Evening journal., 1898-07-19
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
THE LOSS OF THE FRENCH LINER
LA BOURGOGNE.

caused an amount of altogether useless
recrimination to emanate from various
editorial chairs. Charges Of response
ble cowardice and cruelty have been
made in a wholesale manner against
the crew and lower grade passengers
aboard the Inflated ship. These allega-
tions have been made without discrimi-
nation and minus a just and due re-
gard for accuracy. In fact, the sur
viying members Of the crew have been
classed as a lot OF inhuman wretches
who ought to have become food for
fishes. Some of these writer's, with
phlegmatic assurance born Of a sup
posed temerity, have settled the ques-
tions of bravery and cowardice in their
own minds. and. as a consequence,
have felt that no further thought was
required. These critics are doubtless
very brave men-in the daytime and
when their feet are pressing terra
firma. At such times they are ready
TO exclaim with Macbeth: Il dare do
all that may become a mani" We have
met such valiant souls before, and we
have witnessed their gills turn white
in the presence Of a fancied danger
only We remember once being two
days out from Queenstown. The swell
Of the Atlantic waters was not even
sufficient to disturb the meditations OF
setting hen; but that fact did not
prevent an affrighted passenger from
inquiring as to whether or not the ship
was going down. We do not know If
that quaking specimen of humanity be
yet alive, but II he is, then it is dollars
to nothing that he is exceptionally
loud in his denunciation OF the COW
ardice Of some OF those aboard la
Bourgogne. Such fellows can always
discern the mote in the eye Of another,
being all the while oblivious OF the
lumber-yard in their own. 1t is all
very we'll for us when the sky is clear,
and when we have back door through
which we can make a safe exit in time
OF danger-it is all very well for us to
say what should and what should not
have been done in the terrifying cir
cumstances attending the sinking Of
Bourgogne, circumstances sufficient
ly horrible to appall even the very devil
himself. 1t is easy, very easy, for us
to read the horrible fate of those
aboard the French liner, and to write
or speak glibly OF the cowardice ex-
hibited by some OF her crew and pas
sengers. But what would some of these
writers, the men who speak so con-
tempnously of these terror-stricken
souls to the world, have done had they
been aboard the French boat when she
sank? We eannot walk on the waves
neither Is there any dust on the ocean.
But If either one or both of these
never-to-come-to-pass conditions had
been in force when La Bourgogne went
down we have strong suspicion that
the extremities of these writers would
not have been discernible for the afore-
said dust. In fact, the celebrity Of their
efforts to save their own lives would
have been so great as to altogether
conceal their corporal frames from
mortal vision. Or, perhaps, had they
been so lucky as to be on a crowded
raft they might have been so self-sac
rifcing as to make a grandiloQuent
bow and vacate in favor of newcomers
Perhaps they would have so acted per
haps they would not-very much mot,
No one, 10y simply reading the coz
type describing the sinking Of La Bour
gogne, can form anything like an ade
quate conception of the terror whicl
would more or less seize each persoi
aboard. In the dead of night; thicl
fog prevailing; the distance from an.
land being 1--WE times greater than /
the eye from the horizon; to be sud
denly aroused only for the scattere
senses to realize that you are to g
down into a yawning chasm to death
all this is sufficient to push us fror
our stools" or, in other words, to ur
set the reason and make gibberin
idiots Of us all. 1t is not given to ever
man to be able to play the Roman G
to come out strong" when a boat
taking him to a watery grave. It is nc
given to us all to be able to do a
that may become a man" when deaf
stares us in the face or when the sam
White Sergeant, with scarce moment
notice, bids us up and follow It is eas
for a man to affirm that under extren
perilous circumstances self-preserv;
tion would not be the first law OF nj
ture with him, and that he would d
game" Any fool can affirm all tina
But in the absence OF any proof Of
orally brave an affirmation we shou
accept it as a statement born Of bon
bastic and infantile mind. Some yea
ago, in the old country, a man ma
a wager to the effect that he dare e
ter at midnight mausoleum and r
main overnight. The next 1ornii
found him a raying maniac. Nothii