Show II A I GREEN PEPPERS ERS AND SALEM GOLD I I y New England must h hale e been full t i of sea captains In those those k glamorous old days ays when the clipper were bringing home red cornelian necklaces necklaces necklaces neck neck- laces and camels camel's hair shawls preserved preserved preserved pre pre- served ginger Canton crepe willow willowware willowware willowware ware nests of gay lacquer boxes and carve carved teakwood tables to Ire We bleak Puritan parlors of Boston and Nantucket Nan- Nan The fhe They seem to have populated populate e ed the north Atlantic seaboard for everybody one meets has a a- a captain a-captain for an ancestor Never ever yet has there been discovered a descendant of a sailor In the forecastle an and no one has ever admitted such an s position except Dana and Melville Mel lel- yule ville who washed themselves of the sea eb by Ly writing V 1 l hooks books o about It It p Perhaps Perhaps Per Per- haps suggest Sydney and Marjorie in Gold o of Ophir Dou- Dou Page bleday-Page Co poor Jsck was too improvident to marry an and l leave children In commenting upon the curious fact that only sons and daughters of captains survive Be that as it may It was an age to fire the Imagination of ot the dullard While Boston and New NewYork NewYork NewYork York were the great merchant ports Nantucket specialized in whaling and Salem had a mine of oriental wealth peculiarly her own In 1798 Jonathan Carnes Games calling at the port of ot Be coolen heard that pepper grew wild on the northwest shore of Sumatra When he returned he whispered the news to Jonathan peele whereupon Peele-whereupon whereupon Peele keeping a close mouth all the while fitted out the the Rajah and sent lent her herto herto herto to the far cast east under the command Of Carnes Eighteen months later Carnes sailed into Salem harbor with a cargo which proved to be al almost almost almost al- al most as precious as that fine CIne gold Jold golddust du dust dut t with which Solomon Is said to have powdered the hair of his gen- gen in ln All Salem gapIng gap gap- Ing and sneezing from end to end of Cf Derby street was agog to know the whereabouts of ot this pungent dragons dragon's hoard More than one supper supper sup sup- per table In Salem became a secret council table where merchants and ci debated means of ot satisfyIng satisfy satisfy- Ing their curiosity When one night the Rajah again slipped shipped her cables under the cover of ot darkness and glided elided away noiselessly with muffled muffled muffled fled fled lights out of the surrounding shadows swoop swooped d one or another waiting schooner owned by bv the rival merchants borne close on her heels by the wind that carried her herout out Across the Atlantic they tracked her and southward to the Cape of Hope I and up the other coast of Africa past Madagascar and Mauritius and that spot In the till burning Indian ocean where Salemmer Salem mer were accustomed to turn off to Calcutta Bombay Dombay and Madras past the booming shores of Ceylon Celon and andi i r- r t ui v across the the dreamy waters that lead to Java and they chaperoned her still watchful into the harbor of ot Then one morning the they woke to find that the intense calm light of ot the tropical dawn darn awn upon those waveless seas no longer made luminous the one sail they had followed followed followed fol fol- fol- fol lowed like a beacon light half around the world from Salem harbor harbor har har- bor her and anci where she had gone kone In all that lush world worM of Jungle and still salt water no one would undertake to say So back they went to Salem with their tails between their legs so to speak prosaically lad n with tea And found the Rajah there be before before he- he fore tore them she and her pepper exasperatingly exasperatingly exasperatingly exas- exas triumphant Jonathan Peele was now a rich man Such secrets are not kept forever The contagion Jonathan Peele had caught on a germ of ot pepper soon Infected some of his friends and neighbors also Henceforth Sumatra was added to the far eastern dominIon dominion dominion domin domin- ion that already Included India and news of the depre depredations of the Algerian corsairs was henceforth agreeably varied with the spirited adventures of Salem men among the Malay pirates |