The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-11-29

p"ariti.n was signifcant-the ship was noves
heard Of again.
The rocky coasts Of New England are haunted
by many ghost ships. The PRfatine Is the best
known specter. The coasters and fishermen o.!
Long Island Sound will tell you that when a sight
Of her is gotten, disastrous and long-lastina
storms will follow. The Palatine. a Dutch trader
misled by false lights shown by W~reckers. ran
ashore upon Block Island In the ye.. 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 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, az 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 & 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 dreary districts, for when one has said
they are fat, 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. 10 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 ~Yastness.
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
fust-colored remains. There you shall meet mud
and the cry OF the curlew shall mock as Voc
hounder In Its flth.' The moon shall come IN
~refracted by the mist into Understandable shane.
which shall be blood color. You shall be a gray
shape, differing little from the common things
that are there, for you shall be ensfrouded by
Iog; nay, 1t shall sink into your very soul, until
you are not flesh and bones, but a particle of
fog yourself. You shall listen to its stlencea. Won
shall be told things by them, and, strong man
that you are, you shall be afraid.
IL IL 10 De wondered at, then. that these simple
hsse& marsh-dWellers member such tales NJ
mat OF the young skipper. home from a long
voyage, whose haste to embrace his wife. and tha
paDe ne mad not yet seen. bid him to go the nearer
way OF the marshes? The tale has It that In
crossihs a narrow gutWay. near Pitsea, he sank
in the mud, So deeply did he sink that he cnrld
not extricate himself; the more he struggled the
deeper ne sank, and with the horror of knowing
that the tide was rising and would come stealine
up the creek, he shouted. As the tide rose higher
me louder were his screams. The ~salterna near
fltsea are lonely; the cries were heard only nv
y haH"lued peatcutter, who often in his Iess
sane moments heard such screams and though.
no more OF the matter. ! So the shrieks became
surgles, and by the time the tide had lifted the
punt they had ceased.
The older folk at this stage Of the story as.
sume . mysterious air, and, with iarge-eyed
athwart their shoulders, will tetI van
the %skipper's shrieks are heard on st,rI,,
nights as the tide glides up that creek.
80 mere are my ghost stories. and II | some.
lines believe In them when I SAIL all alone On
ne midnight deep. you will not laugh at me.