Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-11-27

| hands to keep our places. Those who al
tempted to cross the floor came bac
bruised and gashed. Cups and glasse
were dashed to fragments; pieces of th
table getting loose, swung across th
saloon. 1t seemed as if the hurricane tool
| that great ship of thousands of tons ant
stood 1t on end, AID said: 'sShall I sink it
or let it go this once?'' Aud then it cam
down with such force that the billow
trampled over it, each mounted of fury
We felt that everything depended on tht
propelling screw. If that stopped for al
instant we knew the vessel would fall of
into the trough of the sea and sink, and 81
we prayed that the screw, which three
times since leaving Liverpool had already
stopped. might not stop now. Obi hoa
anxiously we listened for the regular thumr
of the machinery, upon which our lives
seemed to depend. After awhile some ons
said: 'The screw is sfopped" No; its
sound had only been overpowered BY the
uproar OF the tempest, and we breathed
easier again when we heard the regular
pulsations of the overtasked machinery
going thump, thump. thump. At O'Clock
in the morning the water covered the shir
from prov to stern, and the skylights gave
way! The deluge rushed in, and we felt
swamp us forever. As the water rolled
back and forward in the cabins and dashed
against the wall. it sprapg half way up to
the ceiling. Rushing through the sky
lights as it came IN with such terrific roar,
there went up fron, the cabin ehrek OF
horror which pray God may never hear
again. / have dreamed the whole scene
over again, but Gcd has mercifully kept
me from hearing that one cry. Into it
seemed to be compressed the agony of ex-
pected shipwreck. 1t seemed 70 say: 81
shall never get home again! My children
shall be orphaned, and my wife shall be
widowed! I am launching now into
eternity! In two minutes shall meet my
Godr'
There were about f1ve 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 imagined that the boilers
we're giving way. Those passengers writhed
in the water aud in the mud, some praying,
some crying, all terrified. They made a
rush for the deck. An officer stond on deck
and beat them back with blow after blow.
It was necessary. They could not have
stood an instant on the deck. sob! how
they begged to get out of the hold of the
shipl One woman, with a child in her
arms, rushed up aud caught hold of one of
the officers and cried: DO let me out! I
will help yonl Do let me out! I cannot
die herer' Some got down and prayed to
the Virgin Mary. saying: 80 blessed moth
er, keep us! Have mercy on us!'' Same
stood with white lips and fixed gaze, silent
in their terror. Some wrung their hands
and cried ont: 80 God what shall | do?
What shall I do?" The time came When
the crew oonid no longer stay on the deck,
AID tho cry Of the officers was: "Below! all
hauds belowr' Oar brave and sympathetic
Capt. Andrews whose praise I shall nos
cease to speak while l live-bad been swept
by the hurricane from his bridge, aud had
escaped very narrowly with his life. The
cyclone seemed to stand on the deck wav
ing its wing, crying. This ship is mine!
have captnred it! Hal ha! l will CON-
mapd it! IF God will permit, will sink it
here and now! By Thousand shipwrecks,
swear the doom of this vessel!' There
was lull in tt g storm; but only that it
might gain additional fury. Crash! went
the lifeboat oa one side. Crash! welt the
lifeboat on the other side. The great booms
got loose, and. as with the heft of thun-
derbolt, pounded the deck and beat the
mast--the jibboon. studding sail boom, and
square sail boom, with their strong arms,
beating time to tho awful march and music
Of the burricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phosphores-
cent. The whole scene looked like fire.
The water dripping from the rigging, there
we're ropes of fire; and there we're masts OF
fire; ;aud there was deck Of fire. A ship of
fire. sailing on sea Of fire, through night
OF fire. May never see anything like it
agaiu.
Everybody prayed. A lad of twelve years
of age got down and prayed for his mother.
"If should give up" he said, 81 do not
know what would become of mother. +"
There we're men who, think, had not
prayed for thirty years, who then got down
on their knees. Wnen man who has
neglected G I'd all bis life feels that he has
come to his last time, it makes very busy
night. ALI Of our sins and shortcomings
passed through our minds. Ny own life
seemed utterly unsatisfactory. could only
say, "Here, Lord, take me "a am. I can
not mend matters now. Lord Jesus, thou
diGst die for the chief of sinners That's
me! It seems, Lord, as if my work is done,
and poorly done, and npon thy infinite
mercy cast myself, aud In this hour of
shipwreck and darkness commit myself and
her whom [ hold by tho haud TO thee, Q
Lord Jesus! praying thas it may be a short
struggle 10 the water, and that at the same
instant we may both arrive in gloryr Oh
tell yon man prsys straight to the mark
when he has cyclone above him, an ocean
beneath him, and eternity so close to him
that he can feel its breath on his cheek.
The night was long. At last we saw the
dawn looking through the port holes. A.
in the olden time, in the fourth watch o.
the night, Jesus came walking on the sea
from wave cliff to wave cliff; and when ht
puts his foot upon billow, though it may
be tossed up With might, it goes down. Ell,
cried to the winds, Hush! They knew hi
voice. The waves knew his foot. They
died away. And in the shining track of bi
feet read these letters on scrolls of foam
and fire, "The earth shall be filed with th,
knowledge of God as the waters cover tb,
sea-" The ocean Gained. The path O
the steamer became more and more mild
until, on the last morning out the s1r
threw round about us glory suoh "a
never Witnessed before. God made pave
ment of mosaic, reaching from horizon tt
hor zon, for all the splendors of earth ant
heaven to walk upon--a pavement brigh
|
enough for the wheels of the archanger
chariot. As g parent embraces a child an,
kisses away Its grief. so over that sea tha
had been writing in agony in the tempest
ihe morning threw its arms of beauty aut
of bsnedictiou, and the lips Of earth nnt
heaven met.
As l came ca deok-it was very early
and wa we're nearing the shore-T saw few
sails against the sky. They seemed ike tn
spirits OF tire night walking the pillows.
teamed over the taffrail of the weasel, ant
said, THY way, 0 God, is in the sea, ant
| thy path in the great waters"
It grew lighter. The clouds were hunl
in purple clusters along the sky; and, as i
those purple clusters were pressed into ret
wine and poured out upon the sea, ever,
wave turned into crimson. Youder, fir
cleft stood opposite to fire cleft, and here
cloud, rent and ,inged with light, seemer
ike palace, with flames bursting from th
windows. The whole scene lighted mp un
til it seemed as if the angels of God wer
ascending and descending upon stairs o
| fire. and the wavecrests, changed into las