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

! IolelS, ana though no women we're u
be present at the feed" a few ladie
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 exaltation which
knew the occasion would cause, 50
when the day came ! went to thu
| hotel in a fever of pleasure and pride
The luncheon was nearly over, the
/ speeches were about TO begin, ant
the ladies' gallery was buzzing like
! hive Of bees, when ] took my seat
| in 1t. Two bright young American
, women sitting next 10 me were al
most as excited as myself, and look
| ing down at men through a pair OF
! opera glasses they we're 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 i'm Martins and when
he began TO speak / thought | caught
the note Of the same wild passion
He said they we're there that day
opening G. iFN AIid DNtI III Tue NOlutf-
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 were go
ing to be known to, and therefore
Checked by, the human family.
After that, ana a beautiful tribute
10 Martin as a man chat everybody
who had met him had come to love
him. and that there must be some
thing in the great solltudes of the
silent white world to make men sim
lle and strong and great, as the sea
made them staunch and true) he
drank to the success of the eXpe-
clifton. 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
Ing his place and even dropping his
papers,
Beads OF Precipitation were start
Il
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, I
never could write a speech in my
life, and you see | can't read one.
but ] know what want to say and
IL you'll take it as it comes here
goes"
Then in the simple style of 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.
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 I tell YOU this-whatever
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.
81 don't know where you were last
Christmas Day, shipmates -. II
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
has made too much of,
and ! believe in my heart my mates
had had enough of IT, 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 q
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
we 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,
- think we felt better doing that, |
but they say the comical and the |
Jragical are always chasing each |
other to see which can get in first. and |
II was so with us. for just as | had got |
to an end with the solemn words,
out Of the depths we cry unto thee,
o Lord, Lord hear our cry in jumps |
old Treacle in his thickest cockney,
And Gawd bless our pore ole wives
and sweethearts fur wye"
If Martin said any more, nobody |
heard IT, The men below were blow
ing their noses and the women in the
gallery We're crying openly.
Well 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 I was |
looking like, did not know until the |
lady. who had lent me the opera |