202 



RECREATION 



fitted out by old Van Linkle met a 

 slaver fitted out by a worthy and pro- 

 gressive citizen of Long Island. Van 

 Linkle's ship had been unsuccessful in 

 making trade with the lumbering big 

 East India men and was lying off Mada- 

 gascar awaiting its consort when the 

 Long Island slaver hove in sight. The 

 crew of Van Linkle's vessel were 

 hungry for prize money and they 

 brought such pressure to bear upon 

 their commander that he ran up the 

 black flag to the masthead and opened 

 upon his Long Island neighbor to 

 such an effect that the latter surren- 

 dered after the first fire. When the 

 two crews met there were so many ac- 

 quaintances and former shipmates 

 among the slaver's crew that the pirate 

 deemed it safer that none should re- 

 turn to tell of the neighborly man- 

 ner in which they had been treated by 

 their New York friends, so they all, 

 from the captain to the cook, walked 

 the plank, as also did all the wounded 

 blacks. The healthy and sound negros 

 were transferred to the pirate ship and 

 after the slaver was scuttled the busi- 

 ness transaction was deemed complete. 

 But for the safety of the crew of 

 Van Linkle's ship it was thought wise 

 that all should swear themselves to 

 secrecy. This done, the yards were 

 squared and with joyous thoughts of 

 home and friends the precious vessel, 

 manned and commanded by the hus- 

 bands and sweethearts of the bright- 

 eyes dames and lassies of what is now 

 America's greatest city, sailed merrily 

 home. The venture proved profitable 

 inasmuch as they fell in with some 

 other ships and received from them 

 valuable cargoes of silks, spices, rum 

 and wines, which were disposed of at 

 New York at prices that far exceeded 

 what was spent for powder and shot. 

 But one of the sailors, when half seas 

 over, told more of their adventures 

 than was wise, and the mother of a 

 bright lad, who had walked the plank 

 at Madagascar, came old Van Linkle 

 and put a curse on him : "Fatal will 

 your fortune be to all males of thy 



name," said she. "By blood it was 

 gained and blood shall follow its course 

 through thy male descendants." 



I am not superstitious, but as I ran 

 over the records of the estate I could 

 not but feel that the succession of fatal 

 accidents that had befallen the male 

 Van Linkles" was remarkably bloody 

 and curiously enough only occurred 

 after the inheritance of the Van Linkle 

 money. 



Old Van Linkle's son was married 

 and had a large family, but hardly had 

 he had the papers straightened out 

 after his father's death than he fell 

 from a scaffolding in front of a new 

 house that was being erected on the 

 estate and was instantly killed by being 

 impaled upon a picket fence below, 

 and so they died, but none before the 

 time of inheriting the fatal fortune. 

 And yet the curse seemed to have had 

 no immediate designs to exterminate 

 the Van Linkles, for up to the present 

 time there had been no difficulty in 

 finding heirs for the estate. A chapter 

 of accidents that are all, each and every 

 one, explainable by natural causes, but 

 when taken as a whole and in connec- 

 tion with the mother's curse, a truly re- 

 markable chain of accidents from which 

 the females of the family seem oddly 

 free, for the two old ladies who had re- 

 cently died at the remarkable ages of 

 ninety-six and ninety-eight years, had 

 enjoyed their fortune for many years 

 of their quiet and uneventful life, and 

 lived on one of the busiest streets of 

 our great city, where they kept a cow 

 and chickens on land which could only 

 be purchased by literally covering it 

 with money. 



Robert Van Linkle, the man with the 

 rifle in the family portrait, emigrated 

 to the wilderness which then bordered 

 the shores of the great northern lakes. 

 There he traded and trapped with the 

 Indians as late as 1825, since which 

 time nothing had been heard of him 

 and I had found no record of his mar- 

 riage, though there must be some peo- 

 ple living who knew him personally. 



Old Bob Van Linkle, the trapper, 



