The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-11-29
in THE JAWS OF DEATH.

Lessons Taught by the Bravery of tho
Victcria's Dead Sailors.
The name of the Victoria will ever
DO associated with story that the
nation will cherish as one of those
precious records by which empires
live. 1t was all over in fifteen
minutes. but those fifteen minutes
will live in history as lives the
Balaklava charge, which did not last
much longer.
The testing times OF life seldom
last longer. says the Review OF
Reviews. The frst dip Of the litmus
paper in the solution proves the
existence Of acid, and the first
moment of u supreme crisis suffices
for test And as it has been SAID
that it was almost worth the
enormous expenditure OF the Crimean
war to have the object lesson which
was afforded by the charge of the
Six Hundred--of the absolute readi-
ness of the British soldier to ride
Unto the jaws of death, into the
mouth OF helltso it may be said it
was almost worth while to lose tho
Victoria in order to have so superb
an ILLUSTRATION of our men, writes w.
II. 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. Invincible in life
are our blue jackets invincible also
in death. Their drill goes like clock
work by day and by night; their dis
ciplilne is perfect by sea and by land.
But how will it be when each indi-
viAual, 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 aliveP The Victoria supplied
an answer Not for single mo
ment does there seem to have been 0
faltering word or furried deed
Not even when the great shiI
reeled and quivered like o wounded
thing beneath the crushing blow Of
10000 tons of metal hurled against
it at the rate of eighteen miles ar
hour, did any of the crew or Officers
lose their self-possesslon. Every
thing which had been laid down ant
provided for such an emergency wal
remembered and acted upon.
Whether in trying to get out tb,
collision mats or in the last desper
ate plunge shoreward, in which th,
half-sinking ship, with her forepaI
all under the water, steamed TOWARD
the land-everything seems to hav
been done with the regularity an,
steadiness and cool courage that ar
the distinguishing features of tn
British navy. And in the last drea
moment when the order was given
Each for himself" which dissolve
the organic whole of the discipline
} ships company into mass of indi
viduals each set free to seek his ow
| safety in his own way, nothing seem
} to have been done unworthy th
, name and fame of the British sailor
The papers, indeed, are full of storie
of the self-forgetting devotion {
, these blue Jackets to each other.
All seem to have been alike, frol
the admiral who sank with his shi
to the chaplain who persisted in say
ing others. The midshipman VIII
, refused to leave the admiral and wer
down by his side, the brave fello'
who freed the diver from his Lead
laden sinkers and lost his own life /
doing SO, although he saved th
diver, and all the other incidents (
l heroic unselfishness and conrad,
ship that is stronger than death
s these things are priceless additio
Y to the heritage of our land.