The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-12-24

I
beth Whilelaw. Cway, ye lang daftie,'
says |, and beginning to tow her. Lo an
behold Pm grippit wi a man under the
the water 1t was her sweetheart. She
was hauding him doom. The hizzy was
~ reicht, but she was drOonin- the lad:
PARTS II these twa' lovers-for their
gude-and takS 'em ashore, one in eacl
hand. Aweel sirr, saved just one mair
and then | plunged in again, and sairch-
ed but there was nae mair to be seen
moo; three puir lasses were drooned:
bid / did ma ken that at the time. And
moo I'll tell ye farce. Pm seized wi
fintness, and maks for the sh res. But
gat weaker, and dazed like, and the
lights o Glasgee begins to flecker afore
my een and thinks |, TlNnO' see ye
again Pm done this ime.' 1t was all |
could do for the bare life, to drift to the
hinder part of the quay. | hadna the
power to draw myself GOT. just grippit
the quay, and sobbit The folk were a.
busy WI them / had saved; name of
them noticed me, and / wad ha' been
drOoned that NIGHT: but-wha dye think
saved me that had saved sac mOny ?-an
auld decrepit man: haw haw haw !
He had a hoOkit stick, and gied me the
handle, and towed me along the quay
into shallow water, and gat DOT, wi his
help, and swOoned deed away Pm tauld
| lay there npgleckit awhile; but they
flnd me at last, and then | had fifty nur-
ses for ane."
Have | exaggerated Does history re-
cord any other example ola ma. being
clutched bya great number Of drowning
people, and carried to the bottom, and
saving them all in the lump, and then
dashing gin and saving the outsiders in de-
tail?
By way of Illustration let the reader
imagine an umbrella-frame, and only
four or i've curved whalebOnes attached
to the top part of the upright now fasten
several other curved whalebones high
up to each of those four or five curves
Now plunge the whole frame into water
till the upright touches the ground. Not
one of the sixteen curved pieces will
JoucE the ground. But, in the water, if
a person, male or female, clings toa fixed
upright, that persons body floats up more
or less at all events, it inclines toward
the horizontal.
Now james Lambert, by artiiically
Strengthening his body, made himself the
stick of that human umbrella, or the up
richt post they all clung to directly or in
directly, and so were kept floating in
curve, instead Of sinking to the bottom.
This enabled him. but only by patiently
and artiully watching the fluctuations up
and DOM of those floating bodies, to
spring ut the nick of time from the hard
ground, and carry them all to the surface
for few seconds. The rest is detail, and
his own narrative makes it clear. But
see what intellectual and moral qualities
were here combined. Genius is often
without courage; courage is generally
without genius, and so indeed is bare
skill and, in desperate danger, how Of
ten has genius lost his head, and blum
dcred like an idiot; how often has cour-
age lacked invention, and relied on pre-
cedent, that did not fit the novel danger,
and so lead it to death. But this man,
even us his body touch, the water. was
all cool courage and swift inventive ge-
MUS. He did not repeat himself, us mere
skill does. Hagged in the water by Il sin
gle man-the baker-he hit, with prompt
invention, ON the one way to save both
lives he used the bakers own chest as
fulcrum, and so tore himself free. But
clutched by dozen, and more, he never
attempted to get free ut all, but straight
ened and stiflened himself into an up
right post, and used the ground as his full
crum, to save himself add those who were
drowning themselves and him.
| come, now, to the sad ending of all
these glorious deeds.
james Lam 'ert was up the river work
ing, but at what business | forget. An
engineer fell into the water, and sank for
the last time before james could get to-
the place.
Following the direction of persons on
the bank he flung himself from bridge
and dived for the man. But the others
had not marked the place precisely, and
when, after repeated efforts, he brought
the man to land, life was gone forever
To use his own words, 1T was dear
jump. lie lost his life, and | lost my
sight"
It was Winter, and he was perspiring
freely when he jumped into the icy wa-
ter
Very soon after, Il great dazzling seized
him, followed by darkness. 1t cleared
after time, and he saw again. But the
same thing occurred at intervals; anu,
by degrees, the attacks came oilener and
remained longer, until ut Last the dark
ness settled down, and the light fled for
ever.
Think Off. This twenty years he can
no longer see the "DOminie's hole" nor
l,,N 81 ha hoo
nor the "dead-houses," nor the Clyde it.
self, where every bend is the scene of
some great good feat he did. More than
fourscore eyes he rescued from the dark
ness of the grave; yet unjust fate, and
dire calamity, have not left him one poor
orb, to see the blessed day, and the faces
of those he has saved.
Now turn back to the story repeated
from the Glasgow Times, and surely you
will say thatit was rare, and noble, and
poetic distress, and worthy to b. sung by
some great poet.
l am no poet. and cannot adorn so
strong tale; therefore have aimed at
that which all honest men can attain, if
they will but take trouble. viz, .he exact
truth. l travelled to see him. l stayed
in Glasgow many days to know him. l
took him down to the Clyde, and verified
every spot, and get him to tell me each
principal incident over again, at its own
site, and noted down his very words, as
well as l could.
The next thing was to rescue his fea-
lures from oblivion. asked him to meet
me at the photographers. He did So
But, horrible to relate, dressed as all
Scotchmen ,ress on Sundays.
james" )" said |, severely, "was It in
this clerical suit you saved so many
liveS?"
''No likely" said he; Except yon earle
that was bathing O the Sabba' days Mon,
| was coming in my auld claes thar
wrought in at the mill yon time but the
wife cried shame; she wadna let me-"
Observe how devoid of common sense
a