The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-21

dread eclipse had 80 extraordinary a sequel.
The suferings, the bitterness, the privations,
the heart-sickness from hope deferred, with
tentative human will bearing up manfully
against all in that affrighting clinging to life
upon the ice foe, have already reached
us in skeleton. The imagination of
the reader, then, filing in the details
of wild and varied emotion, will be found to
have fallen far short of the reality as it reaches
us now. To the courage, tact, pertinacity
and incessant watchfulness of Captain Tyson
are doubtless due the preservation of those
who with him on that stormy October night
were SO pitilessly, as it would seem, yet per-
haps SO mercifully, torn from the fated ship.
A shudder runs through tina frame at the
thought Of the terrors of their first night
upon the grooming ice with all human hope
shut of save such as might be born of hardy
self-reliance. To see the Polaris once
again, to hoist q black signal flag and
to see the ship disappear behind the
land, suggest an age of mingled hope
and despair. Prolong this dreary battle for
existence over six months picture the
friendly ice broken into fragments by howl
ing storms and washed over by angry waves !;
II, vn1y 80 v,sv ri
children-iving through it all, and you have
gained an idea of what humanity can bear and
can survive
From the death Of Captain Hall series of
brooding horrors crowds upon the shifting
scene The sufferings of the saved have been
terrible but who can say what has been the
lot Of those under the command OF Captain
Buddington, who were left behind, and who
doubtless, if living still, believe the party on
the ice already lost2 The conduct of Bud
dington to his superior while he was alive, his
alleged threats afterwards to others of the crew,
his lax discipline, the impression of
wilful abandonment which is embedded
in the minds Of the saved, are bad indications
on which TO prefgure the salvation of himself
or those with him. 1t is, in Captain Tyson's
experience, that to his frmness and tact the
preservation Of his party is due. The absence
of these qualities, the emotions evoked in a
sauce qui peM, and, if the mems belief in the
wilful abandonment be well founded, the
consciousness of guilt augur badly for
his surviving serious danger. Whether
something like the curse that followed the
Ancient Mariner be upon the ship and those
therein we have no desire to speculate, but
the Providence that saved these men to tell
their fearful, wondrous story may have as
great mercy in store for the human beings
upon the ship that the dim tale Of the one
death in Polaris Bay may be told in the light
Of day.
Those who carefully read the report in the
HERALD to-day will lay it down with deep
regret for the persisted hero of the expe-
Charles F. Hall. The
high trust reposed in him he proved himself
worthy Of. Speculation on what ''might
have been" is fruitless now, but we cannot
be wrong in feeling that when his indomitabse
energy and pure simple-mindedness were
gone disaster became near probability,
almost necessary consequence. The great
feat that he did accomplish of bringing his
ship SO far north as eighty-two degrees six
teen minutes will place his name among the
highest of those daring explorers who
triumphed or died in the frigid zone. These
circumstances make it imperative that his un-
timely death be made the subject of searching
investigation now and when the remainder
are reached, if they should have the especial
good fortune to survive It will, when all
made clear, if ever, be ''strange, eventful
history as ever crossed the seven ages Of
man.
LOCAL OPTION VETOED. -Governor Dix last
night returned the Local Option bill to the
Assembly with his reasons for Withholding his
signature. This bill proposed to allow each
community to decide by a vote of the people
whether, within their respective bounds, the
traffic in liquor should or should not be
licensed. It has been urged by those who
wish to see the trade wholly stopped or very
largely curtailed, and was passed rs a temper
ance measure. 1t has for several days been
known that Governor Dix believed the bill
unconstitutional and would probably decline
to sign it. Its friends were therefore pre-
pared for the message, and assert that they