Show tragedies t e Great ELIZABETH By R CANNON CANNONi ANNO p i E S St SI i t I I I I i i f I k I k I t t I m On the bleak shores of the Great Salt lake I SHIPWRECKED TT T HE lone man in the fearfully rock rocking rocki THE X i ing little boat stood up and scanned the there a sun glared through black clouds douds and slowly sank into the Great Salt lake He turned to the black hills of Antelope island which loomed ahead The wind from the south lashed the surface of the Dead Sea into k heavy waves overwhelming in hi their forte force To make Platts Landing he I would have to run between the island and the shore through gh three miles of shallow waterway treacherous in its sands and uncertain in its ita i l rocks reeks The rain came down in sheets and lashed the sullen waters The wind bulged the sail and drove the boat steadily shoreward In sheer despera desperation desperation desperation tion the man turned the prow toward the open lake although it was now so black he could not see his liI 11 hand before him Fighting with the wind he furled the sail his wet shoulders shivering in inthe inthe the night air airs while the salt spray dashed around his Ids head The wind drove him toward the rocks and struggle struggle gle as he would there was no with withstanding withstanding withstanding standing the steady onslaught of the water He was already on the reef and his hie heart sickened as ashe ashe ashe he heard the boat crunch on the rocks reeks G The next thing he knew he was chok choking choking chokIng ing in the lake his hili ears drumming his eyes ries blinded and his throat smarting wIth n Uh the salt It He lay y flat fiat on top of the water writhing with pam pahi At last when his aching muscles could stand the strain no longer he fought his way down into the water when to his joy his feet teet touched bottom As An he walked landward through the heavy water the waves naves lashed against his back hack At last lt he pulled his feet teet out of the water ajer er and flung himself exhausted on on the sand the bitter bi r cold coldA col colA A Blazing Sun SunHe SunHe SunHe He must have hae lost consciousness s for when he came to the sun was blazing on him and the barren rocks around him v were ere already emanating heat In a tiny hollow he found a cupful of the nights rain still lUll left He dipped his wv S SS S S S i The sun glared through black clouds then sank into the lake chief in it and moistened his parched lips Then he scrambled up a crag and looked far out put across the sunlit sea There was the great waste of sea with brown hillocks of islands jutting up here and there As near as s he could ten tell he was on one of them which one he did not know Around round him lay the gray sagebrush relieved by the flaunt flaunting flaunting ing lag red of the Indian Paint Brush The only sign of life Ufe was a green lizard liArd sun sunning sUnning sunning ning Itself on a rock below Beneath he saw some timbers the wreckage of his boat On scrambling down d he reeled led and barely caught himself when he realized realised dizzily that he be had not nt t tasted food since the be day before The man dragged the boards higher up on the shore then went back for a drink The waterhole was dry Instantly he became po possessed of ofa ofa ofa a raging thirst He ran raM wildly among the rocks but saw no signs of water Then he remembered that the islands of the lake did not possess fresh water He espied a blue pool at the bottom of ofa ofa ofa a ravine He climbed down the sheer side of a cliff terribly lacerating his hands only on reaching it to find the basin encrusted with salt and the water like lye in his throat t The maroon threw himself face downward and buried burled his head in the hot sand und How long he lay there he did not know but when hen he rose the afternoon sun was slanting over the pitiless sea He looked at the mocking water then laughed The hollow bollow laugh lauCh came back from the rocks and struck his ears Id rei better search while I can walk he lie muttered aa as he tottered along the beach It seemed as if he had gone miles He saw aw no sl signs ns of life Ufe except screeching white gulls that napped happed their wings above aboe abo him and a coiled rattler in the shadow of a salt It bush Ahead of him hImas aa as behind him lay the desert so in the cool of the evening he turned and me mechanically retraced his steps i Lights Signal Fire The shipwrecked mariner heaped up the debris of his boat bOOt into a pile and with the matches from his vest pocket set it afire As the flames crackled up he vainly hoped that someone would see the smoke moke of his I signal fire and come to his rescue re cue As Aa the last embers died away in the gray dawn he felt a dull dun throbbing in iR his throat threat His mouth was now so BO parched he could scarcely speak He took oft off his white shirt and with a 11 charred stick sUck wrote on it I Here died John Dallin who was wu shipwrecked op CUI this tb Island I land July S 8 1880 1881 1 I He Re fastened this with boulders on a huge rock facing the lake where it flut fluttered fluttered fluttered nice like a white flag fl c of peace On scraps of his undershirt which he tore tore to shreds he wrote Lost Ship Shipwrecked Shipwrecked Shipwrecked wrecked his name and the date and fastened them to clumps of sagebrush brum He did not tell ten the date of his death nor where to fled find his body He lie won wondered wondered wondered dered vaguely vague how much m ch longer It would last lastA lastA A blue blaze upon the waters w tera to the east eastA t tA A blaze blue upon the Island Viand overhead A blue blaze upon the tile waters water to the he wit wast t tADd And ADd again the scarlet shan shafts of sunrise e But no sail all After that he knew no more mw The next morning two horsemen picked their way down the barren slopes lopes keeping a wary jary lookout for tor a wildcat that had been making depredations depredations depredations on their cattle One of the men reached over and flicked something white with his whip He held up to the astonished gaze pae of the other a piece of white cloth on which was scrawled the theone theone theone one word Lost What lost Io t he asked laconically Jaco John Dallin the other cried dis displaying displaying playing his find Perhaps that other flag flar of truce over oYer there will give some me further information Information tion It did was wai shipwrecked Well eI elt why di nt the Ute guy walk across the wand l land to his friends muttered the cattleman Guess GIM S Its up to us to find his banes bena bon bonA A fourth slip informed them that it was July 88 38 Great areat Scott Scotti and aDd tile tho Why only three day daYs ago agol I 1 He HI H must be stilt still allver After two hours search they found fund him lying on the ground stripped to the thc waist burning with fever and am mut rant muttering muttering deliriously They carried him across the of hills hUls that divides the island down to the ranch house on the other side aide It was Antelope island and the fertile side is as different from the barren as aa fresh freshwater tre h water springs can make it Here on the green slopes browse herds of cattle and buffalo not undisturbed wholly by byan byan byan an occasional wildcat SCOURGE OF CRicKETS CRICKETS The pioneers p separated by 1200 1 miles from supplies in la tile the east litter alter a winter of privation anxiously awaited the harvest It was Wa an early spring they had bad sown all aU their seed the grain was flourishing and the young trees were in leaf when in May the air suddenly be became came catoe dark with a horde of crickets so vast that tM it obscured the sun They settled on a field and straightway the green disappeared as by magic and left only furrowed rows of brown earth The greedy insects devoured every ever blade of grass every green leaf and with it the promise of next seasons bread More direful than the plagues of Egypt was this scourge of crickets to the Utah pioneers Crushing the baleful pests under their feet the people walked hopelessly abroad in the blaze blaH of the noonday son the shifting air with myriads m s of wings and viewed desolation the Efforts were were unavailing for fr who can Opt light millions m though they be but crickets When the inhabitants gave up in hi despair d and stared famine in the face behold from over the lake ap appeared appeared appeared myriads of snowwhite gulls Was this another scourge visited upon them The birds settled on the fields everywhere and pounced upon the cri crickets kels and swallowed them They gorged themselves Even after atter their stomachs were filled they still devoured them On Sunday the t tile e people left the fields to the birds and the next ext I day found on the edges of the ditches great piles plies of dead crickets that had been swallowed and thrown up by the greedy gulls Toward evening the gulls took flight and disappeared beyond the lake but each day returned at sunrise until the scourge was past So the people lived through the next winter Today no one is allowed to kill a sea seagull seagull seagull gull in Utah and they screech reech s and flap their great wings on Hat and Gunnison islands in the lake their special domain over which they rule as lords lorda of all they survey MAROONED From the time that Captain Fremont first landed and called it Disappoint Disappointment ment isle because he found there no fertile plains nor nor lowing herds but only heaps of guano and barren rocks down to the present the island that bears his name is enveloped in gloom Fresh water it has in stagnant pools A flock of sheep were left there to graze the owners quite forgetting that the thel lake icke l ke rises in the spring The lake water flooded the brackish lagoons converted them to salt and the sheep died of thirst As a result of an Investigation de demanded demanded demanded by a trial over a shooting af affray affray fray tray a body was ws unearthed in the City cemetery The corpse was wag found tum turn b d face downward with every strip of clothing nothing removed Cloth was then scarce in the valley vaHey and it was discovered ered that John Baptist the gravedigger had been robbing the dead of their cerements little children aged grand grandfathers grandfathers grandfathers fathers girls in the early bloom of wo womanhood womanhood manhood alike Strengthened though many of the people were by the hard hardships hardships ships of pioneer life Ufe they rose In horn horri fiod revolt at this desecration of their dead The culprit was branded on the fore forehead forehead forehead I head and marooned with provisions f ft r three months on Fremont Island The Tte boatmen who took him out humanely y stopped and built him a hut of coughs before they left At the expiration of the time when they went to him they found no traces of John Baptist He had com corn completely completely disappeared Some of the hoards boards had been torn tom from his hut and It was conjectured that he had made a raft and embarked on the briny sea in an effort to escape I Did the man with the strange strang inn Ian I mark burned on his brow reach re ch shore in lIld 1 start on a new life ur in the then trackless t desert of the west or was be he wallowed up by the sullen waters of if f the Inland Sea Who can tell Cert Certain t tain tam un it is if it it did take him unto itself it never gave his body back but l 1 Lpt pt him for its own |