Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-07-13

| really As heroic as song and story tel
them. They ask If Gordon of Khartoum
were not more mad than brave. They
smile with cynical ineredulity when told
cheered the Calicpe as she fought her
way out of Apia's harbor to safety in
the open sea. They doubt the tale OF
Wilson's troopers in Matabeleland sing
ing God Save the Queen,' when the
last cartridges were spent and the assegai
points Were ut their throats, while the
black hordes about them paused a
breathing space in utter awe. Yet each
revolving year. defying the dreary drivel
OF materialism and rebuking the pale
plane of MuEwump mediocrity. brings to
the fore some new. resplendent scene
that shows how slight and puerile are
storm and wreck and woe and death be-
fore the conquering greatness of the hui
man soul.
For here. not yet three weeks ago. in
these commonplace closing days of this
commonplace nineteenth century. comes
record of a deed that sets the blood a.
bounding and the nerves a-thrill as much
rs ever rush of Lancelot down the shin
ing lists at Camelot. a British ship was
stormStruck in the Indian ocean. For
six days she was ut the mercy of the hur-
ricane. Then she was hurled upon a
reef. Lifeboats Were launched. only to go
down in the Black hell of waters with all
on board. day after day, night after
night. the storm ragged. una ba ting. The
p.
breaking wreck, starving, perishing be-
meath the fury of the elements. One aft
er another was swept off. to drown or to
fall prey to the waiting sharks: and tina t
fate seemed inevitable for them all. Thus
thirteen days of horror passed. counted
off slowly. with such agony as no words
can tell And then came the day of the
Queens jubilee. remembered faithfully
amid the terrorS of the storm and threa /
enng death. For these were English men
and women on the wreck. At home. in
peace and happiness. brothers and sis
terS We're applauding the pageant of the
ages. and making the golden summer air
all tremuious with joyous cries and sing
ing of God Save the Queen." But was
not that death-reef of Socotra likewise
British soil? Or were they less British in
their hearts than the myriads throngcd
around ST. Paurs? SO amid the below
ings of the Unsuitable Storm looking
death squarely in the face with that
proud contempt of him which only i'm
mortality can feel, they all joined hands
turned hearts and voices England wa rd
and with what might be for alf and was
for some their dying breath, they sang
God Save the Queen"
There was the climax of the jubilee. su-
preme and unapproac chaihle The MANY
voiced choir and thundering organ at ST
Pauls the roar of cannon and the louder
roar of millions of loyal voices, all may
tsie in silence in the coming stretch of
years. But those twoscore weak and
wilderness of storm-swept Indian seas,
will live in deathless echoes while there
Is an ear to hear or a heart to feel For
there was no impulse of surrounding
multitudes. no inspiration of Imposing
paSeants ard the community of joy;
there was no military discipline, as on the
famous i'irkenhead. none OF the fierce
enthusiasm of war. as at Balaklava or on
the banks of the Shanghai. They were
isolated from all the world and crushed
with famine. woe and threatening death.
But they had in their hearts the un-
quenckable love of country and In their
souls the spirit that can tire torture and
time. Such passions live when all else
perishes,, and such deeds as theirs add to
the lengthening chain of tilne-hung gems
which girds humanity about with beauty
and proves our human nature is indeed
divine. The cheers III Apia's harbor, the
anthem rising from Socotra's fatal reef,
are paeans of victory OF hope over fear,
manhood over matter. life over DEATH
Whatever other voices say the age of
chlvalry Is gone, they thunder back their
refItatioE of the libel on humanity.
Whatever other noises rise and fail in fit-
full tumult through the wearled world.
their echoes roll from soul to soul. and
grow forever and forever"