The Penn's Grove record., 1889-11-30

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children. They may b plunged into dark
ness and trouble, but by the throne of the
eternal God, ! assert 1t, ssthey shall all es-
cape safe to land.S
thGa comssIa storm Of COM
merciaI disaster. The cables break. The
masts fall. The cargoes are scattered over
the sea- OH what struggling and leaping
s%helvesi And YET, though they may have it
20 very bard IN commercial circles, the good,
trusting In God, all come safe to land.
Wreckers go out Oh the oceans beach and
ind the shattered hulks of vessels; and on the
streets Of u great cities there is many a
wreck. Mafnsail slit with bankers pen.
Hulks abeam's end on insurance counters.
Vast credits sinking, having suddenly sprung
a leak: Yet all Of them who are Gods chill
idren shall at last, through His goodness and
mercy, escape safe to land. The Scandina-
Wan warriors used to drink wine out of the
skulls Of the enemies they had slain. Even
20 God will help us out Of the conquered ills
and disasters OF life, 70 drink sweetness and
strength for our souls.
You have, my friends, had illustrations In
your own life of how God delivers His peoi
pie. l have had illustrations in my own
Life OF the same truth. I was once in what
ion your Mediterranean you call q Eurocyl-
don, but what on the Atlantic we call d
cyclone, but the same storm. The steamer
oiooce, u inc rSational nnes swung ouI INTO
the river Mersey at Liverpool bound for
New York. We had on board seven
hundred, crew and passengers. We came
together strangers-Italians, Irishmen, Eng-
nishmen, Swedes, Norwegians Ameri-
cans. Two flags foated from the
lmasts-British and American ensigns. We
had a new vessel or one so thoroughly re-
the uncertainties Of . trial trip. h great
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
on our voyage of three thousand miles.
1t was rough nearly all the way-the sea with
strong buffeting disputing. our path
But n night, at II O'Clock, after
the lights had been put out, a ~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 patches. You may know
the bottom of the Atlantic is strewn'
with the CHASTITY work Of cyclones. Obi
they are cruel winds. They have hot
Internal furnaces. Their merriment is
the cry of afrighted passengers
Their play is the laundering of steam
ers. And, when a ship goes down, they laugh
until both continents hear them. They go
in circles, Or, as l describe them with my
hand-roling on rolling oni with finger Of
terror writing on the white sheet Of tho
within this circle perishi ~Brigantines,
go DOWN. Clippers, go down. Steamships,
DOWN. And the vessel, hearing the ter
fble voice, crouche 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
WHEEL Engineer, dead amidst the extin-
guished furnacesi Captain, dead in tho
gangwayi Passengers, dead in the cabini
Buried in the great cemetery Of dead steam
prs, beside the City of Boston, the Lexington,
the President, the Cambria-waiting for the
archangel's trumpet to split up the decks,
and wrench open the cabin doors, and unfast-
en- the matches.
I thought that I 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, n in high expectation of soon seeing
our friends, for there was no one on board
SO poor as not to have a friend. But it seemed
as II we were to be disappointed. Tho most
of us expected then and there to die.
There were none who made light of the peril,
ave two. One was an Englishman, and he
was drunk, and the other was an Ameri-
can, and he was . fooli Obi what q
time it wasi A night to make ones
hair turn white. We came out of the berths,
and stood in the gangway, andlooked 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.
We held on with both hands to keep our
places. Those who attempted to cross
the floor anne back bruised and
gashed. Cups and glasses were dashed
to fragments; pieces OF the table getting
loose. swung across the saloon. It seemed
as II the hurricane took that great
ship of thousands of tons and stood
IL on end, and said; 'Shal ! sink
down with such force that the pillows tram-
pied over 1t, each mounted Of a fury. We
felt that c-arything depended on the pro-
pelling screw. II that stopped for an in
slant we knew the vessel would fall of into the
trough of the sea and sink, and 50 we prayed
that the screw, which three times since leav-
ing Liverpool had already stopped, might
listened for the regular thump of the ma.
chinery, upon which our lives seemed
to depend. After . while some one
said: "The screw is stoppedP' No;
its sound had only been o~verpowered
by the uproar Of the tempest, and we
breathed easier again when we heard the re-
gular pulsations Of the overtasked machinery
RDllk tlutuP, buuihPs ehthiPs az oNioSA
in the morning the water covered the ship
from PROV to stern, and the skylights gave
wayi 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 tie cabins, and dashed against the
wall, it sprang half way up to the ceiling.
came n with such terrific roar, there
won't up from the cabin a shrek of horror
which I pray God I may never hear again
I rave dreamed the whole scene over again,
but God has mercifully kept me from hear.
ing that one cry. Into it seemed to DO COM
pressed the agony Of. expected shipwreck-
1t seemed to say. II shall never get home
again! Ny children shall DO orphaned, and
wife shall be widowed Tam launching
now into eternityI In W. minutes ! shall
meet my Godp
There were about five hundred and fifty
engers In the steerage and as the water
rushed in and touched the furnaces and be
gan violently to hiss the poor creatures in
the steerage imagined that the boilers were
giving way. Those passengers writhed in the
crying, all terrified. They made . rush for
the deck. An officer stood OF deck and beat
them Jack with blow after blow. 1t was
necessary. They could not have stood an
instant on the deck. Obi how they
begged to get out of the hold II the
ship! One woman, Win . cnlu IN ner arms,
rushed up and caught hold Of one Of the
officers and cried: "Do let me outi I will
help you'll Do let me outi I cannot die
herer' Some got down and prayed to the
Virgin Mary, sayin& 20 blessed mother
keep us! Have mercy on usP' Some stood
with white lips and fixed gaze, dlsnt in their
,ve--or. Some wrung their hands and cried
out. 20 Godi what shall I dor What shall
/ dor The time came when the crew
could no longer stay on the deck
and the cry Of the officers was: '.Belowi all
hands belowr' Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrews-whose praise / shall not
cease to speak while I lve-had been swept
py 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: .sThis ship ID minet / have
captured i'll Hal hal I win command It
II God will permit, I win sink IL here and
nowi By Q thousand shipwrecks, ! swear
the doom of this vesself' There was a
hull In the storm, but only that it
might gain additional fury. Crashi went
the hfeboat ON one dde. Crash went the
lfeboat ON the other side. The great booms
got loose and, as with the heft Of a thunder
bolt, pounded the deck and beat the mast
the jib boom, studding sail boom, and square
sail boom, with their strong arms, beating
tune to the awful march and music Of the
hurricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phosphorus
cent. The whole scsne looked like fire. The