Wichita eagle., 1890-01-15
srdnr,,Sd on IL

ard pclled on it
By means Of the line the crew pulled q
rope from the shore to the ship, end this
rope served in turn to draw on board a great
cable. The crew made the cable fas. 20 .a~
hull Of our vessel, and it was pulled tauf
from the shore.
At that period of marine history, when =
cable had been stretched from tie Land to .
wrecked vessel it wss generally supposed that
the rescuers had done all they could, and Il
remained for the ships company TO End sl..ar
way to the shore, if they could, ciIngmG to
this rope. But now, siung 70 the cable, thAs~
came out to the vessel that same queer hexas
boat which / saw the other day at Point
Pleasant. 1t is shaped like an egg, with .
hole in the top through which the pssnnge<s
crawl to enter the boat Over this hole = lid
screws tightly. The car will hold abaut
fifteen people. When the passengers are
packed away in it and the lid has been
screwed down, it is drawn back TO land
through the breakers, turning over and over
as it goes.
the one chance for life to the people on the
ship.
cannot fifty describe the awful scene on
that wreck; the darkness, the wet, the thun-
der of the sea, the hundreds of men and wo-
men standing there facing death, and fully
realizing the perils that surrounded them.
1t was the first time that the life car had
ever been tested by actual service, and even
the captain looked doubtfully at the strange
looking craft that had come out 10 the ship
along the cable.
who will go in itF' he shouted. ''The
women have the first chance. IL is not good
chance, but it Is the only one"
The men among the enigrants began TO
push their wives and children toward the
car, but the poor creatures shrieked and
fought against entering it. did not blame
them. 1t is bad enough TO go down, drowned
In the open waters, but TO go down locked up
In that iron coffin
Every WELL" cried the captain. There
is no time for choice. II the women viii not
go, the men shall"
At that, little Miss Muffet stepped forward
before them all, actually smiling.
"Come," she said TO the terrified women,
''if go, you surely will follow NE. ! am
nothing but poor little cripplel'
She stepped into the dark box and lay down
IN it. Then the others crowded into it after
her-stout English matrons and pretty Irish
girls children and babies When the car was
full its lid was screwed down tight and it was
pulled out into the waves. Upon the ship no
man shouted and no woman cried in the few
minutes that followed. We could see and
hear nothing.
But presently the car came back-empty.
Then we breathed freely again, for we knew
that the people it had carried had reached the
Land safely.
All of the other passengers were taken to
the shore III the same manner Over 500 lives
were saved by that life car on its first night
Of service. Do you wonder that l took OFF
my hat to It the other daya
Two years after sthe shipwreck which
have told you of, / met Mrs Murray. and
with her plump, rosy girl who, she told me-
was her daughter, the one that had known
on the Ayrshire as an invalid Now the
girls eyes shone and the red blood glowed in
her cheeks.
Miss Murray said that the voyage in the
car had given her new life. But thought
that the new life had come rather with the
Weakening of courage and the spirit of self
sacrifice within her.-Youth's Companion.