Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-03
CHRISTMAS sroRM ON COAST.
Pen Picture Of ocean Fury In New
England.
Springfield cMass) Republican.


Zen Picture Of ocean Fury In New
England.
Springfield tMass.) Republican,
Few OF us who dwell in the safety OF
the inland realize the terrors OF an angry
flood tide; n relentless dull gray mass OF
slitherlng seas creeping in and in and de-
manding Its toll of life and property. The
men who go down to the deep In ships,
and The women who watch anxiously on
the headlanjs for their homecoming, know
mat the cycle OF the months brings In four
great tides. one usually comes in the late
sumner. II is expectantly awaited by those
IN the Of the summer cottages
all up and down the grim New England
coast. for It Is picturesque. impressive
and generally rather harmless. But the
winter coming Of the hungry sea is a far
different thing; then the beaches and
houses on the overhanging cliffs are empty
OF the summer people. Then the sea comes
IN to hold converse with It's children, the
men and women who gain their living from
It's overchanginS bosom, the fisher people
ana the shippers, the gatherers OF moss
and the hardy farmers on the edges OF
the drear salt marshes.
Ever the sea is ugly and desperate at
this time, but It has been years since II
swept In so relentlessly as on Sunday.
Twice before in the memory of living men
has 1t demanded such tribute. The first
time was in SCI, when Minot's light. the
binding link between shore and deep, was
twisted from it's ledge and hurled into the
crashing seas with its crew. Then the tide
swept in over fifteen feet and four inches
in height. The second time was in 1898.
That tide and storm will always be known
as the storm in which the Portland was
lost" 1t was a wicked thing, a gale and
sea which drove the coastwise ships like
feathers before It and which wrought
havoc on the beaches along the coast. And
now comes the third, a third which will
probably go down in history as the Christ
mas tide OF 1909. Even now It is too
early to give any estimate of the loss Of
life along the coast. Too many places are
still cut off because of damaged wires; too
many anxious women are still looking into
the gray offing for the homeward-bound
sails. Around Boston alone the property
damage is estimated at around $5,OOO,O 900
and the tide came in over the beaches
from Bar HRrbor to Newport. .
Chelsea probably was the worst sufferer
because of the breaking Of its dixie. Win
throp was badly hurt by the rising flood,
its lights were doused, its wires laid low,
and many of It's summer homes damaged.
Great sections of the bulkhead along the
state reservation at Nantucket were
washed out and cottages and hotels i'm
jured. The little summer colonies along the
coast from Boston to Cape Cod suffered
heavily, for brakewaters were undermined
and the seas ate their ways under cot
tages and sucked out the little struggling
lawns. The towns along the great hooked
cape were flooded in many Instances and
people went in boats to places generally
visited safely without rubbers. Some Of
the streets in Provincetown were under
water, and 1t was a daring skipper who
forced his ship into the teeth of the gale
which howled off the yellow headlands
that mark the seaward dangers of the cape.
Even fashionable Newport suffered. The
stored Ocean drive was wash and badly
damaged, a thing almost Incredible. From
out In the deep come stories Of equal size.
The gale blew seventy miles an hour at
Block island and many fisher shacks now
strew the beach as wreckage. The Nam
tucket lightship weathered the storm and
tide, but 1t was bad there, very bad.
And the storm itself was a wonderful
thing to see. a thing which brought the
fear of God into the heart of man and
made him acknowledge that the strength
of nature Is Irresistible. Standing on a
headland on the south shore, the wind
drove the biting snow into your face so
that the glittering flakes cut like knives.
Through the binding gusts glimpses of the
dull gray sea could be had beyond the
trembling rocks, while, with the regularity
Of minute guns, the combers, tossing their
crests twenty feet above the waving kelp,
crashed in on the coast and sent their
scud swirling high into the air, to be
frozen and whirled away with the drifting
snow. Then, as the storm above subsidized
the storm in the sea rose greater in its
might, the size of the breakers increased
as they threw off the wight Of the storm
above, and the sea came racing in to claim
its toll and to bring on its angry crest its
wreckage Of human flotsam.