Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-23

England to bother the colonial Office for
commission in some colonial police force
one of the smaller British colonies in the
Pacific"
She Found Him Out.
A pretty English girl was the belle of a
p. and o. liner on voyage out to Bombay.
One day. they we're sailing through the
Mediterranean. she went to the captain I'm
deep distress and offered to pay the passage
money for certain of the hremen IL
the captain would transfer him from the
stokehold to the first saloon. Astonished
beyond measure, the captain refused, say
ing it would be contrary to all discipline.
Then the girl confessed that he was a for
mer lover. a man of good family, but poor.
They had been engaged to be married, but
the engagement was broken OF because, in
a lovers tiff she said to him:
You live on your father now, and you
want to live on me after we are married
The young man thereupon set out to earn
his own living, and "roughed it, for a cou-
pie Of years. Then he became fireman on
the very ship in which his former sweet
heart was passenger: she saw MIN on
deck one evening when he had come up for
a breath of fresh air after his exhausting
work in the bowels of the vessel.
After this explanation the captain agreed
to have him brought to the saloon; but the
young man declined to leave his stocking.
and persisted In treating his former sweet
heart with the distant respect which stok-
ers are supposed to show toward passen-
gers. The girl tried in vain to win him
back to her, and by the time the ship
reached Alden she was nearly heartbroken.
He Saved Her Life.
Going ashore there for walk, she man
aged to offend the religious fanaticism of
some Mohammedan pilgrims who were
travelling from India to Mecca. They mob
bed her. and for a moment her life was In
danger; but the stoker, who had also gone
ashore, rushed into the thick of the mob
and saved her
What happened after that nobody Knew
except the lovers but they evidently MADE
ap their quarrel She returned to the ship.
radiantly happy. He went back TO the
stokehold for the rest OF the voyage, out
at Bombay they left the ship together ana
were married within a couple Of hours by
special license, the skipper giving the priue
away.
of the heroism and GOODNESS displayed by
stokers in the moment of danger. when
peril comes to man In the vitals of big
steamship it come with a rush he mas no
time to "screw up his courage. nniess ne
keeps it always screwed up ne 1ahs miser-
ably Suckers rarely fail.
The Prince Victor, tramp steamer. which
used to be well known in the West Indian
fruit trade, was nearly cut In Two py
liner in the English channel some years
ago The stem of the liner struck the III
fated vessels at right angles. cut two-thirds
through 1t, as II it were cheese, ana theh
stuck
They Were Heroes.
The stokehold was penetrated by the
stem. Some of the stokers were killed by
the impact, others by the rush of boiling
water and steam from the smashed boilers.
Only three escaped to the deck, and two OF
them insisted rushing back to the stoke
hold to see If they could rescue any of their
mates. The stem grinding up and
down. half way across the hold, and the
steam and hot water tortured them hor-
ribly, yet they persisted until they brought
up one man. They went down again, and
neither of them returned The ship sunk a
few minutes later.
This is a typical story of the heroism of
the stoker, and Ii could be paralleled a hun
dred times. But their bravery Is usually or
the far harder kind which simply sticks to
routine duty in the face of death. Suckers
can generally be depended ON to keep the
fire going in the engine room, even when
they know that the ship is In momentary
danger of sinking.