The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1909-11-04
LIFE SAVERS IN The Mich.
SERVICE ARE GIVEN PRAISE
OF Interest Here, Because Of Station at
the Canal, Are Statements Of v. s.
Government Official on the Men in
the Service in This State-Are Real
Heroes.

or interest here will be the following
Washington dispatch commendatory of
the men in the Michigan life-saving
service, a station of which Is located
at the Lake Superior ship canal
"They made me take a dead man,
wouldn't let me write about live one,
or / could have given them as fine an
example Of the best type of American
citizen right up there in Michigan as
there is in this country" said sum
ner l. Kimball. general superintendent
of the United States life saving serv-
he has recently written for the Amer
lean Unitarian association.
1T is a fine idea the Unitarian as
ISOLATION has," pursued Kimball. 1T
takes good fair sample of a man,
perhaps a farmer or a doctor or fish,
erman, 1t doesn't make any difference,
just a man in any walk of life, OF whom
you probably never heard and who
goes on from day to day and does the
best he can. The association gets some-
one in a position to know about the
man to write a little book about him
to show that he is a type of American
manhood. that is, one of the best types.
"Finest in the World"
Here you see a farmer written up
by Dr. Eliot of Harvard. Here is an
Illinois pioneer by Robert Colyer. Here
a master diver by f. Hopkinson Smith.
A MI.
pleted. will furnish the facts for an
understanding of our real Americans.
I was requested to write the personal
history of life saver; one who had
given his life to the work, with no
thought of gain from II and no hope
of fame or other reward, and no de-
sire for anything but the consciousness
from day to day of his duty done to the
best of his ability. / selected Capt.
Joshua James, who was in the life
saving service, either for the Massa-
chusetts Humane society or the Unit
ed States government, for 60 years,
and who died while on duty-in fact
just as he stepped out of a life boat
when he was rs years old. But, as l
say, II I had been permitted to write
cited some up there in Michigan who
are the finest of their type in the
world"
Life savers, of course?"
eyes, life savers. l do not care to
mention names, particularly but there
Ha. ,aI
feats that ought to give them everlast-
| ing fame, and would do so IL what they
have done were to be known and APP
preciated by the world at large. But
those men go on from year to year
lrisking their lives as matter OF
course. taking chances as desperate as
any men ever took anywhere, and ask
ing nothing at all, but the approval OF
their conscience and their superior off,
Ger. Capt Joshua James saved and
helped save hundreds of lives down on
the Massachusetts, coast, and he re-
ceived many medals and testimonials
but brave and modest and efficient as
he was he did not in any way eclipse
those men on the lakes.
Praises Harbor Beach Man.
81 will just name one, Capt Jerome
G. Kiah now district superintendent OF
the service, with headquarters at Har-
Dor Beach. That man. while keeper
of the Point aux Barques life saving
station in 1880, went out with his crew
to save the people Of vessel in dis
tress. and the lifeboat capsized three
times, and finally all of the crew ex'
cept Capt. Kiah were drowned. The
story of the way that man strove e
save his men, of how time after time
he righted the boat, baled 1t out ant
tried to go on toward the wreck, ant
of the final catastrophe, IL told b,
some master of narrative would MAKE
him famous wherever deeds of des
perate courage are appreciated. Ye
Kiah has gone through lifetime o
what to him is simply the routine o
duty and nothing he talks about or ex
poets others to talk about. The hes
type of American citizen is to be foun'
right here in Capt. Kiah, and in man!