The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-20
STOOD UP SEVEN HOURS.
Mrs. stones Work Was to Hold PLUG
in the Boat.


New York. April 2O.-"Only the mercy
of God saved the passengers who es-
capped from the Titanic. If the sea had
not been like glass, every boat would
have been sWamped as it went over the
side, so inefficiently were they hand
led"
Living back against the pillows of the
bed in which she has lain exhausted
and nerve racked ever since she was
brought from the Carpathia, MRS
George n. Stone of Cincinnati, Ohlo'
widow of the former multi mlliona1re
president of the Bell Telephone COM
pany told a tale of the conditions pre-
vailing when the women and children
left the Inflated steamer
It do not want to speak i'll OF the
dead" she said, slowly, land L Will say
nothing of any rumo-s that may nave
heard. 1 can only speak from my own
personal experience that terrible night
and because of it 1 feel that 1 must
sound a note of warning to the many
men and women who will cross the
seas in the future.
II had gone to bed when the crash
came,' she went on, but 1 was not
asleep. I slipped on kimono over my
night dress, put on slippers and went
out of my stateroom into the corridor
where I found other people similarly
attired. I asked a ships officer II we
had not run into an iceberg.
Yes he answered, but there is no
danger Go back to bed and to Sleep
'An this time the steam was blowing
off with a terrible noise and 1 asked
him why they were doing it.
We have stopped to see what dam
age is done, but there is not the slight
est danger he reiterated
Il was not quite convinced said
Mrs. Stone. ''but 1 went back to bed. If
I had gone to sleep I should not be
here
Were you not warned to leave the
ship?"
Not single warming was given in
the part of the ship in which 1 was
returned Mrs. Stone. No one came TO
tell us, no bell was rung. no horn was
sounded We could have died like rats
in trap for all the warning we re-
ceived.
Il can only speak of what occurred
in my own part of the ship. Whether
other passengers We're warned I do not
know. The blowing off of steam went
on interminably. 1t got on my nerves
and at last I dressed. AS I stepped out
the daughter of the woman in the cabin
opposite came flying down the corridor
crying. Get on your life preservers
quickly; they say we must get into the
boats We hurried to the deck. The
sailors were getting down the 1ifeboats-
But there seemed to be no head or sys-
TEN to the arrangements.
Some lifeboats held %, some held 80.
They were let down in so haphazard a
fashion and tilted so alarmingly that if
the sea had not been the smoothest
ever saw, we certainly should all have
been upset.
Il do not know what happened after
I left the steamer. 1 was in the second
boat that put off, but while I was
there there was not the slightest evil
dence of either panic or cowardice. The
behavior Of the women was revela-
ton to me. Every woman on that deck |
was as calm and controlled as If she |
were waiting to take her seat at a |
dinner table.
"I do not think anybody thought for |
a moment that the ship could sink |
The crew must have known but the |
certainly did not. I know |
that this was the reason many hus- |
bands and wives were separated.
There was terrible mismanagement |
in the loading of the boats.' charged |
Mrs. Stone. For instance, in the sec
ond boat, in which I was stationed |
there were but twenty women and |
two men. Eight more lives could have |
the other managed the other end, while |
six women, three on a side, rowed the |
boat. My part was to take care that |
the plug in the bottom of the boat did |
not come out. 1 stood on it for seven |
hours while another woman about my |
age for the same number of hours
waved the solitary lantern. which had !
been handed down to us as we cut |
loose from the ship.
There were no provisions, no lights, |
no way of bailing out the icy water /
which came In when the boats were
launched" said Mrs. Stone. sternly
IT was told that Mrs. Astor was one |
Of the women who stood for hours with |
the icy water nearly to her knees"