Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-02-28
ICe.BOUND NANTUCKET
A Town Isolated but Contented-At-
fractions that Are Sufncient
in Themselves.

lmCmUClVGbs
Lonesome IL your city life to one who
is island born" sings the Nantucket poet
laureate. How he must have revealed in
the old gray towns isolation. with tho
Sankaty. only link to the outer world.
fast held In the harbor ice eight days,
and no mail from the mainland, twenty
five miles off! 1t is the same bard to
whom the sapphire sea has sparkled.
Where foaming breakers with ceaseless
roar
Seem waving white hands to me.
Alas. the white hands are rigid in frost
castings now; muffled coast-guards
trudging the snow-buried sands Of Chat
ham reported fifteen miles of pack and
ice off Monomoy Point says the New
York Times. Vineyard Haven Sound is
choked with ice," said the Veracious
Chronicle. The Grows Rip Ltght-ship
was seen drifting to sea with ten men
aboard at last account. There was no
United States for Nantucket. The In
quirer and Mirror was alone in It's glory
, Down by the wharf the ancients of the
| Shippers club were telling their time
wornbut ever salty stories with frames
a-shivsr as the gale shook the easements.
Mute was the town crier's celebrated Or
gan. the notes frozen in his throat. Still
pealed the bell Of Lisbon In the belfrey
| at A. NJ. u NJ. and 8 P. NJ, according
to hallowed customs, its vibrations pier
| cling the air as far as marooned Sconset
, and heard with mslancholy comfort by
"the keeper of Sanancholy comfort ny the
Keeper Of saukaty Head light. fixed
white. varied by white flash every minute
after night fall"
What an arctic expansions still to he
seen from Sauls Hill; Fopis. the bleakest
place on earth: Gibbs Pond. indistinguish-
able from the middle pasture under its
counterpart of snow Tom Neveres Pond.
merged in the Atlantic; the Nantucket
Central Railroad. that once great artery
Of travel CONCEALED and more dead than
ev~r the scrub oak burrs of white; Five
Fingered Point. mittened with ice: Haul
over Opening sheeted, and blizzard peace
over ali. Mild weather will change the
prospect, but by slow degrees, for Nam
tucket has known artic conditions, below
zero gales. and sweeping SHOWS for the
first time in years.
Every now and then in very churlish
winters Nantucket loses intimate touch
with the United States That seaworthy
but ungrateful craft. the Sankaty. can no
longer make her trips. Her Joyous and
welcome whistle as she heads round Brant
| Point in plain view of a waiting town Is
heard no more. There are no strange
faces from the mainland for days together.
no newsy daily papers, no fresh meat, no
addition to the dwindling stock Of canned
goods, no home-returning islanders who
have been over to the United States and
are glad to get back to Gods own coun-
try" including Tuckernuck.
The community is thrown upon its own
resources and in way is proud of 1t.
Nantucket the town Is sufficient unto
itself. A man out Maddequet way may
experience a sense Of loneliness in NOM
ents of depression. but a citizen Of Nan
tucket Town never AS we'll might a
Partisan grow tired Of his boulevards and
their delights as Nantucket Of his in
stitutions and his cherished independ-
ence.
Does he ever forget the island trad
itions, the deeds and worth Of the May
news, the Collins, the Starbucks, and
the Macys; that Peter Folger was grand
father of Benjamin franklin; that Cap
tain Uriah Bunker pioneered an Ameri-
can whaling fleet across the equator. and.
bearing far south. discovered the sea
rookeries Of Cape Horn and the Falk-
lands; that to be a Nantucketer in the
old days and cry There she blows" was
to be king of men? About these things
the islanders could talk forever. They
are never at a loss, never vacuous What
a scorn they hold for the continental
American!-except from the last of June
to the first of September, when he Is
welcome without his automobile.
There may be the edge Of privation for
this excellent folk (stalwart American.
except the contemplating Portugee)
when the Sankaty Is frozen in for more
than a week. There is natural concern
about the state Of the larder and the fall
ling coal bin. but there is always plenty
Of salt cod, a never-failing local product.
Man cannot with zest live by cod alone.
so there may be anxious moments for
epicures pending the coming of a thaw.
And what about the war in these degen-
crate times? The Nantucketers are the
most patriotic of Americans; they hold
the per capita record for taking Liberty
bonds. 1t is a grave hardship when the
worlds news of the great conflict is de-
MED them; a mere trickle by wireless is
but an "aggravation.'
The rest Of us. the 'off-islanders," may
take a different view Of the matter. envy
ing the remote Nantucketers their inn
munity from the recital of wars unre-
lieved horrors. How grateful 1t would be
to miss some of them in the detachment
and healing silence Of a Nantucket man.
sion. letting the storm rave outside while
we beguiled time with favorite book
under those conditions of contentment
spoken Of by Leigh Hunt. "a blazing fire.
a warm rug, candles lit, and curtains
drawn"