The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-04-22
GaIes, SkettBrs, 5nrtOotes, &e.
DA LIE W rs.
THE GRACE DARLING OF AMERICA.

Thirty years ago, just at the dawn of a
stormy September morning, Grace Dar-
ling, the daughter of the Longstone light
house se-keeper, on the English oast,
launched a boat on the raging tide, and
rescued, with her reluctant fathers aid,
and at the imminent peril of ner life, nine
persons from the disastrous wreck Of the
Forfarshire steamer. For this fearless
and noble act, done in her 23d year,
praises and rewards were heaped upon
her in unstinted measure, fund of S3,>
500 was subscribed for her benefit, the
remaining four years of her life were
crowned with every comfort, and her name
has passed into current usage as a syno-
nym for an unselfish and heroic woman.
Two weeks since, toward the close of a
stormy March afternoon, Ida Lewis, the
intrepid daughter of the Lime Rock light
keeper, in Newport Or. / harbor per-
formed deed that places her side by sides
in point of self-sacrificing courage, with
the Grace Darling of England, and
rounds a career of even greater useful>
ness in the saving of human life. The
rain fell that day in binding torrents, and
the gale drove the waves across the har-
Dor with fury that taxed the full strength
and skill of the most experienced boat
men. In the midst of this storm, reck-
less boy, scarely IA years old, who had
somehow obtained possession of one of
smallest and most unsafe sail-boats in the
| harbor, (since christened the ''soldier
| drowner,") succeeded in persuading two
soldiers, Sergt. James Adams and Pri-
vate John Mclaughlin, to let him carry
them across from the city, whittier they
| had gone to make some purchases, to
| Fort Adams, where they were stationed.
Anxious TO escape the dreary three mile
tramp by land, and believing the lads
assertion that he could manage the boat
as we'll as any one, they trusted them
selves in it, and made half the trip in
safety, but about midway in the harbor
a sudden blast struck the sail, the start
led boy jammed the helm in the wrong
direction, the boat capsized in an instant,
and the waves rolled it twice over, like the
veriest cookie shell. For long half hour
its luckless occupants clung to the keel,
and wrestled against the binding rain
and the fierce salt waves with all the en-
ergy of despair but finally the boys
strength was exhausted, his hold relaxed
-one clutch at McLaughlin's shoulder,
and, with frenzied laugh upon his lip,
he was gone Nor has any trace of him
since been seen. Fast paralyzed with
cold and almost bereft of hope the two
soldiers saw no chance left but to clasp
each other in last embrace, and sink to
mutual grave-when suddenly, out
from the Lime Rock, half mile away,
shot little boat, driven by rapid strokes
and sure, straight over the bounding waves
toward the drowning men. Hope kin
died in their breasts again, bat faded
when they saw in the boat only slender
youth, and a still slenderer woman plying
the oars On it swiftly came, however,
and the boy was almost reaching over the
side to grasp the nearest soldier, when his
quick-witted sister, crying, 'Stop, Hosey!
we shall be capsized that wayl'' turned
the boat with well-timed stroke, backed
it up, one man was drawn safely In over
the stern, another backward pull, another
lift, and the next moment the craft, with
its freight of rescued lives, was seudding
swiftly through The spray back TO the