New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-08-20
W. Everybody should sub
scribe for the New NATIONAL ERA
who favor justice to all men.
A COWardly ScOuidTel.


: rom the LOutSS1lIe Courier JOurnal.J
In our notices of the late disaster to the
steamer Pat Rodgers, we have given many
instances OF heroism on the part Of officers,
crew and passengers but there was one in
stance of such brutal cowardice that the sto-
nv Of its details will scarcely be believed.
We have the facts from sources whose truth
fulness cannot be doubted, and which de-
mand a more elaborate account than that
given in our river columns this morning. At
ter Charlie Dufour, who was at the wheel at
the time Of the disaster, found it impossible
to longer control the boat, and with the
flames rapidly nearing his post Of duty, he
ran down the stairs to the passenger deck.
The passengers-men, women and children,
who escaped from the cabin-were gathered
in group, with many members OF the crew
and deck passengers, at the bow of the boat
on the lower deck. Dufour found that the
large life-boat, which is placed bottom up
wards, just outside of the guards on the cab
in deck, had not been launched. He quickly
turned it over, caught hold of the long
"painter,' the other end Of which was at
tached to the bow of the life-boat, and
showed it off into the water. 1t was capable
Of holding eighteen or twenty persons, and
with it, every one of the women and child
rem congregated at the bow of the boat
could have been saved.
The boat was launched Just forward of the
wheel house. Still keeping his end of the
rope Dufour ran with it toward to bow, drag
ging the boat with him through the water
1t must be remembered that DufOur was on
the second deck, those whom he meant to
rescue, on the deck below him. In a mo-
ment more the boat would have been within
reach of the eager hands and brave hearts
who were waiting to seize it, place the women
and children in it, and send them to the shore
in safety. But when within ten or twelve
feet Of the expectant group, white man and
a negro jumped in, and before they could be
prevented, cut the rope and pushed the boat
out into the stream. The negro seems to
have made some remOnstrance, to which the
white scoundrel replied: shut your mouth,
damn you, or I'll break your head" Deaf
to the cries of the shrieking women and
children thus cut off from the rescue which
was near; unmindful Of the demands of the
men to return and save the helpless ones,
the cowardly brute rowed rapidly to the
shore, and reaching safely, pulled the boat
up on the bank and, it is supposed, fled to
the woods. BY its first step twenty of the
women and children could have been taken
to shore. Using this large boat afterwards,
many Of those struggling in the water,
drowning one by one because help could not
be had, would have been rescued. We have
accounts of fifty deaths by the disaster.
Thirty of them, it is confidently asserted,
could have been averted, had this lfeboat
been put to Its proper use.
We remember to have seen going the
rounds Of the press statement that negroes
filled the lifeboat and forcibly prevented the
whites ION occupying space which was am
Pile. The above, from an aati-negro paper,
sheds different light upon the affair. The
colored man, probably having lived under
the tyranny of the whites, was afraid to as
sert the impulses of humanity with which he
was filled, and the result was that many
persons came to an untmely end