The Raymer 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 Palatlne 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 Palatne a Dutch trader
mised by false lights shown by wreckers ran
ashore upon Block Island In the year 1752 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, agonlzng 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. 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
rs though 1t might pass and the spirit moved
none OF the company. The elder Friend was lust
about to ohef his hand to his nelghbor In the
closing OF the meeting when a stranger rose
and declared that the Lords wrath was upon
certain whaling ship and that he had seen her
In vision descending huge wave from the
hollow OF which she never rose. The meeting
closed hurriedly. but the speaker could not be
'o"n'' anu the snip was never nearu or.
Some OF the best ghost stories are those which
tho writer has heard from the simple folk Of the
salt marshes. II Is hardly possible to describe
these dreary districts, for when one has said
they are fiat stretching for miles. and rather
subject to miss. one has said pretty we'll all that
Is to be said-the rest must be felt However,
Just as there Is a call OF the sea. so there Ia a
call OF the marshland. You shall 20 into the
sa!tern and feel Its moist breath upon your cheek
ana the breath OF Its salty winds and the ozone
OF its Gains 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 decaylng leave their
rustcoored remains. There you shall meet mud
and the cry OF the curlew shall mock az YOU
nouhder IN It's NTH. The noon shall come up
'etac'ea py the mist into unrecognizable shape,
which shall be blood color. You shall be gray
shape. differing little from the common things
that are there for you shall be enshrondod hv
ios nay. 1t shall sink into your very soul. until
you arc not flesh and bones, but particle OF
fos yourself You shall listen to its silences: YOU
hhail oe told things by them, and strong man
that you are. you shall be afraid.
Is 1t to be wondered at then, that these s,nn,e
Essex marsh-dwellers remember such taIes a.
.nat OF inc young skipper home from long
voyage whose haste to embrace his wife and tba
oaoe nc mad not yet seen. bid him to 20 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 could
not extricate himself the more he struggled the
deeper he sank. and with the horror OF knowing
'hat tho tide was rising and would come stealing
up the creek. he shouted. As the tide rose higher
the louder were his screams Tho saItorr. No..
P'tsea arc lonely: the cries were heard only nv
a halfwitted peatcutter, who often in his less
zane moments heard such screams and thought
no more OF the matter. So the shrieks became
gurgles, and by the time the tide had lifted ths
peatcutter's punt they had ceased.
Inc oder iolk at this stage OF the story AZ.
sumo MYSTERIOUS air, and with larre.eyed
sIa.einss athwart their shoulders, will tell Won
that tho skipper's shrieks nre heard on s,or,i,
nights as the tide 'gdes up that creek.
80 mere are my ghost stories. and II som.
lines believe in them when sail all alone IN
'"e n''an'snt deep "ou will not laugh at me.