Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1901-09-13
WOMAN SATUORS.
BY REV. WALKER LEWIS.

New York city has a great many
women of rare gifts and graces, of
exquisite culture and attraction; but
on none of these ought the eyes of
the metropolis, and indeed of the
whole country, to rest more CRATE
fully and admiringly than upon Miss
Frances r. Miller. Full-dressed and
hated though she was, this brave,
soulful girl leaped from the deck of
a yacht. whose male passengers dared
not do 1t. and swan into Pelham bay
August 25 to save a drowning boyi
And she succeeded.
She was not known to him.
Neither he nor his friends had any
claim upon her for tnat risk of life.
She ought have shrunk from the i'm
rerious call that her heart felt at the
boys peril to go to his relief and hid
den in the weakness of her sex and in
the duty her male attendants knew
to be theirs and not hers. She might
have impatiently recoiled from taking
up the neglected work of others by
nature better fitted to battle with the
elements than was she, and let the boy
sink while she wept over his drown
ing. But she did nothing of the kind,
and giving life to risk she snatched
the drowning lad from a watery de-
struction. 1t was a great deed. 1t
was equal to Schleys heroism upon
the deck of the Brooklyn of Santiago
or to Wheeler's before Santiago's
trenches and armed Spaniards. All
honor to Miss Frances r. Millerl
There were two qualities the girl must
have had to execute this attempt. She
had heart to feel. Without this deep
instinct of sympathy she never would
have plunged into the brine for that
unknown boy. Others, many of them,
would have felt a passing sensation
of horror at his danger. and cared
more for their dress than for his life.
But this woman has a great heart, and
all things but helping are forgotten in
the peril of another by the great
hearted.
Still there was another thing with
out which her true heart would have
been powerless to execute its piteous
resolve. She must have been mistress
of the waves. That she was. The ca
pacity of help she had acquired by
practice in the sport and exercise of
swimming. Where heart and hand
went together, rescue followed the
movement.
Boys and men are in the sea by the
thousands. Their own parents have not
succeeded in keeping them in the boat
or in rescuing them when overheard.
food, and they are drowning every
day. The gay crowds sail by and gaze
upon them as they sink, but 1t would
spoil their sport and their suits to leap
into the pillows after them. why
don't some one throw out the lifeline?"
is often asked by thousands who
neither throw 1t nor go after it. The
cigarette, liquor, RIGHTEOUSNESS are
breaking like the Johnstown horror
over the unsuspecting, and in their
muddy and remorseless bihows
boys and men are getting drowned.
The social evil runs six feet deep
through the streets of our cities, and
instead of ditching against it or trying
to alter the flood, it is let alone to
drown all 1t can. Intemperance in
drink or in the cigarette use is adding
tens Of thousands every year to the
lists Of the destroyed. Nevertheless,
for merchandise sake, these perils
are condoned, tolerated and sometimes
defended!
Then, woman, 1t is time for you to
begin the work of rescuing men. Res
cue work for women is Christ-like. 1t
Is well to recognize mans need of res
cue likewise, and leap into the flood
after him. oh, for more women of the
Miller heart and hand! 1t would lessen
drowning everywhere.
The crowded cars on a late trip