Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-11-10
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Inc name Of the Victoria will ever
% associated with . story that the
nation will cherish rs one of those
precious records by which empires
live. It was all over in fifteen
minutes but those fifteen minutes
viii live in history as lives the
faiaklava charge, which did not last
lm0ch longer.
Inc testing times of life seldom
last longer, says the Review of
Reviews. The first dip of the litmus
paper in the solution proves the
existence of acid, and the first
moment of supreme crisis sufficcs
Tor test. And as it has been SAID
mat 1t was almost worth the
enormous expenditure Of the Crimean
war to have the object lesson which
was afforded by the charge of the
ok Hundred-of the absolute rcadi-
ness OF the British soldier to ride
Unto the jaws of death, into the
mouth OF hell-so it may be said it
was almost worth while to lose the
victoria in order to have so superb
an illustration of Our men, writes w,
l. stead. Death. in the old phrase,
Is the'gate of life, but death is more
than that
Death is the sovereign alchemist
who assays the value of the coin
struck in the mint of life. Death is
the supreme test lnvincible in life
are our blue jackets invincible also
in death. Their drill goes like clock
work by day and by night; their dis
ciplinc is perfect by sea and by land.
But how will it be when each indi-
vidual. nay, when the whole ships
company. with all its component
weaknesses and shortcomings, is
suddenly slung over an abyss yawn-
ing eighty fathoms deep below, with
not one chance in three that any will
escape alive? The Victoria supplied
an answer. ONot for a single mo-
mcnt docs there seem to have been a
faltering word or flurried decd.
Not even when the great ship
rceled and quivercd like a wounded
thing beneath the crushing blow of
10000 tons of metal hurled against
1t at the rate of eighteen miles an
hour, did any OF the crew or officers
lose their self-possc> sion, Every
thing which had been laid down and
provided for such an emergency was
remembered and acted upon.
Whether in trying to get out the
collision mats or in the last desper-
ate plunge shorcward. in which the
half-sinking ship, with her forepart
all under the water, steamed toward
the land-evcrything seems to have
been done with the regularity and
stcadiness and cool courage that are
the distinguishing features of the
British navy. And in the last dread
moment when the order was given.
Each for himself" which dissolved
the organic whole of the disciplined
ships company into q mass of indi-
vidusls each set free to seek his own
safety in his own way, nothing seems
to have been done unworthy the
name and fame Of the British sailor.
The papers, indeed, are full of stories
Of the self-forgetting devotion OF
these blue jackets to each other.
All seem to have been alike, from
the admiral who sank with his shin
to the chaplain who perished in saw
ing others. The midshipman who
refused to leave the admiral and went
down by his side, the brave fellow
who freed the diver from his lead
laden sinkers and lost his own life in
doing so. although he saved the
diver, and all the other incidents OF
q heroic unselfishness and comrade.
ship that is stronger than death
these things are a priceless addit ion
to the heritage of our land.