Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-02

George FL. Burns, messenger of the
Adams Express company, started the
construction and provisioning of a large
raft, while some of the passengers and
those Of the crew who remained worked
at the pumps and fred signal guns.
The boat had been lowered to assist in
building the raft, and Captain Luce and
some of the male passengers were help
ing keep the crowd back when panic
seized those ON deck and they rushed
over the bulwarks onto the raft, at the
same time almost sinking the boat. In
this emergency Dorian cut the boat
loose, and he and those assisting him
hurried it away from the raft The
noble man behaved throughout with
greatpresence Of mind and labored with
heroic energy. When the panic started
he cried: For Gods sake, captain, clear
the raft SO that we can work. / won't
desert the ship while there's timber
above waterl''
Thus much precious time was lost
The people did not believe that those
who We're trying to assist them were
sincere, and prevented them from pro-
viding means OF escape.
The captain, when urged TO leave,
stated that the fate of the ship should be
his and his little sons.
Master Collins, a son OF the proprietor
of the vessel, when offered life pre-
server refused it, saying he would not
take it while any woman on board was
without one. He perished with his
mother and sister:
Another faithful one and one whose
quiet heroisn shone out brighter as the
prospect became darker, was a Young
man named Stewart Holland He was
an engineer under instructions and but
twenty-five years old. When most of
his companions in the engine room took
to the boats and deserted, he remained
and did all he could to help save those
left in the ship. just before the ship
went down he was helping fire the sig
nal guns. Dorian called to him to get
into the boat with him, but he refused;
and just as the waters curled over the
ships side as she went down his last gun
doomed over the sea and he sank with
the more than two hundred others still
on the ship, most of them to rise no
more, and among whom were all the
women and children.
There was something so romantic and
heroic in the self sacrifice Of one so
young as Stewart Holland that his story
caused sensation. Hewas Washing
ton boy and had at one time been en-
ployed in the navy yard here. The peo-
pie of Washington felt proud of him,
and in response to a general demand
subscription was started to erect mon
ument to his memory. A lithograph
was published depicting him in the act
of firing his last gun, copies of which
picture are no doubt still in possession
of some of the older residents of Wash
ington. The monument enterprise failed
because the design was too elaborate for
the funds and interest tagged from the
long delay.
In 1858 those having the matter in
charge were still trying too keep up in
terest in it, and some hundreds of dol
lars had been collected, but the bank in
which the money had been deposited
failed and this money was lost. A cir
cular issued in 1858 states that one Of
the last official acts of President Pierce
was to designate the open space on
Pennsylvania avenue between Thir-
teenth and Fourteenth streets as a. suit
able site for the proposed monument
1t is greatly to be regretted that so
deserving an enterprise should have
been so unsuccessful. Washington city
is full of monuments to national char
acters, but in the whole District of Co.
lumbia there is only one monument to a
local hero, and that is the monument TO
Greenup, the fireman, in Glenwood
cemetery.
1t should be cause of pride to the
people of the District of Columbia that
one of their young men should have
shown such Spartan courage and should
have died so nobly, when all the scenes
he had been witnessing for five hours
were enough to unnerve and frighten
older men. And how sublime the
thought that he knew the last gun he
fred could bring no help for himself,
but might bring it for others! AS local
poet of the time said:
sHe died like man at the post of
death and to save was his latest thought" !"
His father, Isaac Holland, was door
keeper of one of the houses Of congress,
and doubtless there are gentlemen now
in public life who remember the genial
old man, whose last days were saddened
by the loss of his manly and handsome
son.-Robert H. Hardness in Washing
ton Star.