Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-11-29

partition signfcant-the ship never
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 sight
of her is gotten. disastrous and long-lasting
storms will follow. The Palatine. Dutch trader,
misled by false lights shown by .wreckers.
ashore upon Block Island in the year 1859. 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. agoniZlng shrieks 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
ber. was in its palmy days carried on almost en-
ureiy by Quakers. One Sunday evening 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 inst
about ofe. his hand to his neighbor in the
closing OF the meeting. when stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon a
certain whaling ship. and that he had seen her
In vision descending huge wave from the
hollow of which she rose The meeting
closed hurriedy. but the speaker could not be
found, and the ship was never heard Of
Some of the best ghost stories those which
the writer has heard from the simple folk of the
salt marshes. 1t is hardly possible to describe
these dreary districts, for when one has said
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.
lust as there is a call of the sea, there Is a
call OF the narshland. 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 cams. You shall be lost in its vastness
and. threading its innumerabe twisted narrow
waterways, which lead 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
ruStCOlOred Tbara hall
and the cry of the curew shall mock as Won
hounder in its filth. The moon shall come up
refracted 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
foS; nay. it shall sink into your very soul untiI
you are not flesh and bones. but particle of
log Yourself You shall listen to its silences: YOU
shall be told things by them. and strong man
that you you shall be afraid
is II to be wondered at, then that these simpIe
Essex marsh-dwellers remember such tales as
tHat OF the young skipper home from long
voyage, whose haste to embrace his wife and the
oaoe ne had not yet seen. bid him to go the nearer
way or the marshes' The tale has it that in
crossing narrow gutway Ptsea he sank
IN the mud So deeply did he sink that he could
not extricate himself: the more he struggled the
deeper he sank, and with the horror of knowing
'iiat the tide was rising and would come stealing
up the creek. he shouted. As the tide rose higher
,ae ,i louder were his screams. The salterns near
fitsea are lonely the cries were heard only bv
haii-wtted peat-cutter who often in his less
sane moments heard such screams and Thought
no more of the matter So the shrieks became
sulses and by the time the tide had lifted the
peatcutters punt they had ceased.
me older folk at this stage of the story as.
sumo mysterious air. and with Iarge.eved
giahcings athwart their shoulders will tell Won
@ .ie. the shippers shrleks heard on starIt
hshts as the tide glides up that creek
30 mere are my ghost stories. and II 1 some
uineS iS believe In them when sail all alone on
Tue midnight deep. you will not laugh a. me-