Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-06-23
Iife-SaXin- NpdaIS-

The Washington cOrrespoudeu. u!
 The Philadelphia Rt cord says 1T you
 jump into the Delaware and at the Iu-
 minent risk of your own hfe save the
 lIfe of another, the secretary Uf the
 treasury will give you a medal II yUur
 risk was "extra hazardOus,' or your
 services particularly distinguished, you
 will get gold medal: If your risk was
 of lower degree 1t VII! be of silver.
 When the hfe-savirg service Was reor
 ganIzed under it's present efficient cliei
 Sumner J. kimball, congress establish
 ed these rewards. They were called the
 hrst-class and the secOnd-class medals
 then, and were given only for the actual
 saving of life eJ the actual risk ut Lie People who had saved life at the risk O.
 life objected, however, to receiving q
 secund class medal for what they deem
 ep trst-cl2ss service. One spirited young
 lady returned the silver second-c.ass
 medal sent tO her. She wanted tue est
 or none, and II now reposes on Its vyi-5,
 bed In Mir. kImoall's office safe. |; v-s found. too, that men often saved life a. a risk Ol property or pf limb not talta- mount to a risk of life, but deservu.Ji Ji some recognition. it was thought, for example, that the master of laden ye-- sel who delayed hIs voyage to save wrecked crew at great personal expense and incOuyInleuce deserved a medal equally with the man who simply most eued his clothes in the surf So con- gress, tO meet these suggestions chang ed the names of the medals Co "g0ld medaP and 'silver medal and made the provisions of award SO cOmpreheu- sIve as tO take n all life savers at risk. The terms of award are, however, not loose. This IS eU- dent from the fact that while many ap- plications are received tthrough my congressman of cOurse,l few medals are issued ID year; sometimes as few as four or five, and never more than a score. The applications which must be supported by atiidavIts, go to com mIttee composed of tue chief of the llte- saving service, the chief Of the uavIga- ton division or the treasury depart- ment, and the chief of the steam-vesseis inspection service. The-e gentlemen have Co be convinced by evidence tat would satisfy a court of law They can nO; be bulld0zed by "your member. Once convinced, however. they rpc0m- mend you to the secreterary 0f the treasury, and he sends you your medal with a handsome little letter. The medals are very handsome m them selves. \ new series. somewhat dlfer- ing from the old, Is now belng prepared Iu the Philadelphia mint These ] have not seen, but the old ones were we'll enough. The gold one had a hfe-boat in the act Of rescuing a throwing man uu the Ohverse and an angel or two on thr reverse, with the necessary Inscriptlon-. It IS EOt strange, perhaps that man 0r woman should deserve medal Of th5-r sort several times in the course ot O useful life. As a matter of fact. these medals have been earned again and again by the same person. They never get more than one medal of each rlas- though; but for each subsequent achievement preserving of medal they are given bar of gold OF silver, as the 'ase may be, tO be placed on the ribbon )f She decoration as the clasps are on he European war medals.