Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-10


were to occupy seats in a gallery
and | was to be one of them
| had played with my temptation
too long by this time to shrink from
the dangerous exaltatlon which
knew the occasion would cause, 50
when the day came / went to the
Eotel IN a fever Of pleasure and pride.
The luncheon was nearly over, the
speeches We're about to begin, and
the ladies' gallery was buzzing like
a hive Of bees, when ! took my seat
in 1t. Two bright young American
women sitting next TO me were al
most as excited as myself. and look o.
ing down at men through a pair Of
opera glasses they were asking each
other which was Martin, Whereupon
my vanity, not to speak Of my sense
Of possession, was so lifted up that
pointed him out to them and then
borrowed their glasses to look at the
chairman
He seemed to me 10 have that light
of Imagination in his eyes which was
always blazing in Martins and when
he began 10 speak / thought caught
the note Of the same Wild passion.
He said they were there that day
opening "a new chapter in the wonder
ful book of mans story. and though
the dangers of the great deep might
never be entirely overcome, and the
wind would continue to blow as it
listed, yet the perils of the one and
the movements Of the other We're go
ing to he known to, and therefore
checked by, the human family
After that, ana a beautiful tribute
to Martin as man (that everybody
who had met him had come to love
him and that there must be some
thing in the great soitudes Of the
silent white world to make men sim
ple and strong and great, as the sea
made them staunch and true) he
drank to the success Of the eXpe-
dition, and called on Martin to re-
spond to the toast
There was a great deal of cheering
when Martin rose, but | was so ner-
vous that | hardly heard it, He was
nervous, too, as ! could plainly see.
for after a few words of thanks, he
began to tumble the sheets of a
speech which he and | had prepared
together trying to read it. but los
lhg his place and even dropping his
papers
Beads of perspiration were start
ing from my forehead and | knew
was making noises in my throat,
when all at once Martin threw his
papers on the table and said, in quite
another voice:
'Shipmates, | mean gentlemen,
never could write a speech in my
life, and you see ! can't read one.
but ] know what | want to say and
If you'll take 1t as 1t comes here
goes"
Then in the simple style of a sailor,
not always even grammatical, yet
splendidly clear and bold and natural,
laundering along as he used to do
when he was a boy at school and
could not learn his lessons, but with
his blue eyes ablaze. he told of his
aims and his expectations.
Martin s Speech.
3 And when he came to the end he
said:
His lordship, the chairman, has
said something about the good effects
of the solitudes of Nature on
mans character. | can testify to
that. And | tell you this-whateve
you are when you're up here and
have everything you want it's Won
derful strange the way you're ask
ing the Lord to stretch out His hand
and help you when you're down there,
all alone and with an empty, hungry
stomach.
Il don't know where you were last
Christmas Day, shipmates l
mean gentlemen, but ! know where
was, | was in the S5th lititude,
longitude 1853. four miles south and
thirty west of Mount Darwin. 1t was
my own bit of an expedition that my
commander has made too much Of,
and | believe in my heart my mates
had had enough of il. When we got
out Of our sleeping bags that morn
ing there was nothing in sight but
miles and miles of rolling waves of
snow, seven thousand feet up on
windy plateau, with glaciers full of
crevasses shutting us off from the
sea, and not living thing in sight as
far as the eye could reach.
I'VE We're six in company and none
Of us were too good for Paradise,
and one--he was an old Mapping
sailor, we called him Treacle-had
the name of being a shocking old
rip ashore. But we remembered what
day II was. and we wanted to feel
that we weren't cut off entirely from
the world of Christian men-our
brothers and sisters who would be
going TO church at home So ! dug
out my little prayerbook that my
mother put in my kit going away.
and we all stood round bareheaded in
the snow-a shaggy old lot | can tell
you, with chins that hadn't seen
razor for a month-and ! read the
prayers for the day. the first and sec
ond Nespers and Laudate Dominum
and then the De Profundis.
Il think we felt better doing that,
but they say the comical and the
tragical are always chasing each
other to see which can get in first. and
it was SO with US, for Just as | had got
TO an end with the solemn words,
out Of the depths we cry unto thee,
Q Lord, Lord hear our cry In jumps
old Treacle in his thicltcst cockney,
And GaWd bless our pore ole wives
and sweethearts fur awe.
II Martin said any more, nobody
heard II. The men below were blow
ing their noses, and the women I'm the
gallery We're crying openly,
We'll, the man who can talk like
that may open all my letters and tel
egrams' said one OF the young Amer
lean women, who was Wiping her eyes
without shame.
What | was doing, and what | was
looking like, | did not know until the
lady, who had lent me the opera
glasses leaned over to me and said:
Excuse me, but are you his wife,