The Red Cloud chief., 1889-11-29

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
1T the wheel! Engineer, dead amid the
extinguished furnaces! Captain, dead
in the gangway! Passengers. dead in
the cabin! Buried in the cemetery of
dead steamers, beside the City of BOs-
ton. the Lexington. the President, the
Cambria. waiting for the a~rchangel's
trumpet to split upthe decks. and wrench
open the cabin doors. and unfasten the
matches.
thought that ! had seen 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 n on board SO poor as
not to have a friend. But it seemed as
if we ere to he disappointed. The most
of us expected then and there to die.
There were none who made light of the
peril. save W. One was an Englishman.
and he was drunk. and the other was an
American. and he was a fool! Oh! 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.
1t was the bursting of the sails. We
held on with both hands L keep our
places. Those who attempted to cross
the floor came back bruised and gashed.
Cups and glasses were dashed to frag-
ments; pieces of the table getting loose,
swung across the saloon. 1t seemed as
if the hurricane took that great ship of
thousands of tons and stood it On end,
and said: 'Shall 1 sink it, or let it 60
this Once?" And then it came down with
such force that the pillows trampled
over it. each mounted of a fury.
We felt that every thing depended on
the propeling screw. II that stopped for
an instant we knew the vessel would
fall oil into the trough Of the sea and
sink. and so We prayed that the screw,
which three times since leaving Liver
pool had already stopped, might not
stop now. Oh! how anxiOusly we list
ened for the regular thump Of the ma
chinery upon which our lives seemed to
depend. After awhile some one said:
1.-The screw is stopped" No; its sound
had only been OverpOwered by the up
oar of the tempest. and we breathed
easier again when we heard the regular
pulsatiOns of the overtasked machinery
going thump, thump. thump. At three
o'clock in the morning the water COW
cred the ship from PROV to stern,
and the skylights gave way! The
rushed in. and we felt that
one or two more waves like that must
swamp us forever. AS the water rolled
back and forward in the cabins and
against the wall, it sprang half
way up to the ceiling. Rushing through
the ~skylights as it came in with such
cabin a shrek of horror which l pray
God l may never hear again. l have
dreamed the whole scene over again,
but God has mercifully kept me from
hearing that INT cry. Into it seemed to
be compressed the agony of expected
1t seemed to say: Il shall
never get home again! My children
shall he orphaned, and my wife shall be
widowed! l am launching now into
eternity! In w minutes l shall meet
my God!'
There were about five hundred and
fifty passengers in the steerage, and as
the water rushed in and touched the
furnaces and began violently to hiss,
the poor creatures in the steerage inn
agined that the boilers we're giving
away. Those passengers writhed in the
water and in the mud. some praying,
some crying. all terrified. They made a
for the deck. An officer stood on
deck and beat them back with blow
after blow. 1t was necessary. They
could not have stood ar instant On the
deck. Oh. how they begged to get out
Of the ship! One wOman with a child
her arms. rushed up and caught hold
Of one OF the officers and cried: do let
me out! l will help you! Do let me
out! l can not die here!" Some got
down and prayed to the Virgin Mary.
"a, blessed mother! keep us!
Have mercy on u.s." Some stood with
white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their
terror. Some wrung their hands and
cried out: 20, God! what shall l do?
What shall ! dO?"
The time came when the crew could
no longer stay on the deck. and the cry
Of the officers was: Below! all hands
Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrews-whose praise I shall
not cease to speak while live-had
been swept by the hurricane from his
and had escaped very narrowly
with his life. The cyclone seemed to
stand on the deck. waving its wing. cry
ing: This ship is mine! ] have capt.
it! Ha! ha! I will command it!
II God will permit. I will sink it here
and now! BY a thousand s~hipwrecks. I
swear the doom of this vessel" There
was a lull in the storm; but only hat it
might gain additional fury. Crash
went the lifeboat on one side.
Crash! went the lifebOat on
the other side. The great bOoms
got loose. and. as with the heft Of .
pounded the deck and beat
the mast-the jib boom. studding sail
and SQUARE sail bOOm. with their