank
rupt. :,
The once wealthy owner of small
domain had many friends nevertheless
and they organized small COMPANY
10 grow hemp on lnagua. In course OF
time Carter ana his family sailed TO
look after the new industry. They
found Inagua far worse than a desert
q island, for the blacks and halt-breeds
s OF Matiewtown did not welcome the IN
itrusion as they regarded it,&of Garter
y and his beautiful and somewhat
naughty Wife The buildings of the
hemp company were several miles from
Mathewtown, and Carter and his Wire
We're as isolated rs Robinson Cruso,
with tbs exception Of three blacks, who
worked the hemp.
From the very start things went
1. ,tfrI,t ,IN
put into the concern in the first place,
and Carter had everything to learn
about hemp culture. The loneliness
lnaddened him and so affected his wife
y that he feared her brain would give
way. Then the company gave up the
ghost and Carter was left with the
hemp plant on his hands--a worthless
gift.
WIFE DESERTS HIM.
He managed to raise a smafl amount
by mortgaelng the plant through
friends In Florida, and With this he sent
his wife in a native schooner to Mas
sau She took the children with her,
and he WasSto join them there when the
hemp factory could be disposed ofAin
some way. Carter's wife was young
and vivacious. and in the gay society
she met at Nassau She soon forgot the
lonely exile toiing in the sandy
stretches among the salt-crusted hemp
plants. One day Carter heurd-it was
weeks afterward-by one of the irreg-
iilar steamers that stopped at The is
land, that his wife had decided that
she was sacrificing her life and happi-
ness by waiting for him, and had eloped
With young New York broker she had
met at Nassau. She took the children
with her.
"a From that day on Carter,nevar heard
or 4 hcr--never mentioned her name
That was In 1897. He grew gaunter
and more melancholy looking. and thai
IS, was the only sign he gave,
Your correspondent was a passenger
on Alderman boat that stopped at Ina
qua two wears ago on her way to New
York from Kingston, Jamaica, hel
skipper having been notified by the
\ Matthewtown signal station that Car
ter had some hemp TO ship. Twenty
bales. the product OF u whole yeas:
work, was the meager shipment.
TRIP ASHORE.
The steamer ran round from Mat
thcWtoWn and in the g fternoon dropped
j anchor in the little bay on which TIN
hemp buildings and Carter'st livinl
shack We're built. AS there was shoa
water in shore it was impossible Il
anchor nearer in than half Il mile. an