The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1854-10-18
From tho New Y,rk Express
The SignaIGs Gsnn. u

Amidst all the terrible incidents attend
ant upon the destruction of the Arctic, which
we have been receiving these two days past,
there is one that impresses us with feeling
of awe and admiration, and shows all the
world that the age Of heroes is not yet al
together gone by. We refer to the young
man, whose post of duty throughout all that
trying scene was the firing off signal gun,
at intervals, in the hope of attracting the
attention of vessels from distance to the
scene Of disaster. While all around him
were death and despair, in bold relief there
he stood, (like Hope herself) with the calm
determination OF q true hero, dischargng
gun after gun, until the gallant ship went
down beneath the waves. Here was a cou-
rage and manliness-a defiance of death
and an adhesion to duty-we might walk
over the most famous batte.6elds in histo-
ry, to look for and not find The soldier
who braves the King of Terrors at the can
mons mouth, is animated by species of
courage improvised for the occasion, by the
"pomp and circumstance" around him.
There can be properly no towards when
men are drawn up in battle array, with
drums beating, colors flying, and thoughts
of reward and promotion fitting through
the brain it victory is won. Dastards dare
anything then under such stimulants. But
the bravery of the battlefield is not the
bravery which was shown by our young he
70 of the wreck. The former is species
of unnatural courage-it is of an animal
nature; but the latter was moral courage of
the highest and nobest kind. With his
lighted match he seemed to stand, on the
quarter deck of that devoted ship, hurlng
defiance, as it we're, in the very jaws of
death itself. Others were desperately
struggling for life; he alone seemed to have
resolved to demonstrate how man may die
at his post Of duty, without dread or fear,
in the midst of horrors that would make
most men towards. Awlully impressive,
indeed terribly melo-dramatie-was the
last scene of all, in which our young hero
shone forth, wringing exclamations of ad-
miraton even from lips that were buffeting
the hungering waters, then murmuring for
their prey. STEWART HoLLAND* (for that
was his name) "could not be induced to
leave the ship; his post was at the gun,
from first to last, firing signals; he kept fir
ing that gun at intervals till the ship went
down. We saw him in the very act of.friny
as the . ,sSel disappeared belo,o he ,oaters.''
HI NlcCh VI NOHhuH uuyS SuCH u man, II
he had not awarded him the honors of def
cation, would have had Senates decreeing
him statues aud monuments everywhere, to
commemorate his deeds, that his example
might not be lost upon posterity.. His con-
duct is given a new luster, eontrasted with
that Of, the cravens who, only anxious to
save their own lives, shut their ears to the
shreks of the helpless women and children
that were graphing with horrors all around
and about them. Honor, then, eternal hon
or, to him who went down to death a con-
> queror of death! That noble ship had ma
ny noble spirits on bord, but none nobler
than he.
/ a {, .-is i..,,t-r.t.~f} .tF
''1'hc brave man is not he Who feels no fear,
For that sHlpM and irrati6na:h ar
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And brayey braves the danger nature shrinkS from"