The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-03

| When the nOr-WeSter blew out we had fine weather, and, as I had very lit tie panionship on board, l got into
 the yaWl that hung under the stern
 and, lying there on my back, would of-
 ten read myself to sleep. The swinging
 motion of the hanging boat was peculi-
 arly grateful to a man who wished to
 kill time. But one evening l was dog
 ing there, the stern davit line ran sud
 denly down and dumped me into the
 water. It was about o'clock, and the
 sky was clouded up. The cold plunge
 gave me a shock, and as soon as my
 head was out of the water I let out a
 cry. You can have no idea how feeble
 it sounded to me. Something seemed to
 beat it down to the level of the water,
 and there was the stern of the bark re-
 ceding before my eyes. In another mo-
 ment she would be out of sight. l eX-
 erted all my strength and beloved for help. Possibly there were five minutes
 of it, and then the bark disappeared,
 and l was alone in the middle of the At lantic A man in this situation ca!cu-
 lates his chances very sumuarily. ] There was one in 8 hundred that the bark would send a boat to hunt me up.
 Something told me that the accident 1 had been prearranged. I was to die there by inches, buffeted to the last In
 such crises man begins to pray very
 spontaneously Our common life hides
 from us possibilities that come flashing
 upon us in moments of peril. It is only when man is reduced to a helpless atom
 in the waste of creation that he tries l to lay hold of the Infinite I will not i tire you with my psychologist eXperi- | ences. One sometimes lives for hours
 at the top of his emotions. I tried to i adjust myself to an inevitable and cruel
 death knowing that even in my last breath 1 would be struck in the face by the pitiless ocean. 1 will merely re-
 mark, gentlemen, that to a man In the middle of the Atlantic, lifted every half
 minute so that he can get good view of the appalling waste of waters, winter in the Indian country must as- sume the color of an Arcadian dream.
 Palfrey nodded assent.
 T don't know exactly how long I was in the water. I know, however, that I fought against despair with
 mental frenzy, and just as I was be- coming incapacitated by the whirl of iits ChIi bIt'ill anu tllG ttdHtItGS Sli- deavor to keep ahoat, l heard call
 Tt was Dick Pearce in the yawl, and he pulled me in, half-dead. He told me that the bark had gone on. The cap tain refused to stop. We were twenty four hours afoat and were then picked up by one of the old Black Ball line of packets, and came safely to New York.
 ''I lost track of Pearce, and there was no probability that we would ever come together on the ocean of life again. But now, as l think back, it all came near to being the regulation Christmas story, Years slipped away. It was. I think, in '72, when l was coroner, and my professional shingle was still up on the old rooms in Bond street. The boys of the Phoenix club in the Twenty first ward were going to have Christmas revel, and on Christmas eve young Dick Busteed came down to my office to fetch me. We had started out together to walk to the Fourth avenue care, when a young girl with shawl over her head ran after us. She caught hold of my coat eagerly Would I come at once? Her father was dead.
 Something in her face touched me My child I said, what can I do if | your father is dead?' l could feel the | vibration of her eagerness, as she re- ! piled in paroxysnal appead: Oh | please come, it's only across to Chrys- tie street.
 "'Dick,' said l. this will only take | me a few minutes, and it's Christmas | eve. I'll feel better at the club If at tend to this. You go on and I'll join ! To nant but ! had my own way. The . girl walked by my side over to a tene- on the corner of Chrystia and Houston streets. I tried to talk to her on the way, but her eagerness to get back interfered with her speech, which usually ended in convulsive sobs. By the time we were landed in a room on the fourth floor. where the whole family were huddled in incoherent grief, I had recovered some of my off cial dignity. Well madam I said to the obvious mother of the circle here I r am. What do you expect me to do? Don't you know better better than to send for doctor after death has taken placer
 God have mercy on us she replied with sharp despair, you can do noth- ing. But the girl would have it. Then they all fell to crying afresh. The pit fable situation was apparent at glance. Here was a hard working man who, while preparing for Christmas with his family, had been suddenly cut ,ff, so suddenly, in fact, that the fami- y could not get it squarely into their heads that he was really dead. I took t all in, calculating that a ten dollar pill would let me out easily, and fill hose stockings that were hanging uu- Ter the mantel, when the girl beckoned Q me to follow her into another room t was pretty dark in there, but she pulled the curtains up and there ly- ng upon the bed, as you have already was Dick Pearce. I was so aken aback that l must have acted 1 yery strangely Who told you to come or me?' I asked the girl, and she dipped away from me as if something ( lad frightened her. I don't know he said, what is it?' and it gave me a raWly feeling
 "'Go and get me a lamp quick-do { you hear, and keep that door shut "'Yes,' she said wonderingly, as she dipped out. ( 'T went to the window a moment and I ooked out l could hear the horns on { he street. Christmas was close up t