The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-18

1 lHIGu, ne SuItItQ Ill Slleltts but Ab llEflt ] some people complain about their little
 troubles you would suppose that their ! finite worries were the greatest troubles ! in all the world. Ah, my brother, when 1 you go around and advertise your grief | I am sure about one thlng-the trouble ! which you have does not amount to much. If you had been on the sinking Columbia and heard the awful explosion when the
 cold waters touched the hot boilers and
 if you had had your wife and children swept away, then you would have had a | grief too great to parade before your fel- 1 low men. Then when you suffered you
 would suffer In silence, in complete s- i lenee, in sacred silence. And I sometimes | fear that if We persist in complaining
 about our little troubles God may soon
 send us a truly great trouble in order to , stop our continual complaint.
 But there was another fact that i1n- | pressed me about the ghastly catastrophe
 of the fatal goth day of July. I felt that
 we might be very near to those who are ! in trouble and yet not hear their cries of ] anguish or see their beckoning calls or
 be a part in their physical, mental, nor 1 all spiritual and eternal rescue. We may | he so near that We can almost speak to | them, so near that we are almost tread 1 ing upon them, and yet as far as we are
 concerned they may be d thousand miles 1 aye, ten thousand miles-away.
 |
 about 12:15 a. m. At 12 30 the Columbia l sank and her passengers and crew were l struggling in the water Two or three 1 of the survivors showed me their watches | filled with water. They had stopped abodt | 1230 a. m. For five long hours in tlle | cold and the darkness the survivors float | ed in boats and on rafts, waiting for the | day. The fog was still bllndngly heavy ! About o'clock in the morning the pas sengers in the boats a large vessel loom up in the distance. It was only a few hundred yards away. "Fhank Cod. they cried We are saved, Ne are saved!' But instead of stopping it's engines [ moved steadily on and disappeared. The , survivors were frantic. They called. they shouted. they screamed. But the watch man on the bridge saw them not, and the
 vessel moved swiftly and was gone.
 Then the fog bank closed down and 10
 human voice answered their cries. Women tainted and men groaned, and despair was
 everywhere "No hope! they cried. ''No hopei No hope! We shall all be lost ,n this impenetrabe fog," Now, the sailors
 and passengers of that passing ship may
 have been IS true hearted people IS those
 who were aboard the Elder. But they
 were not looking for any shipwrecked crews Otherwise they might have acted
 differently If that ship had known that
 anyone was in trouble in that sea It's
 captain would probably have done as
 good Captain lessen of the Elder did. He
 would have tarried there until the log
 lifted After he had picked up all the oc-
 cupants of the boats and rafts he would
 have sailed around among the wreckage
 until he was sure that not one man,
 woman or child was struggling in those
 waters Then the passengers of that
 passing boat would have done just as our
 passengers did. They would have helped
 thaf, Gf a
 and placed them in berths and given thom
 clothes I do not believe there was
 man or a woman on the Elder who did
 not divide spare clothing with those sui
 viVors who came to us almost naked from
 the seas. And do not believe there Was
 a strong, healthy man who did not give
 m his berth to some sick man or some
 woman or child. When I slept upon the
 open deck in order that woman might
 have my berth, l did just what scores of
 other men did, and no more than every
 other man of that passing ship Woutl
 have done had he known that his suffer-
 ing fellow men were struggling In ne
 midst of that sea. ut the trouble was
 that inc watchman of that passing ship
 did not see those little boats and rafts
 foaing in the fog And the great reason
 why we do not help those who are strng-
 gling by our side In the fog of life is be-
 cause we do not see or hear them.
 Is 1t Our Faultf
 Yet as 1 stod and looked at some of those poor survivors of the Columbia l l1ept saving to myself, '1s it our fault if we do not see those who are in trou- ble by our side in tn fogs and mists or life?" Why should l give up part or
 my clothing and my berth to the snip wrecked at sea and yet refuse to help clothe the naked who are living in my
 hv g,,nNy CiHn2 Why not think
 of the poor, the lame, the blind, by our own flreside? "Oh," some one answers. the reason we do not feed those living under the shadow of our own doors Is because we think they ought to be able to make a living as we have to
 dow your answer my friend, Is right and vet 1t Is wrong. Neither God nor man wishes you to feed loafers and
 clothe deadbeats and house social vam- pires If any man does not work. neither shall he eat" Is good sound doctrine for the Bible and modern so- cial economies. But l want to tell you bluntly that all the poor and the un- fortunates of your town are not loaf
 CTS and deadbeats. There are honest and deserving poor as well as honest and deserving rich. The poor who come begging at your door may not be de- serving Bishop Potter enunciated mighty truth when he said, "The de-
 serving poor are not those who seek vou. hut those whom you must seek | The deserving poor. are everywhere around you in life. Therefore in the mists and fogs of the journey of life | blow not simply a warning whistle. l Keep open your fatch eye. Hunt for the shipwrecked crews of the San Pe- dros and the Columbias. They are everywhere around us. Slow down and l look about. God bids us care for His unfortunates as He has cared for and loved us.
 But there Is still another overwhelm- ing fact which forced itself upon me on the fatal day of July 2o 1907. What an awful struggle life is even under
 the best conditionsl It Is not a pleas
 ure day sail, as some suppose. It Is not q voyage over a smooth sea, with happy friends to wave an adieu and kind friends to welcome us into the coming harbor. But 1t Is a battle,
 struggle. It is tossing, tumbling sea. Saving the Lumber Boat.
 No sooner were the occupants of the hoats and the rafts and the half sub
 merged lumber ship taken on board then
 at once the captain and other officers of the Elder turned their attention to saw ing the brow split and leaking San Pedro. Onlv A year before the vessel had been sold for s6OOO0 The builder of this ship was one of our fellow passengers, and he told me all about it. Now, cargo | was worth about s20000. That was too much money to turn adirft so, after all | the human lives had been placed in safe
 ty. the sailors turned their attention to