The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-02

that put out from Newfoundland. But
dismiss your previous gloom about the
horrors OF ocean entomhmeut
When SebastOpool was besicgcl lu
. the AuglO-Frcngh war, Prince Mentscnl
kOH. commanding the Russian navy. saw
that the only way 10 keep the English out
of the harbor was % sink all OF the
Russian ships Of war in the rOadstead,
and so 100 vessels sank. When, after
I the war was over, our American engineer,
Gowan, descended 10 the depths in a
. diving bell, it was an impressive specta-
Gle One hundred buried ships But it
| is that way nearly all across the Atlantic
ocean. Ships sunk not by the command
Of admirals but by the command of cy-
| clones. But they all had sublime burial,
/ and the surroundings amid which they
sleep the last sleep are more imposing
than the Tai Mahal, the Mausoleum with
walls encrusted with precious stones,
and built by the Great Mogul Of India
over his empress. Your departed ones
were buried in the Gardens of the Sea,
/ fenced off by hedges of cOraline The
! greatest Obsequies ever known on the
/ land were those Of Moses, where no one
| but God was present. The sublime re
/ port of that entombment is in the Book Of
| Deuteronomy, 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 a garden, so your
shipwrccked friends, and those who
could not survive TIL they reached port,
were put down amid iridescence-"ln the
midst of the garden there was
sepulchcr" 1t has always
been mystery what was the
particular mode by which George G..
Goodman, the pulpit orator Of the McthO-
dist church and the chaplain of the
American congress, left this life after
EN- barking for England on the steamship
President, March II, lS4l. That ship
never arrived in port. No one ever
signaled her and ON both sides of the
ocean it has for fifty years been ques-
toned what became of her. But this l
know about Goldman, that whether 1T
was iceberg or conhagration mid-sea, or
collision, he had more garlands on his
ocean tomb than if expiring on land,
each of his million friends had put a
bouquet on his casEet. In the midst
of the garden was his sepulchre
But that brings me to notice the misno-
mer in this Jonahtic expression of the
text. The prophet not only made a mis-
take by trying TO go to Tarshish when
God told him to go to Nineveh, but he
made mistake when he styled as
weeds these growths that enwrapped
him on the day he sank. A weed is
something that is useless 1t is some
thing you throw out from the garden. 1t
is something that chOlSes the wheat. 1t
is something TO be grubbed out from
among the cotton. 1t is something I'M
slightly to the eye. 1t is an invader of
the vegetable or floral world. But this
growth that sprang up from the depth of
the Mediterranean, or foated on its sur
face, was among the most beautiful
things that God ever makes. 1t was
water plant known as the red-col-
Ored 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 sunken armament 1t
is a lamp which the Lord kindled. 1t is
a cord by which to bind whole sheaves of
practical suggestion. 1t is a poem all
whose cantOs are rung by divine good
ness. Yet we all make the mistake that
Jonah made in regard to it, and call it
weed. THE weeds were wrapped about
my head" All that is the trouble on
the land as on the sea- We call those
weeds that are flowers. Pitched up on
the beach of society are children without
home, without opportunity for anything
but sin, seemingly without God. They
are washed up helpless They are called
ragamuffins They are spoken of as the
rakings of the world They are waits
They are street arabs. The are f1Otsam
and jetsam of the social sea. They are
something to be let alone, or something to
be trod on, or something to give up to de-
cay. Nothing but weeds. They are up
the rickety stairs of that garnet. They
are down in the cellar of that tenement
house. They swelter in summers when
they see not one blade of gBeen grass, and
shiver 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 woman was
asked if she sent her children to school,
she replied mo, sir, Inever did send
'em to school, know it, they ought to
learn but | couldn't. / try to shame
him sometimes (it is my husband, SIR but
he drinks and then beats me, Look at
that bruise on my face), and l tell him to
see what is coming TO his children.
There's Peggy, goes sellin' fruit every
night in those cellars in Water street, and
they're hells, sir. She's learning all
sorts of bad words there, and don't get
back till twelve o'clock at night. If it
wasn't for her earnin' a shillin' or two in
them places, | should starVe. Oh, [
wish they was out of the city Yes, it,
is the truth; l would rather have all my
children dead than on the street, but |
can't help it," Another one of these poor
women, found by a reformatory associa-
ton, recited her story of want and woe,
and looked up and said: Il felt so hard
10 lose In6 Cnlluf6n Wnen UQey Olcu, DuJ
now Pm glad they're gone" Ask any
one of a thousand such children on the
streets: Where do you live}" and they
will answer: Il don't live nowhere "
They will sleep tonight in ash-barrels, or
under outdoor stairs, or on the wharf,
kicked and bruised and hungry Who
cares for them? Once in while a city
missionary or a tract distributor or a
teacher of ragged schools VIII rescue one
of them, but for most people they are only
weeds. Yet, Jonah did not more com
pletely misrepresent the Red Alg9 about
his head than most people misjudge these
poor and forlorn and dying children of
the street They are not weeds. They
are immortal flowers. Down in the deep
sea of woe, but flowers. When society
and the church of God come to appreciate
their eternal value there will be more c.
L. Braces and more Van Meters and more
Angels of Mercy spending their fortunes
and their lives in the rescue. Here il, O. We
phiianthropic and Christian and merciful
souls not weeds, but flowers. l adjure
yoW as the friends of all newsboys lodg-
ing houses, of all industrial schools, of all
homes for friendess girls, and for the
many reformatories and humane associa-
tions now on foot How much they have
already accomplished. Out of what
wretChedness, into what good homes OF
$1,000 Of these picked up out of the
streets and sent into country homes, only