The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-01-06
Loss OF TnE DEUTsCHLANn.
Remarkable Goodness of the Victims of the
Wrecks

Remarkable Goodness of the Victims of the
Wreck
All day long, says the London Daily
NeaOs' account of the disaster, the sea
had been washing over the ship, ut by
taking refuge In the berths and On
the tables and benches In the saloon it
had been possible IT, keep comparatively
dry. AS night fell, however, the tide
rose. and at midnight the water came
rushing over the deck in huge volumes,
filling the saloon, and making the cabins
floating cofins. Then the women were
ordered up and instructed to take to the
rigging, but many of them, cowed by
the wildness of the sea that now swept
the deck tore and aft, and shuddering
before the fury of the pitiless sleet-laden
gale, refused to leave the saloon. Then
happened horrible scenes which the pen
refuses to portray In their fullness. One
woman, driven mad with fear and des-
pair, deliberately hung herself from the
roof of the saloon. A man, taking out
his pen-knife, dug it into his wrist and
worked it about as long as he had
strength, dying where he fell. Another
man. incoherently calling on the wife
and child no had left in Germany, rushed
about with a bottle In his hand, franti
cally shouting for paper and pencil.
Somebody gave him both, and scrlbbllng
a note, he corked it down In bottle and
threw it overheard, following it himself
a moment later, as great wave came
and swept him overheard.
There were five nuns on board who,
by their terror stricken conduct,
seem to have added greatly
to the weirdness of the scene.
They were deaf to all entreaties to leave
the saloon, and when, almost by main
force, the stewardess (whose conduct
throughout was plucky III the extreme)
managed to get them on to the compan-
ion ladder, they sank down on the steps
and stubbornly refused to go another
step. They seemed to have returned to
the saloon again shortly, for somewhere
IL the dead of the night, when the great
en- part of the crew and passengers were
in the rigging, one was seen with body
half through the skylight, crying aloud
in voice heard above the storm, go,
my God, make it quick, make it quick.
At daylight yesterday morning, when
the tide had ebbed, and leaving the deck
clear, some one on the rigging went
down. and looking into the cabin saw the
nuns floating about face downward, all
dead. It was not so dark but that those
in the rigging could distinguish each
others features, and thus have the COM
fort of companionship. There seems to
have been wonderful amount of unset
fishness displayed; everybody cheering
and everybody trying to help everybody
else. One of the passengers CHEEKY
Teuton, named Adolph Herrmann-took
a young American lady under his specia
charge, and had the satisfaction of seeing
her off to London this afternoon. He
took her up the rigging and held her on
there all through the right, and says she
was as brave and self-possessed as ii
they had been comfortably on shore.
Some time during the night an unknown
friend passed down to him bottle of
whisky. The cork was in the bottle, and
as he was holding on to the rigging with
one hand and had the other round the
lady, there was some difficulty in getting
at the contents of the bottle. This he
finally solved by knocking the neck off,
and then found himself in the dilemma of
not being able to get the bottle to the
lady's mouth. 'You are pouring it
down my neck, was her quiet response
to his first essay, but in the end he sue
ceeded in aiming the whisky in the right
direction, and after taking some himself,
passed it on, feeling much refreshed.
Just before this terrible accident oc-
CURED, which threatened death to one
or both. The purser, who had fixed
himself IN the rigging some yards above
them, getting nj mbed, loosed his hold,
and falling headlong down, struck the
lady and bounded off into the sea. But
Hermann kept his hold, and the
shock was scarcely noticed. On
such night all the obligations were
not, as Hermann gratefully acknowl-
edges, on the one side for when one
of his feet got numbed, his companion,
following mis- direction, stamped on it
I'LL circulation was restored. From their
perilous post, with waves occasionally
dashing up and binding them with,
spray, they saw some terrible scenes be-
low. A man tied to the mast nearer the
deck had his head cut off by the waves,
as Hermann says, though probably a
rope or. q loose spar was the agent. Not
far off little boy had his leg broker in
the same manner. They could hear and
see the nun shrieking through the sky
light, aud when she was silenced the
cry was taken up by a woman waiing
from the wheel-house, my child is
drowned, my little one, Adam" At
daylight sailor, running nimbly down
the rigging, reached the poop, and,
bending over attempted to seize some OF
the half drowned people who we're float
ing about. Once he caught little
child by the clothes; but before he could
secure 1t a wave carried it OFT of his
grasp, and its shrieks were hushed in
the roar of the waters.