Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1912-04-24

low, such detectives as dramatic"
and tragic do but poor justice. With
the knowledge of deadly peril gaining
greater power each moment over
those men and women, the nobility
of the greater part, both among cabin
passengers, officers, crew and steer
age, asserted itself.
Straus Held Back by Guard.
Isidor Straus, supporting his wife
on her way to q lifeboat, was held
back by an ineXorable guard. Another
officer strove TO help ner to seat of
safety, but she brushed away his arm
and chung to her husband, crying, u
will not go without YOU
Another woman took her place, and
her form, clinging to her husbands,
became part Of picture now drawn
indelibly in many minds. Neither wife
nor husband, SO far as anyone knows,
reached a place of safety.
Aston and Wife Part.
Colonel Astor, holding his wife's
arm, stood decorously aside as the
and her maid were ushered TO seats.
Mrs. Henry B. Harris parted in like
manner from her husband, saw him
last at the rail, beside Colonel Aston.
Walter NJ Clark of Los Angeles,
nephew of the Montana senator,
joined the line Of men as his young
wife, sobbing, was placed in one OF
the craft
LET him come! There is room!"
cried Mrs. Emil Taussig as the men
of the White Star line motioned to
her husband to leave her. 1t was with
difficulty that he released her hold to
permit her to be led to her place.
George D. Widener, who had been
In Captain Smiths company few
moments after the crash, was an
other whose wife was parted from
him and lowered, moment later, to
the surface of the calm sea.
Butt, Hays and Stead Lost.
Of Major Archie Butt, a favorite
with his fellow tourists; of Charles M.
Hays, president of the Grand Trunk;
Of Benjamin Guggenheim, and of VIII
liam T. Stead, no one seems to know
whether they tarried too long in their
staterooms or whether they forebore
to approach the fast filling boats.
None of them was in the throng
which, weary hours afterward, reached
the Carpathia.
Pistols Check Storage Men.
simultaneously on the upper decks
of the ship the ropes creaked with the
lowering of boats, and as they reached
the water those in the boats saw
what those on the decks could not
see-that the Titanic was listing rap
idly to starboard, and that her stern
was rising at portentious angle. A
rush of steerage men toward the
boats was checked by officers with
revolvers in hand.
Some of the boats, crowded too full
to give rowers chance, drifted for
time. None had provisions or water,
there was lack of covering from the
icy air, and the only lights were the
still undimmed arcs and incandescents
of the settling ship, save for one of
the first boats. There a steward, who
explained to the passengers that he
had been shipwrecked twice before,
appeared carrying three oranges and a
green light.
Green Lantern as Savior
That green light, many of the sur
vivors say, was to the shipwrecked
hundreds as the pillar of fire by night.
Long after the ship had disappeared,
and while confusing false lights
danced about the boats, the green Ian
tern kept them together on the course
which led them to the Carpathia.
AS the end Of the Titanic became
manifestly but matter OF moments,
the oarsmen pulled their boats away,
and the chilling waters began to echo
splash after splash as passengers and
sailors in life preservers leaped over
and started swimming away to es
CAPE the expected suction.
Icy Water Brings Death.
Only the hardest of constitutions
could endure for more than few mo-
ments such a numbing bath. The
first vigorous strokes gave way to
heartbreaking cries of Help! Helpl"
and stiffened forms were seen, the
faces relaxed In death.
Revolver shots were heard in the
ships last moments. The first report
spread among the boats was that Car
tain Smith had ended his life with
bullet. Then 1t was said that a mate
had shot a steward who tried to push
his way upon boat against orders
None of these tales have been veri-
fed, and many of the crew say the
captain. without a preserver, leaped
in at the last and went down, refusing
a cooks offered aid
Last Lifeboat Is capsIzed.
The last of the boats, collapsibIe,
vas launched too late to get away,