Show 0 C I 1 r the I 1 he 2 wakening of wildwood by stanley E bohison Jo hison I 1 copyright by sh twenty years ago nobody went to wildwood and yet 20 years ago its mountains were as picturesque its sunsets as gorgeous the white moon lent streaming through the tops of ito ta fall tall dark pines was as glorious find and impressive as today to day but now from an unknown crossroads cross roads it has haa become one of the most noted and important places on the white mountain map of summer travel the little place that slumbered Is bounding with life prom from tile the first day of july to the first week of october every year more baggage Is handled at wildwood junction in a single day than had bad entered the township in ili the whole course of its existence prior to its awakening and its awakening was brought about by the great transformer death this la Is how it came to pass in the best room of the lonely hillside farmhouse of abraham jenkins a room seldom opened except to the minister and book agents were assembled one november day the clans of the and Por kinses to attend the funeral of the late martha perkins jenkins Jenk lna the farmers wife A stalwart son the eldest of a family of nine children had after abraham himself given voluble testimony to their high appreciation of the departed the leanest of a covey of maiden sisters of the deceased took the widower aside and said conly hope she knows how yer feelen fer far her it would bo be a good bit satisfying satisfy in to her im sure she eez to me once aez she ef I 1 go I 1 know that abell marry some young thing that ne verll tek no interest nt erest in the young cries ones and be left ter shift but ye do that would ye abe disregarding this pointed appeal abraham jenkins cleared his throat and addressed the assembled company ive jest decided ter tell ye allon alonga sl onga glo yer all here that ive sort 0 felt ez of et I 1 mhd foller her soon so ive bought a lot in the graveyard to be paid for fer in installments instalments and when I 1 die I 1 want yer ter put me by the side bide of marthy then I 1 shell rest in peace rhems my final instructions turning to the ma maiden id a n sa s1 sisters S ter 8 of h his 1 s lamented wife he added 1 I know ye yell tek good care 0 them youngsters that marthy sot so much store by then he broke down and sobbed wildly oh marthy marthy why hey hev yo ye gone four months after the funeral another mrs abraham jenkins was installed in the lonely farmhouse a and n d she was all that the first mrs airs jenkins had foreboded foreboder fore boded young and frisky pretty matilda brice had attracted abraham jenkins at a grange sociable and his mourning had ceased from that moment that there should be great indignation among the Jen jenkinsen kinses and more or less astonishment as ment in the community at large was a matter of course but it was some months after the wedding of nt th the a w widower dower 1 before bedfor 0 a marble slab mysteriously appeared in the new jenkins lot in the village cemetery bearing the following inscription HIE WAS WIM the first stranger to notice the oddity of this bit of mortuary sculpture was a touring bicyclist what could it mean he be wondered the sexton whom lie he happened to catch on the premises denied all knowledge of the significance of the inscription but he grinned the bicyclist was followed not long afterwards by a visitor in a bi buggy iggy soon sooil the country swains with their companions drove from places placed 25 miles away to read and I 1 ponder 0 o ader upon the inscription picnic parties came and gazed upon it ft and after eating luncheon in the grove ot of tall pines now known as wildwood went ant away to spread the intelligence of the peculiar monument in wildwood cemetery and extol the charms of tha neighborhood the years sped swiftly by and bits of moss and lichen gathered in the deeper lines of the carved index and clung to the angles of the sculptured letters but an increasing army of visitors noted that the traces of time and decay were periodically cleaned aw away ay by unseen hands the seasons passed each bringing now new curloss seekers tY from a wider radius to behold the inexplicable legend and exercise their ingenuity upon its interpretation summer boarders began to come from now new york and doston boston and tourists ort story atory pub co from the south and the flat treeless tre elesa regions of the middle west to whom the towering peaks and dense sweet smelling woods were as inspiring as aa they were we re unfamiliar then to the amazement of everybody when abraham jenkins bicaro a widower for a second time the lono one ly slab was discovered to have hake a 4 earn corn panion canlon on the opposite family lot it was thus inscribed inscribe he was mine this second dazzling grav gravestone estoile api ap feared one day in march before the season was over wildwood had bad built its first summer hotel and planned and subscribed the capital for the narrow narron gauge branch around swallow hill to connect with the railroad at what it now wildwood junction the now new road had hardly been run ning two seasons when abraham jen jan kins white haired and tottering fol lowed tits his second wife to the grave yard to which after his funeral at al eyes were again turned among th tbt townspeople it had always been sua bus pecked that the first slab was put ua by the Por kinses and the second will monay money left by the consort who had bad been matilda brice these tures were confirmed when the will oj oi abraham jenkins was read and i 1 gravestone was erected in accordance with his last instructions be between tweet those of his departed partners and it was also conceded that in death ho he had proved equal in wit to all his wives relations for this was the sculpture it bore surmounted by hands attached I 1 to arms arma spread out as if in benedict benediction lon I 1 WAS THEIRS THEIR t tourists today to day throng to wildwood in greater numbers than ever tour laments are played on the golf links of hotel wildwood and the tennis courts of the minster near the blots clots ter pines dear bear nook nick glen g I 1 an artists point and lectern ledge are visited by shoals of sightseers in buckboards iv ID automobiles on horseback and afoot and the views from sunset rock were never finer but the tado of curl curi osley has ebbed away from ake little cemetery on the hill where the bones of abraham jenkins rest between those of his bis two wives and they and the feuds of their families are almost forgotten |