The Arvada enterprise., 1912-11-28

partition was sgnifcant-the ship was neve
heard of again
The rocky coasts of New England are haunted
by many ghost ships. The Palatine is the best
known specter. The coasters and fishermen of
Long Island Sound will tell you that when a sight
of her Is gotten. disastrous and longlasting
storms will follow. The Palatine, Dutch trader,
mised by false lights shown by wreckers,
ashore upon Block Island in the year 1852. The
wreckers when they had stripped the vessel.
set her fire in order to conceal their crime.
AS the tide lifted her and carried her flaming
out to sea, agonizing shreks came from the
blaze, and the figure of woman who had hid.
den herself in the hold in fear of the wreckers
stood out black amid the roaring blaze Then
the deck fell in and ship and woman vanished.
The whaling in Nantucket. YOU will remem-
Der. in its palmy days carried on almost en-.
tirey by Quakers. One Sunday evening meet.
ing was in progress; the simple service seemed
though it might pass. and the spirit moved
none of the company. The elder Friend was Just
about to ofes his hand to his neghbor in the
closing of the meeting, when a stranger
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon a
certain whaling ship. and that he had seen her
in vision descending a huge wave from the
hollow of which she never rose The meeting
closed hurriedly, but the speaker could not be
found, and the ship was never heard of.
Some OF the best ghost stories those which
tho writer has heard from the simple folk of the
salt marshes, 1t is hardly possible to describe
they are fiat. stretching for miles, and rather
subject to mists, one has said pretty well all that
Is to be said-the rest must be felt However,
just there is call of the sea so there is a
call OF the marshland. You shall go into the
saltern and feel its moist breath upon your cheek
and the breath of its salty winds and the ozone
of Its calms. You shall be lost in its vastness
and threading its innumerable twisted narrow
waterways, which lead to nowhere We shall
tread its carpet of scentless flowers. You shall
go to its very edge where the sea comes often.
most and where the flowers decaying leave their
rust-colored remains. There you shall meet mud
and the cry OF the curew shall mock as YOU
founder in its filth. The moon shall come I'm
Tefracted by the mist into unrecognizable shane
which shall be blood color. You shall be gray
shape, differing little from the common things
that are there. for you shall be enshrouded by
fog; nay, it shall sink into your very soul until
you are not flesh and bones, but particle of
fog Yourself You shall listen to its slences; YOU
shall be told things by them, and strong man
that you are, you shall be afraid
Is 1t to be wondered at then that these simn1e
Essex marsh.dwellers remember such tales ms
that OF the young skipper home from long
voyage whose haste to embrace his wife and the
oape ne mad not yet seen. bid him to go the nearer
way OF the marshes? The tale has II that In
crossing narrow gutway, near Pitsea he sank
In the mud So deeply did he sink that he coud
not eNirlcate himself; the more he struggled the
deeper he sank, and with the horror of kDowlng
that the tide was rising and would come stealing
up the creek, he shouted As the tide rose btchor
me louder were his screams. The salterns near
Fhsea are lonely; the cries were heard only bv
halfwitted peatcutter who often in bis Ioss
sane moments heard such screams and Thought
no more OF the matter, SO the shrleks became
gurgles, and by the time the tide had IIftad N.
peatcutters punt they had ceased
Inc Older folk at this stage Of the story M,
sumo mysterious air, and, with larreevod
standings athwart their shoulders. will tell Won
,I .na, Ihe skippers shrieks are heard on starllt
NIGHTS as the tide glides up that creek
so here are my ghost stories and ~ cow.
times believe In them when sail all oIons AZ
the midnight deep ."ou will not laugh at me