Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1912-04-26
WOMEN FIRST
Petersburg Index Appeal

wy VI SNeIy pclilE ABOARD the doomed
ship The boats are swinging owe
the side, inviting all to safety an,
home and loved ones. Strong me,
easily may fight their way to the raj
and places in the lifeboats, beating
back and trampling under foot tn,
weak women. dazed by the danger
and the horror of the night. No!
The Women Firstl
The terrors of the deep are immi.
nent. All know only too well that in
space measured by minutes the spot
on which they stand will be but as
the surface of the restless sea. Every
man rea Lies that before space OF
time which may be measure by heart.
beats shall have passed he will be
coffined within oceans bosom. Stay
Boats are lowered, Safety Hearts
turn to thoughts of meeting again
this side Eternity those dearest in
life. Hope, with all it means to
mortals. lives again.
All! The boats are pitfully few.
All cannot leave the ship which must
be tomb. Many, very many, must
stay, and face the terror man breads
most from the cradle to the grave.
Who shall say who shall go and who
shall stay?
The Women Firstl
q Valiantly the men night back the
surging throng in order that the
won en- may have places in the arks
of safety. Tenderly as the terrible
stress of the moment will permit.
wives and daughters are lowered
away to the bobbing lifeboats Hus-
bands send over the rail wives who
gladly, oh ! gladly. would choose to
stay by their side and face Death
with them as they had faced Life. No /
The Women First!
There is not time for goodbyes.
The boats bearing the mems most
precious treasures pull Off. In few
moments the dim specks are lost in
the bosom of the night. And the men
turn to face the memorable enemy of
their race.
Steadily the waters pour in through
the gaping rents in sides and bottom.
Higher and higher they lise in the
hold. They are on the deck Higher
and higher they rise. Deck after deck
is submerged. Up, up they come. The
topmost deck is dank, damp, awash.
The men huddle closer together.
Death is close, very close, now. In
every heart there are thoughts con-
corning the world of the Hereafter
and of those frail beings out in the
night meeting the terrors of the sea
without the comforting presence of
those on whose arms they were accus-
toned to lean. All of the women
have been saved. And no man re-
grets. In every heart are different
conceptions of the world about to be
entered. Some are serene in the conf
dent hope begotten by that faith
which is mystery to millions.
Others. careless all through life con-
crening the things of the life which
is to come, stand in grim defiance of
they know not what. Mayhap some
recall old Carlyle's eff He'll must be
braved it must" and face without
tremor the crossing of the bar,
though no star illumines the bosom of
the night.
But of one thing we may be sure.
There was not in the heart of one
of those who surrendered his lie one
regret that he had needed the invol-
untary ejaculation that rises to the
lips of every man of Anglo Saxon
blood when Death hovers over him
and his:
The Women First!
That cry which men of our blood
invariably have made in the face of
death threatening them and their
women-kind, is an argument which
those who clamor for the rights of
women nave never have been able to
answer. The advanced of their sex
demand that their sisters be given
the rights which God intended them
to enjoy. And man. standing with
women in the shadow of death, long
ing with all the intensity of the
human heart for life and safety, bows
in the presence of his queen and
turns to Death itself with a smile or
his face, in order that the woman
may be sent on to safety.
Every woman who clamors for hel
rights should be willing to give il
exchange this splendid chivalry of thu
man who gladly, eagerly, faces Deati
in order that she may live.