The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-04


trusting in God, all come safe to land.
Wreckers go out on the oceans beach and
find the shattered hulks Of vessels; and on the
streets of our great cities there IS many
wreck. Mainsail slit with. bankers pen.
Hulks abeam's end on insurance counters.
Vast credits sinking, having suddenly sprung
lenk Yet all Of them who are Gods chill
dren shall at last, through His goodness and
mercy, escape safe to land. The Scandlna-
vian warriors used to drink wine out OF the
skulls of the enemies they had slain. Even
so God will help u.s. out Of the conquered ills
and disasters of life, to drink sweetness and
strength for our souls.
You have, my friends, had illustrations in
your own life Of how God delivers His peo-
Die. I have had illustrations in my own
life of the same truth. 1 was once in what
on your Mediterranean you call Eurocyl-
don, but what on the Atlantic we call a
cyclone. but the same storm. The steamer
Greece, of the National line, swung out into
the river Merscy at Liverpool, bound for
New York We had on board seven
hundred crew and passengers. We came
together strangers-Italians, Irishmen, Eng
lishmen, Swedes, Norwegians, Ameri-
cans. Two flags hoated from the
masts-British and American ensigns. We
had a new vessel, or one so thoroughly re.
modelled that the voyage had around it all
steamer felt its way cautiously out into the
sea. The pilot was DISCHARGED: and commit
ting ourselves to the care of Him who hold.
eth the winds in His fist, we were fairly
started on our voyage of three thousand miles.
1t was rough nearly all the way-the sea With
strong buffeting disputing our path.
But one night, at II o'clock. after
the lights had been put out, cyclone-a
wind just made to tear ships to pieces
caught us in its clutches. 1t came down so
suddenly that we had not time To take in the
sails or to fasten the matches. You may know
that the bottom of the Atlantic is strewn
with the ghastly work of cyclones. OH!
they arc cruel winds. They have hot
breath, as though they came up from
Internal furnaces. Their merrlment is
the cry of affrighted passengers.
Their play is the foundering Of steam
ers And, when ship goes down, they laugh
until both continents hear them. They go
in circles, or, as I describe them with my
hand-rolling on! rolling on! with finger of
terror writing on tho white sheet OF the
wave this sentence OF doom: ''Let all that
come within this circle parish! BBrigantines,
60 DOWN. And the vessel, hearing the ter
rible voice, crouches in the surf and as the
waters gurgle through the matches and port
holes, it lowers away, thousands OF
feet down, farther and farther until at last
it strikes the bottom: and all is peace, for
they have landed. Helmsman, dead at the
wheell Engineer, dead amidst the e1tin-
guished furnaces Captain, dead in the
gangway! Passengers dead in the cabin!
Buried in the great cemetery Of dead steam
ers, beside the City of Boston, the Lexington,
the President, the, Cambria-waiting for the
archangers trumpet to split up the decks,
and wrench open the cabin doors, and unfast-
en- the matches.
I thought that had sean storms on the sea
before; but all Of them together might have
come under one wing of that cyclone. We
were only eight or nine hundred miles from
home, and in high expectation Of soon seeing
our friends for there was no one on board
50 poor as not to have friend. But itseemed
Of us expected then and there to die.
There were none who made light Of the peril,
save two. One was an Englishman, and he
was drunk, and the other was an Amerl-
AN, and he was a fooll Obi what q
time it was A night to make ones
hair turn white. We came out of the berths,
and stood in the gangway, and looked into the
steerage, and sat in the cabin. While seated
there, we heard overhead something like
minute guns. It was the bursting Of the sails: Ills:
We held on with hoth hands to keep our
places. Those who attempted to cross
the floor came back bruised and
gashed. Cups and glasses were dashed
to fragments; pieces of the table getting
loose, swung across the saloon. 1t seemed
as il the hurricane took that great
ship of thousands Of tons and stood
it on end, and, said. ''Shal I sink
it, or let it 60 this once?' And then it came
down with such force that the billows tram
pied over it, each mounted of fury. We
felt that everything depended on the pro-
pelling screw. If that stopped. for an in
slant we knew the vessel would fall of into the
trough Of the sea and sink; and so we prayed
that the screw, which three times since leav-
ing Liverpool had already stopped, might
not stop now. Obi how an1iously we
listened for the regular thurp of the ma.
chinery, upon which our lives seemed
to depend. After a while some one
said: 1.-THE screw is stopped" No;
its sound had only been overpowered
by the uproar Of the tempest, and We
breathed easier again when we heard the re-
eular pulsations Of the overtasked machinery
going thump, thump. thump. At o'clock
IN the morning the water covered the ship
from Prov to stern, and the skyhghts gave
wayl The deluge rushed in, and we felt that
one or two more waves like that must swamp
us forever. AS the water rolled back and for
ward in the cabins, and dashed against the
wall, it sprang half way up to the ceiling.
Rushing through the skylights as it
came in with such terrific roar, there
went I'D from the cabin a Shrek Of horror
which pray God may never hear again.
I have dreamed the whole scene over again,
but God has mercifully kept me from hear
ing that one cry. In to it seemed to be COM
pressed the agony 9T S nsTer gst hoe
again! My children shall be orphaned, and
my wife shall be widowed! am launching
now into eternity! In two minutes shall
meet my Godn'
There were about five hundred and fifty
passengers in the steerage, and as the water
rushed in and touched the furnaces, and be-
gan violently to hiss, the poor creatures III
the steerage imagined that the boilers were
giving way. Those passengers wrlthed IN the
water and in the mud, some praying, some
crying, all terrified. They made a rush foI
the deck An officer stood on deck and beat
them back with blow after blow. 1t was
necessary They could not have stood an
instant on tho deck. Oh! how they
begged to get out of the hold Of the
shipl One woman, with child in her arms
rushed up and caught hold of one Of the
officers and cried "Do let me outl will
help you! Do let me OUT cannot dle
herep' Some got down and prayed to the
Virgin Mary, saying: 70 blessed mother
keep us! Have mercy on usw Some stood
with white lips and fixed gaze, silent in theil
terror. Some wrung their hands and criee
out: 20 God! what shall do? What shall
I do!" Tho time came when the crew
could no longer stay on the deck
and the cry Of the officers was: Below! al
hands belowp Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrews-whose praise shall moi
cease to speak while live-had been swept
by the hurricane from his bridge. and had es
capped very narrowly with his life. The cy'
clone seemed to stand on the deck waving its
wing, crying: "This ship is mine! I have
captured it'll Ha! ha! I will command it
If God will narnait I will sink il here anf