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THE 
 
 Credible Chronicles 
 
 OF 
 
 The Patchwork Village. 
 
 'SOOTsTSET BY THE SEA. 
 
 EVELYN T. UNDEEHILL & CO., 
 
 NO. 22 SPRUCE STKEET, NEW YORK. 
 
 I 
 
 \ //Or- 
 1886. \ ^-'^j^ 
 
 
F7^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 E. T. UNDEIUIILL cfc CO. 
 
 lb«G. 
 
Preface. 
 
 To the readers of this book who purchased it unadvisedly 
 and without fault of their own, I owe and I tender an apology. 
 Nothing is due to those who successfully resisted the 
 blandishments of the publishers. They are able to take 
 care of themselves. 
 
 It was written at different times and in varying moods. 
 Like a 'Sconset cottage it was made in sections, without 
 unity of design, and certainly with no thought of inflicting 
 it upon a patient and long-suffering public. Any credible 
 statements contained in it were concocted without mali- 
 cious premeditation, and I am not conscious of even a 
 mischievous intent rankling within my bosom. Whatever 
 is absolutely false was introduced under the belief that 
 draped fiction would be perused by modest readers in 
 preference to the naked truth. But it did dawn upon my 
 understanding that, if its parts were securel}^ lashed to- 
 gether, the total result would sell and that I would thereby 
 greatly profit. I don't believe that anybody's mental, 
 moral, physical, or financial constitution will suffer an irre- 
 coverable strain by its publication ; unless it be the pub- 
 lishers'. But they take their chances. If the event shall 
 prove that I am mistaken in this view, I give due notice 
 that any attempt to recover damages, either actual or ex- 
 emplary, will be resisted bj' every device known to the 
 law. 
 
 New York, September, 1884. * 
 
w '■ mum 
 
A PATCHWORK VILLAGE. 
 
 One hundred and twenty miles nearly south-east of Bos- 
 ton and directly south of the peninsula of Cape Cod is the 
 Island of Nantucket, famous for its connection with the 
 whale fishery, and for near a century as the nursery of 
 American seamen. On its south-east corner is a little vil- 
 lage, like unto which there is no other. Its aboriginal 
 name was Siasconset ; but the natives of the island, iu 
 ordinary speech, have eliminated its first syllable and call 
 it 'Sconset. It is quaint in appearance. The surf beats on 
 the beach before it. The air and surroundings possess 
 qualities to afford rest to mind and body. Quiet is the rule. 
 Fashion has never gained a foothold within it. Excitement 
 must be sought. To cares, strangers become indifferent. 
 They are free from multiform troubles that are common to 
 those on the continent. Neither mosquitoes ; nor walking 
 matches ; nor millionaires ; nor tramps ; nor earthquakes ; 
 nor cholera ; nor coaching clubs ; nor beggars ; nor political 
 crises ; nor duns ; nor corners in lard ; nor stock privileges ; 
 nor chills and fever ; nor strikes ; nor city statesmen ; nor 
 gin-mills ; nor trichinae spiralis ; nor kid gloves ; nor theo- 
 logical polemics ; nor fast horses ; nor operatic dissensions ; 
 nor boisterous revivals ; nor dynamite conspiracies ; nor 
 malaria, disturb the even tenor of human rest and enjoy- 
 
8 A PATCHWORK VILLAGE. 
 
 ings that to-day give architectural character to the village. 
 They were put up on the edge of The Bank that they might 
 be near to, and yet be in safety from the sea ; for in those 
 days, during heavy storms, the waves dashed over the 
 beach and against the bluff on which the houses stood. In 
 time, a second and a third row were built up in the same man- 
 ner, each running in a parallel direction with the first, and 
 thus narrow streets but little over twenty feet in width were 
 an incidental result and were not laid out by design. 
 
 Now and then the wives, daughters and sisters of the 
 fishermen paid them visits for a day or so at a time. They 
 enjoyed the pure and invigorating air of The Bank and even 
 the primitive life their husbands, fathers and brothers led 
 was not without its charms. With their advent, even for 
 temporary sojourns, additional comforts were necessary. 
 Old window sashes were brought from the village on the 
 other side of the island and fitted into the sides of the 
 houses. Floors were laid. A little shanty of inclined boards 
 was put up at the end under which to hang a kettle or set a 
 f lying pan, to do^the necessary cooking, and this, in its 
 turn, may have been the beginning of a second room of the 
 dwelling. As families increased and visits became more 
 frequent, other improvements were needed. Two or three 
 little sleeping rooms were built on, at the other end. They 
 projected beyond the line of the main room in front and 
 rear, and the roofs over them were sometimes brought to 
 within four or five feet of the ground. These little bed 
 room additions became known on the island as "warts" and 
 are still so designated by residents. Odds and ends of 
 furniture were brought from elsewhere to make the house 
 habitable for protracted stays. Bedsteads and bedding 
 superseded the bunks on which they had.slept. Then a fire- 
 place made of stones, held together with clay, was put up, 
 and from its top a chimney of boards allowed the smoke to 
 escape through the roof. In time, another room was added 
 
ol 
 
 >^ 
 
 i 
 
 
10 A PATCHWOEK VILLAGE. 
 
 or perhaps two, at one end of the house for use as a 
 "porch," by which term a kitchen is known on Nantucket. 
 A brick chimney then replaced the old one made of 
 boards. Then a shingled roof became a matter of necessity 
 and comfort. Next, joists were run across, under the roof, 
 to support a floor and thus a little cramped attic was made 
 to furnish additional sleeping accommodations during the 
 season of fishing. In time the sides of the houses were 
 shingled. Then, perhaps, a little cellar was dug to preserve 
 their food untainted during the warm weather. Next some 
 extravagant fisherman made the innovation of lathed and 
 plastered walls from which to scowl at his less pretentious 
 neighbors. In a very few instances a cistern to catch water 
 was built, but, in most cases, it is still received and stored 
 in casks standing at the corners of the houses. 
 
 What I have here briefly sketched was not the work of 
 one or even two generations, but required near a century to 
 complete. No man saw the beginning and completion of 
 what has been described in respect to any one house. But 
 still more room was needed. The "Proprietors" of the 
 island had either formally or tacitly dedicated The Bank to 
 the use of fishermen, who " squatted" upon the ground 
 they thought they required and each squatter was in close 
 proximity to his neighbor on either side, with but a few 
 feet intervening. When he could no longer enlarge 
 at the end of his house, he must of necessity build on at 
 an angle, from the front, or the rear, or on both, accordingly 
 as space was available. The additions were made out of what- 
 ever material was at hand. Or perhaps the builder purchased 
 an old boat house, or small barn, or a little house on another 
 part of the island and took it down and brought it to The 
 Bank in sections. In some cases the beginning of the 
 dwelling was brought from Sesachacha, another "fishing 
 stage" two miles to the northward of Siasconset, or from 
 Madoket or from "The Town," as Nantucket is called, either 
 
PATCHWORK DWELLINGS. 11 
 
 of them several mUes distant. The timbers in a given house 
 were used without regard to their thickness, for sills, or 
 studs, or joists. One may have been taken from a wreck 
 stranded upon the beach ; others from an old house in 
 The Town ; still others from bams that were sold for old 
 material. Old doors were got, here and there, of different 
 sizes and patterns. If too long they were " razeed" to suit 
 the height of the room. One might be made of a single 
 board 18 or 20 inches wide, and another panneled and 
 another battened. Those leading into the open air uniform- 
 ly swung outward as a precautionary measure against 
 gales ; for the owners naturally reasoned that it would be 
 easier to blow a door in, if it hung in the usual manner, 
 than it would be to blow the entire house over if the door 
 closed from without. On many of the doors wooden latches 
 with latch strings are still to bo seen, and on a few are the 
 original wooden hinges on which they were hung at the 
 time they were placed in position. Windows of odd shajjes 
 and sizes, both in respect of sash and glass, were fitted into 
 the sides of the house, and in at least one house there were 
 a dozen windows with no two alike. In time brick fire- 
 places and chimneys superseded those of stone and wood 
 and the chimneys, sometimeo two and a half feet square, 
 project through the roof from a room, perhaps, not more 
 than 10 feet by 12. And when completed the structures had 
 assumed shapes so fantastic as to be like nothing in the 
 heavens, nor on the earth, nor in the waters beneath the 
 earth. 
 
 But this was not all. From the wrecks of vessels the 
 carved figure-heads, or strips containing their names, were 
 taken and brought ashore and nailed to the gables of the 
 houses for ornamentation. Or, if the figure was of life size, 
 it was set up in the front j-ard and from year to year is re- 
 painted, in bright colors, as a model for visiting artists not 
 
SEA SIDE STATUARY. 13 
 
 to follow in reproducing the human form divine. The 
 most notable example of a life size figure is that to be found 
 in front of the residence of that ancient mariner Captain 
 William Baxter, which has been preserved in thousands of 
 photographs. She is a ligneous virgin and though she has 
 been under the inspection of residents and visitors, heaven 
 knows how many years, the most virulent gossip on The 
 Bank has never uttered a word against her chastity. 
 
 The streets on which the old houses are situated indicate 
 the incidental origin and growth of the place. They run 
 north and south. In the latter part of the 18th century, a 
 heavy gale made such an inroad upon The Bank that one 
 row of houses was in danger of falling over, and they were 
 removed further back. Again, in a southeast gale, which 
 happened in October, 1835, and which the 'Sconsot men will 
 tell interesting stories about. The Bank was so rapidly 
 washed away that one or two houses went down, and a half 
 dozen others would have followed, but that they Avere re- 
 moved. So the old streets are now reduced to three. They 
 are intersected by little openings which, at the beginning of 
 the village were spaces from five to ten feet wide, and were 
 used only for the passage of wheel-barrows. In latter years 
 through some of them vehicles pass to the edge of The Bank 
 and down the roadway to the beach. But the houses are 
 not set in a line with the street, nor are the sides of the 
 streets themselves in a direct line. Mathematical accuracy 
 was not thought necessary for the purposes of the pro- 
 jectors, and much less were land surveyors dreamed of to 
 ensure right lines. Some abut directly on what may be 
 supposed to be the street line. Others are a little back 
 with a board or picket fence, sometimes on the border line 
 between utility and ruin. The lots on which they are built 
 may be anywhere from 25 to 40 feet in front with a depth 
 no larger. The ruts made by the wheels of the passing 
 
14 A PATCHWOEK VIIiLAGE, 
 
 vehicles are always to be seen in the centers of the streets. 
 Of artificial sidewalks there are none. 
 
 In the center of the village is the old pump .which was 
 placed in position in the year of the Declaration of American 
 Independence, when some fifty of the people interested in 
 the place made subscriptions of a shilling and upwards, to 
 dig the well and construct the pump. To day it still exists. 
 It is picturesque in appearance and annually many views 
 are taken by the camera and by artists. At night lighted 
 lanterns are suspended in front of the dwellings by the ten- 
 ants to facilitate movements through the village in the dark 
 and they also give a lively appearance to the village. 
 
 But a glance at the interiors of the little houses is sufficient 
 to suggest that the architects were seafaring men, whose 
 ideas of house building were largely gained from their ex- 
 perience on shipboard. By the settling of the sills and 
 Joists, sometimes the floors have assumed the convexity of 
 a ships deck, which might well give rise to the thought 
 that the builder intended it to recall recollections of his 
 life at sea. The snug parlors, perhaps, six or seven feet 
 in height, and in length and breadth not twice as large, re- 
 mind one of ship cabins. The small bedrooms are little 
 more than state rooms in their proportions, while available 
 spaces are used for closets that are little more than cabin 
 lockers slightly enlarged. To ascend to the attic there is a; 
 step ladder fixed at a slight inclination, or it may be a mere 
 succession of rungs fastened perpendicularly against the 
 side of the room by which to climb as best one may. Every- 
 thing within suggests snugness, comfort and convenience, 
 as the object of the builders. On the walls are ancient pic- 
 tures, some very crude both in design and execution, 
 suggestive of domestic life or illustrating the dangers of 
 whale fishery, or giving views of foreign lands. On the 
 mantel-piece there may be a couple of brass candlesticks, a; 
 
PATCHWOEK INTEEIOES. 15 
 
 pair of snuffers with an antique vase or two. Oft a rag 
 carpet, such as our grandmothers cut and . Avove, covers 
 the floor. Chairs of patterns in vogue a hundred years ago ; 
 antique tables with spindle legs and carve^ feet ; queer old 
 clocks, some the production of Connecticut skill a half a 
 century since, and others brought from England or Holland 
 by old shipmasters, and which are now owned by their 
 children, grand-children or great-grand-children, perhaps ; 
 four post bedsteads on which feather beds and patch-work 
 quilts are laid ; bureaus with oval fronts and odd brass 
 handles or glass knobs to move the drawers ; mirrors of 
 French plate glass and frames of fantastic scroll work ; or 
 others of early American manufacture, with the plate 
 surmounted by a landscape painted on glass, showing im- 
 possible trees, impracticable houses and lakes, the solid 
 waters of which exhibit all the hues of a vigorous but ec- 
 centric rainbow ; cutlery and crockery of odd shapes and 
 patterns and of all ages, ancient and modern, some pieces 
 of which may have been in the families of their owners for, 
 perhaps, three generations, and even pewter plates and 
 platters may be intermixed on the cupboard shelves. Now 
 and then, the iron crane still swings in an ancient fire-place 
 and on it are hung the pots and kettles for cooking the 
 daily meals of the inmates. As no house is furnished 
 with any thought of unity of design, it is apparent that the 
 articles were brought by their owners from their homes in 
 "The Town." Whatever was not needed there was 
 sent to 'Sconset for immediate use, or for storage until it 
 should be wanted. 
 
 During the war of the Eevolution, Siasconset had a con- 
 siderable accession in its growth ; and again during the 
 war of 1812. The same causes operated alike at both 
 periods. By the middle of the last century the interests of 
 the island had become almost wholly identified with the 
 

 H 
 
 ^1 
 
ZENITH OF THE ANCIENT VILLAGE. 17 
 
 whale fishery ; but the advent of the war made the pursuit 
 hazardous. Some of the seamen did suffer capture and im- 
 prisonment, Cut off from supplies from the main hind, 
 with a soil too poor to afford sustenance from the products 
 of the earth, they were compelled to follow fishing for food, 
 and it was at these periods that some of the houses were 
 constructed on The Bank or were brought thither from 
 other parts of the island. But with the return of peace, 
 the old industry of the island was resumed and was con- 
 tinued until the zenith of its prosperity was reached, about 
 1840, when, with nearly ten thousand inhabitants on Nan- 
 tucket, everybody had all the employment he could wish in 
 whatever productive calling he was engaged. At that 
 time there were public houses at 'Sconset and even a 
 billiard room and bowling alleys, to afford recreation to the 
 fishermen or to returned seamen, who sought rest in the 
 village prior to again going on a cruise which might last for 
 years. 
 
 Some of the houses had become the occasional residences 
 of well-to-do families in town and several of the more 
 wealthy had erected, on new streets laid out, dwellings 
 more pretentious and even approximating the styles of 
 modern structures, though most of them, following the 
 traditions of the place, were built in sections and em^body 
 more or less some of the peculiarities of shape and form 
 which are seen in the old houses on The Bank. 
 
DECAY AND RENOVATION. 
 
 The decadence of the whale fishery resulted in an indus- 
 trial paralysis within the limits of Nantucket. The men 
 had been bred to the sea and to a special branch of service. 
 Every industry of the inhabitants depended on that for its 
 prosperity. Landsmen went elsewhere to seek employ- 
 ment in commercial cities. Seamen made their way into 
 the merchant service. Ship after ship was sold. Store- 
 houses were empty ; wharves were deserted and went into 
 decay. Candle houses were torn down and the timbers and • 
 lumber sold for old material. Capital sought investments 
 in other fields. Sporadic efforts were made to organize new 
 industries to stay the tide of emigration from the island, 
 but one after another they failed and brought ruin or dis- 
 aster upon the promoters. Year by year the population 
 lessened. In 1849, near a thousand of the young men 
 sailed for California to seek their fortunes in the land of 
 gold. The values of real property on all parts of the island 
 fell until zero was nearly reached. Even then there was little 
 demand and fewer sales. Houses and lots in The Town 
 sold for a fifth or sixth of the original cost of the buildings. 
 On The Bank matters were ev(m worse. Families emi- 
 grating offered the little houses for sale at any price. 
 Wl aliiig captains, then out of employment, with but slender 
 
b^tllECtATED VALUES. 19 
 
 incomes trom their savings purchased dwellings there and 
 sought by fishing to eke out a subsistence. Some of 
 them, though beyond the tliree score and ten of man's 
 allotted life, still continue in the pursuit, and each Spring 
 and Fall venture out on the waters. Other houses were 
 kept in the family that their sons might gain a livelihood by 
 fishing and have shelter during the night and in storms. 
 But 'Sconset cottages had no value. One of the best and 
 most commodious now on The Bank was bought by an old 
 captain on his return from California, for $75 and two 
 quintals of codfish. Year after year he has occupied it at 
 night during the fishing season, while by day he is braving 
 the dangers of the deep in his dory. Another was sold for 
 a hundred dollars. A third, for a long time, was rented 
 at six dollars a year. 
 
 Matters went from bad to worse until 1879, when the 
 population of the island had diminished to little over three 
 thousand souls. In that year a well built house compara- 
 tively modern, but constructed after the 'Sconset pattern 
 was sold with two acres of land adjoining, at auction, to 
 close up an estate, for $127. Another commodious modern 
 built house containing fifteen rooms, fairly finished, with a 
 half dozen out buildings, seven acres of land and a 'Sconset 
 cottage built on the edge of The Bank, 300 feet distant from 
 the surf were offered to a New York man, by the executors 
 of an estate, for $1,400. The buildings could not have been 
 replaced for near throe times that amount and the furniture 
 for less than $500. Frightened at the unheard of cheapness, 
 the party did not dare to accept the offer. Within three 
 years it was sold in separate lots for $2,500, and six years 
 after the offer was made, it could not have been purchased 
 for $10,000. For a new morning of prosperity had dawned 
 upon Nantucket, and especially upon The Bank where the 
 sun daily rises before it from the sea. 
 
Mam. 
 
 \ 
 
 o • 
 
 X 
 ZJZ 
 
 ^ r 
 Id 
 
 r 
 
THE NEW BIRTH. 21 
 
 Near the close of tlie late civil war, an occasional family 
 from "The Continent," as the natives call the main land, 
 visited Siasconsct and hired one of the little houses ready 
 furnished, to enjoy the invigorating air, bathe in the surf 
 and experience a season of absolute rest, to return to their 
 homes in the Autumn redruited for the cares and labors of 
 another year. The advantages of the situation gradually 
 became more widely known and each year the number of 
 visitors increased until, at last, every house which its 
 owner would consent to let found tenants for the summer 
 in families of refinement, intelligence and even wealth, 
 from most of the principal cities from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, and as far as the west coast of South America. 
 The dilapidated shingles were torn off and replaced by new 
 ones. Next they were white or yellow washed, and some 
 at last painted. Fences were repaired. Old shutters or 
 blinds gave place to new ones, or they were placed on win- 
 dows that had never known them before. The interiors 
 were repaired, furbished and tidied up, and now the little 
 dwellings, some portions of which may be two centuries 
 old, and all evolved from fishermen's cabins, but with the 
 same charming quaintness of style, ai'e rented each season at 
 sums for which the owners, twenty years ago, would have 
 gladly sold them. A second hotel was built, to which, one 
 "annex" after another was added until its principal building 
 within a few feet of the beach looms up in larger propor- 
 tions than all its other parts. The town authorities 
 awakened to the fact that Nantucket had still a future as a 
 summer resort, as a haven of rest for tired out business 
 men and brain workers, and a sanitarium for invalids. 
 They improved the roads. The little passage ways be- 
 tween the houses on The Bank, not more than 10 feet in 
 width nor more than 25 feet long, have been dignified as 
 streets and christened with the names of 'Sconset families. 
 
22 DECAY AND RENOVATION. 
 
 Street lamps have been put up and are nightly lighted. A 
 little railway has been completed from The Town which 
 skirts the south shore of the island, giving the visitors a 
 splendid view of the ocean during the greater portion of its 
 length ; and since the advent of the locomotive, within a 
 single season more strangers visit Siasconset than in a 
 quarter of a century before. 
 
 In the meantime, the demand for the little cottages ex- 
 ceeded the supply. Persons who had become enamored 
 of 'Sconset cottage life, purchased land on The Bank and 
 undertook to supply the demand. Within three years, pre- 
 vious to 1885, over twenty houseswere built and furnished 
 to rent to summer visitors, while nearly as many more 
 were erected by families for their own occupancy, and the 
 work of improvement continues each year. Some of the 
 new structures are modern and ornate in style, in strange 
 contrast with the generally modest architecture of the 
 island, and markedly so when compared with the 'Sconset 
 cottages. Others follow the old traditions, except that the 
 rooms are more commodious, and have complements of 
 furniture and housekeeping appliances to ensure the com- 
 forts of the occupants. 
 
 The popularity of The Bank, as a sea-side home, is largely 
 due to favorable climatic influences. It is on an island 17 
 miles in length, following a line through its center, with a 
 width, at its greatest breadth, of four and a half miles. Its 
 shape is irregular and will be best understood by a rtifer- 
 ence to the map. Sixty miles distant from the continent, 
 the hot land breezes are unknown. To the north is still 
 water, except during the prevalence of heavy gales. On 
 the east and south the surf is ever beating upon the beach. 
 The island has but one harbor of any importance and that 
 the port of Nantucket, not far from midway between its 
 eastern and western extremities. An extension of this to 
 
QUIESCENT THERMOMETERS. 23 
 
 the north and east, a distance of six miles, affords admirable 
 facilities for safe rowing and sailing. To and from this 
 harbor all visitors to the island come and go. 
 
 The climate is equable. The insular situation will in 
 part, account for it. Being narrow, every breeze that is 
 wafted over it is from the sea, and there is scarce ever a 
 time when there is not more or less movement of the air. 
 Hot days are hardly ever known. The mercury seldom 
 rises above the point of summer heat. In observations 
 extending over six years, it reached as high as 89 degrees 
 but four times ; and it does not mount above 82 degrees 
 more than half a dozen days during a season. On those 
 days the duration of warmth, so unusual, is never more 
 than three or four hours, and then the sea breezes make 
 visitors unconscious of what might elsewhere be an oppres- 
 sive heat. At such times the thermometers in Boston 
 and New York register the temperature far up in the 
 nineties, and they sometimes reach a hundred and over. 
 But as nightfall approaches, the air becomes delightfully 
 cool and during the hours devoted to sleep a pair of woolen 
 blankets is always an acceptable covering. 
 
 In tlie winter the temperature is correspondingly higher 
 than on the main land. During the summer the nearly 
 vertical rays of the sun penetrate the shallow waters which 
 surround the island, and impart to them its heat. The 
 winds passing over the waters receive from them their 
 warmth and are blown upon the surface of the island. To 
 the east and south is the Gulf Stream, with its warm cur- 
 rents from the tropics perpetually moving past the coast, 
 and the western line of which is only 30 miles distant. Its 
 existence was first discovered by the adventurous fisher- 
 men of Nantucket, and by them was made known to navi- 
 gators. Winds from the south and east passing over it 
 receive warmth from that source. Thus with the cold 
 
24 DECAY AND BENOVATION. 
 
 winds tempered by the ocean currents before reaching the 
 island, Autumn frosts are kept back until the last of Octo- 
 ber, and sometimes until November. Snow is seldom seen 
 on the island. Sleighing is so infrequent as to be a 
 curiosity. Ice does not form of sufficient thickness to be 
 cut for storage more than one year out of two, and hence 
 the greater portion consumed is brought from the 
 rivers of Maine. The mean range of the thermometer in 
 winter is several degrees higher and in the summer as much 
 lower, than in Boston. 
 
 By reason of its equable climate Nantucket has become 
 popular as a resort for invalids in winter as well as in sum- 
 mer. Mr. Charles O'Conor said at the close of his first 
 summer's residence "In my opinion, between June and 
 September, Nantucket has no equal as a cool and healthy 
 summer resort and I shall probably make it my permanent 
 home." Six months later, when he had passed a winter 
 on the island, what had been a probability became a fact ; 
 for he continued to live on Nantucket during the remainder 
 of his life, and made but few and very brief visits to New 
 York when some special interest made it imperative. In 
 September, 1883, he said to a friend that he should prob- 
 ably never leave the island again alive, but in March, 1884, 
 he found it necessary to visit the city ; and during his ab- 
 sence he contracted a severe cold. Three weeks after 
 he became severely ill and died. 
 
 The presence of shallow water and the nearness of the 
 Gulf Stream have an ameliorating effect in summer upon 
 the temperature of the waters that wash the southern and 
 eastern shores of the island. To this fact is due the pop- 
 ularity of 'Sconset beach for surf bathing. From early in 
 July until late in September, the waters are scarce ever 
 uncomfortable and are always invigorating. Visitors who 
 are familiar with seaside resorts from Mount Desert to 
 
WARM WATERS OFF THE BANK. 
 
 25 
 
 Cape Mcay speak in the highest praise of the comfort, 
 pleasure and wholesome result of bathing in the waters off 
 The Bank. 
 
 ^'feVynt/cVHtV-K' 
 
REST AND APPETITE. 
 
 Purple and fine linen are in no demand at 'Sconset. Flan- 
 nel shirts for men and flannel dresses for women are in 
 keeping, and if not the regulation costume might as well 
 be. "Plug" hats are only affected by well-to-do natives, in 
 The Town. Old clothes come into play and he who criti- 
 cises does it at his peril. Now and then a family on their 
 first visit wear white shirts and fashionable dresses. They 
 are not ostracised in social circles nor even frowned upon 
 by a despotic public opinion. Their example is neither 
 contagious nor infectious, and the Common Council have 
 never passed an ordinance requiring them to be put in 
 quarantine. The life of even the ultra dude, gotten up in 
 the most elaborate style of man millinery, would not be in 
 danger. And to the free and easy life that pervades The 
 Bank is also due its popularity as a seaside home. 
 
 During the first week the stranger would be astonished 
 at the amount of rest he can put in, if drowsiness admitted 
 of the emotion. But that is impossible. Twelve hours a 
 day passed in slumber is not an unusual experience. During 
 the other twelve he is only sleepy. 
 
 Marvelous stories are told in illustration of the somno- 
 lency which languidly greets the visitor. Captain William 
 Baxter (of whom more hereafter), is authority for the 
 
SLEEPINESS. 27 
 
 statements which follow. There is not a man on the 
 island who willnotgo bonds for his truthfulness — at times. 
 He says that strangers have fallen asleep when but half 
 through with a sneeze, thus leaving the sternutatory effort 
 incomplete, with muscles unrelaxed, and the whole face 
 presenting the continuous appearance of enjojang the ec- 
 static orgasm of a resonant sneeze, until, on waking, the 
 final explosion is reached, and the features relax and as- 
 sume their natural expression. 
 
 Still more singular was the case of a lightning rod man 
 who visited The Bank one season and made a dead set for 
 Captain George W. Coffin. Everybody on the island knows 
 that the Captain cannot say "No," unless he does it under 
 a misapprehension, for he is too obstinate to do it under 
 compulsion. Like others who dispense deceptive expedients 
 to eliminate death from thunderbolts, this particular visitor 
 had enticing and insidious ways. He did, then and there, 
 before the Captain was aware of it, seduce him into order- 
 ing a lightning rod to be put on his dwelling ; also one for 
 his grocery store ; likewise a third for his barn.; moreover 
 a fourth to be attached to his kerosene barrel ; and was in 
 the midst of a convincing argument that, without a fifth on 
 his hen roost, and a sixth on his pig pen he hazarded his 
 chickens and eggs in presenti and his pork in futuro, when, 
 by good fortune that delicious languor which follows the 
 inhalation of 'Sconset air came upon the designing light- 
 ning rod man, and in just two minutes by the watch, his 
 eyes were closed in a delightful sleep in the Captain's big 
 arm chair. Climatic influence came to Captain Coffin's 
 rescue. In a moment, he had recovered from the persua- 
 sive eloquence to which he had been subjected, and quick 
 to perceive the advantage of his situation, with the help 
 of his neighbors he put the sleeping sharper on his load of 
 lightning rods and started him off on the road to The Town. 
 
28 REST AND APPETITE. 
 
 When the wagon touched the cobble stones on Orange 
 street, he was awakened by the Jar. He could not under- 
 stand what it all meant. Afterwards, when the real facts 
 of the case illuminated his inner consciousness, he told 
 Captain Joe Clapp that he had never been so abused in all 
 his philanthropic labors as he had been at 'Sconset ; and 
 further, that the lightning might strike every blanked 
 house in the village before he would make an effort to save 
 a shingle. 
 
 But the most extraordinary fact I have yet to relate. A 
 Is^y in Worcester, was sent by her husband to Captain 
 Baxter to be conveyed to 'Sconset for a season of rest and 
 quiet which her health greatly needed. Too much fatigued 
 to write of her safe arrival the first day, she waited until 
 the second, when, having addressed the envelope, she 
 started for the post oflace. As she was about to put the 
 letter in the box, she was overcome by drowsiness and in 
 the confusion of ideas which followed, she dropped herself 
 in the box, instead of the letter, and the next moment was 
 fast asleep, and she didn't discover her mistake until three 
 hours later when she found herself delivered ! So much 
 for the effect of air in producing sleep. 
 
 But stranger stories are told of the results to the human 
 appetite. It is not alone that groceries, provisions and 
 meats are in good variety and quality, and fish fresh 
 caught within sight of visitors, and poultry, eggs, milk and 
 V ^getables grown upon farms adjacent to the village are 
 placed on the table before them. The tonic properties of the 
 the air increase desire for food and facilitate digestion. A 
 New York auctioneer whose reputation for high morality 
 is phenomenal, stated to me his experience. He arrived on 
 The Bank after suffering for a year from nervous prostra- 
 tion caused by excessive indulgence in the truth at 
 sales, and, during which time, he bad had but little sleep 
 
30 BEST AND APPETITE. 
 
 and only the memory of an appetite. He took a little cot- 
 tage for the season where he and his family felt that, at least, 
 they could have,rest and quiet. The first week's experience 
 was promising. He was able to run the gamut of the bill 
 of fare of the Ocean View House, and thenceforward he 
 got around three square meals a day, and he never flinched 
 until he had sucessf ully wrestled with every dish the pro- 
 prietor dared to present for his discussion. Between meals, 
 he foraged for something to stem the resistless tide of ap- 
 petite. A waitress was assigned to serve him at the table. 
 She returned to Boston before the season was half through. 
 The next week her funeral was largely attended. Another 
 stood it out tQ the end of the season. Her muscles became 
 so strengthened and toughened by the amount of travel 
 necessary to satisfy the cravings of the monstrous appetite 
 of that auctioneer that, on her return to the city, she en- 
 tered the lists for a six day's walking match, go-as-you- 
 please, and carried off the stakes and half the gate money. 
 But with the landlord, the patronage of that man was a 
 matter of serious concern if not of grave solemnity. Day 
 after day he saw his stock of provisions disappear in the 
 omnivorous maw of the seemingly starving man and he 
 was sick at heart as the season's profits slowly diminished 
 under the withering influence of his hunger. Still the 
 landlord accepted the inevitable with the calmness that 
 men exhibit in the sight of death. The time came when 
 they had to part. The scene was one never to be forgot- 
 ten. In solemn and regretful tones the boarder broke the 
 intelligence. He told his host that another year he should 
 return. The landlord heaved a sigh. But when the guest 
 added that he intended to keep house, the face of the host 
 lightened. He grasped the hand of the guest and with 
 visible emotion tremblingly told him that he was his friend 
 for life. Little did he appreciate that auctioneer as a 
 
A SADDENED liANDLOED. 31 
 
 living, moving, breathing, example of the excellence of his 
 table. The thought uppermost in his mind was that, 
 another year, he should perhaps retrieve the losses the 
 ravenous appetite of the boarder had entailed upon him 
 during that. It is pleasant to see such exhibitions of ten- 
 der sentiment in a world in which ingratitude is so often 
 shown. 
 
 A few days after the landlord told a friend, in the strict- 
 est confidence, that it was bad enough to have a boarder 
 die under his roof, but it was even pleasant, as compared 
 with having some people live under it. He didn't mention 
 any names, but the gentleman to whom it was told caught 
 on to the signifigance of the statement the moment it was 
 made. He didn't want any more of that style of invalids. 
 
LIFE ON THE BANK. 
 
 The meaning of the word cottage in society is strangely 
 perverted. It is defined in the dictionaries to be "a small 
 habitation ; a cot ; a hut ; formerly limited to a poor or 
 shabby habitation, but now applied also to any neat or 
 tasteful dwelling." As currently understood the word may 
 be used with respect to a dwelling three stories in height, 
 with an attic and projecting windows, and with a veranda 
 capable of sitting three score people in comfort. Within 
 there may be twenty spacious apartments and wide hall- 
 ways and balustrades, richly upholstered furniture, and 
 plastered walls hung with fine paper, or even frescoed and 
 covered with works of art to make a still wider departure 
 from the simplicity of the structure which the name would 
 indicate. If it were within a small interior city or thriving 
 village, or were in the suburbs of a large city and occupied 
 t>y a prosperous or wealthy citizen, it would be called a 
 mansion. Translated to the seaside it becomes a "cottage" 
 even though it may have cost, with its appointments, from 
 $20,000 to $50,000. 
 
 Life within it brings all the cares and responsibilities 
 upon the wife that exist in an urban home. The primary 
 object of removing to it is to secure rest, and quiet, and 
 freedom from care. The very size of thef building of itself 
 
EEAL COTTAGES. 33 
 
 defeats the purpose. The cares of a family in different 
 houses, furnished in equal style, can be accuratelj'^ com- 
 puted by a comparison of their cubic capacity. A dwelling 
 containing 30,000 cubic feet will entail upon the occupant, 
 five times the amount of responsibility and labor, of a 
 structure containing 6,000 cubic feet. Besides, a large 
 house invites the visits of traveling friends at a season 
 when, perhaps, their presence is felt to be little less than 
 an intrusion, although they would be welcome at other 
 times and under different circumstances. In a cottage in 
 reality, social calls replace protracted visits and then they 
 are made less frequent than they would be were the com- 
 pliment paid to the family in more pretentious quarters, 
 and the object of the summer's emigration is realized. 
 Otherwise the only benefit resulting is that^which proceeds 
 from a change of air and surroundings. In the one case 
 there is real cottage life ; in the other it is fashionable life 
 with all its cares carried to the shore. 
 
 But there is another feature. When comforts are as- 
 sured, the enjoyments of life are hightened by change. 
 From elegant appointments and surroundings and bewilder- 
 ing space, one finds pleasure in snugness and simplicity. 
 Elaborate dinners in course, are gladly dispensed with to 
 enjoy wholesome food that savors of freshness and needs 
 no relish to quicken the appetite. 
 
 In the little houses on 'Sconset Bank all these advan- 
 tages proceeding from a transition from life in a city 
 home are realized, change of air, quiet, rest, and contrast, 
 with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of care. They 
 are real cottages. They were built strongly and compactly 
 to resist the elements and afford shelter and comfort for 
 the occupants, and with no thought that they would ever 
 be in demand as the residences of summer visitors. Year 
 after year they have been and are still occupied by the 
 
34: lilFE ON THE BANK. 
 
 families of strangers who have found pleasure In them id st 
 of homely surroundings presenting a sharp contrast with 
 their homes during nine months of tlie year. 
 
 Their appreciation of cottage life finds expression in the 
 names they bestow upon their little homes, which are 
 painted upon strips of board and nailed over the portals. 
 Some are changed from year to year with the change of 
 tenants; others remain for successive seasons. "Dew 
 Deop Inn" seemed to invite the thirsty passer to cross the 
 threshold of the six feet doorway. It was a holiow mockery. 
 The hostess had not an inn-keeper's license. The sign did 
 not deceive anybody. "N'Yum N'Yum Hut'.' suggested the 
 serene satisfaction of the inmates over a 'Sconset break- 
 fast, responding to the demands of an appetite sharpened 
 by the ocean air. "Wannackmamack Lodge" tempts 
 strangers to risk the rupture of the buccinnator muscle in 
 the vain attempt to pronounce the name. "Okoewaw Wig- 
 wam" was occupied by a white tribe from Boston. They 
 were peaceably disposed savages and I never, in passing, 
 experienced a sense of danger to life or limb. Neither ' 'big 
 injun," nor squaw, nor papoose, sought my scalp. "Cas- 
 tle Bandbox" was the home of some merry young girls 
 from Washington. And didn't they laugh as they played 
 housekeeping all alone by themselves? In "Bird's Nest 
 Cottage" were nestled the little ones under the care of a 
 loving mother. In "Sanit as Felicitas" was ensconced the 
 family of a Providence gentleman. A genial old shipmaster, 
 long in the shady side of life, recalling memories of youth, 
 named his little home "Sunny Side," where he and the 
 charming companion of his declining years extended to 
 their friends a welcome. "Baknaby Lodge" was the ely- 
 sium of some Philadelphia ladies who sought out 'Sconset 
 on the map and came thither to pass their vacation. "Le 
 Chalet" was over the door of the cottage of two charming 
 
COTTAGE NOMENCIiATURE. 35 
 
 French ladies, from New York who spent their summers 
 on The Bank. "Sans Souci" tells of careless ease that a 
 Rhode Island family enjoy in their little summer home. 
 "MuLTi IN Parvo" describes the marvelous capacity of a 
 little house in which a distinguished NewYork clergyman 
 and his family found comfort for the Season. ' 'Svaegaloka" 
 the Sanskrit paradise, is over the portals of one dwelling, 
 while "Paradise" in the vernacular, describes the peace 
 that exists in another. "Nautican Lodge" preserves 
 another Indian name. "Utopia" describes the ideal life 
 led by a bright family from Medford in an old structure 
 that has not been shingled for perhaps a couple of genera- 
 tions. "Heart's Ease" is equally suggestive of a 
 peace of mind that dwelleth within the shingled sides. 
 "Close Quarters" concisely states the character of the ac- 
 commodations in another house. "Kansas Dugout" is 
 descriptive of the rudimentary dwelling in which a family 
 from Achison dwell. "The Parsonage" has not within the 
 memory of man been occupied by a parson, though one 
 could get solid comfort under its roof. Some jolly young 
 men told how close they were compelled to live when they 
 painted on a shingle the words "Spoon Fashion" and 
 nailed it over the door. "K. K." bothered strangers and 
 residents alike until the inmates explained that the letters 
 were the initials of "Kauphin Kottage." An orthodox 
 quaker from western New York, in violation of the spirit, 
 if not the letter of the discipline displayed over his door 
 words of worldly import borrowed from the language of 
 song at that, "Dolce far niente." "The Sardine Box" 
 needs no explanation. But perhaps cottage life is nowhere 
 better and more concisely stated than appears over the 
 door of an old house. 
 
 "The Anchorage, 
 ♦'Give me my scollop shell of quiet." 
 

 >"^ 
 
 
 o • 
 
 
 in 
 
 1^ 
 
 11- 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 A'U : 
 
 i 
 
 « 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1 
 
 Zj 
 
 m 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 g. 
 
 
 3 
 
 fijMfl 
 
 c 
 
MEN AT A PREMIUM. 37 
 
 The resident visitors are largel}^ women and children. 
 Men are a scarce commodity. If married women want for 
 a time to be rid of their husbands, as they sometimes do, 
 'Sconset is the place to go to. The success of single women 
 in getting them is not so marked. The Bank is not a 
 matrimonial exchange. At no time are there men enough 
 to go around. The place is too far distant from our com- 
 mercial cities to admit of frequent visits or protracted 
 stays by husbands and marriageable men whom the exigen- 
 cies of business require elsewhere. At the beginning of 
 the season there is a redundancy of skirts and a corres- 
 ponding scarcity of bifurcated garments seen moving along 
 the narrow streets and on the beach. In June and July, 
 men come in units and twos and threes. Later they may 
 appear in tens with occasional visitations in scores ; but 
 at no time is there even an approximate balance between 
 the sexes. A man is appreciated. If he is not at a premium, 
 he is at least quoted at par. He who is at a discount in 
 social circles at home, when on The Bank is received for 
 all he is worth and sometimes for a little more. He feels 
 his importance. He may attribute his success to his manly 
 graces suddenly developed by inhaling the air of the ocean. 
 The thought that it is the result of the inexorable laws of 
 supply and demand is a painful reflection. Come to it he 
 does at last, and he realizes that, on his return, he must, 
 in the iield of every day social intercourse, sink to his nor- 
 mal level in the estimation of women. Still it is a satisfac- 
 tion to reflect that one has been so far "bulled" on the 
 social exchange, as to have been regarded even for a season 
 as a fancy security. 
 
 At the hops, which the hotel proprietors give at differ- 
 ent periods during the season for the young people, the 
 anthropophagous being who can dance is above par. He 
 is even a bonanza. He can have his pick of partners. The 
 
38 LIFE ON THE BANK. 
 
 callow youth is ruthlessly dragged from the care of his 
 mother, and the vigorous man of middle age is beset by a 
 female press gang deaf to all entreaty. Anything short of 
 the possession of a cork leg, or a timber toe, or the affi- 
 davits of two disinterested and reputable persons that, to 
 their knowledge, he does not know how to dance will ex- 
 cuse him from active service. If he can move through the 
 figures, even awkwardly, he will pass muster. If he cannot 
 dance he can make believe and by his self-sacrificing 
 efforts afford an opportunity for somebody else to dance. 
 
 And dancing on The Bank carries with it all that the 
 word implies. The Nantucket youths and maidens set an 
 example of lively movement that becomes contagious. 
 They mean to get their money's worth at every hazard. At 
 'Sconset, dancing is not a mincing, gliding, sauntering 
 through the figures in languid movement, like unto the 
 halting walk of a convalescent kitten trying to conform her 
 steps to the cadences of a jews harp in the mouth of an 
 American small boy. Its significance is life and activity 
 as the outward expression of the inward buoyancy of 
 youthful spirit, breathing the atmosphere of freedom 
 within the sound of music, which the French philosopher 
 Fourier, fitly called "a measured harmony." 
 
 I have often been present on these occasions. But I am 
 in the sere and yellow leaf. Those pleasures are not re- 
 served for me. Still, as I have looked on the enlivening 
 scene, I have felt the fires of youth coursing through the 
 arteries of my ancient legs, and one by one the wrinkles 
 depart therefrom as if they had received a gentle hint that 
 their room was better than their company. But corns, and 
 bunions, and chilblains, and gout, and rheumatic deposits 
 in the joints, and atrophy of muscular tissue and depleted 
 nerve force, and the vis inertia generally which inhereth to 
 him with one foot in the grave, forbade. Without envy did I 
 
A NATATORY EXPERT. 39 
 
 keep my seat in a retired corner of the hall, glad that I 
 could look down upon legs that had a creditable record 
 and think of myself as one of the great company of the 
 "Honorable Has Beens," whose ranks are yearly decimated 
 by the Great Destroyer, but are as rapidly recruited from 
 veterans retiring from service. 
 
 But water is more dense than air. If too weak to stand 
 the continued strain of dancing, in the denser element I 
 can sustain my avoirdupois. Buffeting in the surf gives 
 me a new lease of life. The waves at 'Sconset braeli 
 seems to me like surging waters of perpetual youth. In 
 them, I fear neither dashing billows nor receding under- 
 tow. My endurance has been tested on more than one 
 occasion. My fame as a swimmer is Bank wide. The im- 
 portunities that press upon me to teach others the art are 
 numerous. It is the ambition of every lady who visits the 
 seaside to be able to swim. It matters not that she may 
 be worth a million ; or that she has reached high on the 
 ladder of fame in creative art ; or that she has become an 
 acknowledged leader of human thought. All that is nothing 
 compared with the rapturous reflection that she can do 
 something which few or none of her lady friends can. 
 
 I met with a marvelous success as a professor. I did 
 not make much money out of it but I had lots of fun. But 
 my professional carieer was brought to an abrupt termina- 
 tion. There are some things in the life of even an aquatic 
 expert engaged in imparting his skill to ladies that are not 
 altogether ecstatic. Among my most promising pupils 
 were some young girls from Baltimore, who had registered 
 a vow that they would never get married, even under the 
 most severe provocation, until they had become so expert 
 in the waters that they could duck their husbands in case 
 exemplary punishment for any minor wickedness was 
 needed. They were under my tutelage for several days. 
 

 f 
 
TOO SUSCEPTIBLE. 41 
 
 It was wonderful what a cargo of confidence they carried 
 in my abilities as a teacher and the accuracy of my judg- 
 ment in keeping them just on the dividing line between 
 danger and safety which enhances the pleasure of being in 
 the waves. 
 
 One morning I took one of my sea nympiis beyond the 
 Ime of breakers and set her to floating, taking care to walk 
 close by her in shore, so that in case of fright, I could 
 assist her in. She lay as lightly on the waters as a cork. I 
 could not resist the impulse which bade me tell her that 
 she was beautiful to my admiring gaze. I had hardly paid 
 tl^is tribute to her loveliness when she asked me to add to 
 the charm of the picture by floating at her side. This was 
 too much. If there is any man short of a centenarian who 
 can be insensible to such a compliment, set him down as 
 a muff; advise him to get an engagement in a theater 
 where a real corpse is wanted to enliven the play, and then 
 take a dose of ratsbane that he may be ready to fulfill the 
 engagement. I am not that sort of a man, If I have not 
 carried juvenescence into old age, at least, I have periods 
 when, spanning near three quarters of a century I seem 
 to have been borne back into the Spring time of life 
 Such words from a beautiful girl made me feel as if I was 
 floating in the empyrean instead of being tumbled about 
 by the surging waves off 'Sconset beach, which spare 
 neither age, sex, nor previous condition of matrimonial 
 servitude. I acceded to the suggestion. In a moment 
 hand in hand together. May and December, in sweet prox- 
 imity, were borne upon the bounding billows. No small 
 boy on Christmas morning, with vision greeted by a 
 mouth harmonicon, a Noah's ark, a wheelbarrow, a peg 
 top, a follow ball, and a pair of skates, and above all, a 
 paw, hammer and nails and a room full of furniture at hand 
 inviting his early attention, could have felt more happy. 
 
42 LIFE ON THE BANK. 
 
 While bathing in what became a sea of delight, I asked her 
 to recline her face on my manly breast. Though I didn't 
 mean it, she said she would. The thought intensified the 
 rapture of my situation, I became oblivious to the fact 
 that a thundering big billow was coming towards us. Now, 
 whether my fair water nymph had not been correctly 
 taught in the anatomy and physiology class at school, or 
 whether her ideas had become a little mixed, I don't 
 know. At any rate, in the effort to comply with my sug- 
 gestion, just as the wave broke upon us, she had evidently 
 got the idea that my breast was located below the dia- 
 phragm ; for driven forward by the charging breaker s-he 
 planted her head against my abdominal belt with the force 
 of a catapult. Quicker than the lightning calculator could 
 count half, I doubled up like the closing of a ponderous jack- 
 knife, and in that ungraceful attitude turned seven summer- 
 saults out of a possible eight, before I felt myself stranded 
 upon the beach, sneezing in a wild paroxysm as a mark of i 
 disapprobation of the practical joke the boisterous Sea 
 King had played upon me when I was reveling in the de- 
 lights of a briny paradise. And not only that, but my ears ; 
 and nose ; and mouth ; and stomach contained sand enough 
 to fill a contract for plastering a country meeting house. 
 Above all I became conscious of an acute costaritis (belly 
 ache it is generally called, but I prefer the technical term 
 because it gives dignity to the malady), that caused me to 
 twist into contortions whereof the india-rubber man had 
 never dreamed. The first thing I saw and heard when I 
 looked around was that delightful minx, who had been 
 safely borne to the beach on the crest of the breaker that 
 had so engulfed me, saying, "Oh isn't it fun?" Fun? O 
 Lord! O Lord! But I concealed my emotions, though it' 
 was with a desperate struggle ; and I laughed with all the: 
 vivacity of a congregation of ghosts holding high carnivall 
 
 I 
 
TURNING OVER A NEW LEAP. 43 
 
 ill the midst of a November fog in a secluded graveyard at 
 midnight. 
 
 My manly breast has not been vouchsafed since that 
 eventful morning to pillow the head of any damsel on sea 
 or shore, for reasons that are entirely satisfactory to my- 
 self, and which nobody has any business to inquire about. 
 The pursuit of knowledge is sometimes, even with well 
 meaning people, carried to an unreasonable point. In 
 such instances, a proper self respect demands that it be 
 discouraged. I may state, however, that, on retiring to 
 rest that night, she, with whom I pull in matrimonial 
 harness, convinced me that the breast I so generously had 
 tendered to another was held by her as a life-tenant under 
 a contract that was irrevocable, and that she had never 
 authorized me to let it either for a term, at a fixed rental, 
 or an occupancy at pleasure by another to the exclusion of 
 her rights in the premises. Above all, she objected to a 
 joint-tenancy or a tenancy in common. I had never looked 
 at the legal aspects of the matter before ; and without going 
 to the office of 'Squire Coffin, in The Town, to look at the 
 authorities, I made up my mind before breakfast that, per- 
 haps, I had better acquiesce in her view of the law. 
 
PERILS. 
 
 There are dangers which may beset the bather on the 
 beach and for which the billows are not responsible. Max 
 Wattigan came to The Bank at my special invitation to 
 pass the season. He is a friend of mine in the soap and 
 tallow line. A mischance made him the principal figure 
 in an episode, the recollections of which, in his mind, are 
 equal to the horrors of a dozen nightmares. At the sea- 
 side his passion is bathing "in the buff" a similitude 
 employed by naughty boys to express the idea of the 
 uniform seen in the Garden of Eden before the fashion of 
 wearing fig leaves had been introduced from Paris, as the 
 rudimentary promise of texile fabrics, which to-day are 
 typical of our advanced civilization. The appearance in 
 'Sconset waters without a bathing dress between the 
 hours of 6 A. M. and 8 P. M. is prohibited by an ordinance 
 passed long since by the common council. (See ordinances 
 of Siasconset, 1793, chapter 234, Atheneum library.) 
 
 Max is an early riser. With the crowing of Captain 
 Aldridge's patriarchal rooster he went forth to the bath 
 house, divested himself of his raiment, plunged into the 
 surf, and, for the nonce, was oblivious of the presence of 
 hungry blue fish which, in playful mood, might snap at his 
 
46 PEEILS. 
 
 inviting nose, bite his dexter digits, or feed on his sinis- 
 ter toes. After a half hour's enjoyment he went to his 
 breakfast with a stomach stimulated to digest anything 
 offered, from a broiled belaying pin to a book agent's con- 
 science roasted and garnished with shingle nails. 
 
 During the season there was a lady, an amateur artist, 
 whose ambition was to reproduce the brilliant effects of a 
 sunrise from the sea. For several mornings after her 
 arrival she was disappointed. Fog, and rain, and massive 
 clouds intervened to obscure the view which was to be her 
 soul's delight. Of the existence of the lady, and much 
 more the object of her artistic ambition. Max was in ignor- 
 ance, or their painful meeting would never have occurred. 
 One morning she looked forth from her window and saw 
 that the appointed time had come. The sunlight was 
 reddening the edges of the clouds that floated above the 
 eastern horizon. While she was hastily preparing to cap- 
 ture the coming sunrise, Max was already laving in the 
 refreshing waters. Now, charging against an angry billow 
 as it approached in threatening array, then plunging under 
 a surging breaker, and next floating as lightly as an ostrich 
 plume over the wave crest and sinking into the watery 
 furrow only to rise again, thus was he the sport of the 
 dancing billows until he should assert his strength, and 
 resisting their force, should in triumph make his way to 
 the beach. 
 
 It was while he was thus sporting amid the breakers 
 that he glanced up toward the land and saw a female 
 figure moving hurriedly down The Bank in the direction of 
 where he was. Her eyes were fixed upon the delicate 
 fringe of crimson and gold that made the buoyant clouds 
 before her a scene of enchantment, the recollection of 
 which would be to her a source of perpetual pleasure. He 
 quickly left for shore and concealed himseK behind a 
 
 I 
 
A DELICATE SITUATION. 47 
 
 dory, thinking that her approach meant only a morning 
 walk on the beach whence she would soon depart. To his 
 dismay, she produced a camp stool and planted it within 
 fifty feet of where he was hidden from her view, and in a 
 line between him and the bath house wherein his clothes 
 were suspended. She opened her color box and com- 
 menced to wash in masses of warm tints which made the 
 floating vapors, now rich in aureate beauty, the precursor 
 of the gorgeous sunburst that was sure to follow. From 
 around the dory Max stole brief glances at the poetic 
 spinster and took in the startling novelty of his situation. 
 Little by little he comprehended its full significance. He 
 was on the windward side of the boat, and the morning 
 breezes soon sent a cold chill through his frame. With 
 his back to the north, lumbago ; or acute Bright's disease ; 
 or inflammatory rheumatism was a contingent result. To 
 turn his face threatened pneumonia ; or peritonitis ; or 
 even quick consumption. He waited in the hope that, 
 with dextrous skill, she would quickly lay in the colors, 
 and then, hearing the distant echoes of hunger resounding 
 from the walls of an empty stomach, would find the ardor 
 of artistic enthusiasm chilled by the reflection that woman 
 was not made alone for the ideal, however grand. He 
 mistook the character of the one before him. She seemed 
 glued to the camp stool, and the seat itself was evidently 
 anchored to the beach. At last the appalling fact was un- 
 folded to his mind that he was a naked descendant of 
 Adam, imprisoned out of doors by a Turner in petticoats, 
 inspired by a too lofty regard for high art to allow a detail 
 to escape her in so rich a display of nature's wondrous 
 grouping of the beautiful. 
 
 Brighter and brighter the rays of light shot above the 
 cloud masses until the mighty Monarch of Day himself 
 burst upon her vision in all his warmth and effulgence and 
 
AAONt. 49 
 
 throw upon the waves a field of dazzling sheen, that made 
 the waters look like moving ripples of molten gold. The 
 wind was stiffening from the northeast, and cold chills 
 were sent through brain, and spinal column, and muscle, 
 and bone. In the agony of his situation, the mercury 
 seemed to have fallen to near the freezing point. It became 
 apparent that he must disclose his presence or else his 
 stiffened corpse be viewed by an unsympathizing magis- 
 trate, to whom, by the statutes of Massachuetts, had been 
 confided the holding of inquests to ascertain the cause of 
 death. Raising himself so that his head and shoulders 
 appeared above the gunwale of the boat, he said in a most 
 mild and apologetic tone "Madam, I beg pardon, but" — He 
 got no further. His words were interrupted by a shriek. 
 Then, as if a mine had exploded under her, she made a 
 spring heavenwards. Camp stool; and brushes; and 
 water cup ; and color box ; and the aggregate parapher- 
 nalia of a boss artist were scattered upon the sand, and 
 the frightened owner was flying towards The Bank with 
 skirts disordered and fluttering wildly in the morning 
 breezes. And it was not until she had disappeared around 
 one of the cottages on The Bank that Max ran for the bath 
 house as if the devil was after him. Having quickly 
 resumed his clothing, he sneaked into the hotel, changed 
 his suit for another entirely different in appearance and 
 came into breakfast, yawning as if he had been disturbed 
 in his rest by a late nocturnal banquet in which hard boiled 
 eggs ; and lobster salad ; and pickled pigs feet ; and strong 
 coffee had been the principal constituents of the bill of 
 fare. 
 
 At noon time, Max sauntered over the beach in the 
 locality which had been the scene of this distressing 
 episode. His face wore an air of meditation that was akin 
 to sadness. His eyes caught sight of a piece of shining 
 
50 
 
 tfiJlttiS. 
 
 metal that shone brightly from the surrounding sand. 
 A nearer view disclosed the fact that it was a lady's— well, 
 something of a suspensory character that is used to 
 keep the garments that cover the lower extremities up in 
 pla<5e. He was about to pick it up, when the thought of 
 her, who was the probable proprietor, crossed his mind. 
 Sadly he turned his face away and left the appurtenance 
 where it was, not wishing to preserve what might be a 
 memento of an experience fraught with so many unpleas- 
 ant recollections. 
 
CAPTAIN BAXTER. 
 
 But a still greater peril awaits the unsuspecting visitor. 
 Captain William Baxter is neither a pirate, nor an insurance 
 agent, nor a bank president nor a cashier. It were better for 
 tbf> victims of his insidious wiles that he were, for then 
 they could protect themselves with horse pistols, or cut- 
 lasses, or Gatling guns. His misdeeds are neither crimes 
 nor misdemeanors to be proceeded against by indictment ; 
 nor are they torts for which a civil action for damages can 
 be maintained. They are without malice, except in a 
 Pickwickian sense. But mercy is no part of his moral 
 composition. Nurseling and centenarian; parent and 
 child ; husband and wife ; lover and mistress ; townsman 
 and stranger are alike the objects of his relentless jokes. 
 Neither devotee nor unbeliever; professional man nor 
 layman is spared. Day and night, winter and summer, 
 spring and autumn his victims, not once, but a half a dozen 
 times suffer before they learn to be on the alert. With him 
 youthful spirits are still manifested in advanced age. His 
 heart is as full of generous impulse, his spirits as light, his 
 vivacity as marked and his appreciation of fun as keen at 
 80 as they were at 18. 
 
 William Baxter was born in 1805, on Nantucket. His 
 father was a whaling captain. As a matter of course, the 
 
52 CAPTAIN BAXTER. 
 
 son was bred to the sea. When he retired from service he 
 was the master of a whaling ship. He has been all over the 
 world. During intermittent illuminations of truth he will 
 recount interesting episodes drawn from his own experi- 
 ence and some of which are even pathetic. Yet, before 
 the conclusion of the conversation, with features demure 
 and solemn he will regale one with a story to make the 
 blood curdle, only to find at its termination in one's sale 
 and delivery in the perpetration of a preposterous joke. 
 When the Captain left the waters he settled down in Nan- 
 tucket. Like other men in The Town he was a frequent 
 visitor to Siasconset, in the spring and fall, during the fishing 
 season. Then, at night, the old captains after returning 
 with their dories to the land would sit down in the room 
 of some little cottage and swap lies in the most fraternal 
 manner in recounting experiences in the past. On such 
 occasions bigger sperm whales have been caught in Cap- 
 tain Brown Gardner's cottage than were ever struck in the 
 Arctic seas. Captain Baxter's visits to The Bank were 
 frequent, and at times they occurred every day. If any- 
 body wanted to ride with him he was welcome. If he was 
 able to pay for the accommodation, very well. If not, it 
 didn't make any difference. The enterprise was organized 
 upon principles as broad as humanity and good fellowship. 
 He gave the needed wayfarer a ride, stuffed him with in- 
 credible stories in transitu, and if he was not satisfied 
 with that he stuffed him with a dinner on his arrival at 
 'Sconset. He was everybody's friend when a favor was to 
 be granted, but everybody's ruthless enemy when the op- 
 portunity occurred to play a joke. 
 
 And so it came to pass that, whenever he went to or 
 came from Town he carried or brought letters and was 
 entrusted with errands to attend to. At last his coming 
 and going became such a matter of importance that his 
 
THE LOCAIi EXPRESS. 53 
 
 failure to appear was sometimes the cause of inconvenience. 
 At length what was begun as an incidental matter in the 
 spirit of good nature, became a regular employment. It 
 was the evolution of an unincorporated stage, express, 
 and postal company, and Captain Baxter was president, 
 director, stockholder, superintendent, agent, messenger, 
 teamster, hostler — everything, except the propelling power 
 of the wagon, which, to the surprise of everybody on The 
 Bank he allowed the horses to furnish. And when Sias- 
 conset became a seaside resort, the means of transit of the 
 island already existed. He received the passengers at the 
 steamboat landing and carried them to their destination, 
 often in the hight of the season making two round trips a 
 day, covering an aggregate distance of 30 miles. His 
 vehicle was a Nantucket box wagon, one of the few on the 
 island requiring a double team. A cover was put on to 
 afford protection in case of inclement weather. As it was 
 slowly dragge'd through the deep ruts of the sandy roads it 
 became at last to be known as the "Swiftsure" and the 
 line as the "Lightning Express." But such arduous work 
 as this, with its care and responsibility, did not tame the 
 spirits of the old mariner. Fresh or tired he was always 
 ready for a joke and could take as well as give. 
 
 When I took my departure for 'Sconset I was told to 
 inquire for Captain Baxter when I reached the steamboat 
 wharf at Nantucket, to trust to him for guidance, and that 
 he would pilot me safely over the island. It was impressed 
 upon me that he was serious and even solemn in his de- 
 meanor, and was especially sensitive to anything like 
 levity or frivolity. There is an unsettled account between 
 me and the man who told me that, which at the day of 
 judgment will not be sponged from the slate. Thus far 
 he has eluded my pursuit. I am going for his scalp and 
 will have it, if I have to follow him to the gates of the New 
 

AN UNPLEASANT PBOSPECT. 55 
 
 Jerusalem. He knew what he was up to when he remorse- 
 lessly put me into Captain Baxter's care. He had been 
 there himself. 
 
 At the steamer's wharf I inquired for Baxter. He was 
 pointed out. I approached him and was greeted with a 
 saintly smile. I told him who I was and that I desired to 
 go to Siasconset. He put his hand to his ear, acoustic 
 fashion, and said that he was very^hard of hearing. I re- 
 peated in a higher tone of voice. He replied that he had 
 just shipped to a friend of his in Boston the last quintal 
 he had, except what he wanted for his own use that very 
 morning, but he would see if he could get some from some- 
 body on The Bank. I put my mouth close to his ear and 
 yelled the statement I had made. He seemed to get a 
 grip on my idea for he led myself and party to his wagon, 
 took out the tail board, helped us in, and just before night- 
 fall we started on our trip. Hardly had we got beyond 
 the edge of The Town when he told us of the dangers the 
 journey involved. But he said we need have no uneasi- 
 ness, as he felt confident he should land us in Siasconset 
 in safety long before morning. As an all night trip amid 
 darkness and fog, was not exactly the circus for which I 
 had bought a ticket, with painful effort I screamed one 
 question after another at him to obtain an explanation. As 
 the result I was gradually enlightened. In substance the 
 information I received was that the crossing of an inter- 
 vening range of mountains, and especially the peril in fol- 
 lowing the shelving road that wound around the crest of 
 Half Way Hill, was beset with dangers, for in the darkness 
 of the night, it (almost invited destruction; as a variation 
 of a few inches in the course might precipitate the craft in 
 which our hopes embarked, down a steep declivity perhaps 
 hundreds of feet into a yawning chasm, and it might be, 
 impale our bodies on the sharp branches of gigantic pines 
 
56 CAtTAri^ BAttEtl. 
 
 which for centuries had been pushing their cones lieaven- 
 ward, but had never yet caught the rays of the sun, even 
 at meridian. And he told me about the passage through 
 a deep canyon beyond Bean Hill following a tortuous 
 course amid titanic bowlders which, in the pliocene period 
 of geological history had been brought down by mighty aval- 
 anches from the towering peaks above ; and that he never 
 went through it without thoughts of fear and trembling. 
 He told me of disasters that had occurred. With impres- 
 sive solemnity of manner he recounted times, places and 
 circumstances. One I especially remember, because of 
 the appalling details of the catastrophy. Captain Obed 
 Bunker had started one morning from Quidnit with a box- 
 cart, freighted with a peck basket of eggs, three quintals 
 of codfish and 250 pounds of new potatoes, and at a place 
 two points off the starboard bow of our wagon, in the 
 position in which we were, his cart gave a lurch and she 
 sheered off N. N. E. by E. half E. when the true course by 
 the chart was S. E. by S., and that too when Captain 
 Bunker, on starting in the morning, had only taken the 
 regulation rations of Medford rum. After stating these 
 horrors. Captain Baxter told me not to be afraid, that such 
 disasters were now infrequent and that many a time he 
 had gone through that chasm in the shadow of a storm 
 cloud when, amid the gloom, an American citizen of full 
 African descent, in the active pursuit of a black cat in 
 mourning for her drowned progeny, through the labyrinths 
 of a sub-cellar at midnight, in a thunder storm, would 
 present a picture which, in comparison, would be of daz- 
 zling whiteness. Even this statement was anything but 
 reassuring, and I didn't recover from the sense of danger 
 until I reached the hotel tired from apprehension and 
 iioarse from bawling into Captain Baxter's ears. 
 Awakened by the breakfast bell of the Ocean View House 
 
FOEGIVEN BUT NOT FOKGOTTEN. 57 
 
 the next morning, I arose. I looked out of the window to 
 the west, heavenwards, thinking as the least reward for 
 the dangers I had risked, my vision would be greeted by a 
 picturesque mountain landscape. My sight followed from 
 the firmament until it reached the horizon on an almost 
 barren hill a couple of miles distant and perhaps 75 feet 
 above the level of the sea. To such contemptible proportions 
 had the mountains, pictured to my imagination, shrunk. 
 Before me was a sandy roadway which extended as far as 
 the eye could reach, with parallel ruts worn perhaps fifteen 
 to eighteen inches deep into the light soil by the wheels of 
 the vehicles, and the feet of the horses in travelling over 
 the island. These were the yawning chasms and the fear- 
 ful abysses, the vivid description of which had excited 
 terror in my breast. Some stunted growths of scrub pine 
 that, against heavy odds, were struggling against the pre- 
 sumption of bush-hood in the effort to attain the dignity 
 of trees, were all there was to support the monstrous 
 stories of th« giants of the forest, which I had heard the 
 night before. 
 
 I was not long in seeking out the betrayer of my trust 
 and confidence. That he might not be misled by his in- 
 firmity of hearing into a misunderstanding of my meaning, I 
 screamed into his ear that he was an ancient fraud with all 
 the modern improvements. He told me not to strain my 
 voice, as he had already recovered from his deafness by 
 the use of hot applications of red pepper on his diaphragm 
 the night before, and that now he could hear me if I spoke 
 in a whisper. Well, I was furious ! But he laughed in 
 such a genial manner that my wrath was turned away. He 
 said he had no hard feelings against me ! From what fol- 
 lowed I know his words were not uttered in mockery. He 
 quietly beckoned me into the "warf of his little house, 
 wherein he produced an antique basket and drcAv there- 
 
^^ CAPTAIN BAXTEK. 
 
 from a prehistoric bottle. By a natural sequence of events 
 the cork came out and he passed the bottle and asked me 
 to take a swig. He said it was old Medford, vintage of 
 1816. Anybody who tries it will believe, as I did. In that 
 mellow, heart warming draught was buried every vestige of 
 the animosity that I had felt for that veteran of the sea. ^And 
 yet, within a week, he had effected a second sale of my person 
 Again and again, it has occurred and, until I shall cross 
 the Stygian waters, I shall never be free from Captain 
 Baxter s jokes and even then he will play them upon my 
 heirs, executors, administrators and assigns. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF A POST OFFICE, 
 
 It took nearly two centuries to lift Siasconset ,to the 
 dignity of a post village. The government allowed it to 
 take care of itself. If that community is best governed 
 which is governed the least, The Bank was the nearest ap- 
 proach to perfection in its political status. The only post 
 office on the island was at Nantucket, and letters for 'Scon- 
 set were given to any resident, who came for them, or 
 to anybody whom the postmaster happened to learn was 
 going out. Correspondence was not heavy, and there was 
 not an overweening anxiety on the part of the residents 
 to read the reports of the stock market at the breakfast 
 table. They had stock in The Bank in which every man 
 was a shareholder and director, with neither president nor 
 cashier to influence fear of defalcation or embezzlement. 
 From it they received semi-annual dividends in fish, vary- 
 ing in amount with the humor of the clerk of the weather 
 and the disposition of the cod to bite. So the people at 'Scon- 
 set were born; they grew, and married, and had children, 
 and generation after generation never knew the luxury of 
 government officers living among them. 
 
 As already stated, Captain Baxter, by general consent, 
 had come to be entrusted as common carrier with the 
 duty of bringing and taking the mails between 'Sconset 
 
60 i) THE EVOLUTION OP A POST OFFICE. 
 
 and The Town on his jaunts. At last it became a regular 
 thing and gradually the inner consciousness of the residents 
 were illuminated with the idea that he should be paid for his 
 services. He was accorded one whole cent for each letter or 
 paper carried in either direction. For an errand five cents 
 was paid as his reward and a larger sum for the transpor- 
 tation of packages, according to size. 
 
 When, in the course of time, the village became the 
 resort for summer visitors, there was a necessity for a 
 place to receive and deliver mail matter, and the Captain's 
 quaint old house became the depot. Strangers inquired 
 for the post-office, and they were given the direction with 
 a description of the house. But as the same description 
 would apply to nearly every house on The Bank, it was 
 often of no assistance, and perhaps two or three houses 
 would be visited before the incipient post office was 
 reached. To remedy this difficulty, the Captain, in clear 
 violation of the statute in such case made and provided, 
 had the words * 'Post Office" painted on a shingle and nailed 
 over his door. There was a thundering excitement in 
 Washington when it was reported that, at Siasconset, some- 
 body had dared thus to boldly defy the law ! Correspond- 
 ence was at once opened between the Post office depart- 
 ment and the Superintendent of the Mail Service, in the 
 Eastern Division, which was continued for several weeks. 
 Concisely stated the imperative inqury of the Post office 
 Department was "Why ,is' this thus?" The Superintendent 
 of Mail Service, Eastern Division, replied in substance 
 "I'm busted if I know." Communication was opened with 
 the United States District Attorney for the District of 
 Massachusetts, and three weeks were passed in writing 
 and receiving letters to and from that legal functionary. 
 Then the District Attorney began a correspondence with 
 the United States Marshal of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
RED TAPE. 61 
 
 A fortnight was passed in exchange of notes before it was 
 finally determined that a deputy marshal of the United 
 States should be dispatched to the island to learn and 
 report the facts. At last the marshal took his departure. 
 In him, the Government, for the time being, lived and 
 moved and had its being, from the moment he left Wood's 
 Hole on that eventful journey. He felt the importance of 
 his mission and was determined to perform it conscien- 
 tiously and without fear or favor. It was with these feel- 
 ings that the Government left the steamer on its arrival 
 at the wharf at Nantucket. As luck would have it the first 
 man he met was Captain Baxter himself, standing by the 
 Swiftsure, just ready to cut loose from her moorings to 
 make her trip to The Bank. The Government said it 
 wanted to go to Siasconset. In such a matter as that the 
 Captain replied that he was its oyster. This frank ex- 
 pression from a bluff old sailor established the Captain in 
 the confidence of the Government. Then the Government 
 told the Captain that it was the Government who was seek- 
 ing transportation. The Captain replied that he would as 
 soon carry the Government as a Sunday school super- 
 intendent unless it had the itch, in which case it would 
 have to go into quarantine at The Bank. The Government 
 was still more deeply impressed with the candor and 
 honesty of its newly formed acquaintance, and it made up 
 its mind that he was the man to tie to in seeking to accom- 
 plish his mission. So the Government got over the tail 
 board of the Swiftsure with its gripsack, took a seat, and 
 soon the craft was slowly moving through The Town. 
 
 The Government proceeded to make inquiries about the 
 matter in respect to which it had been deputed to the 
 island, to wit, the violation of a statute by one Baxter, 
 residing in Siasconset, by displaying upon a domicile sit- 
 uate within said village, a symbol or device whereon were 
 
G2 
 
 THE IfV OLUTION OP A POST OFFICE. 
 
 painted the words "Post Office," and by said symbol ot 
 device, the said domicile was held out to the unwary and 
 was calculated to deceive them into the belief that said 
 domicile was, and is a post office, established by and under 
 the authority, and recognized by the United States of 
 America, by the grace of God, free and independent, and 
 that thereby divers good citizens might be induced to de- 
 posit letters, newspapers, merchandise and other mailable 
 matter for transportation by and through the mails of the 
 United States of America aforesaid, which function the 
 said United States of America had, by statute in such cases 
 made and provided, reserved unto itself ! 
 
 It didn't take the Captain long to catch on to the situa- 
 tion and he declared the statement to be abase fabrication 
 He said he knew Baxter well ; in fact, man and boy, they 
 had been together on sea and shore for nearly three' quar 
 ters of a century; that he and Baxter were inseparable 
 and he knew what he was talking about; that if Baxter's 
 nose itched, he, in sympathy, involuntarily sneezed- 
 whereas, if he had a boil in an uncomfortable position on his 
 own person, Baxter never allowed himself to sit down, out 
 of respect to his condition ; and the idea that Baxter would 
 condescend to the infamy of committing a crime so heinous 
 asto put a shingle over his door, which, by implication, 
 would hold him out as an officer of the United States 
 Government was beyond belief! The earnestness with 
 which the Captain made the asseveration was sufficient to 
 satisfy the Government, and it stated as much. But the 
 Captain said that the honor and good name of his friend 
 Baxter were involved, and he insisted upon taking the 
 Government to the village to let it see for itself. He did 
 take it, but not to 'Sconset, for he sheered the Swiftsure 
 off to port, to the little hamlet of Polpis, and there showed 
 it every house and every shingle and not a suspicion of a 
 
THE GOVEENMENT FOOLED. 63 
 
 sign of a post office was to be seen. The Government left 
 the island satisfied that an outrage had been perpetrated 
 upon the character of a public spirited and law abiding 
 citizen, and he so reported to his superior. Correspon- 
 dence was renewed between the marshal and the District 
 Attorney, followed by an exchange of notes between the 
 District Attorney and the Post Office Department, all of 
 which will be found classified and indexed in the archives 
 at Washington. The matter was not heard of afterwards 
 and the sign of the post office continued to stand untouched 
 on the queer old house. And each day as he arrived with 
 the pouch he tooted his horn, and resident and visitor 
 alike were warned that soon the mail would be opened and 
 distributed; and rather than anybody should be disap- 
 pointed at not receiving a letter, the Captain would write 
 one himself and collect the transinsular postage. If the 
 letter didn't suit them, it was not his fault. He had done 
 his best. 
 
 The Ca^jtain felt that if he was not a postmaster de jure, 
 he was at least de facto, and as such, he had a keen appre- 
 ciation of the responsibility that rested upon him in his 
 unofficial employment. The inviolability and safety of the 
 mails were a source of constant care and anxiety and he 
 devised means to secure both. The pouch was a carpet 
 bag of colossal proportions and uncertain antiquity. By 
 means best known to himself, it had been made wind, 
 water and fire proof. In the transit it was secured by a 
 combination lock made of a piece of retired clothes line, 
 and the secret of opening it was only known to the post- 
 master in Town, to the Captain, and his wife, and they never 
 divulged the secret until about 1880, when the necessities 
 of the mail traffic compelled them to confide it to Tucker 
 from the Hub, who thenceforward became the volunteer aid 
 in receiving and delivering the mass of mail matter 
 
64 THE EVOLUTION OF A POST OFFICE. 
 
 coming through the office, and he also acted as cashier in 
 collecting local postage between The Bank and The Town 
 in which violation of the postal laws Mrs. Baxter was an 
 abettor and the Captain himself no better. But as every- 
 body was glad that somebody was bold enough to defy the 
 law that the public convenience might be served, neither 
 Tucker, nor Mrs. Baxter, nor the Captain were indicted 
 Tucker also took the contract for unraveling the intricacies 
 of the Captain's accounts as express messenger and common 
 carrier. They were kept in a complex method peculiar to 
 the Captain. It was a combination of single entry in his 
 head, double entry on a scrap of paper lying loose in his 
 pocket and quite as often no entry at all, and between the 
 three it was difficult to tell whether the Captain was rush- 
 ing into the vortex of bankruptcy or was amassing thou- 
 sands of dollars each season. But it was never seriously 
 stated that he was getting rich, and that bankrupi;cy was 
 not assured each year is probably due to the vigilance of 
 Tucker as a successful collector, in spite of the Captain's 
 carelessness, and his skill as an accountant and financial 
 expert. What Tucker did was done on the principles of 
 long, and broad, and deep good nature. His labors like 
 those of the quaker preacher were labors of love, which 
 after all, give one more pleasure than services that are 
 paid for. 
 
 The growth of the place in importance had already sug- 
 gested making it a post village, and some years ago The 
 Bank did have a premonitory symptom of what was tocome. 
 A post office was actually established and the Captain's 
 daughter was appointed postmaster. I say postmaster; 
 for there is no such office as postmistress. Her salary was 
 fixed at twelve dollars a year ! To the Captain was given 
 the contract for carrying the mails for which he was re- 
 warded by the United States of America in the munificent 
 
VISIT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL. 65 
 
 compensation of eight dollars for every year of service! 
 But it didn't last long. The postmaster found that she 
 was getting rich too fast. As for the Captain, he was 
 afraid that he would be tempted by the accumulated profits 
 of his contract, to rush into Wall Street and speculate in 
 stocks and perhaps get into the papers as a star route 
 swindler. He had read somewhere, an authoritative state- 
 ment in respect to the difficulty of traveling through the 
 eye of a needle with a camel, as illustrating the chances of 
 the rich man entering the kingdom of heaven. He didn't 
 mean to get left if he could help it. He wrote to the Post 
 Office Department that he would rather carry females than 
 mails for the same money, and if it was all the same to the 
 Government he preferred to throw up the contract. As 
 for the postmaster, she stopped short in her mad career of 
 money making in office, and about that time she was seized 
 with a severe fit of matrimony which caused her to give 
 up official honors and retire into private life. 
 
 Then things went on in the old way again until, one day, 
 the Postmaster General came to The Bank for rest and 
 pleasure. But he was followed by voluminous correspon- 
 dence, and in less than three days his pocket suggested 
 and his eye took in the situation. His moral sensibilities 
 were shocked to find that the stamped envelopes prepared 
 for official letters didn't hold good beyond the limit of the 
 post oince at Nantucket. Between The Town and 'Sconset, 
 Baxter was an independent post office department to which 
 visitors official and unofficial must pay tribute ; and the 
 Postmaster General found this to be a heavy draft upon 
 his private resources. Things looked serious. He had 
 only brought money enough to pay his board and washing 
 and to quench the thirst of the official stomach when its 
 owner should go a fishing. His private exchequer was being 
 so rapidly depleted for local postage that he found he must 
 
66 THE EVOLUTION OF A POST OFFICE. 
 
 establish a post office or leave the island broke So a 
 movement was at once set on foot to extend the postal 
 arrangements to The Bank. Captain Baxter was offered 
 the postmastership, but he declined. Indoor life and official 
 dignity, he said, were not suited to his complexion The 
 Postmaster General kept shady to avoid being run down 
 with applications for the appointment, but he sent out 
 skirmishers to find a suitable man for the office To 
 his bewilderment nobody wanted it. The ideal republic 
 was at last found, wherein the office sought the man and 
 not the man the office. But the man was not to be had 
 
 Then, one lady after another, was importuned to take the 
 position but neither prospective honors nor emoluments 
 were any inducement to assume the burden of official 
 responsibility. None on The Bank were born great nor 
 had they achieved greatness, and yet all were averse to 
 having greatness thrust u] on them. Argument and en 
 treaty were alike unavailing. Such a phenomenon had 
 never been heard of and much less seen within federal 
 jurisdiction. The Postmaster General started from The 
 Bank just as he had broken his last ten dollar bill and re- 
 turned to Washington. A special Cabinet meeting was 
 called, but neither President, nor minister would believe 
 the story. What? a post office and nobody willing to act 
 as postmaster? Great Scott! The statement was incredi- 
 ble ! To see is to believe ; and when letters came on to the 
 department announcing the unsuccessful efforts which had 
 been made to get a person to take the office they had to 
 own that what they had been told was true. 
 
 At last the batteries of argument and persuasion were 
 brought to bear upon Mrs. Almy, a refined and educated 
 lady residing on The Bank. She too, was resolute in her 
 refusal. But after a few hours of bombardment she 
 showed signs of weakening. The advantage was followed 
 

 >2- 
 
 < 
 
68 THE EVOIjtJTIO?f OI* A l*OST OI'FiCil. 
 
 up. Kelays of summer residents, one after another, visite i 
 and labored with her lilie saints bent upon the conversion 
 of an obdurate sinner at a high pressure revival. At last, 
 after a night past in solemn self communion, she concluded 
 to take the position, very much on the principle of the 
 girl who married the man to get rid of him. In a few days 
 she was clothed with official honors and thenceforward the 
 head of her name and its tail were identical, for in official 
 correspondence she signed herself P. M. Almy, P. M. 
 
 The Captain took the contract of carrying the mails upon 
 his making a promise that he would bear his honors meekly 
 and stand up and draw his salary each and every -month 
 without flinching. The sign board which, in defiance of 
 the law, had been for years over his door was taken down 
 and removed to another one, where the Government of 
 the United States is represented in the person of the post. 
 master. 
 
 As for Tucker of Boston, he had time to rest — the first 
 he had in three years. He subsided into the privacy of 
 his little house, receiving the thanks of the living in 'Scon- 
 set and with a memory to be cherished by generations 
 unborn for the sacrifices he made and the care he had 
 taken that the post office be not strangled before its birth. 
 
 So the Captain followed the road between The Bank and 
 The Town carrying the mails and receiving and landing 
 passengers at the wharf, relieved of all cares except that of 
 courier. He had become so well known that strangers 
 looked for his genial face when they^ame upon the island, 
 and from the moment a visitor was seated in the Swiftsure 
 he would wait to see where the lightning of his fun would 
 strike. His friends had come to be counted by hundreds 
 instead of scores as in bygone years. 
 
 And so the routine of his employment continued until the 
 year of grace, 1884, when the whistle of the locomotive on 
 
GAME TO THE LAST. 69 
 
 T\w. Bank announced that the little railway was completed 
 from The Town, and later in the day, visitors to the num- 
 ber of a thousand came up on the cars to attend the cele- 
 bration of the^event. Never had such a gathering been in 
 'Sconset before. Old people who had hoped they might 
 live to ride on the first train of cars had their wishes 
 gratified. In a day the Lightning Express, which for 
 twenty years had been run by the old veteran as a pajang 
 enterprise was snuffed out. The railway company cut 
 rates by half. The Captain dropped his to meet the com- 
 petition. Still the tired strangers preferred quick steam 
 to slow lightning. Then the Captain announced a further 
 reduction to half the rates charged by rail. It was of no 
 use. He chartered the town crier to announce on the 
 arrival of the boat that the Swiftsure would take passen- 
 gers for nothing and give them "a boiled dinner" at 
 Scudder's at the wharf before starting, or at the Ocean 
 View House at the end of the trip. But the passengers 
 preferred the cars. As a last resort he promised never to 
 tell a yarn to a passenger who should patronize him 
 Several took him at his word and started for The Bank, 
 But he found it impossible to change his habits, and before 
 they had arrived at Madequecham valley he had stuffed 
 them full. He didn't repeat the effort. It was apparent to 
 him that he had lost his grip on the passenger traffic to 
 and from The Bank. 
 
 "Did the old man die?" I almost hear the reader ask. 
 Not much. He has more lives than a cat. He owned up 
 that he was beaten and he surrendered in the best of humor. 
 But there was all the rest of the island open to the naviga- 
 tion of his craft, and in which railway competition need 
 not be feared in his day. From Siasconset to Sankaty 
 Head, Sesachacha, Quidnet, Squam, and Wauwinet, on the 
 north, over Saul's Hills to Polpis on the northwest, were 
 
70 THE EVOLUTION OF A POST OFPICE. 
 
 drives over moorlands covered with heath and redolent 
 with the perfume of wild flowers which find a genial home 
 on the soil. From the light house on Sankaty Head, the 
 vision can span forty miles to seaward and watch the fleets 
 of vessels passing and repassing along the coast. Between 
 the placid waters of Sesachacha pond and the ocean, a 
 narrow sand beach, scarce a hundred feet in width, inter- 
 venes, and over which, in heavy gales, the brine is often 
 dashed into the fresh water of the pond. The little 
 hamlets on the road to the northward were as large as 
 Siasconset was a hundred years ago, but many houses 
 were taken down, and removed to be put up again on The 
 Bank to swell the importance of the little fishermen's 
 village which, in time, was to become a popular seaside 
 resort, and the terminal point of a pocket railway. On the 
 higher points of the island, on the jaunt over the moors, 
 the eye can take in the inner harbor with little yachts and 
 row boats moving over its surface, and the attenuated 
 peninsula of Coatue, which divides it from the sea. To 
 the extreme north the vision follows the line of another 
 peninsula, Coskata, with Great Point Light at its head. 
 Away from the little hamlets, scarce a house is to be seen 
 in a drive extending over miles. Of trees there are none, 
 save now and then, a stunted growth is found making an 
 unequal struggle for existence. The absence of dwellings 
 causes no sense of loneliness, nor does the lack of trees 
 suggest a discomfort. The loveliness of the view enchants 
 the thoughts, and the cool ocean breezes wafted upon the 
 body, though one is clothed in woolens, ensures comfort 
 even under the sun at meridian. Homeward bound, late 
 in the afternoon of a July or August day, the temperatu3;e 
 is sometimes lowered until an overcoat or heavy wrap, if 
 taken, are found not to be uncomfortable. And when, at 
 last, the little cottage is reached after a day of delights. 
 
A CHANGE OV BASS. 71 
 
 heavy eyelids impel the visitor to his bed upon which he 
 is lulled to sleep by the murmur of the breakers. 
 
 To give visitors such experiences the old master mari- 
 ner withdrew his craft from the regular traffic in which 
 for nearly a quarter of a century it had been engaged. 
 
 Then, too, he finds himself in demand in The Town. 
 Visitors need him as a local guide, even more than they 
 required his services for cross island traffic. So when 
 occasion calls, he flings his pennant to the breeze on his 
 Junior craft, the "Little Swiftsure," and when transport- 
 ing passengers about The Town, he entertaineth them 
 with marvelous tales. The streets he knoweth as well as 
 the town crier or the directory man. He explaineth the 
 causes of the gloom and darkness on Candle street ; he 
 expatiateth on the absence of corn fields along the line of 
 Coon street and the consequent scarcity of coons thereon ; 
 he introduceth them into the life and gayety which 
 prevaileth on Coffin street ; he exhibiteth to them the old 
 habitations and landmarks which aboundeth on New 
 street ; he directeth attention to the many curious things 
 which have brought Back street to the front ; he telleth why 
 it is that Plumb Lane is no longer straight up and down, and 
 he regretteth that thirsty mortals can get nothing to 
 drink on Water street not even Adam's ale ; he pointeth to 
 the palatial residences of the grinding monopolists on 
 Mill street, and even showeth the mill wherein the 
 aforesaid monopolists grind their grists ; he pointeth out 
 depressions in Whale street and he solemnly asseverateth 
 that they were made by the flopping of the tail of a sperm 
 whale which, having lost his reckoning, under a stress of 
 weather, ran ashore in The Town and could not get to sea 
 again. Indeed, this veracious volume could not contain 
 half the wonderful stories with which he regaleth those 
 who take a cruise with him in the "Swiftsure," big or little. 
 
STRANDING OF THE SWIFTSURE, 
 
 But on her first voyage to new ports the Svviftsure 
 met with disaster. She left port at The Bank about 10 
 o'clocli in the morning with a full passenger list and crew, 
 bound for Wauwinet, and she reached her moorings with- 
 out mishap, though two or three times she touched a sand 
 spit, the shifting character of which between Sesachacha 
 and Quidnet malie the navigation awliward to an old sailor, 
 and even dangerous to those not familiar with the waters. 
 The weather was delightful, and the ride in every way en- 
 joyable. In the afternoon the Captain started on his 
 return trip. After a little detention the Swiftsure safely 
 passed the bar of the Wauwinet House and said "good 
 by" to the bar keeper. It was high tide and there was 
 every indication of a pleasant voyage. When abreast of 
 Squam, she encountered a strong head wind, but with the 
 coal bunkers, under the front seat, full, the Captain had no 
 doubt of reaching his anchorage at 'Sconset by nightfall. 
 During the dog watch he sighted the weather-cock at Eat 
 Fire Spring, three points off the starboard bow, when he 
 hauled to the westward and got a range on Sankaty Light, 
 to pass through the slew to the eastward of Saul's Hills. 
 The Captain had not sailed in these waters for nearly half 
 
DANGEKS OF INSULAK NAVIGATION. 73 
 
 a century, and in that time the channel had shifted con- 
 siderably and he found it difficult to steer clear of the 
 shoals which had made out at various points. He care- 
 fully scanned the chart and found his bearings were right, 
 and he had a lookout on the knightheads to catch the first 
 glimpse of shoal water. While pursuing this course he 
 was shut in by a heavy fog that came up from the south- 
 west. He lost his range and was compelled to steer by 
 compass. Frequent soundings were taken as an additional 
 precaution. The Captain had not calculated the influence 
 of the tides in affecting his course. It was then setting 
 strong to the eastward, and while he was cautiously steam- 
 ing about four knots an hour, the current, unkno\^n to 
 him, had drifted his vessel off her course and, without a 
 moments warning, she struck on Starbuck shoal. In an 
 instant, the linch-pin of the wheel on the starboard quar- 
 ter broke, and unable to get steerage way, the vessel 
 was pounding heavily against the sand. The boatswain 
 piped all hands on deck, and every man was at his station 
 ready for any emergency that might arise. There was 
 dismay among the passengers, and a panic would have 
 resulted but for the coolness of the veteran commander 
 which inspired them with confidence ; for on his assurance 
 that there was no immediate danger their fears were quiet- 
 ed. Soon the fog lifted, and then the Captain unlashedthe 
 starboard horse from the davits, put on a boat's crew 
 and pulled for Polpis harbor for assistance, leaving the vessel 
 in charge of his dog Jack, with the stewardess second in 
 command. During his absence the sea broke heavily upon 
 the vessel's port and she was gradually careening over to 
 starboard when the stewardess, with great presence of 
 mind, with a piece of rope yarn taken from her spanker 
 gear (I mean the vessel's, of course) tied a section of her 
 petticoat to the whip stock and raised it as a signal of 
 
74 STKANDING OF THE SWIFTSUEE. 
 
 distress. This was sighted by the underwriter's agent 
 who was on the "walk" of his pig pen with a telescope; 
 and he at once dispatched two island tugs up the road to 
 the scene of disaster. They met Captain Baxter and 
 took him on board and went to the rescue of the Swiftsure. 
 On arriving he found that the crew had broken open the 
 locker, taken out a bottle of rum, which the Captain 
 carried for medicinal purposes, and nothing else, 
 and were having high jinks, while the passengers were 
 wild with apprehension. But the return of the Captain 
 restored order, and discipline was at once enforced. Haw- 
 sers were carried out to the tugs and soon the vessel was 
 hauled off the shoal and was towed to her anchorage by 
 the Captain's stable which she reached about 9 o'clock at 
 night. 
 
 The coolness and intrepidity of the old mariner in this 
 trying emergency, which was one of the most exciting 
 episodes of his eventful career, are spoken of by the pas- 
 sengers in terms of the highest praise. A meeting was at 
 once called and a resolution adopted appointing a com- 
 mittee to purchase a new trumpet for presentation to him 
 whenever he should furnish the money to get it. 
 
 This is the only mishap that has occurred to the Swift- 
 sure in attempting to sail in new waters. Every shoal, 
 and rip, and slew, is now familiar to him, and with land- 
 marks, and buoys, and compass, and chronometer to aid 
 him, neither fogs, nor icebergs, nor tides, deter him from 
 making his course by night or day whenever the traffic 
 demands it. 
 
 And yet the channels are many and every one devious. 
 To the stranger they are bewildering. As already de- 
 scribed, between 'Sconset and The Town, the main high- 
 way is made up of deep ruts worn by the wheels of passing 
 wagons and another, intervening, by the feet of horses. In 
 
I 
 
 -2 
 
 in 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 >^ 
 
76 STRANDING OF THE SWIFTSURE. 
 
 number they are sufficient to admit of a dozen teams 
 passing abreast. The highway is perhaps a hundred feet 
 wide, its limits being marked by rows of diminutive pines 
 on the north and south, planted by a public spirited citizen 
 25 years ago, in the hope that they would restock the 
 island with timber, of which it had been denuded for over 
 a century, to furnish fuel and for ship building. Take 
 any line of ruts and in five minutes the traveller will 
 wish he had taken another. Once in it, it may be a half 
 mile before he will have an opportunity to get out, and 
 then, if he changes, he will be sorry. He may attemptj^to 
 cross into the first over the ridges of earth and heath. The 
 heavy jolts are followed by screams of the women and ejac- 
 ulations of the men, oftentimes more emphatic than polite. 
 All sigh for a change even to a western corduroy road, as 
 a luxury in comparison. Whoever has tried the experi- 
 ment never makes the second attempt. It 
 
 "Makes us rather bear those ills we have 
 Than fly to others we know not of." 
 Still that road has one merit. Start from Siasconset, 
 the traveller, without guidance, will be sure to arrive in 
 Town. Liver, and spleen, and stomach, may be rudely 
 jostled but he cannot go astray. If he has a momentary 
 doubt his horse has none. 
 
 But leaving the main thoroughfare, the stranger is trans- 
 lated into a region of almost perpetual doubt. For a 
 short distance the road may be fenced. But the time 
 comes, and that very shortly, when fences cease and he 
 finds himself pursuing a beaten way through an open 
 country. Still he is serene, although there is not a house 
 or human being in sight. But when he comes to the 
 forks of a road, or to a cross-road, he has slight misgivings. 
 Or, if the road takes him to a gate, the feeling is intensi- 
 fied. Doubts come on quick and fast. The gate suggests 
 
A SEA OF UNCERTAINTY. 77 
 
 that all this time he has been driving upon private property 
 and has been a trespasser without knowing it. Yet he 
 musters up courage to open the gate and pass through. 
 Very soon he sees in the distance another gate which, un- 
 less opened, will bar his further progress. Then he is 
 satisfied that he is within somebody's field and is a tres- 
 passer, and the horrible thought crosses his mind that 
 he has lost his way beside. In a moment the injured 
 owner may appear and forcibly eject him from the premises. 
 As he goes along he sees signs nailed on the fence boards 
 on which is painted "No shooting allowed in this pasture." 
 He finds comfort in the statement. If there is no shoot- 
 ing, he need have no fears of a visitation of a bullet or 
 bird shot in his person. But it occurs to him that such an 
 interpretation of the words may not be what is intended. 
 It may mean that sportsmen ar^ not allowed to shoot 
 birds on the land designated. This confirms him in the 
 idea that he is on private property and it may be that the 
 owner is secreted in some bush and watchmg him, under 
 the belief that he is on a poaching expedition. At any rate, 
 he, a stranger, is rendering himself liable for intruding 
 upon others lands But he passes the second gate in 
 the hope that he will get upon the public road undiscover- 
 ed. Thunder and lightning ! He runs on a third gate. He 
 pulls through that. Next he is confused by coming to the 
 fork of a road, and either tine bears equal evidence of being 
 a traveled way. Doubt is piled upon doubt. Perhaps the 
 owner of the horse, after starting him aright, gave the 
 direction to let the animal take his own way and that he 
 would be sure to reach the place he wished. But the stop 
 he has made, and the hesitation he has shown, seem to 
 have aroused doubts in the mind of the horse as well. 
 And when he finally concludes to rely upon the instinct of 
 the animal, the instinct seems to have resolved itself into 
 
78 STRANDING OF THE SWIFTSUKE. 
 
 a minus quantity. At any rate, the horse, perversely or 
 otherwise, makes no choice. In the exigency the stranger 
 chooses one or the other road and regards it as about an 
 equal chance whether he is right or wrong. The course 
 of the road is itself bewildering. Then comes a turn to 
 the left or right, but with the road on which he is, con- 
 tinued in direct line. What was uncertainty now becomes 
 almost distraction. A look forward shows an opening in 
 a fence which seems to invite him further. Just then he 
 sees another team beyond, and that fact satisfies him that 
 he is on the right road. He passes through the opening 
 only to meet the other team turning around and coming 
 back. Each party looks at the other inquiringly. A con- 
 sultation discloses the fact that they are a couple of 
 vehicular babes in the woods. Each wants to go to the 
 same place and each tells the other all he doesn't know 
 about the way. The stranger turns his wagon, comes out 
 of the opening followed by the other, pursues his course 
 back to the turn of the road he had discarded, to follow 
 the straight course and sheers off in the other direction. 
 Then he comes to a place where he has the choice of 
 crossing a little rickety bridge male of rough and decayed 
 planks or pulling through a stream of uncertain depth which 
 carries off the dark waters of a peat swamp. The ruts of 
 wagon wheels show that the stream is passed by vehicles. 
 ,The bridge is less assuring. The one may be suggestive 
 of discomfort arising from the depth of the water. The 
 other is manifestly extra-hazardous. The horse solves the 
 doubt by pulling forward through the stream with the 
 water reaching above the axles. The shrieks of the hidlos 
 at such a time do not have a tendency to establish equanim- 
 ity of mind and temper. These experiences may be 
 repeated on the route, but inevitably one reaches the point 
 he is after, simultaneously, or within a few minutes after or 
 
SAILING DIEECTIONS. 79 
 
 before the other team which had got adrift and had chosen 
 still another road. For it is an extraordinary fact that, all 
 a person has to do in traversing Nantucket island is to 
 keep his bearings right and he will be sure to land 
 where he wants. Nantucket town, Siasconset, and Wau- 
 winet are the points of a right angled triangle. Midway 
 on the hypotenuse, between The Town and Wauwinet, is 
 Polpis. Start from either point in the right direction and 
 keep one's bearing with reference to the dome of the 
 Unitarian Church or Sankaty Lighthouse, either of which 
 can be seen for miles, and any one of a half a dozen turns 
 from the road will carry him to his destination. 
 
 But for peace of mind it is better that the visitor confide 
 himself to an old navigator, of whom Captain Baxter is 
 chicfest and loveliest among ten thousand. 
 
^* L^kt' H°7 **-/ -fe*t/ HV 
 
AN ANCIENT DOCUMENT. 
 
 One day it was rumored that a discovery of great archeo- 
 logical importance had been made on The Bank which 
 probably had reference to, and would throw light upon 
 events connected with the early history of the island. As 
 the particulars became known, the village was excited and, 
 after a time, was convulsed from center to circumference. 
 The inhabitants were arrayed in hostile factions, the one- 
 side claiming that it was of inestimable value in interpret- 
 ing early traditions handed down from past generations, 
 while the other scouted the idea that it had any historic 
 significance, and boldly asserted that the suggestion of its 
 antiquity was the merest figment of the imagination, if it 
 was not founded in fraud and forgery. Even the visitors 
 were driven into the controversy and they discussed the 
 merits of the alleged discovery in heated words. The 
 absorbing question of whether the railroad cars would 
 relegate horses and box wagons into things of the past was 
 forgotten in the rankling disputes that were heard in 
 respect to the authenticity of the document — for such was 
 theftnd — ^the origin of which was veiled in mystery. 
 
8U AN ANCIENT DOCUMENT, 
 
 One day Captain Baxter was rummaging through the 
 garret of his house situated near the pump, in which the 
 majesty of the Government is represented by Mrs. Almy 
 the postmaster. He found an old chest, the existence of 
 which he had not previously known. He removed it to his 
 dwelling to examine its contents, Besides odds and ends of 
 fishing tackle, many scraps of paper containing written 
 words and figures in which pounds, shillings, and pence 
 appeared, some pieces of old leather, a few printed books, 
 the remains of an old fashioned lantern with a piece of 
 candle in its socket, and some other matters of no impor- 
 tance, there was an aged stained document made up of 
 several sheets of paper attached together, and the appear- 
 ance of which attracted the Captain's attention. It was 
 covered with what seemed to be written characters, which 
 he tried to decipher. Not succeeding with one pair of 
 spectacles he put on two. But with these optical auxil- 
 iaries he could only gather that it was a paper written 
 evidently with painstaking care, the letters of which were 
 of a form long since obsolete and interesting only to anti- 
 quarians and book worms whose earthly paradise is in the 
 midst of the cobwebs of forgotten literature. The Captain 
 could not make head or tail of the paper, though heads and 
 tails profusely ornamented the letters, as in the originals 
 of Magna Charta and other authentic ancient documents. 
 After two days of personal investigation he called in aid 
 another veteran mariner, and he with enthusiasm under- 
 took an examination. He boxed the compass in eyeing it ; 
 he got its avoirdupois on a pair of counter scales ; he took 
 an observation with quadrant and sextant and calculated 
 its latitude and longitude to the fraction of a hair ; and yet 
 he was bothered to find its position on the chart. Then 
 another old Captain was brought into consultation .who 
 tried to fix its position by dead reckoning and he didn't 
 
OLD MAEINEltS PUZZLED. 83 
 
 succeed any better. As old sailors could not seem to 
 wrestle with the problem they took a. landsman into their 
 counsel, in the hope that he might make headway in the 
 interpretation of the document. He took its dimensions ; 
 tested it by rule and compass, and by square and bevel. He 
 looked wise as if he had penetrated the boundaries of the 
 mystery and had got a grip on its true inwardness. But 
 as he said nothing, a satisfactory explanation at his hands 
 didn't seem very promising. Then another citizen tackled 
 it with plumb-bob and level and afterwards tested the pig- 
 ments with which it was written by chemicals specially 
 imported from The Town, and he was able to say with con- 
 fidence, that it was an ancient document. But it was not 
 until the resident oracle of The Bank brought it it under 
 his vision through his prehistoric, three story and base- 
 ment telescope, that they were able, here and there, to dig 
 out a sentence, when all were confirmed in the belief that 
 Captain Baxter had struck a hundred barrel literary whale. 
 Little by little, as each in turn, and then by pairs, and then 
 by threes looked closely and critical lyat the paper, the words 
 were disentangled from the old fashioned spelling and 
 antique letters, until they reached a point where the 
 writing wholly faded out, and the further effort to decipher 
 had to cease until experts could examine the paper and 
 apply agents by which they might be able to restore the 
 faded letters to the surface. But the document so far as 
 it was legible, when translated into plain Saxon English, 
 and in the current spelling of our generation, is as follows : 
 
 Chapteb I. 
 
 1. It was given unto Philetus the scribe to write these 
 things. 
 
 2. Wherefore hath he put them down in truth, and hath 
 written naught in anger. 
 
84 AN ANCIENT DOCUMENT. 
 
 3. It came to pass in those days that there came to the 
 tent of Thomas, who was likewise called Maigh Sea, a man 
 who was sought for by those who were in authority. 
 
 4. Forasmuch as the man believed not in the manner of 
 worship which the elders of the congregation had ordained ; 
 for they were Pharisees in their day and generation. 
 
 5. And because he believed not in their manner of wor- 
 ship, the elders counseled together and said that such as he 
 should be brought before the magistrates, there to be tried 
 for their unbelief. 
 
 6. And because Thomas, when a" great tempest came 
 over the land had given shelter unto the stranger whom 
 elders were seeking, that they might punish him for his 
 unbelief, he was brought before the magistrates, who ad- 
 judged that he forfeit unto them in authority a hundred 
 shekels of silver. 
 
 7. Whereat Thomas was sorely grieved. 
 
 8. For he was a Just man and walked in the paths of 
 righteousness, albeit the elders declared him, because he 
 had given shelter unto the stranger, to be a sinner and not 
 worthy to be in the congregation. 
 
 9. And straightway the stranger, was taken before the 
 magistrates. 
 
 10. And it was seen that his outer garment was shaped 
 like unto the belly of a fish, and that the hat which he wore 
 upon his head was in width near half an ell, from the 
 port to the starboard side thereof. 
 
 11. And furthermore that he spake not in words like the 
 Pharisees and those in authority, but in the words of the 
 common people. 
 
 12. Wherefore the magistrates saw that he was not of 
 the congregation. 
 
 13. And because he worshiped not in the manner of 
 the Pharisees he straightway was taken out and hanged. 
 
SEASICK PILGRIMS. 85 
 
 14. For the elders had said it was not meet that one who 
 worshiped not as did the Pharisees should live. 
 
 15. And Thomas took counsel with his brethren and 
 they said we will no longer tarry in a land where we can- 
 not do kindness unto the stranger who cometh unto our 
 gates and who may need food and raiment, and may like- 
 wise want shelter from the rain, and the snow, and the 
 storm, and the tempest and the blizzard. 
 
 16. But we will seek rather a home among the heathen 
 on an island in the sea and there pitch our tents away 
 from men who would seek to persecute us that we do good 
 to our fellow men. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 1. So Thomas, who was likewise called Maigh Sea, 
 together with a kinsman, Eduardus, who was likewise 
 called Stahr Bukke, betook themselves unto a little ship 
 that they might go unto the island in the sea where they 
 could find among the heathen the compassion they had 
 not found among the people with whom they dwelt. 
 
 2. And they were borne by the winds upon the billows 
 far from the land. 
 
 3. And great were their sufferings in their pilgrimage 
 upon the waters to seek the island in the sea whereon the 
 elders and the magistrates should not make them afraid. 
 
 4. For the waves did toss the ship in divers waj^s and 
 they were made sick unto death and they did cast up the 
 food they had eaten into the waters. 
 
 5. (Whereat, the fishes that were in the sea did greatly 
 marvel, for they tumbled not to the racket.) 
 
 6. So Thomas and his kinsman Eduardus did question 
 one with the other whether it were not better they had staid 
 upon the land, even though they suffered sorely at the 
 hands of the elders and the magistrates. 
 
8g AN ANCIENT DOCUMENT. 
 
 7. But they said we will go on until we reach the land 
 we seek, for should we not, we should be mocked by our 
 kinsfolk on our return. 
 
 8. And great was the result thereof to the generations 
 of men which were to come. 
 
 9. They reached the island in the sea; and they sought 
 and held counsel with the chief men among the heathen ; 
 who told them that they might abide thereon. 
 
 10 Whereat Thomas, and his kinsman Eduardus, were 
 greatly rejoiced, and they said unto one another, now will 
 we have the bulge on the heathen even as the elders and 
 magistrates did have the bulge on us in the land in 
 which we have dwelt. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 1. And when they returned unto their brethren and told 
 them of what they had done their hearts were made ex- 
 ceeding glad. 
 
 2. So they gathered their families and their household 
 goods together and went forth and pitched their tents upon 
 the island in the sea. 
 
 3. And they were just men and sought not to take what 
 was not their own ; so they did whack up their shekels 
 among themselves that they might buy the lands whereof 
 the heathen were possessed. 
 
 4. And they said unto the heathen, that we may dwell 
 among you without strife and bitterness, it is meet that 
 we buy from you the lands whereon you live. 
 
 5. And the heathen were simple and without guile and 
 they saw not the Ethiopian that was hidden in the fence. 
 
 6. For they understood not the thrift of him who, in 
 meek and lowly spirit, profiteth in every trade. 
 
 7. So they sold unto the strangers their land who paid 
 unto them therefor, one score and six shekels of gold. 
 
THRIFT IN DEAIi. 87 
 
 8. Albeit the sum was like unto the conscience of him 
 who hawketh a new book, and by wiles enticeth the patri- 
 arch, and his wives, and his concubines, and his sons, and 
 his daughters, and his man servants, and his maid ser- 
 vants, and the stranger within the gates to buy thereof. 
 
 9. For they were thrifty in their day and generation. 
 
 10. And whether in buying from the heathen their lands, 
 or in selling unto them cloth for their raiment, or corn 
 for their food, or rum with which to gladden their hearts, 
 or in swapping with them jack-knives 'or fishing hooks, 
 they did greatly enrich themselves and they did make 
 merry thereat. 
 
 11. But the heathen were simple in their minds and they 
 saw not wherein the laugh did come. 
 
 At this point the manuscript became illegible. 
 
 The authenticity of the paper formed a theme of dis- 
 cussion during the entire season. If it was a veritable 
 ancient document, it was believed that it would throw 
 light upon disputed points in the early history of Nan- 
 tucket. But there were croakers who denied its antiquity 
 and sought to depreciate its value. It was furtively 
 whispered that anybody who would pass off the Town 
 Poor House on unsuspecting strangers as the local home of 
 the Italian opera ; who would dedicate the mile stones on 
 the main road as marking the sepulchers of departed 
 aboriginal chieftians ; who would induce confiding visitors 
 to go to Phillips run and lave their feet in its dark waters 
 under the representation that it possessed extraordinary 
 virtues for curing corns and eradicating bunions ; who, 
 upon the spur of the moment, would send thirsty and un- 
 initiated visitors to the big hotel on Brant Point, under 
 the false representation that it was a lager beer brewery 
 and where only they could get the inspiring liquid fresh 
 tapped from the wood ; who would give an amateur natural- 
 
88 AN ANCIENT DOCUMENT. 
 
 ist a strip of broad leaf kelp with the solemn assurance 
 that it was the skin of a mammoth eel found only on Nan- 
 tucket shoals ; who would induce passengers who intrusted 
 themselves to his guidance to buy accident policies before 
 starting on their journey, because of the dangers which 
 would beset them in crossing the island ; and who gave 
 them free passes to the 'Sconset Museum and to the Light 
 House, for which he received their grateful thanks ; there 
 were those, I repeat, who said that a man who would do 
 any and all these things would not hesitate to foist a paper 
 of more than doubtful authenticity upon a patient and 
 long suffering public ; and as he had locked up the docu- 
 ment in his safe, and refused to show it to anyone but 
 his own friends, they claimed that their suspicions were 
 justified. 
 
 But the friends of the Captain, with an abiding faith in 
 his integrity, stood by him during the entire controversy. 
 They would not for a moment believe that a man of his 
 confiding, gentle nature would concoct or even abet a 
 fraud so gigantic that, compared with it, highway robbery 
 would sink to the level of trespass, and grand larceny 
 have no higher dignity in the calendar of wrongs than an un- 
 paid book account. Time, they said, would clear up all 
 doubts, and the document itself would be left by the old 
 mariner in trust to the Atheneum Library and would be 
 eageii^^ sought by writers in search of historic truth and 
 by scientists for its value as an archeological treasure. 
 
 At the close of the season the acerbity of feeling result- 
 ing from the discovery had' largely diminished, and the 
 winter's winds chilled the passions it had aroused. Now, 
 only the memory of the dissensions exists, and the Cap- 
 tain occasionally produces the paper for the inspection of 
 his friends, and with a wicked wink of his weather eye, 
 wonders how anybody could have doubted its genuineness. 
 
THE PUMP CELEBRATION. 
 
 The air of Nantucket induces laziness. The active busi- 
 ness man finds liis weight increased to two tons within a 
 weeli after he has reached The Bank at 'Sconset, and that 
 nothing less powerful than a derrick can lift him off. Rest 
 is the objective point of almost all who visit the island for 
 the summer, and it becomes the ordinary condition of 
 every one on his arrival, It can be had in any form ; at 
 wholesale or retail ; by weight or measure ; in solid chunks 
 or in molecules ; fresh caught or in hermetically sealed 
 packages; liquid to be taken without being shaken or 
 solid without being dissolved. Tlie human organism, men- 
 tal or physical, can rest in seven living and sleep in five 
 dead languages. I have known men whose brains and 
 muscles could not resist doing active duty 16 hours out 
 of 24 at home, who, within a week after their arrival at 
 Siasconset, could loaf at the mark and hit it 17 times out 
 of a possible 20. They need not have missed the other 
 three if they had not been too sleepy to take aim. The 
 visitor rises lazy in the morning, rests during the day, and 
 
90 THE PUMP CELEBRATION. 
 
 lazily retires to his bed to sleep, with mind too lazy to 
 dream. 
 
 Such being the ordinary personal experience on The 
 Bank, the demand for amusements is reduced to a mini- 
 mum. In the special sense in which the word is used, 
 there is scarce any. Of course, there is social intercourse 
 and that of the most pleasant character. Peripatetic quar- 
 tettes, musical artists, and readers, who combine profit 
 with pleasure in visiting watering places, find the apathy 
 of the people distressing. There is indifference even to 
 artists of rare merit. It is not that, elsewhere, they do not 
 take interest in such matters, for they are intellectual, 
 refined and cultivated in their tastes. But it is not for 
 such things they come to the seaside. 
 
 Still, if an entertainment, local in its origin and purpose 
 is proposed, even if it is an almost impromptu affair, it is 
 sure to be well attended and financially successful. The 
 chapel debt was nearly all paid by the proceeds of concerts 
 organized among visitors. On such occasions the ladies 
 take hold in earnest. They skirmish among visitors for i 
 performers. They send out drummers to sell tickets and 
 advertise the event according to the usage of the The 
 Bank, that is, by tacking a notice on the village pump. 
 That antiquated log, not only supplies water but also the 
 place of local newspaper for announcing facts which parties 
 generally want known. If anybody has lost anything, or 
 •has found anything; if there is to be preaching in the 
 chapel, or base ball in the field; a "reading" in the parlor 
 of the hotel for entertainment of visitors, or a hop in the 
 dining room for the young people to join in and the old 
 people to look on at, a written announcement of the fact is 
 put on the pump and thus the general alarm is sounded. 
 Those who are interested in the event repair to the ren- 
 dezvous. Timid bachelors and available widowers have 
 
'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 
 
 91 
 
 time to betake themselves to places of refuge. 
 
 Sometimes the most ordinary events are made the excuse 
 for a pretentious celebration in which the forms of a great 
 occasion are gone through. The old pump on the main 
 street had been for years out of repair. A visitor, at his 
 own suggestion, undertook the duty of putting it in order. 
 Of course, it was Tucker from the Hub. The act was so start- 
 ling that his friends thought it deserving of special recog- 
 nition. A lady on The Bank quietly arranged a celebra- 
 tion of the event. On the day fixed, the pump was deco- 
 rated with wreaths and festoons of flowers. A platform 
 was erected and seats arranged upon it. Those not in the 
 secret were inquiring what in thunder it all meant. At 
 noon it was announced that a celebration of the repair of 
 the old pump would be held at 3 o'clock. The whole vil- 
 lage turned out. An eminent soldier who had been select- , 
 ed to preside, opened the proceedings with a most felici- 
 tous speech. A lady, now the minister of a church in 
 New Haven, read an original poem. A visiting journalist 
 Avas the orator of the day. Tucker himself was forced to 
 appear, and blushingly he made a speech. A literary gen- 
 tleman in Town also furnished a poem. An eminent 
 lawyer from a western state delivered the closing address, 
 and the exercises were concluded by the singing of some 
 high pressure, broad gauge verses constructed by a dis- 
 tinguished locomotive builder from western Ncav York, 
 in which the entire assemblage joined ; and the local 
 papers published the proceedings verbatim, for the delec- 
 tation of their readers. The "oration" was as follows : 
 
 Mr. Burgomaster and fellow toilers on 'Sconset Bank : 
 The history of every place shows that its affairs are now 
 and then beset with a crisis, sometimes alarming in its 
 portents. The bigger the place the bigger the crisis. In 
 Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Kome, in ancient times, there 
 
92 THE PUMP CELEBEATION. 
 
 were periods when things were lively. The most sinis- 
 ter prognostics were made by the "outs" unless they were 
 allowed to swap places with the "ins" ; and dire results 
 were promised, if the "outs" were permitted to get their 
 noses in the public crib. In modern times Paris, Berlin, 
 St. Petersburgh, Vienna, Kome, Madrid, and even London 
 have their periodical throes. And as for New York, it is 
 a perennial fountainof critical excitements. A year passed 
 without an alarming crisis would cause its thoughtful 
 citizens to suspect that the crack of doom was near. They 
 would get their ascension robes from the washerwoman, 
 put on the heavenly rigs and give an attentive ear to catch 
 the first reverberation of the sound of Gabriel's trumpet. 
 But Siasconset, has been singularly free from this feverish 
 spirit. It is but once in a generation or so that a great 
 crisis occurs in its aiTairs. Sometimes, however, the ma- 
 chinery of the universe does get out of kilter in a way 
 to directly affect this particular piece of real estate within 
 the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 Or, perhaps it is because the guardian angels of The Bank 
 get into a miff among themselves, and thus are led to 
 neglect their charge. Then the minds of the people from 
 Captain John Pitman's back fence to Asa Jones' Pochick 
 barn, and from the fish houses to George C. Macy's castle, 
 for a time become unsettled. And so it happened in this 
 year of grace. 
 
 Ages ago, in the tertiary period of Nantucket history, 
 this venerable log was put into this identical hole, in this 
 very ground on which we now do stand. The event was 
 attended with imposing ceremonies. It was a great day 
 for 'Sconset. Weeks before, the event was heralded by 
 the town crier from the wharf to the wind mill, and his 
 words were wafted across the Sound to the Vineyard and 
 thence to the Qape and the main land ; and a northeast gale 
 
THE GATHERING OF THE MULTITUDES. 93 
 
 that was blowing at the time carried them over to Long 
 Island. Wlien the day came, on which the pump was put in 
 tlie place, it was equal in the magnitude of the occasion to 
 a Brooklyn Sunday school picnic, a Khode Island clam 
 bake, a Nantucket "squantum," a Concord School of Phil- 
 osophy, anEcclesiastical council, a New York political mass 
 meeting, and an Irish wake all combined and boiled down in- 
 to one. From Great Point and Wauwinet to Muskeget ; from 
 Madaquecham to Masquetuck ; from Madeket ditch and 
 Wannecommett on the west, to Squam, and Quidnet, and 
 Sesacacha, and Pohick on the east ; and from Monomoy, 
 and Shimmo, and Pokomo, and Shawkemo on the harbor, 
 and from The Town, the beauty and the fashion, the wealth 
 and the intelligence of the Island assembled to do honor 
 to the occasion. The enthusiasm even reached the off- 
 islanders. From the Vineyard came the solid citizens of 
 Squibnocket with their equally solid wives. The magis- 
 trates of Chappaquanset were here in a body bearing their 
 staves of office, and followed by a retinue of the most dis- 
 tinguished citizens of that paradisaical precinct. The men 
 of Chappaquidick came prepared to resolutely wrestle with 
 any amount of provender that the affluent citizens of Sias- 
 consct should have the hardihood to provide ; and odds 
 were freely offered that, in a given time, they would eat 
 against quantity and with a given quantity they would eat 
 against time, with no takers. From Long Island there 
 came representative men from Syosett ; and from Amagan- 
 sett ; and from Seatauket ; and from Quogue ; and from Patch- 
 ogue ; and from Aquebaug ; and from Shinicock ; and from 
 Mattinicock ; and from Ketchebonneck ; and from Speonk. 
 Then there were present from the Cape and the main land, 
 in squads, companies and battalions, the public spirited 
 citizens of Cataumet ; of Quashnet ; of Monomet ; of Wen- 
 aumet ; of Scussett ; of Pocassett ; of Cohassett ; of Mono- 
 
94 THE PUMP CEliEBKATION. 
 
 missett ; of Neponsett ; of Acushnott ; of Onset ; of Wy- 
 bossett ; of Mattapoisett ; of Poponesett ; of Narragansett ; 
 of Coonemosett ; of Woonsockett ; of Pawtuckct ; of Mono ; 
 hansett ; and of Quamquisset ; not to mention large delega- 
 tions from Monomoscoy and Sippican. 
 
 It was a glorious day for this Bank and don't you forget 
 it. Guns were fired from daybreak till nightfall. Every 
 dory was decked with gay bunting from deck to main peak, 
 and from bowsprit to spanker boom. Processions led by 
 brass bands paraded the streets. And as for hospitality 
 ten try-kettles with a retinue of cooks were in use all day 
 constructing chowder. And doughnuts were fired at the 
 gathered multitudes and caught on the fly in their mouths, 
 while cider flowed from the spiggots of a hundred barrels 
 until the gullet of the thirstiest "coof" was filled to reple" 
 tion, and he devoutly thanked his stars that for once he 
 had had enough. 
 
 And the pump. Well, it was a beauty as pumps go. It 
 was critically surveyed by the admiring throng from all 
 the points of the compass, and from the cornerstone at the 
 lowest depths of the encircling wall to the graceful capital 
 which surmounted the log at its dizzy hight, all pronounced 
 it good. 
 
 Thus was the career of this water bolster auspiciously 
 begun. Year after year, decade after decade, generation 
 after generation, first as little boys and girls, then as 
 blushing youths and maidens, next as strong and vigorous 
 men and women, and lastly as feeble folk in declining years, 
 did the people here work that pump handle up anddoAvnas 
 lively as the average candidate shakes the hands of voters 
 before election, and elevate to the surface for man and 
 beast that limpid draught which, like Doctor Johnson's tea 
 cheers but not inebriates. But men, and women, and peo- 
 ple, and nations, and even planets, and perhaps suns 
 
DECAY OF THE PUMP. 95 
 
 and stars have their careers of birth, of growth, of fulness, 
 of decline and of death. And it could not be expected, in 
 the natural order of events, that a 'Sconset pump, albeit- 
 brought into existence under such brilliant surroundings 
 and honored by being placed on the main street of 
 the comfort capital of the coast, could last for ever, 
 nor carry its buoyant powers of juvenescence into 
 green old age. There came a time when its useful, 
 ness became impaired, First, there was a degeneration in 
 its valvular tissues which betokened not only functional 
 but possible organic disorder in a vital part. Next a lesion 
 of the log was strongly suspected, which resident hydro- 
 staticians located about midshij^s, somewhere between 
 the main hatch and the keelson. The result was that it 
 required a concentration of mental determination, and 
 then employment of largely increased elbow grease to lift 
 to the surface the water needed for daily consumption in 
 the pots and kettles of 'Sconset housewives. Then the 
 nozzle became loose in its socket, andhalfthe water raised 
 for the pail miscarried and trickled down outside the pump 
 log back into the well again. This was discouraging 
 enough of itself. But at last matters grew so bad that it 
 needed a strength equal to that of a donkey engine and a 
 blue dog shark, combined, to hoist sufficient water to 
 dilute the morning nip of New England rum with which 
 the prudent 'Sconset citizen was wont, in those days, to 
 fortify himself against rheumatism ; and colic ; and chil- 
 blains ; and dropsy ; and gripes ; and peritonitis ; and 
 cerebro-spinal meningitis ; and phthisis pulmonalis ; and 
 aurora borealis; and sui generis; and oscarus wildus 
 aestheticitis, and the Lord only knows the many more 
 dreadful ailments which even now delight to worry us poor 
 mortals in our mournful travel through this vale of tears. 
 Then there came the decline in the whale fishery. As 
 
96 THE PUMP CELEBRATION. 
 
 all the misfortunes of Nantucket seemed to date from that 
 event, and as it is certain that one after another the oil 
 pumps went into disuse and ruin, it is not to be supposed 
 that this already wind-broken water pump would not sym- 
 pathize with the general demoralization and decaj^ and 
 catching the infection of despair, feel that if Nantucket 
 could not live by catching whales and trying out blubber 
 there was no use for either pumps or water, and that it was 
 time for it to go upon the retired list of superannuated 
 water works. And so it happened that, one melancholy 
 morning AvhenCaptain Kobert Pitman came to the pump to 
 fill a pail with water, he found that the handle had suffered 
 a compound comminuted fracture and seemed permanently 
 disabled. 
 
 Well, long years passed in which the old pump stood in 
 the roadway, a rejected ruin, ever suggestive of the possi- 
 bilities of aiTording life giving waters to the thirsty way- 
 farer, but nevertheless, a mockery, a delusion and a snare 
 to him who sought them from it ; for he who worked the 
 handle found the pump as dry as a sermon on election and 
 probation, exhumed from the musty polemics of fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 It may seem strange that I, an off-islander, should be so 
 familiar with these facts, not being contemporaneous with 
 them nor having had time to search the archives of 'Scon- 
 set which Captain George W. Cofiin has so carefully col- 
 lated and classified in his library over at the grocery. As 
 the next best thing I cut cross lots to that fountain of 
 historic lore. Captain William Baxter, and from that high 
 authority learned the facts which I have embodied in this 
 erudite and truthful narrative, all of which he saw and part 
 of which he was. 
 
 And now, to recur to the theme with which I began my 
 remarks on this momentous occasion, to wit, the crisis. 
 
A SCARCITY OF FLUIDS. 97 
 
 For this was the year in which 'Sconset was to pass 
 through a crisis unequaled in its history. Let me briefly 
 recount the particulars. We have had a season of unpre- 
 cedented drought. With an unusual accession of visi- 
 tors, the drafts upon the water supply were largely in- 
 creased. One by one our cisterns gave out, and at last, 
 we were compelled to fall back on the only remaining pump 
 which had been dedicated to public use. The situation 
 was startling. If the supply should there give out, the 
 farmers could not water their cows before milking nor 
 water the milk afterwards, that they might not cause dis- 
 appointment among their customers, largely increased in 
 numbers during the hight of the season. Thus a milk 
 famine was imminent. Then water became scarce for 
 laundry use and a clean linen famine seemed equally pro- 
 bable. A general distress was more likely to result from 
 the fact that, at town meeting, the voters, by large majority, 
 had decided to grant no licenses for this year on the island. 
 As many were cut off from their usual distilled and fer- 
 mented beverages, it caused a still greater draft on the 
 pump for drinking purposes. Under these circumstances 
 brave men took counsel of their fears. If there ever was 
 a time when another pump was wanted it was during 
 this year. For years I had said to myself "Why don't 
 they fix that pump?" Thousands of residents and visitors 
 every season had mentally propounded the same conun 
 drum and nobody had guessed it. There it stood a per- 
 petual sarcasm leveled at us for our inactivity and indiffer- 
 ence. It only wanted a man with a homeopathic dose of 
 pluck to solve the difficulty quicker than an itinerant 
 preacher who has gone into the pulpit without his break 
 fast, can pronounce a benediction at the end of morning 
 service. But Avhen I get on this Island I could teach any- 
 body how not to do it, in six easy lessons, if I were not so 
 
98 THE tUMP CELEBRATION. 
 
 lazy. In vindicating our race Sydney Smith said tliat 
 mankind were naturally sympathetic and moved by impul- 
 ses of benevolence and kindness ; that, if A saw B suffering 
 he was never easy in his mind until C had helped him out 
 of his trouble. Here, I am animated by a similar feeling. If 
 there is anything to be done, it is with serene satisfaction 
 that I see somebody else do it. For years I saw the de- 
 plorable condition of this pump. But I waited for A to 
 act. A held on for B. B was anxiously looking for C to 
 move in the matter. C seemed to have an abiding faith 
 that D would come forward like a little man and fix it. D 
 didn't want to stand in the way of E gaining renown. And 
 so it went on in the alphabet down, down, until it came to 
 T, when lo ! the modest man of action came forward and 
 his maiden name was Tucker. He put his hands deep 
 down into his trousers pocket, hired the necessary help, 
 had the log lifted to the surface, the internal mechanism 
 doctored, and ' the whole thing replaced ; and before we 
 sleepy souls were done rubbing our eyes in amazement 
 at the temerity of the act, the pump, rejuvenated and more 
 beautiful than ever, was doing effective service. Where- 
 upon, we all threw up our caps in adulation, and in the classic 
 language of the boy of the period we shouted "Bully for 
 Tucker !" 
 
 Mark the result. The clerk of the weather, because he 
 managed the rainfall, thought he had a corner on fresh water, 
 and was preparing to squeeze the people on The Bank, 
 when Tucker, by a strategical movement foiled him in his 
 machinations, he concluded that it was of no use to 
 hold back the rain any longer, and in 48 hours we 
 were favored with copious showers. And with two wells 
 in good condition, and cisterns replenished, we didn't care 
 whether school kept or not. 
 
 And now for the moral to which this occasion points. It 
 
THE MORA.IJ. 99 
 
 is a melancholy reflection, but true, though we did not see 
 it in time, that each person whom I see in this vast sea of 
 upturned faces (I always did like that expression) might have 
 occupied the honorable position that Tucker, from the Hub, 
 does to-day, had he the sagacity, and pluck, and good 
 sense, to have come forward in the emergency, and accom- 
 plis'ied that which he so gracefully did; and he might 
 have been the recipient of an ovation such as this, and 
 heard his praises sounded in poetry and song, to say 
 nothing about this extemporaneous oration that I sat up all 
 last night to prepare, and which, by the inexorable logic 
 of events, you couldn't escape hearing. But other crises 
 will occur on The Bank as they have in the past, though 
 not probably attended with such wide spread alarm. The 
 general good will require that somebody, at sometime, do 
 something ; and when that time does come, any one who 
 desires to gain renown, can get it by boldly coming for- 
 ward and acting in the emergency and not wait for Tucker, 
 from the Hub, to take all the tricks and honors. 
 
1= 
 
 ^ 
 
 (D 
 
 o 
 
THE WORKING VISITOR. 
 
 To the general rule of acute laziness that attacks 
 everybody on reaching Siasconset, and that in time be- 
 comes chronic, there is one notable exception. He is an 
 eminent professor in a more eminent university. He is a 
 profound investigator in the regions of physiology, com- 
 parative anatomy and zoology, and an author, as well. He 
 would like to be lazy but he cannot. During the college 
 year his duties as a teacher engross nearly all his attention, 
 and he has not the requisite time to read or write. In the 
 meantime new developements in science, double up on him, 
 and new ideas are being evolved from his own mind. 
 Hence he is compelled to devote his three months vacation 
 passed on The Bank to catching up with current scientific 
 literature and discharging his cargo of new thoughts on 
 paper. He doesn't like it a bit, but it is inevitable. His 
 mornings are devoted to work. At such times it is dan 
 gerous to approach him. When he has got a grip on an 
 idea he holds on to it like a pup to a chicken bone. In 
 such supreme moments to interrupt the sequence of 
 thought, might cause it to miscarry, and the idea be 
 strangled before his birth. But in the afternoon, he re- 
 
102 THE WORKING VISITOR. 
 
 venges himself for the enforced seclusion by battering the 
 balls on the croquet ground, to the dismay of the wickets 
 and the terror of the players. Before night he feels that 
 he has got even with the fate that compels him to work, 
 and he is ready for another go the next morning. Thus, 
 study and croquet intermit until the end of the season when 
 he is ready to bombard his class with projectiles filled with 
 diastema, cusp, peronaBus longus, hippocampus minor, 
 auditory foramen, metatarsus and distal phalanges, and 
 other technical explosives to shatter the intellects and 
 carry devastation into the serried ranks of students. 
 
 For years his special subject of investigation was the 
 cat. Pussy became to him his scientific soul's delight. 
 With instruments of precision, he surveyed her superficial 
 area from the initial point of her sensitive smeller to the 
 terminal hair of her elastic tail, and from the highest alti- 
 tude of her spinal column in its extreme curvature, to her 
 ultimate claws which never fail to inspire respect for the 
 feline understanding. He explored her interior structure. 
 Her ossous framework he knows from the|coronal suture to 
 the last ring in her caudal verterbree. He dissected her 
 muscular tissue until he learned all that a reasonable 
 being in the present state of natural science can hope, and 
 a great deal more than any layman would care to know 
 about it. He descended into her thoracic cavity and ac- 
 curately computed her lung power in comparison with that 
 of the average boy while receiving the punative application of 
 the maternal slipper upon a sensitive portion of his person 
 which, out of respect to the feelings of modest readers, I 
 will not more particularly describe. He studied the in- 
 tricate details of her abdominal and pelvic viscoras andean 
 tell from what particular section of intestinal tissue, when 
 changed into a fiddle string, the sweetest melodies and . 
 most ravishing liarmiMiies can be extracted, to contrast 
 
THE CAT IN PHYSIOLOGY. 103 
 
 favorably with her vocal gymnastics at nocturnal recep- 
 tions given to friends of the thomas persuasion, and 
 making night hideous from back fences, whence, a million 
 of boot jacks, hurled in darkness have never, within the 
 memory of man, dislodged a single, nor a married cat. He 
 penetrated her cranial cavity and mapped out the cerebral 
 convolutions with an accuracy which has exalted feline 
 phrenology to the rank of a fixed science. Cats' brains he 
 dissected vertically, laterally, and diagonally, and preserved 
 them in glass jars filled with 90 per cent alcohol and her- 
 metically sealed, so that the savants of future ages will be 
 able thereby to learn from what the perfected cat of those 
 days was evolved, and the chain will be complete, 
 from protoplasm at the beginning of life to the grand cat- 
 aclysm when the earth shall, in the natural course of 
 planetary existence, burst into ultimate smithereens ! Ex- 
 actly when this little side-show will come off, has not been 
 announced ; but it is safe to say it will be at a time when 
 Tuckernuck clams shall, for ages, have passed into fossil 
 existence ; when the "Sheep Question" on Nantucket shall 
 not live even as a tradition in the mind of that oracular 
 ancient, the oldest inhabitant ; when the last 160 barrel 
 whale shall have been caught in the Captain's Eoom and even 
 the lucky fisherman himself shall have been gathered unto 
 his fathers ; when the nightmares of politics shall have 
 ceased to disturb the sleep of the quiet citizen 
 and the names of presidential candidates shall have be- 
 come but pins' points in the world's history ; and their 
 careers, which, at the time of their candidacy were matters 
 of lively interest shall have sunk into oblivion. Yes, and 
 when the things shall come to pass, whereof this chapter 
 is written, the readers of this veracious book and even its 
 author will have passed in their checks and doubtless 
 climbed the golden stairs. Be that as it may, for years, 
 
jQ^ THE WOKKING VISITOB. 
 
 ■Sconsetcathood has smelled danger in the air of Tlie 
 Bank since the Professor's arrival; and in going to or 
 coming from the suburb of Pohiclc, the feline helm is put 
 to port or starboard, as the ease may be, lest the craft run 
 on the shoals of his dissecting table and become unwdling 
 contributors to the advancement of anatomical science. 
 
 But eveiy cat did not suffer at his hands, oven though 
 convenient. Tor several years he brought with him one 
 born with but three legs. It was appropriately called 
 .-Trinod "to which name itanswered. Its movements were 
 eccentric owing to its congenital defect and its first appear- 
 ance was startling to visitors. Then hebroughtw.thhima 
 young racoon as a pet. The next year a youthful fox was 
 added to the list. Held by strong cords they accompanied 
 the Professor, now and then, in his walks through the vil- 
 lage But near to his residence was Pelog Macys 
 bfru and in and about it his stock of poultry. The 
 fox often looked longingly thither, but his owner did 
 not suspect his real thoughts. One day young reynard 
 broke loose from his moorings and carried death and de- 
 vastation into thehennery, and the Macy household parsed 
 rwinterwithouteggs,andonlyobtainedsmellsof fricassees 
 
 lien the odors were wafted from Captain Zacheus Swain s 
 kUchenby north-east .ephyrs. Whether that fo. will 
 pass another summer on The Bank is doubtful. 
 
GALL AND BITTERNESS. 
 
 For fishing I care nothing. The gifts of Providence are 
 dispensed differently. To some is given the genius for 
 catching fish ; to others the talent for eating them. I am 
 an active member of the last named fraternity. I never 
 fish nor cut bait. To this fact I attribute the possession 
 of a reasonably fair reputation for veracity in circles where 
 I am not well known. I shall never hazard it anywhere 
 by going a fishing. For there is an intimate, though oc- 
 cult connection between fishing and lying about the result. 
 Learned writers on ethics have not given the subject the 
 consideration it deserves. Every liar is not a fisherman ; 
 the few fishermen who are not liars prove the general 
 rule of piscatorial mendacity. I had always believed that, 
 independent of an abstract love of lying, there was a 
 pleasure experienced by men who went fishing, though I 
 had never known it myself. Extended visits to 'Sconset 
 bank have dispelled the illusion. I am reluctantly com- 
 pelled to believe that the only inducement for men to go 
 fishing is for the pleasure of lying about it afterwards. 
 
 This broad generalization does not apply to men who 
 
106 GAIilj AND BITTEENE>SS. 
 
 gain their subsistence as toilers on tlie waters. With them 
 it is business. Sentiment does not enter into the motives 
 which lead them to follow the pursuit. It is pelf, not 
 pleasure they seek. If the portents on a given day are 
 against success, they do not venture further. Such a 
 man who should lie about the size or weight of his catch 
 would be a moral monstrosity. 
 
 But the average fisherman says he loves the sport. He 
 will travel off ten miles to whip a trout stream ; he will troll 
 a lake under a broiling sun for pickerel or lake trout, know- 
 ing that his face will be brought to such a condition of 
 disfigurement that, for a week, his most intimate friends 
 will be in painful suspense while determining whether he is 
 recovering from the small-pox or has been applying a 
 blanket blister plaster to his face, for a toothache involving 
 the entire effective force of incisors, canines and molars; he 
 will sit along side a stream on a projecting bank and hold a 
 rod and line with one hand and fight mosquitoes or black 
 flies with the other until nightfall ; he will sit on a dock, or 
 wharf for hours with a drop line in hand, and, at brief in- 
 tervals, mournfully haul in and spit on his bait and 
 throw it out again ; he will anchor his small boat in waters 
 which striped bass or sheepshead are supposed to favor 
 with their presence and, in solemn silence, await the com- 
 ing of a lonesome and unsuspecting fish, which he fancies 
 will be tempted by the bait he has thrown to allure his 
 hankering maw ; he will do all these things, even in a 
 drenching rain or a pinching cold ; and in each case he may 
 come home without a scale of his own raising. Yet, he 
 will speak in rapturous praises of the delights felt in silent 
 communion with nature ; the poetic emotions inspired by 
 gazing upon the lovely landscape or listening to the mur- 
 muring cadences of the rippling waters; the healthful 
 effects on the mind and body resulting from rest for his 
 
o • 
 
 
 IT 
 
 
108 GAIiL AND BITTERNESS. 
 
 brain and breathing of the pure air free from the noisome 
 exhalations of urban surroundings ; to say nothing of the 
 wild ecstacy he feels when the finny victim strikes the hook 
 and the excitement he experiences in the struggle that en- 
 sues, when drawing him from his native element ; and all 
 that sort of stuff which the generality of fishermen will 
 dose you with in a score of ways. 
 
 But it is all a graceless pretense. Kest, quiet, and sen- 
 timent are no compensation for the loneliness, the annoy- 
 ance, and the fatigues inseparable from going a fishing. 
 Otherwise a whisky flask would not be the^inevitable com- 
 panion of every man who starts forth with fell purpose to 
 capture the dwellers in the waters. He who really enjoys 
 an experience, per se, does not need to reinforce the 
 pleasure by copious libations from a bottle. It is only 
 when a man wants to revive his drooping spirits that the 
 aid of whisky is invoked. 
 
 The more I have investigated the matter, the more I 
 have been impelled to the conclusion that the motive 
 which induces a man to go a fishing is to offer him the op- 
 portunity for preposterous lying. If he catches no fish at 
 all, he buys them in the open market and then exhibits the 
 stock as the result of his skill. Or, if he brings in a pitiful 
 string of light weights, he smuggles it in the house and then 
 goes outside ; and in recounting his day's experience, he 
 triples the number and quadruples the weight of the catch . 
 This is bad enough ; but in nine cases out of ten he drags 
 wife, daughter, son, cook, and chambermaid :nto the abyss 
 of mendacity to sustain him in his audacious statements. 
 For it is yet to be recorded that any fisherman's story was 
 ever believed without confirmatory proofs. I have known 
 more than one lovely wife and mother, whose home life 
 had been beautiful and character spotless, who began a 
 downward career in a reluctant aflBrmation of her lius- 
 
PISCATORIAL ROMANCE. 109 
 
 band's exploits as a fisherman. But th.e initial step taken 
 h conscience became seared and her course was down, 
 down until the point of abject depravity was reached, when, 
 without a blush she would pass hours after hours in build- 
 ing crazy-quilts and constructing spring poetry ! Or, if by 
 chance, the fisherman hauls in a fish of fair proportions, he 
 will regale his friends for three-quarters of an hour in de- 
 scribing the efforts the captive made to escape, the dex- 
 trous skill he had to use in playing before he was able to 
 land him. Even then he will supplement the statement 
 with a story of a fish twice as big and four times as gamey 
 which got away just as he had him close to the gunwale or 
 the bank. 
 
 The story is told of a fisherman who, for fifteen years, 
 occupied one position on an abutment of London bridge 
 day after day, rain or shine, holding his rod and line, but 
 who was never seen to raise a fish. A stranger one day 
 ventured to where he was and asked him if he had caught 
 anything that day and the reply was no, but that three 
 years before he had had a splendid nibble ! It was told to 
 illustrate the patience which is supposed to be a charac- 
 teristic virtue of the ideal fisherman. But the story is a 
 monstrous fabrication. No man would sit so many years 
 to experience the perpetual joy of catching no fish at all. 
 He could drop a line into his cistern, go off and read the 
 Pandects of Justinian, or Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, 
 or some other equally exciting literature and find as many 
 fish awaiting him when he should return and pull in the 
 line. Or,[if by a violent stretch of the imagination we may 
 admit that there was such a man, judicially determined to 
 be sane, his reply would unquestionably have been an em- 
 phatic statement of the marvelous luck he had had the 
 previous day or week, followed by a detailed statement of 
 the number and avoirdupois of the fish he had landed. 
 
110 GAIili AND BITTEENESS. 
 
 And if any further proof of the improbability of the story 
 were needed, it is shown by the fact that its author utterly 
 fails to chronicle that the man was ever seen to investigate 
 the contents of a whiskey flask ! 
 
 Fishing and lying being so inseparably connected, ex- 
 tended observations I have made have satisfied me that 
 the paucity of the catch and the lies told about it are 
 always to be found in an inverse ratio, one to the other. 
 Concisely stated, the smaller the catch the bigger the lie, 
 until absolute zero is reached, when lying must, ipso facto, 
 touch the boiling point. I had never ciphered this out 
 until I came to Nantucket. On the island, whether 
 one goes on a yacht trolling, or pushes out in a dory, to 
 heave and haul a drail or a squid, for blue fish, he can 
 always catch enough to satisfy his moderate wishes and 
 sometimes his wildest ambition. With a small field glass I 
 have often seen a fisherman pull into his dory, anchored a 
 few hundred feet from 'Sconset beach, from sixty to 
 seventy fine blue fish in a single afternoon. Then when 
 cod "strike on," in the spring and fall, he who desires to 
 fish can go out and always meet with a fair success and 
 sometimes bring in fropi fifty to a hundred cod or pollock, 
 off a single tide. From Sasachacha pond a boy or girl will 
 often average a perch a minute for hours at a time, to say 
 nothing of an occasional eel that will seek the favor of being 
 caught to diversify the entertainment. With success so 
 startling, the fisherman finds it impossible to lie in recount- 
 ing his exploits. Hence his enthusiasm for the sport is 
 chilled and his spirits are so depressed that even deep 
 potations from the bottle will not dispel the gloom that 
 enshrouds him. Discouraged, he leaves for other waters 
 where there is at least little margin left for lying and he 
 never thinks of Nantucket except in the privacy of self- 
 communion. 
 
SHAEK FISHING. Ill 
 
 And yet, it occurs to me that there is one apparent ex- 
 ception to the broad statement I have made in respect to 
 the unfavorable condition of things on the island for the 
 manufacture of fishermen's lies. But it is apparent only. 
 Those who seek to take the predaceous shark, wrestle with 
 a game they are not familiar with either in theory [or in 
 practice. They neither know the sharking grounds nor 
 how to catch the ponderous fish when the ground is 
 reached. Of necessity they must rely upon the practical 
 man who furnishes boat, tackle and bait. He it is who 
 baits the fisherman's hook ; throws out his line ; tells him 
 when a shark has struck ; when and how to haul in ; helps 
 him in the effort ; hammers the shark on his nose with a 
 club to overcome his scruples against leaving the water ; 
 pulls him on board the boat ; and finally lands him on the 
 beach. Matters are lively for a time and the fisherman 
 may perhaps do one-tenth of the work ; but for the con- 
 tributory aid he does render he feels that he is a hero. 
 
 Then comes the temptation to lie. Of course, when the 
 time comes he will tell his friends that he did it all him- 
 self ! That is to be expected. Perhaps he did, but it was 
 on the principle of facit per alium facit per se. On the 
 question of weight, however, he is forced to take advice. 
 There is no platform scale on the beach where the carcass 
 is to be buried. The owner of the boat comes to his 
 rescue. He has an eye to business. He knows the weak- 
 ness of his patron, and of course wants further employ- 
 ment. And if he shall say that a consumptive shark that 
 might lift the beam at 250, weighs a thousand pounds, the 
 fisherman is more than satisfied. On that authority he 
 does not hesitate to tell his friends that he caught and 
 landed a shark that weighed half a ton ! As the statement 
 is not above the average of a fisherman's lie it will probably 
 uot be found recorded against him on the day of judgment. 
 
SAILOR TALK. 
 
 The permanent residents of Siasconset are as unique as 
 the place. They are simple in their tastes, and almost to a 
 soul confiding and honest. He who should attempt to 
 take a mean advantage of a stranger is despised by his 
 fellow villagers as much as by the one sought to be his 
 victim. The same may be said of the natives of the island 
 generally. All have idiosyncrasies resulting from the in- 
 timate relation of the island to employment on the seas. 
 The older men for years followed the waters. Address 
 any old man you meet as "Captain," and in three cases out 
 of four you will be likely to hit the mark. If he was not 
 a Captain when he retired from service, he was at least a 
 mate, and would have taken command had not the whale 
 fishery ceased to be profitable. The redundancy of Cap- 
 tains is only equaled by the paucity of the men who 
 sailed before the mast. It occurs to me that, perhaps 
 in those days, they were all Captains. At any rate, men 
 who followed the ocean have given character to the island. 
 Some women have had extended experience on the seas, 
 having taken long voyages with their husbands, and are at 
 home in matters pertaining to life on shipboard. Most of 
 
SAIIiOKS ASHORE. 113 
 
 the young men too, have had some experience in the walks 
 of practical seamanship, and all show by their manners, 
 and especially by the use of nautical similitudes in ordi- 
 nary conversation, their maritime ancestry. If you meet 
 an islander with whom you have become familiarly ac- 
 quainted, instead of asking you "Where are you going?" 
 two to one the greeting will be "How are you heading?" 
 The farmer whom you engage to supply produce for your 
 table will agree to "land" milk or vegetables from his 
 wagon at your door, every morning, fresh picked from his 
 garden. If a lady wants you to assist her in winding 
 some worsted by holding the skein, and you are careless 
 in the performance of the office, she will tell you to hold it 
 "taut" or you will get the yarn in a snarl. An old captain 
 told me that in eating his breakfast he had got a bone 
 "athwart" his throat. If you ride in a box wagon, the 
 teamster — it may be an old captain — may ask you to shift 
 your seat "fore" or "aft "or "midships" or to set to the 
 "leeward" as the case may be. When you try to get a 
 joke off on an old "salt" and fail, you may be told that it 
 was always hard work to get to the "windward" of hiin. 
 A young lady who walked from her bedroom into the 
 parlor at night without a lamp, told me she ran "head on" 
 to the mantel-piece. She might have added, as her nose 
 was bruised, that she had "shivered her cut-water," 
 though she didn't. An ardent temperance advocate (and 
 there are many such on the island) stated that he was 
 drunk but once, and then he didn't get relief until he 
 "broke bulk," and he concluded that one experience was 
 enough for a life-time. All these expressions, and 
 many more equally quaint, I have heard in ordinary 
 conversation, and the speakers were quite unaware in what 
 they said that there was anything which should strike one 
 as strange or unusual. 
 

 1^ 
 
 r 
 
 o ^ 
 
 >;. 
 
INSULAR NOMENCLATURE. 115 
 
 But I don't believe some things I have heard as having 
 been uttered in current speech. I wholly discredit the 
 statement that a Nantucket girl complained to her mother 
 that her beau, on the previous evening, had kissed her 
 unawares on her "starboard cheek" and that the fright 
 caused her to jump so suddenly from her seat that she 
 "parted her corset hawser!" Nor do I take any stock in 
 the story that the wife of an old whaler, on seeing a bustle 
 on the person of a modern society woman, wondered what 
 use she had for such big "quarter galleries." Nor that a 
 young man after a long voyage told his sweetheart, who 
 was standing on the wharf awaiting his landing, that he 
 knew her the minute he "sighted her cat-heads." 
 
 Then the family nomenclature of the island is quite as 
 singular in the frequent recurrence of certain names, and 
 it always excites the remark of visitors who make pro- 
 tracted stays. The Coffins ; and Folgers ; and Swains ; and 
 Husseys ; and Starbucks ; and Macys ; and Gardners ; and 
 Chases ; and Pitmans ; and Paddocks ; and Bunkers ;and Cole- 
 mans ; are everywhere visible on street signs, or door plates, 
 or are heard in everyday speech. Less than a dozen names 
 are included in the list of original settlers, and nearly half 
 of them are no longer heard on the island. A few other 
 names were added by accessions of families from the con- 
 tinent, and thus the list of early names on the island was 
 swelled to perhaps fifteen. Their descendants married 
 and intermarried. Nantucket boys might bring wives 
 from the main land, but Nantucket girls didn't feel at 
 liberty to propose marriage to off-islanders as an induce- 
 ment for them to come to the island and settle, though 
 many were carried off to become wives and mothers else- 
 Avhere. Hence the original names have been perpetuated 
 on Nantucket to an extent which, to the stranger becomes 
 confusing. The scriptural injunction to "multiply and re- 
 
116 SAILOR TALK 
 
 plenish the earth" meant something with a religious 
 people. They went at the business as if there was an ex- 
 press contract with a forfeiture for non-compliance. The 
 net result was, that in less than 175 years there were nearly 
 10,000 resident inhabitants. Some of this number was 
 probably due to migration from the continent, but what- 
 ever was gained in this way was nearly compensated by 
 the departure of islanders for the main land. The stock of 
 christian names became low and in time was exhausted. 
 The doubling of initial appellations was a necessity, and 
 even then the first letter of the second name was not 
 sufficient to avoid confusion. Thus we hear of Charles 
 Frederick Coffin ; and George Frederick Coffin ; and George 
 Wendell Macy ; and William Hussey Macy ; and Roland 
 Bunker Hussey ; and William Clark Myrick ; and Thomas 
 Clarkson Folger ; and many others who are always spoken 
 of by their full names as here written. Then "Jr." is a 
 very common addition, and "2nd" and "3rd" and even 
 "4th" are addenda to surnames to assure identity. A 
 Folger living on The Bank for months sought a name for 
 a child which no other Folger had taken. Jle found it at 
 last in "Oscar." 
 
 But visitors are bothered to recollect given names, and 
 they designate them by their employments or the localities 
 in which they reside. Thus there was a "Light-house 
 Folger," a "Vegetable Folger," a "Blue Fish Folger" and 
 a "Captain Folger." Then the natives sometimes desig- 
 nate a particular resident by the locality of his residence. 
 A Joseph Fisher was known as "Madeket Joe" and a 
 Charles Coffin as "Pokomo Charles" that they might not 
 be confounded with other Joseph Fishers or Charles 
 Coffins. 
 
 To such an extent has the intermarriage of the descend- 
 ants of the original settlers gone, that nearly every man, 
 
BEWILDERING RELATIONSHIPS. 117 
 
 woman and child descended from them is related to every 
 other. Cousinship, and uncleship and auntship overlap in 
 a half dozen directions. A Hussey may be an uncle to a 
 Coffin and a nephew of a Starbuck, and the Starbuck and 
 the Coffin be second cousins to each other. Captain Baxter 
 is a recognized oracle on matters of family relationship, 
 as on everything else. "What he doesn't know is not worth 
 learning. He says that there are men on the island who 
 can be shown to be their own great uncles ! That he 
 knows of children who are the second cousins of their own 
 mothers ! Furthermore he has pointed out to me more 
 than one man who is both a brother-in-law and nephew of 
 his third cousin. And to cap the climax, he said that he 
 once called at a house in town at which a tea-party was 
 under full headway, and of the eight ladies present, five 
 were both first and second cousins and sisters-in-law of 
 one another ! And yet to this day not one of them had had 
 her mind shattered by the effort to trace out the relation- 
 ship. And the Captain told me that if I doubted the story 
 he could show me the cover of the identical tea-pot in 
 which the inspiring beverage was drawn on that memor- 
 able afternoon ! With evidence so convincing and near at 
 hand, I could only express myself entirely satisfied ! 
 
 But a still more marvelous coincidence came to my 
 knowledge. On the eve of Fourth of July, a few years 
 since, the oldest boy of John Asa Fisher, 2nd, exploded a 
 fire-cracker under the mare of Peleg Starbuck, Jr., as she 
 was standing hitched to a box wagon on the corner of 
 Main and Whale streets. The mare didn't appreciate the 
 act as an ebullition of youthful patriotism. To her equine 
 understanding it was intended as a joke on herself. That 
 she didn't like the joke is manifest from the fact that 
 she ran away and broke the wagon into a dozen pieces and 
 knocked down and ran over Jonathan David Myrick. The 
 
118 SAILOR TALK. 
 
 injured man was carried into the store of Ebenczer Pad- 
 dack, 4th. Obed Gardner, 3rd, ran for Doctor Pitman, who 
 came at once. But the man was so much injured that in 
 spite of surgical aid he died before night. 'Squire Coifin 
 held an inquest on the body. Frederick William Folger 
 made the coflQ.n. Elder Macy preached the funeral dis- 
 course. Kowland Bunker Hussey wrote and published an 
 obituary in the Inquirer and Mirror. Jabez Chase, 2nd, 
 dug the grave and Washington Irving Coleman furnished 
 the headstone. And an orthodox quaker named Swain, who 
 never draws on his imagination at less than 10 days' sight, 
 solemnly assured me that every one here named in con- 
 nection with the catastrophe, including himself, was within 
 the degree of fourth cousin of every other except the 
 mare ; and how it happened that she could not claim kin- 
 ship was a question which convulsed the island for over 
 six months, for the mare was a native and had a pedigree 
 as long as the bow that Friend Swain had drawn for 
 my edification. 
 
SCRATCHING GRAVEL. 
 
 At Siasconset a man playa many parts. A family can- 
 not bo reared and educated with its head following a single 
 pursuit. There are no organized industries, if I except 
 building, which for the past few years has been active to 
 provide accommodations for the annually increasing 
 patronage of summer visitors. There is but little farm- 
 ing in the strict sense of the word. There is land, thous- 
 ands of acres, but the soil is lean and light, and without 
 liberal fertilization is not productive. For grazing it might 
 be made valuable. At one period it was largely devoted 
 to sheep raising. There were fully ten thousand sheep on 
 the island. 
 
 But farming cannot be successfully followed without 
 farmers. I know all about it. I have tried it and can 
 speak feelingly on the subject. Years ago the strange im- 
 pulse seized me to become a farmer that I might try 
 thenceforward to lead an honest life. To that end I bought 
 a splendid farm, well situated, and with a generous soil. 
 Fearing that one farm might not assure the result I 
 sought, I bought another. Somehow or other, my 
 
120 SCRATCHING GRAVEL. 
 
 methods of farming were not such as to result in a be- 
 wildering success. In fact, during a three years, active 
 pursuit of distinction as an agriculturist, I found it abso- 
 lutely jnecessary to follow my legitimate pursuit in the 
 city for nine months in the year to enable me to make 
 both ends meet on my farm, at the end of the season. 
 Gradually the appalling fact was forced upon my mind that 
 the more I was present on the property the smaller were 
 the crops, a consideration which constrained me to aban- 
 don the idea of farming except in a vicarious way. Sub- 
 sequent experience didn't change the aspect of things. 
 Cultivating the soil by mail and telegraph was not, in my 
 case, certainly, attended with a success so startling that I 
 can conscientiously recommend the plan for general 
 adoption. I have no confidence that with the telephone I 
 could have improved matters. Indeed the belief grew 
 upon me until it came to be at last a settled conviction 
 that I was not built upon the right model to achieve either 
 fame or fortune as a tiller of the soil. It was with re- 
 luctance that I made the confession, but a decent regard 
 for truth compelled me to disclose the fact, which I did in 
 the strictest confidence to a few of my most intimate friends ; 
 and as usual in such cases, each one told his friend under 
 an injunction of secrecy, and that friend told another under 
 the same conditions, and in a fortnight's time it was known 
 all over the entire county, and in six months throughout 
 the State. At all events, I had my belly-full of farming, 
 audit would not have required a great deal of argument or 
 even prayerful persuasion to have induced me to sell out. 
 Indeed I tried to. I earnestly sought for a man who had 
 it in him to build up an enterprise on a domain where my 
 aesthetic methods had only borne annual crops of disappoint- 
 ment, and who, I thought, was sighing for a spot in which 
 were buried the blasted hopes of a saddened wavfarer. 
 
6b 
 
 
 
122 SCKATCHING GBAVEL. 
 
 whereon to illustrate his genius in actual works to an 
 astonished and admiring world. I wanted to show to 
 him the promised land. For years I waited, but he didn't 
 come. 
 
 On Nantucket, sailors do not seem to be any better fitted 
 for farming than city-bred men, "When young they don't 
 tackle kindly to it, and when old they do it in the most 
 perfunctory manner. When the whale fishery ceased to 
 pay, many who retired from the waters essayed farming. 
 But what they had learned about plowing the seas was of 
 no service to them when they tried to plow the land. They 
 met obstacles at all points. When they ordered an ox- 
 team to "port" or "starboard," the animals were either 
 obtuse or perverse in obeying the command. "Gee !" and 
 "Haw!" were imperatives of direction without meaning 
 to the average mariner. To begin the study of a dictionary 
 of land navigation after years of experience at sea was out 
 of the question. When he undertook to manage horses, 
 as the Irish sailor said, he was "all at sea." Everything 
 was reversed. The steering gear, instead of being in the 
 stern, where on shipboard, he had been taught to look for 
 it, he found in the bow. That of itself was confusing. 
 When on a vessel, if he put his helm a-starboard, it was 
 fore ordained that she Avould sheer to port. But in driving, 
 when he pulled ±he starboard rein instead of going to 
 port the wagon hauled off in the other direction. That 
 was not all. A double team was a further complication. 
 As he scanned it with his weather eye it seemed to him as 
 a sort of catamaran intended for land service. He had 
 seen such duplex craft off the coast of Brazil, but they 
 always seemed to him awkward to manage. So far as he 
 was concerned, he was willing to grant an exclusive right 
 in perpetuity to South Americans to use them. They 
 never inspired him with a sense of safety as a sea-going 
 
SAILOBS ON THE SOIIj. 123 
 
 craft. But a catamaran on land, to his mind, was still 
 more uncertain. He could never feel sure of reaching 
 port with wagon and freight in good order. At any 
 moment, the port horse might take a notion to' kick the 
 starboard "horse on the port quarter, and if the event 
 happened when he was tacking ship, the Lord only could 
 tell where vessel and cargo would land. Again, the star- 
 board horse might balk and run stern on the wagon at 
 the precise moment when the port horse was making 
 headway under a six-knot breeze ! What then would 
 happen? To the nautical mind, these possibilities were 
 suggestive, if not portentous. Therefore, by tacit con- 
 sent, double teams were allowed to go into disuse, and to 
 this day, the regulation vehicle on Nantucket, for pleasure 
 or heavy work, is a box-wagon or a box-cart. And though 
 a few double carriages have been brought to or made on 
 the island for livery stable keepers to cater to the caprice 
 of "swell" visitors who wish to ride over moors, the Nan- 
 tucket man and woman anchor their faith to the bottom- 
 boards of the one-horse box- wagon. 
 
 Farming therefore has never thrived on Nantucket, and 
 probably five-sixths of the land is to-day uncultivated. A 
 few farmers cut hay enough for their own stock and to 
 supply some for use in the town. Some sheep are raised, 
 enough for lamb and mutton for home consumption, and 
 to furnish a little for the continent. Milk, eggs, and 
 chickens, are also produced in considerable quantities for 
 the table for summer visitors. But there is scarce any 
 cultivation of the soil except for the production of garden 
 vegetables. That is one employment which is profitable 
 during the warm season. Another source of income is 
 letting their horses and wagons to parties who make 
 jaunts over the island. Others devote themselves during 
 the summer to blue, scup, perch, lobster, clam and qua- 
 
124 SCEATCHING GKAVEIi. 
 
 haiig ^fishing. Some families rent rooms furnished to 
 visitors, who prefer the quiet of a private house to life in 
 a hotel. Now and then an old sailor who is used to the 
 pack-needle finds employment in making awnings and 
 tents and setting them up on spars on the beach to afford 
 shelter from the sun to visitors who delight to be close to 
 the breakers. The wives of residents, some of them in- 
 telligent and well-to-do, earn money by doing laundry 
 work and making bread, biscuits and pastry for visiting 
 families ; while some of the daughters are employed in 
 hotels and boarding-houses as chambermaids and wait- 
 resses and thus they obtain the means to further their 
 education during the residue of the year. 
 
 But in September the visitors vanish. Hardly have the 
 people got their houses to rights after weeks of neglect 
 that they might serve their off-island guests, when, presto ! 
 the fall fishing begins, and then, teamster, farmer, gardener, 
 mechanic, laborer, and perhaps store clerk and even old 
 shipmaster are out in their dories catching cod until 
 winter sets in. Then the islander finds time to do odds 
 and ends of repairing of house, or stable, or boat, or 
 harness, until a heavy western gale sets in and drives 
 the seaweed — kelp it is called — in large piles upon the 
 beach. At once all hands turn to with their forks and 
 throw it back from the shore to let it drain and afterwards 
 to sell it to gardeners and farmers to use for fertilizing 
 the soil for another year's crop of table produce. In the 
 Spring comes another fishing season which lasts about six 
 weeks, and as the cod disappear, bluefish "strike on" and 
 the event is the premonition of the visitors. 
 
 But at any season, though more especially during the 
 winter months, a scene of wild excitement may occur upon 
 The Bank. A vessel, which for days has been approach- 
 ing the coast under continuous cloud and has lost her 
 
MANHOOD. 125 
 
 reckoning, or moving through the dense fogs which some- 
 times occur off the land, may stril^e upon Bass Eip to the 
 eastward or on ' 'The Old Man's Back" to the southward ; 
 and when the fog lifts or the morning breaks, is in plain 
 sight from The Bank pounded by heavy seas upon the 
 sands. In a moment everybody is out-of-doors. Tele- 
 scopes are leveled at the distressed vessel. Volunteer 
 crews quickly assemble at the life-saving station of the 
 Massachusetts Humane Society, and draw out the life-boat 
 and the appliances for such emergencies and move it for- 
 ward across the beach to launch on the surf at once if it 
 can be done with safety. But sometimes a heavy gale is 
 blowing, and billows in huge volumes are surging upon the 
 sand, and throwing a white fringe a hundred feet towards 
 The Bank. Hours may thus be passed before it is possi- 
 ble to leave on their errand of mercy for the rescue of im- 
 periled lives. Clad in their oil-cloth garments they await 
 their opportunity. Statecraft, learning, eloquence, social 
 position and style, stand abashed before the nobility of 
 simple manhood. Hearts to impel, courage to undertake, 
 and brawn to successfully encounter and override dangers 
 take rank as the highest qualities. On The Bank they 
 hear the voices of their wives, children, parents, sisters 
 and brothers. There are their little homes with the small 
 savings of years of toil. As they stand their lives are safe. 
 Before them is the ocean with its waters lashed by the 
 gale into wild tumult. The shifting fringe of spray in 
 which they stand is the line that divides safety from 
 danger. They watch with steadfast gaze the movement of 
 the mighty billows as they come thundering upon the 
 beach, and await their opportunity. They are alongside 
 the life-boat, in which the oars are ready shipped in the 
 rowlocks. At last the supreme moment comes. A mighty 
 breaker dashes towards them ; and then, a dozen strong 
 
J 
 
 J. 
 
 >3 
 
LIFE-SAVERS. 127 
 
 arms push out the boat to meet it, and as'it lifts the bow 
 from the sands each man springs into his seat, and quicker 
 than thought is pulling heavily at his oar, and the boat is 
 moving out from shoi-e, while the veteran sailor in com- 
 mand stands in the stern with the steering oar in hand, to 
 guide the little craft to the rescue of, their fellow-beings. 
 Steadily they pull in unison, riding over the crest of one 
 wave tO' disappear from sight in the trough of the sea 
 beyond, again to appear on another, never for a moment 
 resting in their labors, until those whom they seek to 
 succor are reached. In the meantime glasses are leveled 
 at their little boat, through which anxious eyes are watch- 
 ing until it seems but a little speck dancing on the surface 
 of the waters. They may find the seas breaking heavily 
 against and perhaps over the vessel, with either bow or 
 stern raised out of the water. The passengers, or crew, 
 or both are taken on their boat, and again they push off 
 towards the shore which they reach after hours of absence, 
 tired and sore from continuous exertion, and it may be 
 with the seeds of a lingering disease sown in their sj^stems 
 by exposure to the bleak winds of the winter. 
 
 At other times the vessel, without warning, may be 
 driven directly on the beach in the midst of a heavy snow 
 storm or fog. Then the residents on The Bank can extend 
 their aid more readily and effectually both in saving lives 
 and property. The excitement is still more intense, for 
 everything is within sight, even to the smallest detail of 
 procedure. 
 
 For the services of the brave men who imperil their 
 lives to save those of their fellow-beings, what is the re- 
 ward? It may be only the thanks of the grateful people 
 whom they have rescued. It may be a medal voted by the 
 Humane Society. Or they may secure pieces of property 
 which have floated upon the beach or they have picked up 
 
128 SCEATOHING GEAVEIi. 
 
 in the waters, and for which there is no claimant ; or, it may 
 be they will receive salvage on property they have saved 
 to its owners in large quantities. But fifty or a hundred 
 dollars for the daring courage of a man in behalf of those 
 in peril, is a large sum to receive ; and oftener the result to 
 him is merely nominal. 
 
 This is but a brief sketch of careers of the people of the 
 island who live by the labor of their hands. There is 
 scarce a man who does not during the year work in, at 
 least, two or three callings, and some are so handy as to 
 find themselves useful in a half dozen. In 'Sconset is a 
 representative character of this class. 
 
 Captain John Morris has become an almost every-day 
 necessity. He is an old sailor in both the whale fishery 
 and the merchant service. He is now the factotum of the 
 village. He is the bricklayer and plasterer; the house 
 painter; the jack carpenter ; the clock repairer; the tent 
 and awning maker. He is no slouch when it comes to re- 
 pairing furniture and upholstering. His talents as a 
 hydraulic engineer are practically recognized by calling on 
 him to put pumps in order when they manifest perversity 
 in the matter of lifting water. Of course he is a fisherman. 
 There are tradesmen on the island in various branches. 
 Their stores are mostly located on the main street of Nan- 
 tucket, or others immediately intersecting it. Some, begun 
 years ago, on out-of-the-way thoroughfares, are still con- 
 tinued in the same localities. The tradesmen exhibit the 
 versatility of genius that I have described as common to 
 men in other callings. The pursuits they follow are some- 
 times strangely heterogeneous. One dry-goods merchant 
 unites with his regular trade the sale of stocks and bonds. 
 His store is the stock exchange. He is "bull' or "bear," 
 according as he prognosticates the market. In dry 
 goods he is generally a "bull," but with old stock he ham- 
 
VERSATILITY OF GENIUS. 129 
 
 mers the market until he is rid of it. Another one was 
 for years the popular proprietor of a leading hotel. At 
 meal time he moved lively among the guests to see that 
 their appetites were satisfied. Between meals he tumbled 
 muslins, and dress goods, and cloths about on the counter, 
 and in seductive tones induced ladies to purchase. A hard- 
 ware and stove dealer accepts fire risks, and he also uses his 
 blandishments with both buyers and sellers in the effort 
 to effect exchanges of real property. Another is an ex- 
 tensive dealer in junk, though Ann street would discount 
 and beat him every time. The tinsmith sells crockery 
 and glassware, while the grocers add to their subsistence 
 by handling crockery and woodenware. The stationer 
 deals in bric-a-brac, oil paintings and antique crockery 
 and furniture. The coal dealer sells hay and feed, but he 
 sighed for new fields of usefulness, and so became the 
 agent of the Fall Kiver and Newport lines of steamers 
 and of the Telegraph Company. As he has still some 
 time left on his hands it is expected that he will take the 
 agency for the sale of pianos and organs, and perhaps start 
 a photographic gallery. The avarice of the lumber mer- 
 chant was not satisfied with the profits in his regular line, 
 so he took up brick, lime and cement, and then to make 
 both ends meet he started a coal-yard, The dealer in fire- 
 wood unites tiles and chimney-pots and jig-sawing with 
 his legitimate business. The watchmaker is at the same 
 time an umbrella surgeon, an artist in oil, and finds time 
 to cultivate his taste for music. He plays the fiddle and 
 executes on the violin with equal facility. Another 
 runs a circulating library and is also a taxidermist. The 
 furniture dealer has added stoves to his regular trade, and 
 he strengthens his vocal chords by exercising the functions 
 of an auctioneer. The dentist paints pictures, cultivates 
 the muse of poetry and the graces of oratory. He will 
 
130 SCRATCHING GKAVEIi. 
 
 plug a tooth, write an ode, a sonnet, or an epic, or deliver 
 an address on the slightest provocation. In winters when 
 everybody else hybernates, his friends let him loose to 
 lecture on the continent. 
 
 The stranger who visits the town is often startled by a 
 phenomenon of desolation that comes on with no more 
 premonition than a sneeze. It occurs at mid-day. As 
 the church clock strikes twelve, merchant, lawyer, capital- 
 ist, clerk, mechanic and apprentice, hurriedly surveys 
 the shrunken proportions of his abdominal region, and 
 with dangerous haste rushes headlong to the street, locks 
 the door of store, office, or shop, and makes lively strides 
 towards home. Then only is the Nantucket man in a 
 hurry. The objective point is dinner. Gain is lost sight 
 of. Sympathy appeals to him in vain. The music of the 
 peripatetic hand-organ loses its charms. Cyclone, nor 
 earthquake, will deflect him from his course until the cor- 
 poreal hold is stowed with noonday cheer. The luckless 
 visitor who wishes to buy something must walk listlessly 
 about the streets for an hour until the Nantucket stomach 
 is satisfied. Even then its possessor may go to the barber 
 shop, or do some odd job about the house to extend the 
 purgatorial experience of the stranger for a quarter or a 
 half hour more. During the season of summer visitors 
 there are a few exceptions to this rule. But in autumn, 
 winter and spring it is universal. At such times one- is 
 impressed with a sense of loneliness like unto that which 
 would be felt by a North Carolina 'possum let loose to 
 wander in the streets of Pompeii under the moonlight. 
 
PHYSIC. 
 
 Foe over a century there was no doctor on Nantucket. 
 Zacheus Mac3% a man without medical education, was for 
 sixty years the bone-setter when casualties made surgical 
 assistance on the island necessary. It is recorded that he 
 did the service with a creditable skill, and it is also stated 
 that, in about fifty years, he performed over two thousand 
 operations. Breaking bones and making dislocations was 
 evidently an important industry in those days on Nan- 
 tucket. Still it didn't pay. For the |surgeon regarded his 
 skill as a special gift, and would never receive compensa- 
 tion for his services ! This fact lived long in the memories 
 of the people, greatly to the detriment of the professional 
 doctor when he effected a lodgment, for come he did at 
 last. But he found himself on missionary ground. The 
 people had lived for generations in appalling ignoranc ) of 
 sickness. What was worse, they didn't seem inclined to 
 take lessons. But a more abject moral degradation was 
 made manifest in an utter want of understanding that a 
 doctor didn't physic for fun, but in dead earnest, and ex- 
 pected to be paid for it, too. Converts were scarce and 
 fees were sparingly paid. 
 
OPPOSING SCHOOLS. 133 
 
 Of course the doctor was an old school practitioner. To 
 impress the people with the Importance of his services he 
 had to resort to heroic treatment. Anything short of that 
 the patient didn't appreciate. Drastic purgative, power- 
 ful alterative, lancet, blister, actual cautery and turnkey 
 were convincing evidences that something was the matter 
 with them. He had his own way in practice except that 
 there was not enough of it. 
 
 But in the course of time the homoeopathic doctor in- 
 vaded the island. Opposition oftentimes stimulates busi- 
 ness. On Nantucket it didn't, though it was fierce, and all 
 the more so because between rival schools of medicine. 
 When doctors disagree in the fundamentals of theory and 
 practice, the confidence of patients is apt to be a little 
 shaky at the butt. The code of medical ethics would not 
 permit him of the regular faculty to counsel with, or even 
 tolerate one whom the canons of the profession declared 
 to be culpably irregular, and, not to draw too fine a point 
 upon it, a quack. With contemptuous sneer he furtively 
 glanced at the stunted proportions of the pocket-case of 
 his rival which held the attenuated medicaments to be 
 smilingly taken on the principle of simllia similibus 
 curantur. He of the high potencies scowled at the ponder- 
 ous pill bags loaded down with calomel ; and jalap ; and 
 blue mass ; and laudanum ; and paregoric ; and spirits of 
 nitre ; and pungent carminatives ; and Spanish flies ; and 
 perhaps a surreptitious lancet to have a quiet bleed in 
 memory of bygone days. This condition of things nearly 
 ruined the business. The regular doctor largely lost his 
 practice, and he of the new school didn't gain it. 
 
 Beside, the people were epidemically healthy. It was 
 not from' natural obduracy, but to discourage the idea of 
 making sickness and expense convertible terms. The 
 Nantucketer could adapt himself to divers callings in 
 
134 PHYSIC. 
 
 handicraft, and he didn't see why, if he had any ailment, 
 he could not do double duty and both prescribe physic and 
 swallow it. By so doing he could select a more palatable 
 dose, which he could not do if the doctor bossed the busi- 
 ness. Besides he could make it more acceptable by mix- 
 ing it with old Medford rum, and that, experience had 
 proven to him, Iwas most "masterly warmin' to his in- 
 wards." This indifference to medical learning and ability 
 became chronic. It was distressing to the representatives 
 of both schools. It was a weary pilgrimage, and all the 
 time living on short commons, before^ the doctor felt his 
 calling and election sure. 
 
 But, by a stroke of genius, this itching desire of the 
 Nantucket man to practice on himself, and his tendency to 
 thrift in saving doctors' fees, were turned to profitable ac- 
 count. How and where negotiations were had, has never 
 been revealed ; but certain it is that, without diminution 
 of professional antagonism and the personal animosity 
 proceeding therefrom, with withering scowls and con- 
 temptuous frowns exchanged between allopathic sulky 
 and homoeopathic gig, diplomatic notes were exchanged 
 and secret conferences had, which resulted in the starting 
 of a drug store in their joint names, stocked with a full 
 line of pharmaceutical preparations, to which they added 
 patent medicines in variety sufficient to cover every known 
 disease, with profuse explanations of their curative powers 
 and directions for use. 
 
 The success of the movement was simply bewildering. 
 Men who had suffered from good health, acute, chronic, or 
 malignant, became conscious of ailments that needed im- 
 mediate attention. The apothecary shop invited their 
 patronage. With understandings illuminated by the wrap- 
 pers of medicine bottles and boxes, they studied prognostics 
 and diagnostics, and dove deep into the mysteries of 
 
COMPLICATED DISOEDEKS. 135 
 
 pathology and morbid growth and development. They 
 bought and got around one remedy after another until 
 muscle, and nerve, and cartilage, were saturated with 
 curealls. If the direction were to take a spoonful every 
 two hours, they reasoned that, if they took two spoons full 
 every hour they would get well four times as fast ! The 
 profits on the medicines sold were greater than the fees 
 the doctors had ever believed possible, even in moments 
 of delirious hope. That was not all. Simple ailments 
 soon become complex. That which, at the inception, was 
 a mild colic, soon involved abdominal viscera, kidney, 
 liver, spleen, diaphragm, stomach, aorta, spinal marrow, 
 thoracic cavity and even cerebrum and cerebellum. Still 
 they were not happy. In fact, they found themselves 
 running on shoals in trying to navigate medical waters. 
 They had to take soundings. At last, reluctantly, one or 
 the other doctor was called in to pilot them to port. He 
 left them anchored in a haven of health, and ready to re- 
 sume self-pi es 'ription whenever they again felt slightly 
 under the weather. 
 
 It is evident that the doctor is on the island to stay, the 
 very few there is of him. To his credit, he never lets his 
 patients die. Old people are met everywhere. Those who 
 are not old are aged. Nobody under middle age is allowed 
 to remain on the island unless he takes out a license. When 
 people arrive at the standard of old age, somewhere in the 
 eighties, they anchor. Years go by. Still they are seen 
 moving slowl}- about unchanged in appearance and walk. 
 Seemingly Death has a mortgage on their corporeal estates, 
 but he never forecloses. 
 
 Generations ago a grave yard was started so that the island 
 might be rendered attractive to atrabilious people who 
 were seeking a comfortable place in which to die. It was 
 conceived in fraud of the rights of gloomy misanthropes, 
 
136 PHYSIC. 
 
 and the scheme should long since have been exposed. The 
 native never dies. The dying visitor renews his lease of 
 life. The graveyard didn't pay. The only one who made 
 anything out of it was the man who was allowed to mow 
 the grass from it each year. Now and then a sailor who 
 fell from the cross-trees or yard-arm, or down the hatch- 
 way of a ship and was killed, was planted in the ground. 
 But the paucity of the headstones was proof positive that 
 Nantucket was no place for a man to die. At last the pro- 
 moters of the enterprise had to resort to importing corpses 
 for burial. They were smuggled in after nightfall and in- 
 terred. By this discreditable means they have fairly 
 stocked the ground and make a respectable show of graves. 
 But in time the natives, by adopting high living and 
 fashionable habits, and especially by prescribing medicines 
 for themselves, may be brought to realize the propriety of 
 getting up home-made cadavers instead of paying tribute 
 to foreign manfacturers. 
 
"? 
 
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 to 
 
LAW. 
 
 The Nantucket Bar stands pre-eminent in its profound 
 appreciation of equity and justice, its lieroic determina- 
 tion to furtlier tlieir purposes even at personal sacrifice, 
 and tlie amicable feelings existing within it. There is 
 only one of him for nearly thirty-five hundred inhabitants. 
 With the same ratio in New York, the list of lawyers 
 would shrink to a beggarly three hundred and fifty, 
 instead of over five thousand for its population of a mil- 
 lion and a quarter. Clients' pockets would become ple- 
 thoric for want of somebody to encourage litigation. 
 Judges would hold sinecures, and their positions would be 
 abolished by an amendment to the organic law. The Nan- 
 tucket man never does anything to-day which can just as 
 well be put off until to-morrow, save, always, eating and 
 sleeping. Even the beginning of a lawsuit is postponed 
 until it can be attended to without too much exertion. 
 Often before the time comes, both parties get into a less 
 litigious and an even tranquil frame of mind. The Quakers 
 who have given character to the island have left the im- 
 print of peace upon the impulses of the people. The only 
 moneyed institution in Town is the "Pacific" Bank. But 
 
THE NANTUCKET BAB. 1^^ 
 
 if through natural perversity, men who have differences 
 cannot, or will not settle them, one goes to the Bar and 
 asks him to begin a suit. Viewing such a procedure as 
 possible, the other party goes to the Bar to defend him, 
 if a suit shall be begun. The Bar is embarrassed^ To 
 take a retainer from both sides is unprofessional. He is 
 acquainted with, and it may be is the personal friend of 
 both parties to the issue. He is a lonesome lawyer on a 
 lonely isle. Feelings of common humanity will not permit 
 him to throw the weight of his knowledge, and experience, 
 and skill in favor of one side when there is no one to ad- 
 vocate the cause of the other. Glad visions of fees are 
 snuffed out in the twinkling of an eye. By natural gravi- 
 tation he falls into the position of a peacemaker. He 
 hears the statements of each side. He persuades one. He 
 remonstrates with the other. Perhaps he cajoles, and, if 
 necessary, threatens both. Finally he undertakes an unoffi- 
 cial arbitrament and suggests a basis of settlement which, 
 though unsatisfactory to one and perhaps both, each feels 
 bound to accept. For the sacrifices he makes, he may get 
 their joint and several thanks; or he may not. He has 
 accepted a retainer from neither, nor has he begun or de- 
 fended an action. Indeed, by his influence, they have been 
 debarred the luxury of a lawsuit. Hence neither party 
 feels that the Bar is entitled to a fee and he is too modest 
 to ask for one. Thanks, though ever so heartily tendered, 
 will not stay the stomachs of a small wife and large f amil, 
 Tuy Spring bonnets, nor even plug-hats, and broadcloth 
 suits which the Bar must always wear; or contribute to 
 h Home Missionary society, even with ten pound blue- 
 tllt twenty cents a piece, fresh codfish at four cents a 
 pound, and with time to set lobster pots, and with qua- 
 haugs and clams to be had for the digging. 
 . But when the difference is with an off islander, the Nan- 
 
140 LAW. 
 
 tucket Bar braces up. He is retained by the native, and is 
 ready to prosecute or defend; to draw declaration or 
 plea ; to interpose demurrer ; to apply tor or move to dis- 
 solve injunction ; to proceed at common law, or in equity, 
 or in admiralty. He will examine and cross-examine wit- 
 nesses; object to evidence ; except to rulings ; will argue 
 and request to charge ; will abuse the opposing counsel ; 
 will flatter the jury and bully the Court in the most ap- 
 proved manner. It is to be hoped that he always gets a 
 good fee. It is doubtful. 
 
 But the Bar does have an office practice. He examines 
 titles; draws deeds and^mortgages, contracts and agree- 
 ments. He executes commissions issued out c f the courts 
 of foreign jurisdiction. He even draws wills, though for 
 what, the Lord only knows, for nobody ever dies. And 
 he is a real estate and pension agent. And then too, 
 he is a Justice of the Peace and Trial Justice, in which 
 capacities he administers justice when each party acts as 
 his own lawyer or when foreign lawyers are retained. 
 Then he pockets his legal fees. They are not enoi-mous. 
 Still his professional joints are at times a little stiff from 
 non-use and the lack of lubrication with generous com- 
 pensation. For years his morning prayers and nightly 
 vigils have been that the Lord would vouchsafe another 
 lawyer for the island. When Mr. Charles O'Conor came 
 from New York and took up his residence in Town a ray 
 of hope illumined the darkness of the horizon which en- 
 circled the solitary lawyer. But so soon as it was an- 
 nounced that the distinguished jurist had come to escape 
 clients, and not to get them, the Bar subsided into a 
 hopeless gloom. 
 
 This being the situation of affairs in respect to civil 
 practice, on the criminal side the outlook is no more 
 promising. There is no crime except on the skirmish line. 
 

 J 
 
 ml I r 
 
 • I— 
 
142 liAW. 
 
 The small boy who makes predatory excursions against 
 melon patches is about the worst malefactor known. As 
 there are several of him, it is difficult to connect a special 
 offence with a particular boy. Thus it is that he always 
 escapes the condign punishment that otherwise would be 
 meted out to him, to strike terror into the hearts of 
 evil-doers. The tramp is a being heard and read of, but 
 never seen on the island. Dwelling-houses are like treas- 
 ures in heaven where thieves do not break in and steal, 
 Often they are left for hours unlocked while the families 
 are absent. When locked, the keys are theoretically hid- 
 den under the door-step or under a side shingle by the door 
 casing, but practically in full view of the passing wayfarer. 
 For years at a time, the common jail is without an inmate. 
 Some twenty years ago the solitary occupant sent word to 
 the selectmen that if they didn't fix it so as to keep the 
 sheep from running in and bothering him he should leave. 
 And he meant business too. The structure is a ramshackle 
 affair, too dilapidated for security and not old enough for 
 a picturesque ruin. In appearance it is on the dividing 
 line between a building that a close-fisted old curmudgeon 
 would Avillingly dedicate to the use of his poor relations rent 
 free, and a haunted house. It has ponderous bolts and 
 bars on doors and windows, but would have no terrors 
 for a third-rate New York sneak thief. 
 
 Years ago an offending colored brother who was await- 
 ing trial on a charge of petty larceny, pried np the roof 
 with a bench that was in his cell, and vamosed from the 
 island in a stolen dory. Another prisoner, each night I 
 lifted a board from the floor of his dungeon, went outside, I 
 and had a good time about the Town, but was always back 
 in his cell before morning to suffer the penalty of his ; 
 offence and greet the keeper on his early visit with a 
 sad and dejected look. 
 
A SINECUBE. 143 
 
 The jailer himself has a soft thing of it. For some un- 
 accountable reason, the Town authorities in starting the 
 enterprise decided to pay him an annual salary with 
 house rent thrown in and not by the piece. It was a mis. 
 take that has been a source of poignant regret ever since. 
 If it were not for the exertion it would involve it would be 
 changed even now. The salary was fixed at fifty dollars a 
 year. For years the position was held by the father of the 
 present incumbent, who received it as a family heredita- 
 ment. It is a serious question with the taxpayers whether 
 the institution ought not to be abolished. The jailer has 
 everything to get and nothing to do. The tax to pay his 
 salary is regarded as a reckless waste of the people's sub- 
 stance. Still further it is urged that it may be the insidi- 
 ous beginning of a hereditary aristocracy of ofSce holders 
 which may grow in proportions until it shall sap the founda- 
 tions of republican institutions, sow the seeds of monarchy 
 and bear ultimate fruit in absolutism, co-extensive with 
 the present domain of American freedom ! Yet, the most 
 vehement croaker does not dare at town meeting to move 
 to dispense with the dungeon or its keeper, because he in- 
 wardly feels that, at any moment, a cyclone of human 
 turpitude may burst upon and sweep the island, leaving in 
 its track ruin and disaster in decimated hen-roosts, rifled 
 pork barrels, depleted sugar boxes and plundered tea 
 canisters, to say nothing of peccadillos in the way of em- 
 bezzlement, defalcation and violations of trusts. 
 
DIVINITY. 
 
 If the clergymen of Nantucket are paid good salaries 
 they hold enviable positions. But the presumptions are 
 against it The Quaker preacher whose influence was 
 once coextensive with the island had, for generations, in- 
 veighed against a hireling ministry. His words sank deep 
 into the hearts of his hearers, and they never forgot the 
 admonition when they pulled out of the meeting-house 
 and anchored their faiths within the pews of steepled 
 houses It is doubtful if the ministers find their incomes 
 so great as to be a care and a burden. They are not rated 
 in the books of the commercial agencies. Their credit is 
 good, not because of treasures laid up on earth, but be- 
 cause of their honorable standing as men. 
 
 But it is an easy job for the pastors to keep their lambs 
 from going astray. If one of them has a sinful impulse, 
 he feels too lazy to be wicked, if no higher motive actuated 
 his course. There are no great local sins to call for 
 anathema, and very few small ones to demand reproach. 
 Pastors and people, without regard to sectarian Imes, 
 earnestly co-operate in the advocacy of temperance and 
 good morals, and the temperance meeting is a regular 
 
iifl|!}f 
 
146 DIVINITY. 
 
 weekly gathering. With such a community the preacher's 
 invective must be aimed against extra-insular wickedness. 
 When slavery existed Nantucket was the hotbed of deep- 
 seated opposition to that relic of barbarism. 
 
 There are no polemical discourses to disturb the general 
 good feeling which exists among the people, and much 
 less to arouse angry passion. The sleep-inducing proper- 
 ties of the air will not admit of the surface of the religious 
 waters being rippled, though several denominations are 
 represented, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, Episco- 
 palian and Koman Catholic. The most aggressive mem- 
 ber of the church militant catches the infection of peace 
 on earth and good will toward men. The Friends, too, 
 have their meeting-house, in which First and Fifth day 
 meetings are regularly held. Of the peaceful they are the 
 most peaceful. Neither minister nor elder is fired by the 
 zeal of George Fox, their founder, to enter the sanctuaries 
 of others and cry aloud against their ungodliness ; nor do 
 angry churchmen or magistrates feel it incumbent to 
 abate the Quaker by prison bars or gibbets. That they 
 were once in a large majority on the island I have never 
 wondered. Its air is suited to their peaceful thoughts, 
 and the thoughts, in their turn, have given tone to the 
 people. Conscience is everywhere manifested. The 
 cheats and petty knaves can almost be counted on one's 
 
 fingers. 
 
 In no other community has woman been exalted to the com- 
 manding position she holds on the island. In the religious 
 meetings of the Society of Friends, her gift to preach was 
 as readily recognized as that of man. Husband, and 
 brother, and son, were away on protracted voyages, often 
 lasting for years, and to the wives was confided and upon 
 them was thrown the responsibility of the nurture and 
 education of children and the care and management of 
 
woman's position. 147 
 
 property. How well they performed the tasks thus as- 
 signed to them is manifest in the character of their de- 
 scendants. Woman was the active force in moulding the 
 character of the people ; and though there are but few 
 of the Friends left, she still occupies the proud posi- 
 tion accorded to her on the island a century and a half 
 ago. In public meetings her right to speak is a matter of 
 course. In nearly every society women are among the 
 officers, and sometimes they hold the highest positions. 
 The culmination of this feeling is found in the fact that 
 the present pastor of the Congregational Church — the 
 oldest on the island — is a lady and a native. For years 
 the society had had difficulty in procuring stated preach- 
 ing. The intelligent manner in which she had spoken at 
 meetings resulted in her taking the pulpit for a single day, 
 and so well did she fill the position that she has continued 
 for four years, though without ordination, at the head of 
 the congregation. At last, in 1884, she was formally 
 ordained to the pastorate, and her daily life and her words 
 uttered from the pulpit alike testify how well she is fitted 
 for the office. 
 
 But on The Bank, for near two centuries, there was no 
 edifice dedicated to religious worship. In latter years, 
 with a large summer population, the want of such a struc- 
 ture was felt. A little chapel was built. It was eclectic 
 in its origin. To raise funds for its construction people 
 of all shades of belief chipped in. Orthodox and hetero- 
 dox; dogmatist and latitudinarian ; trinitarian and uni- 
 tarian ; the believer in eternal torments for the wicked, 
 and he for whom sheol and hades have no terrors ; the 
 communicant who insisted upon immersion as a means of 
 saving grace, and he who believed that sprinkling is ample ; 
 hardshell and pedobaptist; high churchman and low 
 churchman, each contributed of his means, and by another 
 
148 DIVINITY. 
 
 summer the building was completed. During the season, 
 visiting ministers of different denominations address the 
 assembled worshipers representing beliefs as manifold as 
 the hues of Joseph's ulster. But with such an origin, and 
 with such a congregation, strict doctrinal sermons are not 
 heard within the portals of the little chapel. Were they, 
 the teachings of a summer would present a startling 
 mosaic of incongruous theological views. But there is no 
 disposition on the part of teachers to excite religious ani- 
 mosity. The air of the island discourages it. And as 
 the metes and bounds of sectarian domains in the Chris- 
 tian world are perpetually shifting, by reason of one sect, 
 in meek and lowly spirit, poaching upon the preserves of 
 another, until now the lines of deraarkation have, in some 
 cases, become confused, if not almost obliterated, it is not 
 probable that theological disputes will ever be heard in 
 'Sconset chapel loud enough to drown the roar of the 
 breakers upon the beach. 
 So mote it be. 
 

 >Vi^ 
 
TXIE 
 
 Credible Chronicles 
 
 OF 
 
 The Patchwork Village, 
 
 'SOOISrSET BY THE SEA. 
 
 EVELYN T. UNDERHILL & CO., 
 
 NO. 22 SPBUCE STKEET, NEW YOEK. 
 
 1886. 
 
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