American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1912-12-05

partition was signifcant-the ship was never
heard of again.
The rocky coasts of New England are haunted
by many ghost ships. TIE 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, a Dutch trader,
misled by false lights shown by w%reckers, 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, agonizing shrieks came from the
blaze. and the figure of a woman who had hid
den herself in the hold in lear 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 its palmy days carried on almost en-
tirely by Quakers. One Sunday evening a meet
ing was 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 a stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon a
certain whaling ship, and that he had seen her
in a 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 are those which
the writer has heard from the simple folk of the
salt marshes. 1t is hardly possible to describe
THESE uTedIy ulStrlCLS, TOT when one has said
they are nat, 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 as there Is a call of the sea, so there"is a
call of the marshland. You shall 20 into the
saltern and feel its moist breath upon YOUR cheek
and the breath of its salty winds and the ozone
of its Gains. You shall be lost In it's vastness.
and, threading its innumerable twisted narrow
waterways. which lead to nowhere, We shall
tread It's carpet of scentless flowers. You shall
go TO us 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
1ounder In its filth. The moon shall come I'm
refracted by the mist into unrecognizable shane
which shall be blood color. You shall be a gray
shape, differing little from the common thinys
that are there, for you shall be ensbrouded nv
log; nay, 1T shall sink into your very soul unit,
you are not flesh and bones, but a particIe of
fog Yourself. You shall listen to its silences: Won
shai De told things by them, and. strong man
that you are. you shall be afraid.
is 1t to be wondered at. then. that these s;un,e
Essex marsh-dwellers remember such tales as
'na' Oh the young skipper. home from a long
Eoyase' whose haste to embrace his wife. and the
oaoe de mad not yet seen. bid him to go the nearer
way of the marshes? The tale has If that IN
crossing a narrow gutway. near Pitsea. he sank
IN the mud. So deeply did he sink that no could
not extrfcate himself; the more he struggled tbe
ueeper ne sank, and with the horror of knowing
ma IL 'ue was rising and would come stealing
up 'he creek, he shouted. AS the tide rose higher
me louder were his screams. The salterns near
Pltsea are lonely; the cries were heard onlv nv
d hai'"leied peat-cutter. who often in his Iess
sane moments heard such screams and thoueht
no more of the matter. So the shrieks became
gureles' and by the time the tide had lifted the
peat-cutters punt they had ceased.
The older folk at this stage of the story as.
une d mysterious air. and. with largeeyed
slancinss athwart their shoulders. will tell you |
that the shippers shrieks are heard on starl;.
nights as the tide glides up that creek.
so mere are my ghost stories, and n 7 soraJ
umes oeleve IN them when I sail all alone ON
Il "ianlsnt ceep. you will not laugh at me.