The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1916-03-31
An Ancient
Manner ale

The bells were tolling In a fishing
village where was temporarily stop
ling. On a wooden bench facing the
ocean sat an old man. and l. having
time on my hands. sat down beside
linn. | asked him the cause Of the
tolling. and he said that sea captain
who had long been a resident Of the
Place had died and was being buried.
] remarked on the dismal effect Of the
strokes. each stroke following the one
lefore after a long interval in painful
regularity.
You think that dismal sound. sir?'
laid the old man. What would you
think II you heard a bell a-tollin' for
the dead that had been rugged by their
selves for that particular purpose? In
this yere case sexton is pullin' on
the rope: In the case I'm talkin' about
the dead was a-tOllin' the bell"
looked aside at the old man curl
tusly. There was something about
linn to indicate that he had been a
sailor and q light In his eye that
caused me to wonder If he were not
en- Ancient Mariner with tale to tell
Though the light did not exactly indi-
cate insanity. the fact OF his speaking
Ct the dead tolling their own funeral
Tells looked suspicious. ! asked him
to explain. and he did so as follows:
when ! was a younker sailed from
this port every two or three years for
the east. There was no Suez canal In
them days. and we always went around
the Horn or the Cape On one o. them
voyages when we was in the Pacific
what I'm goin' to tell you happened.
1'he Pacific Is so big that it's kind O.
lonesome. When a pusson has seen
Iothin' but water for a month and
larry a ship or sighted land. even
sailor will sometimes feel as If he's
LOST in never endin' space
"One night when we'd had reason to
feel that way | was one O. the watch
and. sailin' along in the darkness
there was neither moon or stars-l
thOrt heard the faint sound of bell
] listened hard and heard 1t again
When | heard 1t third time | asked
one o the watch If he heard it TOO
He listened and said he did. Then /
knowed 1t wasn't my fancy.
Zone after another the rest O. the
watch heard the sound. 1t wasn't reg
ular; the strokes come any way There
wasn't no bell at sea that ever made
such sounds except bell buoy. But
we was In the middle o. the Pacific
ocean. where there wasn't no need of
bell buoy. And yet the strokes kept
comm. sometimes near together. some
tines far apart, sometimes heavy.
Sometimes light and in that big ocean
o blackness atop and below they was
awful melancholy
Either we was movin' toward the
sounds or they was moyin' toward us
or mebbe both. Anyway they was
CROWN palmer The ole man come
on deck all of a sudden. He'd heard
the tollin' and couldn't make it out
1. drifted past us in the darkness.
soundin' clear for awhile. then CROWN
fainter astern. The ole man couldn't
bear to lose it without KNOWN what
Il was and give an order to put the
snip about and stand by or follow If
needed till dawn. which was a couple
o. hours off. So we did. and durin
them two hours. the dolefulest | ever
experienced. we kept within the sound
o. that bell.
''Mornin' come at last. and a couple
o. miles away we saw somepin black
which. as the light growed turned out
to be a dismantled ship. She was
a-rollin' and a-plungin'. and every time
she rolled or plunged we heard thai
solemn tollin'. That's what we'd beer
tearin'-the wrecks bell
1.-THE old man allowed that she was
a derelict with no one aboard of hel
and her bell rope had rolled away OF
become unlashed. We sailed up t.
within short pull of her. and the
second mate boarded her, | bein' on,
Her decks were awash. and it wa:
plain there was nothin' alive on he
tefore we got to her. We went on t,
her deck for'ard. which was littl,
higher than the stern, and looked
around. but we didn't go below On,
O. the men looked down a hatch, ant
bis report was not encouragin' for III
to go down among the dead men. ant
we let 'em alone.
well, now. l told you that L,
known a case where the dead tollet
their own funeral bell This was II
The crew, KNOWN they was doomed
had nailed board up near the bel
and had painted on it message
All hope gone. The ships bell will to-
cur requiem.
"They had cut away the bell rop
entirely.
WED brought a blast with us t
sink the ship. and we put 1t where i
would do the work. but the ole mar
faarin' we might fail. had ordered til
mate on no account to leave that be
a-tollin' to give persons on other ship
tle shiverS. We'd brought axes wit
rs. of course. and before firm tn
blast we chopped away the bells SUI