The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1902-06-05
BILL ARP ON THEHORRORS,
The Accounts of Disasters Make
Him Sad-Thcy Seem Now to
Increase.

Atlanta Constitution.
II is utterly impossible for Il man t
grasp the horrors of Martinique
Every individual case has it's heart
rending anguish and there are 10 90
OF them, and l 600 more at ST. Vim
cent. Hcle are 300 III the coal mine
near Knoxville and 5000 mourner
outside, and every day tells of som
new disaster. The world. seems to b,
getting used to calamities and terribl,
thlngs. They arc now big part O
the battle of life, and if we are not re
concilcd to 1T we do not stop a moment
10 ponder the suffering and crime thai
IL going on. No, we cannot take it iy
and the head lines in the daily papers
are all that we have time or inclina.
lion TO read. Last uight my wife and
l read the pihful story OF Captain
freeman, of the RUddam, as he told il
at the hospital at ST. Lucia while ten
derly lying upon pillows his face and
hands charred and blackcned, his flesh
raw and his eye balls bloody, and how
one after another of his crew sank in
fiery death until there were seven
teen OF them dead upon the deck, and
TINS was tho only vessel Of the sixteen
that brought away a living soul. Oh,
u was horrible and filled our hearts
with sorrow and our eyes with tears.
But this was only one case, and there
are thousands who would have had as
pltlful tale to tell if they had lived to
tell it. 1t is good for us that we can
not know but a small part of the hor-
rors of Martinique and St Vincent and
on the seas and rivers - ne case is
enough. One case uf Il mother trying
to save her child Oh bur ing boat on
the Mississippi river IL lew weeks ago
saddened us all, but the memory of
such things soon passes away and we
forget 1t until another comes. Only
last week the papers told of man, a
brute, who got angry with his little
boy of 6 years and after elapping him
to the floor picked him up bodily and
raised him above his head and dashed
him down and crushed the life out of
his little body and his mother picked
him up q corpse, while the life blood
: spOutea from his mouth and nose. The
recital made me sick and sad. The
little boy, L believe. is in heaven, but
the poor hear.-broken mother has to
stay to keep guard over the other three.
Merciful Father, when will these
things cease to be; when will woman
learn that it is better to live and die
single than TO chain herself to man
whose character for loving Kindness
has not been established in the COM
munity. Girls, let me bcsccch you to
take no chances. BE shop girl, a
typewriter, a seamstress, book agent
or anything That is pure and honest
rather than the wife of a heartless
brute and the mother of his children.
Take no chances. The young men of
this generation are hard lot-not more
than two in ten arc fit TO marry. Count
them up III your own community and
ask your brother about them. How
many does he know who he would be
willing for his sister TO marry.
But I was ruminating about these
horrible disasters and The grief that
fCllOws in their wake. Death is not
80 terrible thing. Vory often il
comes IN mercy and is blessing. A
peaceful death to the aged is trium-
phant change-the end of trouble and
the beginning of happiness. But it is
the time and the manner of death.
Fitz Greene Halleck never wrote q
more beautiful verse than his apos-
trophe to death:
"Come when the blessed seals
. That close the pestilonce are broke
And crowded cities wall it's stroke;
Come In consump!ion's ghastly form,
The earthquakes shock, the ocean 8
storm;
And thou art torrible-the tear
The groan, the knoll the pail tho bier
And all we know or dream or fear
or agony are thine"
1t looks like some Of these awful
things are getting close to lis. These
Windward islands are OH our side of
the world, and not 50 far away. Even
now the wind is blowing their ashes
on our coasts, and the earth IS quakirg
under Florida. The explosion of the
coal mines at Knoxville is the first
horror of that kind in our Southland.
and no pen can picture the scene oi
those imprisoned men writing thei,
last loving words to wives and children
as they gasped for breath tho
lord have mercy upon them and tenn
per the wind to the shorn lamb. II
all who are in peril and all who arr
bereaved, we would breathe the poo
fisherman's prayer; "Oh Lord, goot
Lord, am broken down poor mail
fool to speak to Thee am too old
too old-my lads are drowned-I'v
buried my poor wife-my little lassle
died so long ago that I forget wha
they were like. know they went t
Thee, but | forget their little faces
though ! missed them sore. Mercifr
Lord, please comfort those who hav
heavy hearts. cannot pray with fine
words; / have no learning--too ole
700 old; but, good Lord, havo pity O
them ALL"
It is sad TO have to write OF 40
things, but the, wise man said: "It
'betterto go to the house of mourniu
than to the house of feasting." 1t
good for us all to stop and think az
:: let our hearts open wide in sy ympath
Man, lis, to- blame for most OF b