The Worthington advance., 1876-06-08

~ANA1SSs Nv WIN uP "GStCA "CSsA1
and started, and on reaching the, saloon
saw that the flames were bursting out
OF that bathroom through the par
titi0n, circling around one half the
ceiling of the saloon, and bending to
the floor, against the shaft of the rud-
der, which divides it at the stern.
l saw that the flame was made by
intlammable oil thought of the oil.
can and the tank thought the con-
tents of the former had been spilled
and ignited by the fire from below !;
for, had they been kindled on the
spot, there would have been no flash
such as we bad seen at the other end
OF the long saloon. Four men-pas-
sengers-were fighting the fire with
carpets but the partitions are double,
made of Stats like Venetian blind,
only that every slat is an inch thick,
and stands vertically.
All was saturated and thickly coated
with paint. These Stats, and the lat-
tice-work over the steam-pipe, around
which the fire burned tiercely, sup
piled so many air-passages that smoth-
ering the flames seemed hopeless.
poured my can of water behind this
pipe, thinking it would reach the main
body of the fire through the opening
by which it had burst up, and
was encouraged to hope on seeing that
it extinguished the fire as far as it
went; but the floor of the vestibule
leading into that bathroom was a
sheet of flame, and behind the closet
door it r0ared and cracked. Inside
was the Oil.can and tank, and bedding
heaped to the ceiling and, to my mind,
the prospect of a grave in the Atlantic
seemed pretty certain. One of the
men bade me stand back lest my
clothes should catch. I did, as soon
as had emptied my can; then went
to get more water and send messen-
gers to the Captain. No one made an
outcry, or spoke loud word ; but oh |!
did not these four men work, as men
only work for life, and without any
confusion! Most of the women
brought water from the state-rooms;
and passed it to the men who hurried
up to help; and, as the the saloon be-
gan to fill with with dense, black,
smoke, thought of the consequence of
a rush of tifty-five passengers to get
out of two narrow doors, and up one
narrow stairway feet wide; women
in long, white night-dresses, bare feet
and flowing hair; children in arms !;
men half-dressed and the ship rolling
as it was!
Well, I have concluded that to the
human family courage is the rule,
cOWardice the exception. Those peo.
pie all felt that their hour had come :;
yet only those women who had chill
dren lost their presence of mind, and
only one man made himself ridiculous.
One woman did not get out of her
berth, and said, next morning, that it
was none of her business, and she did
not propose to interfere with the Off
GERS of the boat in the discharge of
their duty. Of course this made the
meddlerS, who put out the fire, feel
badly; but the officers forgave them,
If she did not. It was extinguished
after twenty minutes struggle, and
we learned that that oil-can had been
full OF benzine; that it had stopped
over from the rolling of the ship; that
a steward had smelled it, gone in
to see about it. and struck a match to
find himself enveloped in flame; then
ran, nOiselessly, down the saloon, with
his clothing all ablaze, making the
fash of lurid light which so alarmed
me.
l learned afterward that what I had
taken for an oil.tank was an apparatus
for turning water into a bath-tub con.
cealed by heap of mattresses. So
had magnified the danger, and congrat.
ulated myself on having kept my panic
to myself,-that panic caused by nv
m0mentary expectation of an explo.
sion, and on keeping up such an ap
pearance of composure that folks
thought | was the only passenger who
was not frightened, when the fact was
that perhaps no one else was so much
alarmed as I.
For the effort it cost me to walk
slowly down the saloon and say to the
women in the doorways, ''Its moth
ing but a can of benzine p have
paid by weeks of prostration. One
young lady, from whose physical con
dition would have expected a fina
stoppage of the motion of the heart
under such trial, was the first tc
reach the saloon, where she sat down
quietly to await the issue. A frantic
mother rushed up, threw her infant
into her arms exclaiming, tssave my
baby" and rushed off and as she. sal
and held it, another rushed to he]
side, exclaiming, s'Who will hel1
me with my children :" Still another
rushed past, with clasped hands, di
sheveled hair, face purple from
checked circulation, and her eyes wil(
with horror but the girl whose hear
has been threatening for years to sto,
beating on the slightest strain, sa
and held the baby thinking, "Wel
this is our last hour, but am not goin,
to suffer needless tortures.'' Anothej
invalid young lady got all the waite
sne could out Of her state-room, hand
eo IL 10 the men in the saloon, ha,
one step on her bare feet so that tn
bones seemed crushed, sat down with
. out a word, and wondered if he
friends at home would ever knoy
what became of her; while the won
J an who threw her baby to a strange
! was consoling herself with the though
| 'that it was baptized, and that her hu,