The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-21
TYBEE IN A TURMOIL
WILD EXCITEMENT OVER TWO
MEN FAR OUT At SEA.
EFFORTS MADE AT RESCUE.
THE BEACH LINED WITH ANXIOUS
MEN AND WOMEN.

Who Had Rtsked an Ebb Tide
Anxiety shown on Many Faces
Oarlcss Boat WINS Launched, anC
Life Line and Life Preserver Were
BrouEht-Then the Men Swan
Fuss.
Women turned their agonized faces
seward, children ran here and there
half-crying in the excitement of the
moment men SHOUTED and made futile
efforts to effect a rescue, while two
men battled with the mighty waves
of the ocean at Tybee Island yesterday
afternoon. They were far out from
the shore. one being probably 200 yards
from the crowd that lined the beach
Anxiously the spectators craned their
necks, looking to see if the men were
still afioat, or if the pitiless ocean had
claimed them for it's own.
1.-TWO men are drowning" was Wild
ly shouted and then spectators endeav-
ored to point out, one to another, the
heads that were bobbing about far out
to shore, one wave after another lift
ing the men to the crowds gaze.
When the discovery of the men, far
from the shore, with the tide running
out and a strong undertow on, as those
who had been in the water asserted
in such wild excitement, men from the
pavilions, employed to look out for
bathers in just such contingencies
YtYC bod 4 90, h. hot an
thence, after getting the bearings of
the men out at sea, to the beach.
Wait here and get a bathing suit,
said an attendant at one of the bath
houses. The men started to do it, but
seemed to think that time consumed
in that manner would probably make
him too late to accomplish a rescue.
"To hill with the suit" he said, and
darted for the beach.
Men in bathing suits stood about on
the beach, and the island employees
were also grouped there, apparently
| at a loss as to just what they should
| do. Launch the boat" cried some
one. and three or four men began to
act upon that suggestion. Bring the
oars aSd row-locks," somebody shout
| ed. There amt any, was the la
comic shout of somebody else.
Run the boat out into the surf any
| hew," said a bystander, and out it
went, with not an oar or a paddle. II
wasn't quite clear what the young men
who exerted themselves in that way
expected to accomplish, but they want
ed to do something. mo use putting
the boat out there; the tides running
out, and you will lose the boat and not
help the men either" somebody else
| observed, so those piddling with the
| craft were content to stay in shallow
water. swinging on to it.
Here's a life line" and sure enough
there was another brave rescuer who
had a coil of rope. Form a line and
| carry ii out" was the shout but the
line wasn't formed
Just then the climax was capped, for
Mr.. Charles F. Graham rushed to the
beach, carrying a life preserver and
doing a rapid-transit disrobing act al
the same time 1.-The Turtle" was not
in it at all with the way Mr.. Graham
was getting out of his clothes. Just
about the time the ladies were begin
ming to blush and look the other way
Mr.. Graham had reached the water
and had donned the life preserver
making it serve to repair, in some
| scant measure, the inroads upon his
apparel that he had made in his wild
rush to the sea. Two or three of his
friends had followed in his wake, pick
ing up a watch here, a pocketbooE
there, a pocket knife somewhere else
and a coat in some other place-any-
where where the gallant life-saver hao
CHANGED to throw them in his sprint.
Look here, those men are swim
ming" somebody said Was it true
Could it be? Yes, it was, and sudden.
| ly the excitement was abated. Tht
word went around that they were
swimming back to the shore. They
were getting in strong overland strokes
the sort that any swimmer knows E
man is not going to use if he is very
tired. BY this time the waters edge
was lined with spectators for a dis
| lance of at least 100 yards, everybody
| almost, having run from the pavilion
| to see the unfortunate men a:
they sank beneath the oceans wave!
| Word of it reached Mr.. Graham
who was, by then, up to his neck, anc
two or three others who had ventufet
out returned to shore. One of the swim
mers, the one who had not been SC
| far out, arrived at about this juncture
| and a short while later the other ven.
turesome bather appeared.
1t was getting along toward dusl
| by this time, and. save to see tina
| there was some excitement on shore
this swimmer could not tell, when fal
| from the crowd. Just what 1t was al
! about. One of the first men he saw or
his return was a bather who had come
toward him with a life line
What you going to do with that
rope?' the swimmer, wiry. strons
young man-Sergt Williams of Com.
pany 116 of the garrison of For
Screven, inquired.
why we thought you were drown.
ing, and 1 brought it out for you"
Sergt. Williams looked at him ii
disgust. We'll l didn't know l was
kicking up all that rumpus. l was
just out for d little swim. Does some
thing like this happen every time 6
man gets out over his head ?"
The laugh was on the crowd. Ev.
erybody began to tell his neighbol
then that he had noticed that the mer
were swimming. and that he hadnt
been alarmed as all. Had the air beer
clear, one might easily have seen thai
the men were swimming Sergt viii.
liams was putting in strong strokes
| his long pull against the tide haVing
affected him in apparently no uncom.
/ Portable way. He wasn't out Of breath
! but talked unconcernedly about the
/ fright into which he had thrown the
/ beach.
Reports that a man had actually
/ been drowned were common, however
and some OF the Tybee visitors return
/ ed 10 the city under the belief thai
/ such had been the case
Tech IoSs at Home.