Omaha daily bee., 1908-06-14
HEROIC SPIRIT AND SUICIDE
Only WeakIings Give Up While They
Have a Fighting
Chance.

Readers of shipping news may still re-
member the wreck of a German kerosene
steamer on the widest, most precipitous
part of the coast of Newfoundland, In Feb
ruary, 1901. The steamer took fire during
a heavy winter gale, and the captain ran
1t ashore, at the nearest point OF land,
with the hope of saving the lives of the
crew. 1t struck on a submerged reef in a
little cove, about an eighth of a mile from
a coast, which was 300 or 400 feet high and
as precipitous as a wall. When 1t was first
seen by a few fishermen at daylight, it's
boats were gone and all of its crew had
apparently persisted except three men. Two
were standing on the bridge, and one was
dashed aloft in the forerigging. About 10
o'clock in the forenoon a tremendous sea
carried away the bridge and the two men
on It. and they were seen no more. At 8
o'clock in the afternoon the solitary sur
vivor-the man in the forerigging-who was
evidently suffering intensely from hunger
and cold, unlashed himself, threshed his
arms against his body for five minutes to
restore the circulation in them, and then
took off his coat. waved his hand to the
fishermen on top of the cliff. climbed down
the shrouds and plunged into the sea, but
not to commit suicide. He swan to the
shore, made three attempts in different
places to get a footing among the rocks
at the base OF the cliff, but was swept
away every time by the surf, and finally
abandoned the attempt as hopeless. At
that crisis In the struggle ninety-nine men
out of 100 would have given up and al
lowed themselves to drown, but this man
was not a gutter" He turned his face
again seward, struck out for the half
submerged ship and after a long and des-
perate struggle succeeded in reaching it and
getting on board. He climbed the fore
shrouds, waved his hand to the pitifying.
but powerless fishermen on the edge of the
cliff, and dashed himself again in the rig
ging.
At intervals, until dark. he made signals
to the fishermen to show that he was yet
alive. At daybreak on the following morn
ing he could still be seen in the fore
rigging, but his head had fallen on his
breast and he was motionless. He had
frozen TO death In the night. That man
died. as a man in adverse circumstances
ought to die. fighting to the last.
The Caucasian mountaineers have, a
proverb which says: "Herolsm Is endur-
ance for one moment more That provert
recognizes the fact that In this world the
human spirit, with its dominating force, the
will. may be and ought to be superior tc
all bodily sensations and all accidents OF
environment. We should not only feel, but
We should teach, by our conversation and
by our literature, that, in the struggle OF
life, 1t is essentially a noble thing and a he.
roic thing to die fighting. In a recent
psychological story called My Friend
Will" Charles F. Lummis pays a striking
tribute to the power Of the human minC
over the accidents OF life and chance wher
he makes his friend. Will" say: II an
bigger than anything that can happen t,
me. All these things-sorrow, misfortun,
and su~ffering-are outside my door. In
IN the house and I've got the keyT'-
George KEENAN, in McClure's.