Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-06-10

more likely to lose than to gain. He
expects an angry voice from the ell
gine-room door to ask embarrassing
questions at any moment. He is
tired and half dead with the heat. 1t
is no use to heave in coal; the fires
are dirty.
At last he dares put il off no
longer, yet he fears his efforts will he
crowned with disaster He is not
feeling we'll to-day; he has drunk
more water than usual since coming
on watch, but "needs must when the
devil drives"
He pulls the furnace door open and
goes for it.
( The fire never seemed so hot be-
fore. Strange that such consuming
heat is yet not enough. He jabs the
heavy sliccbar into it and surges
savagcly on it to drive is through the
clinkered mass. 1t takes all his
strength, and his body throbs with the
intense heat and accelerated action of
the heart.
Again and again-not daring to
steal glance at the gauge-he stirs
the glowing mass.
Suddenly the fire looks black.
Something snaps with loud report in
his head; he is sensible of a sudden
chill replacing the fervent heat, and
fireman has dropped at the furnace
door!
The water-tender reports to the en-
gineer: "Pat Murphy is overheated,
sir"
Another fre-room hero takes his
place, and Pat is carried out, victim
of the sea fight, though he has not an
honorable wound to show.
Meanwhile the noble ship, nations
pride and hope, steams gallantly up to
the muzzles of the enemy's guns, CIV
ing and taking titanic blows for the
right.
Her decks are strewn with the
bodies and fragments of us heroic men
as ever wore the blue shirt. Their
names will be inscribed on the roll of
the honored dead who died for their
country. After the first pangs of
grief have passed relatives will speak
their names with a glow OF honest
pride and scarcely regret the loss of
one who died so gloriously at-Ma-
Mia.
And it is we'll, for all the world ad-
mires hero. Yet few of those killed
in action met the painful fate of Pat
Murphy, the fireman, who gasped his
life out at the furnace door, literally
roasted alive.
But who shall eulogize his memory?
What relative will boast that he fell
in battle. He was only fireman-a
laborer.
Why do these men do such things?
Why work themselves to death? There
is plenty of help. Is it enthusiasm?
Patriotism? An overwhelming pride
in their ability to stand up to their
work? Or only commonplace dread
of "the boss9" Who shall say9
Eliminating the latter supposition,
does it not require the same heroic
mould to sacrifice life for one duty as
for another?
Nay, does it not require a greater
and finer degree OF heroism to fol-
low duty even unto death amid the
dingy and unromantic surroundings
of fireroom than on deck amid all
the "pomp and circumstances of glor-
ious war;?
The heroes of the fireroom, while
better protected than the men on deck
from missiles and flying splinters, are
worse off otherwise.
1t is universally conceded that the
ultimate destination OF the modern
man-of-war is the bottom of the sea.
When her hour strikes and, like a
stone, she plunges to the coral beds,
no matter who escapes, the fireroom
heroes are pretty sure to SO with her.
They know these things, but disre.
gard them entirely.
Cases are on record OF shells drop
ping down the smokestack and explod-
ing in the confined space of the fire.
room, but as they cannot guard
against such things they do not mind.
Promotion is not for them. They
are only poor men who know how to
be at their posts when dnty calls.
Congresses do not think of them, nor
do citizens feast them. What grace
full act it would be for some COM
mander in the future to state in his
official report that Throughout the
engagement their positions were
CALAMITY maintained by 'the Heroes
of the FirerOOm.'
The AustrO.Prussian war of 1866
lasted seven weeks; the Franco -Prus-
sian war of 1870 yirfuallv culminat ted