St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-03-16
The Wreck of the Asia.

A correspondent of the Boston
Transcript calls attention to the ter
rible wreck of the Asia in the follow
ing pathetic story:
Has not the Maine catastrophe d.
verted the minds OF good people too much
from the touching, tragic story OF the
Asia, wrecked on Nantucket shoals, and
oil the unknown seaman and the little
girl found in the rigging? The bare fact
oil this grim discovery was all the record
of the disaster which at first seemed
likely to reach the civilized world. Sub
sequently, however, it proved that three
sailors had taken their chances for life
on piece of the wreck which had been
broken from the main body and that
they successfully foated-as often hap
pens in cases of wreck-to final rescue.
From these sailors have been obtained
what naturally purport to be the impor-
tant incidents OF the disaster-how the
Ship bound from Manila, i'll the Philip
pine Islands, had approached the New
England coast in a snowstorm, how the
direlul knowledge that she had stranded
burst upon he crew, how she had drilted
again into deep water and struggled to
weather the shoals, but was forced upon
them again and yet again, how for such
safety as there was the crew huddled in
the lorecastle, until the breaking Of the
ship let the sea into their retreat, drown
ing the captain and Grazing his wife, how
in the excitement, someone-who, they
knew not, had taken little Eleanor the
pet of the ship-by the hand and led her
aft to the mizzen rigging, and how they
themselves had jumped tor piece OF the
wreck which had broken loose and Eeen
carried 10 ward the shore by the sea and
tide.
Certainly this bare outline Of the dis.
aster is more impressive than if there had
been any coloring for dramatic effect.
The mere horror and the struggle were
awful. But beyond the horror is there
not vista oi heroism to make Christian
people pause in reverence? At that ter
rible moment someone. an unknown hero,
perhaps a sailor who had taught the
child strange sailor knots. as they drifted
home ward in the calm days by the equa-
tor; perhaps some shy, clumsy fellow,
whose instructive respect for the purity OF
childhood could only have been guessed
by his refraining from profanity or
coarseness in her presence; perhaps a
mate, who tried, so lar as his poor OPP
portunilies permitted, to take Tor her
the place of her dead father-someone,
alone with the absolute; someone. hap
PLY removed from any insidious side
glance toward praise or gratitude or
martyrdom, gave such heed to that help.
less child that, at the end of the drama,
death. the recorder, pointed out only
those two, the only persons on board
who had climbed above the waves.
For outer fact the man and the child,
dashed in the rigging, we're frozen 10
death in the storm of the winter night
But the statesman, seeking official honor
and the praise of his constituents; the
man of business, measuring success by
the size of his bank account; the woman
thinking that she secs some reality ir
her own social prestige, can never touch
the great heart of Christendom as car
the rough man and the little girl, fal
away, unknown. unseen, in the mist anC
the darkness of the storm. For such i
is inherently impossible that the las
should be otherwise than first, and tn
first last.