Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1908 — CAST UP BY THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

CAST UP BY THE SEA.

[Just above high water mark at Boca, Ratom, Dade county, Florida, there is a lonely grave in which lies the remains of a young and very beautiful woman, who was washed ashore some time ago. There was no clew whatever as to her identity or as to whether it was a case of suicide, shipwreck or murder, and so to save the county expense the sheriff ordered her buried close to the place where she was found.]

At Boca Ratom where the beach Is wide, ■ And the surf breaks fierce on the flowing tide, From billowy depths as they toss and roar, The form of a woman was washed ashcre. From billowy depths of unlimited sea, How far she had come was a< mystery. No loved one had followed to whisper her worth, To tell of her home, to tell of her birth. Alone had she drifted from vacant deep Alone and all silent in death’s cold sleep. 'Twas naught to her now that the fickle wave. Had ene refused her a watery grave. Nor nothing indeed that the shifting sand, And the unsought aid of a stranger’s hand. Had offered a heaven of rest at last, On the flowery land where her corpse was cast

Whatever her story, how weary or sad, How noble, how earnest, how awful, how glad, It is here at at end and the misty foam, Weep sad, sad tears o’er her last long home. And the swaying palmetos that shelter her bed. To the Wind makes moan o’er the unknown dead. While travelers hushed by the ocean’s boom, Hear from God at that lonely tomb. —Frank W. Austin, Hypoluxo, Fla., Fob. 14, IMS. 0