Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-05-02

and a half after the great White Star
steamer hurled itself against an ice
berg last Sunday night
Dishgured by calamity and misery
and oppressed by awful sorrow, the
women and children and the few men
who escaped from the worlds great
est sea disaster are in better physical
condition than the most optimistic
had hoped for.
Out Of the great company that wait
ed for hours in bitter cold among the
grinding bergs, many Of them thinly
clad, many bruised and hurt by the
collision which destroyed their ship,
few needed the ninistrations Of ply
sictaDs when they put their feet on
land in sight Of the vast crowd that
had been waiting in almost unbear-
able uncertainty.
Survivors Well in Body.
Many, it is true, were weak and
nervous and hysterical from an expert
ence that had left the world void and
empty for them. But-and thousands
thanked God for it as they watched
the majority Of the sad and bereaYed
company were well in body.
Only one Of the Titanic's survivors
died while the Carpathia was driving
through fOgs and storms to this port.
-Four of the Titanic's people had per
ished trying to get aboard the Car
pathia and another Titanic passenger
lost his life by the overturning Of a
boat. One woman, a second cabin pas
senger who was landed, was suffer
ing from broken arm.
Thirty-Nine Women Widowed.
The Carpathia reported that there
were 710 saved out Of a passenger list
which the White Star line figured at
2,180, making a loss Of ], 470 lives. The
Titanic's passengers say there were
745 rescued out of a passenger list
of 2,34O.
The list of names furnished on the
Carpathia on it's arrival show 1888 first
class cabin passengers saved, us in
the second cabin, 178 third class, and
206 of the crew, a total of 687 saved.
A woman passenger on the Carpathia
heard from the ships doctor that 495
Of the passengers and 210 of the crew
had been saved and that 80 women
lost their husbands Six of these were
brides.
The worlds annals has provided
few more intense and dramatic mo-
ments than when all that was left of
the great company that sailed so gay
ly on the Titanic appeared on the
Cunard pier,
Tragedy in Their Faces.
The tragedy Of the Titanic was writ
ten on the faces OF nearly all of her
survivors. Some, it is true, who were
saved with their families, could not
repress the joy and thankfulness that
filled their hearts, but they were few
compared to the number Of the res
cued. These others bore the impress
of their time of darkness when their
people passed in an accident that
seemed like an insane vision of the
night. Their faces were swollen with
weeping. They had drunk as deeply
of sorrow as is ever given to human
kind.
But many, whose spirits were faint
ing from despair, walked firmly
enough down the gang plank. Some
walked unseeing in kind of dread
/ full somnambulism of despair.
Officers Shoot Men Down.
1t was with difficulty that the
/ tongues of many were Ioosened to
speak of the scenes of agony and fear
that fell over the Titanics peaceful
company when it became swiftly
known that the ship must go down.
Some told halt,Sgly, with dread stin
| frozen in their eyes, Of men who
/ Etrove and struggled against women
4 for the Hfeboats and of officers shoot
/ ng them dow. One woman saw an Off
! Ger shoot two men, she said, and 9TH
er passengers recalled how officers
had stood with drawn pistols while the
women and children were being guild
ed into the boats.
No one seemed to know the exact
fate of the Titanics captain, E. J.
Smith. There was q story that he
had committed suicide, but the Titan
les passengers did not know that was
true. Many of them had heard shots
fred They believed some of the fir
Ing was done to warn back steerage
passengers.
Praise for Titanic's Crew.
For the THAMES officers and crew
the rescued seemed to have nothing
but praise These men acted calmly
and cooIly in the face of certain found
ering, was the report brougpt here by
the rescued
The unhappy company SO marvel
ously torn from the grip of the sea
was received solemnly and with re-
markable quiet by the enormous
crowd which gathered near the Cunard
piers and by the few hundreds that
penetrated by right of relation or
friendship or merciful business to the
interior of the pier.
There was no cheering. no upTaising
of voices in salute Of the living, for
the thought of the dead was in the
minds of all onlcokers. The depres-
sion of death was on the waiting men
and women.
Quiet in Glad Greeting.
Those who found their gladdest
aopes realized and looked through the
press to make out the we'll known
face of husbands and fathers and sis
ters and wives, could not conceal
their tremendous citation through
thankfulness that all suspense and
disheartening conjecture was over.
But they greeted their rescued ones
quietly. for the most part, with
thought ever present for the ovefbur