Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1907-08-16

arms. The mother and the baby never
came up. Yet that man said hardly q
word. While he suffered, he suffered
in silence. But to hear some people
complain about their little troubles
| you would suppose that their finite
worries were the greatest troubles in
1 all the world. All, my brother when
/ you go around and advertise your
/ grief l am sure about one thing-the
trouble which you have does not
amount to much. If you had been on
the sinking Columbia and beard 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
grief too great to parade before your
fellow men. Then when you suf-
fered you would suffer in silence. in
complete silence, in sacred silence.
And l sometimes fear that if we per-
sist in complaining about our little
troubles God may soon send us a
truly great trouble in order to stop
But there was another fact that i'm.
pressed me about the CHASTITY catas.
trophe 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
reckoning calls or be a part in their
physical, mental, moral, spiritual and
eternal rescue. We may be so near
that we can almost speak to them, SO
near that we are almost treading upon
them. and vet as far as we are CON
cerned they may be a thousand miles
aye, ten thousand miles-away.
The San Pedro struck the Columbia
about 1916 Il. N. At 1890 the Colum.
bia sank, and her passengers and crew
were struggling in the water. Two or
three Of the survivors showed me their
watches filled with water They had
stopped about 1890 a. m. For five
long hours in the cold and the darkness !
the survivors hoated in boats and on
RATS, waiting for the day. The fog
was still blindingly heavy. About
o'clock in the morning the passengers (
in tile boats saw large vessel loom up
In the distance, It was only few
hundred yards away "Thahk Godw ,
they cried. I'VE are saved. We are .
saved" But instead Of stopping its
engines it moved steadily on and disap- /
peared. The survivors were frantic
They called, they shouted, they scream
ed. But the Waterman ON the bridge
saw them not. and the vessel moved
swiftly ON and was gone. Then the
fog bank closed down and no human
voice answered their cries. Women
tainted and men groaned, and despair /
was everywhere. NO hope. they
cried "No hope! No hope. We shall
all be lost in this imp1nefrable fog!
Now, the sailors and passengers Of
that passing s41p may have been as
true hearted people as those who were .
aboard the Elder. But they were not
looking for any shipwrecked crews,
Otherwise they might have acted diff
ferently. If that ship had known that
any one was in trouble in that sea its
captain would probably have done as
good Captain lessen of the Elder did.
He would have tarried there until the
fog lifted. After he had picked up all
the occupants of the boats and RATS
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
of that passing boat would
have done just as our passengers did.
They would have helped the survivors
to their own stateroOms and placed
them in berths and given them clothes.
| do not believe there was man or a
woman on the Elder who did not divide
spare clothing with those survivors
who came to us almost naked from the
seas And l do not believe there was
a strong, healthy man who did not give
up his berth to some sick man or some
woman or child When l slept upon
the open deck in order that a 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 would have done had he known
that his suffering fellow men were
struggling in the midst of that sea.
But the trouble was that the watch
man of that passing ship did not see
hose little boats and RATS floating in
The fog. And the great reason why
we do not help those who are strug.
Cling by our side in the fog of life is
because we do not see or hear them. J.
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