Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-05-11
Tardy Justice.

The friends of the life saving service
in both branches ofcongress have, after
hard struggle, succeeded in incorpor-
ating in the bill for promoting the eflici-
ency of the service two sections which
will bring Joy to the hearts OF many a
family gathered around the hearthstone
on the sand dunes stretching down the
Atlantic, and give new vigor to the
muscular arms and courage to the stout
hearts of those watchers by the sea"
when battling with the wild waves for
their prey.
The first of these sections provides
that any keeper or member of a life-boat
crew becoming disabled in the line of
duty shall receive full pay during such
disability for one year, the same to be
continued the whole or part of the second
year providing the General Superinten-
dent shall recommend such continuance.
The second section, or the eighth of the
bill, provides that the widow and orphans
of any keeper or member of life-b boat
crew who dies in the line of duty. or from
wound or disease contracted while in
the line of duty, shall receive the full
pay Of the husband and father for two
full years.
In addition to the above provisions the
pay of surfmen has been increased to
fifty dollars per month and that of
keepers to $500 per year. Thus justice,
although tardily, has been done class
| of public servants without whose SER
vices the loss of life along the trcacher-
Gus coasts that reach out to meet the in
coming Atlantic would be frightful to
contemplate. Yet even this increased
compensation is but mere bagatelle
when the hazards aud priyations incur
red are taken into account. 1t is n SER
vice where, in the language of distin-
guished supporter of the bill, "the days
are twenty-four hours in length and
seven days make Il week.
OF the heroic deeds achieved in the
blackness of midnight watches, the dar-
ing self sacrifice that gives its life that
another might live America and the
world has already had many recitals but
the half still remains untold. One in
stance, graphically related, is included
in the debate on the above sections to
the bill.
on the evening Of March l, 1875, the bark Nuova
! Ottawa, an Italian vessel stranded soon after
dark off Currituck Beach, North Carolina. The
weather was cloudy, the air dark, the sea rough,
| the surf high, heavy, aud winding The keeper
and crew OF station No (. sixth district, saw the
/ vessel, True it was in the gloom. four hundred
/ yards from shore, but they saw her as she lay
/ a~laEi in the breakers. number Of her sails
/ were uuiurled, Those who saw her tell me she
looked like phantom. Alive to the peril of those
/ on board there was instantly launched the surf
/ boat, with haste 30 generous that the crew did
not stop to put their cork life belts. This
error Of gallant ardor cost them their lives
| What happened has horrible brevity. The
/ watching group on shore saw the boat 90 out
through the breakers; the lantern is in her bows;
| IT just touches with light the strong figures OF her
oarsmcn. Ten minutes after she Is Invisible in
| the darkness and only the lantern il burning low
down under the lee OF the huge hull. 1t shows
| that she II alongside suddenly the lantern goes
out There is frightful scream from the sea
u
four oars come tumbling in at their feet in the
| foam then the surf boat, bottom up: and then
dark in the surf. the body Of man. This man
was one Of the life saving crew.
As the boat came up alongside, the Italian
sailors CraZcd with excitement. had flung them.
selves into her in a mass. They capsizcd her
Nine Of them were lost. and the entire crew Of the
-urf-boat. seven in number also instantly per-
| tshed.
Down into the valley of the shadow
of death had they gone, bravely as sol
diers ut the breach, and wars wild ven
geance never received more noble vic
Tins in its sacrificial brave souls nav
than these who went down in the fury
of the gale clasped in the fierce arms of
a trcacherous sea.
1t is gratifying to note that the entire
Wisconsin delegation, with the eXcep-
ton Of Bragg Of the Fifth district not
voting, recorded their voice in favor of
these toilers in humanity's vineyard.