The Forrest City times., 1893-06-02
THE CALM OF DESPERATION.
How the Passengers and Crew of a Doomed
 Vessel Sat Quietly Awaiting Death.

Vessel Sat Quietly Awaiting Death.
 Tt was about seven o'clock in the evening when the captain passed through the cabin and quietly informed the passengers gathered there that he had abandoned all hope of saving the steamship. After that one of the mates who had been toiling with the crew for the last three hours came to us and said that further effort was useless. There must have been seventy of us passengers in the cabin quarter of an hour later. The engines had broken down. she was all a-leak and was then drifting in the trough of the sea. At four o'clock, when every man aboard had been put to work. most of the women were weeping and their chil- dren moaning with fright. There were two old men and two cripples who could do nothing, and l had noticed that while they were very pale and their lips bloodless they did not seem to be excited.
 "l expected to find the cabin scene of mad excitement when entered it. but the picture presented was so quiet and peaceful that could hardly credit my vision. A dozen men and women were praying. but none of them aloud. Some of the children were on their parents knees, and while none was weeping it was grievous to notice what an old look had come to their faces. They looked pinched and haggard. as if suffering physical pain for days. As stood looking about me woman who had boy about six years old on her knee beckoned to me and asked:
 "'Do you think there is any hope?
 None whatever
 "'Nery we'll. Don't be afraid. Harry. Mamma will put her arms about you
 Three or four of the men who had neither wives nor children aboard paced up and down the long cab bin, though the steamer was flung wildly about at times. Not one single person put on life preseryer, though plenty of them were at hand. You would have expect ed the women to sob and lament. but there was not single instance of it. True. half a dozen of them were lying on the divans with their faces hidden. but if they wept no one knew it. 9th CTS sat in pairs. hands elasped or arms around each other. The faces of the women were marble white. those of the men ashen. Every woman whose face could see had a wild, startled ex- precision. but the men scowled and looked sullen.
 'I saw only one message written. X young man stood at one of the cabin doors and wrote in a pencil on panel his name. the name of the steamer, and date. and added: We have given up all hope and are preparing for the end" There was much jewelry and considerable money scattered about on the tables and the floor. but every man. woman and child had the head cov- cred. Indeed l saw one man put on spring overcoat and sit down with a cane in his hand. while several of the women adjusted their hats from time to time.
 II looked into the captains room through broken pane and saw him sitting in a chair with his head in his hands. I could see several men crouched under the lee of the pilot-house. but where the HAAA bE Nttt tfNN hAA NARNtA themselves away | could not determine. l had just started to work my way back to the cabin when the steamer settled away like water-soakcd log and a great wave rolled over her carrying away her upper works and sending her battered hull to :he bottom of the sea at ,one blow. l had wondered if we would shriclS and scream and cry 10 God when the awful moment came. There was just one ery--one cry made up of the voices Of men. women and children-pas~cnge and crew. it rose above the awful roar of the storm as you might have heard the clang Of a great bell. and then deaths fingers clutched every throat. ] listened for a second cry, even asl thought death had come to me. but there was none. A hundred human beings had cried out in mighty throcs for mercy. but wind and wave had mociSed them. '-Chieago Times.