Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-11-29

partition was signifcant-the ship never
heard of again.
The rocky coasts of New England haunted
by many ghost ships. The Pasatine is the best
known specter. The coasters ard fishermen OF
Long Island Sound will tell you that when sight
of her is gotten, disastrous and long-lasting
storms will follow. The Palatine Dutch trader
misled by false lights shown by wreckers, ran
ashore upon Block Island in the year 1852 The
wreckers, when they had stripped the vessel
set her on fire in order to CONCEAL their crime
AS the tide lifted her and carried her flaming
out to sea, agonizng shrieks 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 as you will remem
Der, was in it's palmy days carried almost
tirely by Quakers. One Sunday evening meet
ing in progress; the simple service seemed
as though it might pass, and the spirit moved
none OF the company. The elder Friend was just
about to offer his hand to his neighbor in the
closing of the meeting, when stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon
certain whaling ship, and that he had seen her
in a vision descending huge from the
hollow of which she never rose The meeting
closed hurredly, but the speaker could not be
found and the ship never heard of.
Some of the best ghost stories are those which
the writer has heard from the simple folk of the
salt marshes. It is hardly possible to describe
these dreary districts, for when one has said
they are fat, stretching for miles, and rather
subject to msts, has said pretty well all that
is to be said-the rest must be felt However
Just as there is a call of the sea- so there is
call of the marshland. You shall go into the
saltern and feel it's moist breath upon your cheek
and the breath of it's salty winds and the ozone
Of its Gains. You shall be lost in it's yastness
and, threading its innumerable twisted narrow
waterways, which lead to nowhere We shall
M
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 curlew shall mock as Won
Hounder IN Its filth The moon shall come IN
re1racted by the mist into unrecognizabIe shane
which shall be blood color You shall he n orav
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 it's siences. Won
shaH be told things by them and. strong man
that you are, you shall be afraid
Is u 70 pe wondered at, then, that these simn1e
Essex marsh-dwellers remember such tales nc
ehat O the young skipper, home from long
voyage whose haste to embrace his wife and tho
pare ne bad not yet SEEN bid him to 90 tha nearer
way OF the marshes? The tale has II +bo+ -
crossing narrow gutway, near Pitsea he sanl
IN the mud So deeply did he sink that he could
1o1 e4lricate himself; the more he struggled the
ne sanA' ana with the horror of knowing
tnal the TIDE was rising and would come stealino
up the creek, he shouted AS the tide ros bil
me louder were his screams. The salterns noar
Fltsea are lonely; the cries were heard only bv
nalf-witted peatcutter, who often in his loss
sane moments heard such screams and thought
no more or the matter So the shrieks baa
gugles, and by the time the tide hal I;ftS -
peatcutter's punt they had ceased 'n7
me oder foik at this stage of the story as-
sumo mysterious air, and, with larea'or 90
gan g1anc,ngs athwart their shoulders, will tell you
nights as the tide glides up that creak ''"'Al'
So here are my ghost stories, and If Some.
.,lss Selsse IN them when sail all alone on
the midnight deep, you will not laugh at me