The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-10-28


commanding the Russian navy. saw that
the only way to keep the English out OF
the harbor was to sink all of the Russian
ships of war in the roadstead, and so 100
vessels sank. When, after the war was
over, our American engineer Gowan, de
scended to the depths in diving bell, it
was an impressive spectacle.
SUBLIME BURIAL.
One hundred buried shipsl But it is that
way nearly all across the Atlantic ocean.
Ships sunk not by command of admirals,
but by the command of cyclones. But they
all had sublime BURIAL and the surround
ings amid which they sleep the last sleep
are more imposing than the Tai Mahal,
the mausoleum with walls incrusted with
precious stones and built by the great mo.
gul of India over his empress Your de-
parted ones were buried in the gardens of
the sea, fenced off by hedges of coralline.
The greatest obsequies ever known on
the land were those of Moses, where no one
but God was present. The sublime report
Of that entombment is in the book of Deu-
teronomy, which says that the Lord buried
him. and of those who have gone down to
slumber in the deep the same may be
said-"The Lord buried them" AS Christ
was buried in garden, so your shipwreck-
ed friends and those who could not survive
till they reached port were put down amid
iridescence-"ln the midst of the garden
there was q scpulcher,"
1t has always been a mystery what was
the particular mode by which George G.
Goodman, the pulpit orator of the Metho
dist church and the chaplain of the Ameri-
can congress- left this life after embarking
for England on the steamship President
March II, 1871. That ship never arrived in
port. No one ever signaled her, and Oh
both sides of the ocean it has for 80 years
been questioned what became of her But
this know aIout Coollman-that whether
it was iceberg or conflagration midsea or
collision he had more garlands on his ocean
tomb than if, expiring on land, each of his
million friends had put bouquet on his
casket. In the midst of the garden was his
sepulcher.
JoNAH's MISTAKES.
But that brings me to notice the misno-
mer in this Jonahitic expression of the
text. The prophet not only made mis-
take by trying to go to Tarshish when God
told him to 90 to Nineveh, but he made a
mistake when he styled as weeds these
growths that enwrapped him on the day
he sank. A weed is something that is use
less. 1t is something you throw out from
the garden. 1t is something that chokes the
wheat 1t is something to be grubbed out
from among the cotton. 1t is something
unsightly to the eye. 1t is an invader of
the vegetable or floral world. But this
growth which sprang up from the depth of
the Mediterranean or floated on it's sur
face was among the most beautiful things
that God ever makes.
1t was IA water plant known as the red
colored alga and no weed at ALL 1t comes
from the loom of infinite beauty. 1t is
planted by heavenly love- 1t is the star of a
sunken armament. 1t is lamp which the
Lord kindled. 1t is cord by which to bind
whole sheaves of practical suggestion. 1t
is a poem all whose cantos are rung by
divine goodness. Yet we all make the mis-
take that Jonah made in regard to it and
call it weed. THE weeds were wrapped
about my head" Ali that is the trouble
on the land as on the sea. We call those
weeds that are flowers.
Picked up on the beach of society are
children without home, without oppor-
tunity for anything but sin, seemingly
without God. They are washed up help
less. They are called ragamutiins. They
are spoken of as the rakings of the world
They are waits. They are street arabs.
They ar flotsam and jetsam of the social
sea. They are something to be left alone
or something to be trod on, or something to
give up to decay. Nothing but weeds
They are up the rickety stairs of that gar
ret. They are down in the cellar of that
tenement house. They swelter in summers
when they see not one blade of green grass,
and SILVER in winters that allow them not
one warm coat or shawl or shoe.
Such the city missionary found in one of
our city rookeries and when the poor wom-
an was asked if she sent her children to
school she replied: mo, sir, / never did
send 'em to school. l know it, they ought
TO learn, but ! couldn't. ] try to shame
him sometimes lit is my husband, sir, but
he drinks and then beats me--look at that
bruise on my face-and | tell him to see
what is comm to his children. There's
Peggy, goes sellin fruit every night in those
cellars in Water street, and they're hells,
sir She's learnin all sorts of bad words
there and don't get back till IL o'clock at
night. If it wasn't for her earnin a shillin
or two in them places, should starve. Oh
l wish they was out of the city. Yes, 1t is
the truth l would rather have ali my
children dead than on the street, but !
can't help il"
SAVED BY DEATH
Another one of those poor women, found
| by a reformatory association, recited her
story Of want and woe aud looked up and
said, Il felt so hard to lose the children
when they died, but now I'm glad they're
gone" Ask any one of Thousand such
| children on the streets, "Where do you
liver" and they will answer, II don't live
nowhere" They will sleep tonight in ash
barrels, or under outdoor stairs, or on the
/ ,lar l. Oh nd nd
Who cares for them? Once in awhile a
city missionary or a tract distributor or a
teacher of ragged schools will rescue one of
them, but for most people they are only
| weeds.
Yet Jonah did not more completely mis-
represent the red alga about his head in
the Mediterranean than most people mis-
Judge these poor and forlorn and dying
children of the street They are not weeds.
They are immortal fiowers-down in the
deep sea of woe, but flowers When soci-
| ETY. and the church of God come to appre-
ciate their eternal value, there will be more
| G. l.. Braces and more Van Meters and
| more angels of mercy spending their for
| tunes and their lives in the rescue.
Hear it, o, we philsnthropic and Chris
tian and merciful souls--not weeds, but
| flowers | adjure you as the friends of all
newsboys' lodging houses, of all industrial
schools, of all homes for friendless girls
and for the many reformatories and hui
name associations now on foot. How much
they have already accomplished Out of
what wretchedness, into what good honest
Of21 900 of these picked up out of the streets
and sent into country homes, only IL chill
dren turned out badly.
In the last 80 years a number that nc