The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1892-08-12

gan to be enacted, relieved, God be
praised, by some flashes Of noble hero
ism.
Five boats remained after the first
mate left. -Four of these were taken by
the engineers, sailors, few passengers
and the remaining officers, except Cap
tain Luce and Third Mate Francis Do
rian. The second mate, with two boats
and forty-fve passengers, reached shore.
Captain Luce, Third Mate Dorian and
George II. Burns, messenger Of the /
Adams Express company, started the
construction and provisioning of large
raft, while some Of the passengers and
those of the crew who remained worked
at the pumps and fired 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 q 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
great presence Of mind and labored with
heroic energy. When the panic started
he criedI "For God's sake, captain, clear
the raft so that we can work. ! won't
desert the ship while there's timber
above waterI"
Thus much precious time was lost,
The people did not believe that those
who were 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 a life pre-,
server refused it, saying he would not
take it while any woman on board was
without one. He persisted with his
mother and sister.
Another faithful one, and one whose
quiet heroism shone out brighter as the
prospect became darker, was 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 refusedI
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. He was 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 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 1868 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 1868 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 q suit,
able site for the proposed monument,
1t is greatly to bs regretted that 80
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 Ia
Greenup, tho 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 unnerye and frighten
older men. And how sublime the
thought that he knew the last gun he
fired could bring no help for himself,
but might bring It for othersl AS local
| poet Of the time said;
"He died like o man at the post oi
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 n, Hardness in Washing
ton Star.