Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-12-09

so the narrative runs-''we must fight 1T |
through 7 oh, Frasier = answered he,
i can't hold out any longer. % 81 q Then
a heavy sea broke upon us, and knock
ed him off. | found it impossible to
hang on, and was forced to let him CO.
And so the story ends. The body of
Pilot Elson, worn out by his incessant
labors, floats away into the great deep,
there to lie till the sea shall give up its
dead. For hour after hour be had la
bored and toiled, wasting himself and
his strength in the effort to succor those
whom he had under his charge. A hun
dred times over he forgot to think of
himself; he broke his great heart in an
obstinate effort to save, not himself, but
the others. All night he swan around
the raft, Tightening rope here, wedg-
ing in spar there when the native
boy was delirious he handed him the
last drop of water when hope grewdes-
perate his CHEEKY voice brought back
fresh life and strength to the desolate;
and at last-when all his strength had
gone, when those stout limbs were cold
and numbed and well-nigh dead, and
faintness, brought on by the deluging
salt spray and the dreadful binding sun,
had set in, even then the brave man dies
as he ought to have died-ending no.
bly, Il told him." says Fraser, ''that
if be couldn't hold on | would lash him.
He then made some exclamation about
his poor wife. and said, Il will try to
stand it, but huge wave, rearing its
hundred foaming crests against the skies,
washed Paul Elson of-his body to the
deep, and his soul to his God.
Who can wish for brighter example,
for nobler death than this? Paul
Elson has passed away his body floats
off the lonely Hooghly mouth. If miss
ed by the sharks, it will be washed
ashore ON some foul mud swamp, rank
and fetid as the banks of the Thames at
low water. There it will ground among
the crawling mangrove roots, d prey tc
crabs and other vile creatures of the fou1
morass. Vultures will flock to it al
ligators will scramble over it the brave
mans bones will lie bleaching till the
day comes when they shall be hidden by
Natures hands but who, be his Greco
what it may, can doubt that Paul Elson
late pilot of the Rothesay. is now ratet
high on the books of life; that his valo
has its reward that his good deeds ar
written down? What he had to Civ
, was his life; and this he freely and un
sparingly lavished to save the lives o
. others. The French cynic, being aske
why he valued existence, replied that
little as it was, it yet was all that tn
spite of fate allowed us to call our OWL
To a warm-hearted man, such as wa
this brave pilot, life is no such privat
matter. Dear to such dispositions a
/ Paul Elson's are the embraces of thei
wives, the prattle of their little one
Ii round their knee, the silver head of tn
9 father sitting by the freside; of til
Il mother, who is old, but yet full of a
| life's pride as the sight of her bra,
'0 stalwart son blesses her failing eye
All this the man gave up from first
q last he never once thought of himself
. he was pilot of the ill-fated Rothesa.
' and his duty was to his ship. Whe
= his ship went down his duty was to h,
" crew and so from first to last, from IL
" moment when the cyclone broke, to IL
% terrible hour when the great curlir
- wave knocked the life out of him, Il
sturdy, simple hearted fellow workt
d. steadily on. spending himself for other
= 1t is one thing to die in the full thund
- of battle-to fall, calling forward Il
bold ranks to victory, and holding I
- in the gay sunlight the cherished ba
ner, split and torn to ribbons with sh
~ and she'll. Another kind of death tn;
~ this was Elson's His life was beat,
> out of him by the fierce, relentless, tro
ical sum- And yet-though in ye
~ y, or two his name itself will be forgott
among those who cherish and hon
90 great deeds, his memory can never fac
~ He did all that man could do; he di
i0 as man should die and when the Col
, en- Book is made up, and the roll of &c
W uine heroes called over, amongst tht
~ will answer to his name Paul Elson,
- lot Of the Rothesay, whose life was b
', tered out of him because he stuck to
on duty.
mt
nd A few days since young lady of |
be bana, Ohio. who had been i'll a sh
IS, time, died. and the body was prepa1
ID by sorrowing friends and attendants
ito interment and placed in the coffin I