Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-18

ton, he got enrared at the men and
stabbed them. There is no telling what
might have happened to him il the negro
boy hadn't been rushed away.
There are varying stories told of the
"spooks' that are supposed to inhabit the
region of old ships. Some of them are
or captains, and some of mates. while
one story has to do with certain mer-
chant who lost a valuable cargo In one
of the ships and comes regularly to look
for it. Many of the negroes on the Vir-
sinia side of the river will not venture
down to the water at nights. One OF the
weird stories has to do with a certain
headless woman. who. dressed in the reg
ulatfon white, hovers about one of the
Old vessels. The story has grown to the
extent that she comes to look for a hus-
band who was lost from one of the yes
sells, she having died of broken heart.
TWO vessels whose remains can be seen
plainly from the foot Of z street north
west are the old Fanny built about
Dixie, a steam vessel of almost the
same age Both of these have lain undis-
turbed for many years.
Most of the rivernen merely smile at
the stories of ghosts in the neighbor-
hoods of the old vessels. ga wing that any
lights alleged to have been seen, il any
such lights ever We're seen, are merely
the fox fires that actually do play
sometimes about old timbers, and have
been seen darling about the nlasts OF
ships under way. The cries and sights of
men or women about the old hulss they
fatty laugh at. and set down as flights
of imagination.
However. there is one riverman willing
to admit that he had seen the woman in
white who is said to hover about the old
yards sometimes. just preceding a storm.
But his companions about the wharf
jollied him during the recital, continually
reminding him of his weakness in look
ing upon the corn juice when it is of the
proper color.
Just the same" stoutly affirmed the
waterman, not in the least dis,nayed by
the jibes of his companions, Il did see
the head!ess woman once. 1t was only
for a moment but that was enough to
convince me. And I'll swear that | didn't
have more than two drinks aboard when
the thing happened
1T a mighty hot, sultry evening
late in September, Il good many years
ago. and it had been hot for a long time
without IA n. The banks all along the
river dried up and the mud was peeilng
up in little squares where the water USED
to be- like great scales on the back OF
monster nackerel. | had been over on
the Virginia side about Rosslyn, and the
tide bein' low. / crossed Little river on
the stones, and started out for a stroll
on Analostan Island by myself, thlnkln
maybe that after while ! would go OUT
for little fishing. | crossed the hlgn
point on the island. near the old Mason
mansion it a sc ting darker and darker
all the time, the air more ana more
sitting with the sky getting that dark,
haZy brown color that means Il storm
The wind was smack in the east, ana
was dead certain that terror or ram
was a coming, but someway l didn seem
to care as / strolled down toward the
east shore of the island the mud mats
being so dried up that ! could walk clear
to the waters edge.
Il soon saw that there wasn't TO be
any fishing for ME that night. but some
way | didn't turn back. Knowing that /
could get n boat to cross the channel to
Washington, | just kept on stroliing To-
ward the water / could hear the deep
swshing of the wind that was oloWm
ahead of the storm. while the nshtnlnS
was cracking to beat the big guns down
at Indian Head. 1t was one of them SLOW
coming rains that seem to Veer right into
the wind and come on anyhow. 1t was
pretty nigh pitch dark when / reached
the water, the heat little cooled by the
breeze that was pushed along somehow
by the storm
Il had struck the waters edge Just
about due west Of the Monument anu
stood there silly like, gazing off to the
southwark down the Potomac, not even
thinking about the wettine that was COM
ing to me from them black clouds ] no.
ticed that the water was as calm as a
millpond there didn't seem to be even the
tiniest kind of a ripple, the river a lying
there looking up at the sky and waiting
for the rain.
Then there came one of the long,
sharp flashes of lightning, and the thing
I'm telling you about appeared. | don't
know how long the flash OF lightning