The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-24
BRITISH TO HONOR MEMORY OF GRACE DARLING, SEA HEROINE,
 A YEAR HEFNC CIE

a
 Tn spite of the war the British com. mittees in charge of the Grace Darling celebration has continued its efforts, and the famous heroine.s centenary will doubtless be adequately eonnaer11- orated just one year from today. The brave woman who became popular idol by her bravery in saving many lives from the rapacious sea was born at BaInborough E1gIaI16is Nov 824, E1815, just nfnety ty-nine years ago today She was the daughter of William Darling, the lighthouse keeper on Longstone Island.
 By the heroisn of a few hours she into undyfng fame. On Septen- ber day in 1888, when the lighthouse keepers daughter was a. comedy maid en Of tH5enty-txvo,f the ship Forfarshire was cast ashore on Harker1s Rock There were sixty three persons on board and all but twenty of these were lost before the wreck was sight ed. Grace Darling and her fa;ther--a hero quite as much as his daughter was a heroine put forth in small boat into the teeth of raging storm, in an attempt to rescue the survivors It seemed certain that their tiny craft would be lost, but the lighthouse keep CT and his daughter handled the oars with such skill that they reached the battered ship, took off the twenty per sons on board and took them safely to shore.
 All EngIand. and soon the whole world, rang with the story of Grace Darlfngs exploit. Her brave father much to Grace's annoyance-waS all but Ignored, while rich gifts and tes- tfmonials without number were show cred upon the girl. Men wrote from I ful compliment of their names to the brave maiden
 That Grace Darling was a real her oine cannot be denied, yet 1t is to be
 doubted that her fame would have spread so far and wide, and proved so enduring, except for her pretty and charming name. That truth is strang g- CT than fctio1's or at least as strange | is proved by the fact that a real hero 1 inc in real life had such name, It was the name, doubtless, that all l so attracted the attention of the en- l terprisfng theater managers of Lon- i don. who offered her fabulous sums for those days--ff she would appear lon the stage To her eternal credit be it said, Grace Darling scornful9y parents were very poor. If she had l yielded to the temptation to acqldire such sseasv rnoney''-for all the annuse- rnent managers asked Of her was to sit in a boat on the stage--it is doubt
 fuI if her name would have survived 4 lO POSC6IIIS Grace. Darling lived but a. few years t to bask in the sunshine of fame. Soon
 after her heroic deed she was strick- len with tuberculosis, and she died al
 the age of twenty y-seyen- She had
 many admirers among the boatmen of
 Bamborough, and many men of higher
 station, attracted by her quiet dignity and reserve, her charming manners iand her Beauty. sought her hand. but
 she refused them all She lived with lher parents at the lonely lighthouse until the end
 1 Grace Darling deserves, all the e11lo- gies that will be sl1owered upon her I on the occasion of her centenary a
 year hence Not so much because she
 saved precious human Hves-thous-
 ands of women unknown, unhonored
 and unsung have done thatLbut be- lcause she resisted all the temptations Ito reap financial rewards from her I act What might have been but a
 transient notoriety, if she had yield led to the inportunities of those who sought to make capital of her name Ehas become lasting fame, and Grace Darling stands as the synonym foI tswoTnanIy courage.