Connecticut western news., 1912-04-25
MEN ON TITANIC
 DIED AS HEROES
Rescue Ship Brings the
 Saved Ones to Port.
THRILLING STORIES TOLD.

Lifeboats Were Launched-Husbands
 sade Wives Goodby and Were Never
 Seen Thereafter - Total Dead, 1885;
 Rescued, 7o5.
 New York, April 24.-Freighted with her argosy of woe, disaster and death bringing glad reunion to some, but mis cry unutterable to many, the Carpa thia, with the survivors of the lost ri tanic aboard, came back to a griei stricken city and nation.
 The story she brought home was one to crush the heart with its pathos, but at the same time to thrill 1t with pride in the manly and womanly fortitude displayed in the face of the most aw. ful peril and inevitable death.
 As the Titanic went down, according to the story of those who were among the last to leave her wounded hulk, the ships band was playing. Captain Smith stood to his post calm, resolute. efficient to the last.
 Henry B. Harris, the theatrical man. ager, of this city was one of the men who showed superb courage in the cri- sis. When the lifeboats were first be. ing filled and before there was any panic or extraordinary excitement he had been assisted into one of them at the side of his wife before the boat was lowered away.
 "Women flrst!' shouted one of the ships officers. MT. Harris glanced up and saw that the remark was ad. dressed to him.
 "All right" he replied coolly. Good. by, my dear" he said as he kissed his wife, pressed her a moment to his breast and then climbed back to the Titanic's deck.
 The night was clear and the males dc ship was steaming at rate of twenty-one knots when she struck the submerged shelf of the iceberg glanc-. ing blow that sent her to the ocean bot tom 2,oO0 fathoms deep. Her hull rose on a shelf of the berg, and in so doing and in the subsequent recon her bot tom plates and her port side were bad ly torn and shattered, but there was no such terrific shock from the impact as might have been supposed, according. to the evidence.
 The captain and officers at once re- assured the passengers, believing that there was no immediate danger. Under his encouragement many of them went back to their staterooms, and not few calmly returned to their berths. Others continued their card games. That is said to account for the fact that many of the women were not even, on deck when the imminence of their danger was realized, and scores of them were drowned in their staterooms, like rats in trap.
 Three Explosions In Boiler Room.
 About one hour before the ship plunged to the bottom there were three separate explosions from the boiler room as the vessel filled. These were at intervals of about fifteen min utes. Until then there had been no panic and but little disorder. From different scene The rush for the re- maining boats became a stampede.
 The officers had to assert their au- thority by force, and three foreigners from the steerage who tried to force their way in among the women and children were shot.
 Robert Daniel, a Philadelphia pas senger, tells of terrible scenes at this period of the disaster. He says men fought and bit and struck one another like madmen and exhibits wounds upon his face to prove the assertion. Mir. Daniel says that he was picked up naked from the ice cold water and al- most perished from exposure. Narratives of survivors do not bear out the supposition that the final hour upon the vesseIs decks were passed in darkness. They say the electric lighting plant held out until the last, and that even as they watched the ship sink from their places in the float ing lifeboats her lights were gleaming 1 in long rows as she plunged under by the head. Just before she sank, some of the refugees say, the ship broke in two abaft the engine room after the boiler explosions occurred.
 The total death, list is placed at 1885 and the total number of those saved at 705, the ship having had aboard in all 2,34O persons.
 Colonel Astor a Hero. Colonel Astor was another of the 1 heroes of the awful night Efforts were made to persuade him to take place In one of the lifeboats. He em- phatically refused to do so until every woman and child on board had been provided for. not excepting the wom- en members of the ships company. Into the llfeboat that was launched from the ship Captain Smith, with own hands, lifted an infant into a seat be- side its mother. As the gallant of icer performed this final act of hu- manity several who were already In the boat tried to force the captain to join them, but he turned away re- solutely toward the bridge.
 Before the last of the boats got away, according to some of the pas | sengers' narratives, there were more