davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

| of the stanchionS carried away, but
until then he'd leave her as she was,
hove-to on the port tack.
u \ x K
HOURS dragged by-dreadful hours
of anxiety and uncertainty
with all hands standing by on the
poop, gazing wildeyed at that lee rail,
lurching under every time a huge
comber lifted the ship on high. Never
was Sheffield steel and Clydeside
workmanship put to a greater test.
Never did they come out of the ordeal
with greater credit.
Deadreckoning position at noon put
the ship 20 miles south, 100 miles west
Of the Diego Ramirez. We were far
too close to those dread pinnacles, ly-
ing south of the Horn, and unreyealed
in the darkness by any friendly light
ed beacon, for one to contemplate with
serenity another all-night flight
through the black eXpanse Of ocean.
For who could say that the dead-reck-
oning was not as much as 20. 30 or
even so miles in error. since we had
had no observations for three days?
Still, it seemed as though there was
to be nothing else for it. for a little
after noon, during a terrific squan.
which almost put the lower yards In
the water, third bulwark stanchion
snapped. and then a fourth.
Standby to square the yards, mis-
ter" the captain beloved into the
mates ear. 1--WE must run her now"
Feeling the icy coldness of death al
ready creeping into our bones, we
crawled out to the braces, where we
stood waiting, benumbed with expo
sure. to hear the vital order: Hard
up the helm"
1t was never given-not on that &C.
casion. at least. For at this eleventh
hour Divine help had arrived. The
shift of wind had come at last.
Heralded by the shrieking squall
that had all but caused the bulwark
to collapse. and by a torrential down
pour of rain and sleet that blinded.
deafened and fairly submerged us. the
wind had flown round into the south
vest
Overhead vivid flashes of lightning
seemed to be tearing the stormwracx
asunder. And then. low down on the
southwestern horizon, there suddenly
peeped forth thin strip of clear, blue
sky that momentarily grew in size un-
til, like a massive arch, it spread over
the heavens, gradually rolling back
across the northeastern horizon the
shattered storm-mantle.
The storm had broken, and the
glass was now leaping upward with
amazing rapidity. The sun broke
through again in all his glory, and
when night fell a Veritable dome of
glittering stars greeted our wear
eyes.
1t continued to blow hard from the
southwest for several hours. but grad
ually the wind settled down into
steady manageable gale.
Upon the strength of twilight stel.
lar observations, which showed the
dead-reckoning 10 be 25 miles too far
to the southwest we turned the ships
head once more to the eastward,
squared the yards, and set some sail
for the last lap of our eventful pas
sage round the Horn.
lCopyright. 1917
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

| together for warmth in the cabin be-
| low.
! They were a miserable looking lot
| by this time. that crew. There was
not a dry stitch OF clothing among
| the entire crowd of them. Their
seaboots squelched dismally; their I'M
| derclothing was even wetter than the
sodden oilskins that made a pretenSe
of protecting it. Poor beggars. Not
a drop of hot liquid or a scrap of hot
| food had passed their salt-blistered
/ lips for nigh on 48 hours; the galley
| fire would not remain alight in such
weather.
HOUR after hour during that night,
the second night of the storm,
the captain hung around in the chart.
room, necessarily tapping the baro-
meter, which with diabolical persist
ency remained at the low level of
$500 inches.
| "Confound you, will you never
| shift" he cried out once in a fit of
evaporation. shaking his fist at the
wind, accompanied by the patter of
rain and sleet, was the only answer
! he received.
| About coffee time $3.50 a.m.)-there
was no coffee that morning, but we
! called it coffee time" just the same
| during shrieking squall that lay the
| ship almost on her beam-ends, two of
the timber lashings snapped with a
| loud crack.
! Get new lashings stretched, Look
alive there yelled the captain. But
! the men needed no urging. They
knew full we'll what the consequences
would be if that load of timber took
charge, and consequently worked like
trojans, regardless of risks to life and
climb.
When dawn broke the job was COM
pleted. But only for us to discover,
/ 10 our dismay, that two of the lee
! 6ttlwark stanchions had snapped in
| two, close to the deckl This was a
most demoralizing discovery. for it
! meant that the lee bulwarks were be-
ginning to give way under the strain.
| Seasoned mariners remain singu-
| larly calm and collected even in the
widest of raging storms so long as
/ the integral parts OF the ship hold
/ together. But once these start to
! go" as we say at sea. a marked
! detection seems to grip them.
Thus was the mate now. for the
! first time since the storm began,
| seized with a foreboding, totally un-
| reconcilable with his usual indomi-
| table spirit. Holding to the rigging
he gaZed listlessly at those broken
| stanchions without uttering a word
| for several minutes.
But whatever it was that threatened
to crush the spirit within him, he
threw 1t Off Turning to the COM
| mander, he shouted with all his old
energy: Better put the helm up. and
| let her run for it, sir. If those rotten
bulwarks collapse, away goes the
deck-load. with matches, rigging
masts, and spars-with every blessed
thing. sir. including you and me-"
The captain demurred. She woulG
not run, he said we'd seen that.
And it was folly to think of wearing
her round on the other tack, the star
board tack, on which she would stand
a good chance of being caught
aback" when the wind shifted. He'd
run her as last resort, If any more
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

disoriented from reality that their
writings are incoherent rawlings.
Sometimes these persons appear per-
fectly normal in other respects. This
Is one of the types Of mental diseas sc
which, experience seems to Indicate,
often can be cured, at least tempo
rarily.
This Christ" idea, together with
the other fairly common deluson of
power and grandeur, seems to belong
with two types of mental illness
paranoia and involution melancholia.
The victims of both are likely to be
dangerous at times, and it is better for
society to keep them in confinement
until an alienst decides that it is safe
to release them. Long intervals are
apt to intervene between attacks and
the victims may be persons of eXcep-
tional ability.
The alienists find as the basis for
the Messiah" delusion some early
sin or thought of sin at which the
person revolts and hastens to get the
memory or the temptation out of his
consciousness. But he cannot get it
out of his life. Subconsciously comes
the idea of the necessity for atone
ment. From this it is but a step to
the conception Of the necessity of
atonement for all the sins of the
world. The next idea, built up on the
first two, is that the victim is the
Messiah, or Divinity in human form,
sent from Heaven to atone for all the
sins Of the world.
This progress, Of course, is not a
conscious one in the mind of the indi-
vidual. Only a skilled psychoanalyst
can reconstruct the story out Of hints
dropped here and there, and it would
be difficult for the patient in his sane
moments to recognize the scientific
rebuilding of the ladder of his own
experience.
The delusion of grandeur may have
somewhat similar basis to the
Christ" delusion, but 1t has taken a
different course. There is the same
sin, or thought of sin, accompanied by
a sense of shame. The victim gets
the idea that people are avoiding him.
From this comes the idea that he is
being prosecuted. The next step is
the thought that there must be some
reason for this persecution-he must
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

as she caught the wind on her side
she heeled over and over, lying almost
on her beam-ends by the time the
storm struck full on her broadside.
Agonizing moments of suspense fol.
lowed. The ship hung fire. lifeless, in
the trough of sea, refusing to come
any higher. To windward q huge,
curling sea bore down on her. l recol-
lect looking up at it's steep side as one
looks up at a steep embankment.
Then, believe, closed my eyes.
The sticken vessel made supreme
effort She lifted after fashion, and
lurched to leeward, throwing two or
three men from their stranglehold on
the rail across the poop.
The wave broke against her side
with terrific force and poured over her
in torrents, causing her 10 tremble
from stem to stern. In dazed way
glanced at the helmsmen. They were
still there, and no doubt would have
been to the death. But no longer did
they stand on gratings. These had
been washed away, and the men were
now knee-deep in wter.
Three hundred feet forward. the
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

work drew considerable favorable COM
ment.
But the pictures, poetry and inven-
lions which are worthy Of notice are
the productions of sane intervals. The
man who is obsessed by the delusion
that he is Napoleon or Alexander the
Great does not work out clever cam
paign plans while under the influence
of his fantasies. The man who hears
voices from the sky or sees visions of
angels on the clouds does not produce
notable poems or pictures. Mahomet
had decisions, and out of them built
up great religion. But Mahomet,
say the physicians, kept all the time
his orientation toward reality.
William Blake, the English poet,
the Tooth anniversary of whose death
was observed throughout England last
week, often is taken as a classical
case, say the doctors, of a genius who
was insane. Blake talked to himself,
saw visions and acted queerly through
out a long and harmless life. Much of
his verse is as incoherent as are the
visions of an insane person. Voices"
always We're debating to him what to
write, and occasionally they dictated
snatches of verse which remain among
the gems of the worlds literature,
pronounced by eminent critics as true
works of genius.
Yet, say the physicians, Blake was
never likely to have gotten into an
insane hospital. The very fact that
he possessed true genius acted as an
orienting factor to keep him in suffi-
cient touch with reality so that he
never would have become a charge on
society. Despite his queerness, he
was an Industrious member of society
and earned his own living. Such a
man as Blake might come to st. EliZ-
abeth's any day, but he would be let
out again once his case had been dag.
nosed.
nELUS1ONS, of one type or another,
are a factor in several types of
insanity. Perhaps the most striking
of these, If not the most persistent, is
the Christ" delusion. There are
about so ''Christs" among the patients
-men with fixed ideas that they are
the Divinity in flesh. None of them,
however, displays any religious genius
or even talent. So far as this particu-
lar idea is concerned, they are so far
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

conversation he might appear perfect
ly normal He knows where he is,
keeps track of the calendar. can do
simple problems in arithmetic in his
head. and answers most questions nor
mally. The delusion sticks out Of his
consciousness like an Hand.
There is another man, arrested here
for passing worthless checks, who is
one of so "Christs" and is also Elijah
He is the inventor of an electrical
blood corpuscle recuperator." He is
one with God. He himself is the whole
universe.
There is the veteran from the Sol
diers' Home at Togus, Me, who col
! cealed a revolver in his wooden leg
and one day killed with this weapon
a physician against whom he enter
tanned decisions of persecution. Now,
however, he denies the shooting, de.
claring that thousands of persons are
prosecuting him and that they muir,
dered the doctor and great numbers
of others.
THE interesting phenomenon of
"shell shock" which came during
the World War, now is largely a thing
of the past, so far as st. Elizabeth s
is concerned. All but about per
cent Of these patients have been
cured. AS a matter Of fact, the hos
pital staff holds, there never was any
specific mental disease which could
be classified as shell shock" The
name was applied to a considerable
number of maladies, the tendency to-
ward which existed in the patients
before the war and which were
brought to the surface by the nervous
shocks of conflict.
Nobody is born with any Of the
psychoses. just as nobody is born with
tuberculosis. But a psychic makeup
which offers little resistance to the
various delusions and manias is in
heritable, just as lungs are inherita.
bic which will not offer much resist
ance to the tuberculosis germs. The
individual with such an inherited tend
ency may go through life perfectly
normal, building up his powers of re-
sistance as he grows older. and die
without the slightest suspicion Of in.
sanity being attached to him. Then,
again, a single event or combination
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

to allow greater freedom to their arms,
the ship waved dangerously four
points each side of her course. Great
seas broke aboard continuously, tear
ing savagely at the deck-load.
Holy smoke! how it's blowing! /
wish to heaven the glass would start
up" was the mates comment when he
came on deck to relieve me. Don't
take your clothes off, sonny" he warn.
ed me as I went below. II guess We'll
have to heave her to if this continues. "
y x 4
nOWN in the solitude Of my cabin,
listening to the roar of the storm
overhead and the crash of seas on
deck, / longed for human companion
ship, and would have returned on
deck but for the fact that this would
have given the impression that l
had the wind up'-which I certainly
had.
I lay down on my settee in my
oilskins, covering myself with a rug
which my mother had given me to
take to sea. l was contemplating
that rug, thinking what a nice one
it was, and wishing to goodness l
was in the peaceful surroundings 1t
| came from, when suddenly there was
a terrific report, like a 12-inch gun
going off, followed by a crashing of
| iron upon iron, as though 10000 ham
mers had been let loose upon as many
anvils.
Springing TO my feet, rushed out
of my cabin, to collide heavily with
the Chinese steward, who at that mo-
ment had also dashed out of his
cabin. What ting, what t'ing?"
! muttered the Oriental, picking him.
| self up off the cabin floor.
Forest gone, 1 suppose" I re.
| sponded as 1 FASTENED up the com
| panioE Way.
; That was exactly what had hap.
! pened. One of the steel foresheets
| tested to a breaking strain of good
ness only knows how many tons, had
| snapped like a carrot. And now the
huge sail was rending and splitting
/ with every tremendous thrash II gave
its iron cleWs the while beating q
devils tattoo on the steel lowermast
and fOreyard, from which sparks were
flying as from a blacksmith's forge
| What are you going TO do about it
sir?" / shouted to my imperturbable
superior. who was standing at the
break Of the poop, clasping the raj
as though nothing had happened.
/
| blaZes," he answered characteristic
ally. What else can you do? The
watch has gone for'ard. but the sal
viii have left us before they have
| time to touch a buntline.'
lie was right. Hardly were the
words out Of his mouth, indeed. than
with tremendous bang the sail tore
out Of its bolt ropes. leaving but few
tattered strips behind, which cracked
iangrily from the yard for a while and
then followed the main body OF the
canvas into the darkness ahead.
What next? ] wondered. looking a
the dizzy flight Of the ink-black storm
wrack overhead, travelling at a speed
at which l had never seen clouds
travel in my life. The captain an
sWered my mental query.
Get all hands on deck, Mister" he
shouted into the mates ear. I'm go
ing to heave her to while there's still
time"
There was no need to rouse out the
watch below. They were already or
thesipQ2p, having come aft on theA
3ASaw 4 }*e&- Nan$t9k. Afss5 ~ 1.ssNfH
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

lives" the mate shouted in my ear
adding: Get some more oil over the
side"
A LMOST light-hearted after the aw.
- full moments we had just passed
through, / hurried below to carry out
the order. In the cabin pantry, along
side the sink, which was being used to
pour the oil into the sea, the Chinese
steward sat huddled up on an up.
turned bucket. In his hand We're a
couple of lighted joss sticks, which
gave off terrible stencil. 1 swore at
the fellow for not helping to look
after the injured man, but he did not
seem to hear me. Perhaps he was
busy preparing for the great journey.
/ passed into the saloon. Here on
the floor, just where we had left
him, lay the casualty. He groaned a
little each time the ship rolled to lee
ward, but was otherwise quiet. With
his back against him, wedging him up
so that he could not bulge. sat the
man whom we had detailed to look
after the poor fellow. his feet damned
against the leg of the saloon table.
II guess this here fellow will be a
corpse soon if they don't do something
for him." the latter remarked laconi'
cally.
I promised to bring the captain i'm
mediately and fastened back on deck.
Though still lying over at an alarm
ing angle, the ship, brOught-to, was
now lifting in a proper manner to the
enormous, flashing seas that continu'
ally swept under her bows. She was
safe-for the time being, at any rate
I1n foiy halnU tn Law aside
the mantle of shipmaster for that of
the surgeon.
For the next half an hour the sa-
loon was like an operating theater.
An aroma of antiseptic permeated the
place, and scattered here and there
were splints and bandages. 1.-The Ship
masters Medical and Surgical Help
lay on the sideboard, open at the chap
ter on fractures.
On the table itself, pinned down
from either side by a shipmate so that
he could not skift, was the injured
man. AT his head and feet were two
others, the one holding him tightly
under the arms. the other dragging
on the foot of the broken limb while
the captain and mate, as surgeons.
snapped it's bone together and applied
the splints and bandages.
HOVe-to. claWlng up 10 the teeth OF
the wind and meeting the shock and
onset of towering seas, the ship felt
the fury of the storm far more than
when running before it, even though
she shipped less water. Every day
of her 20 years cried out in the groan
of pulley blocks. in the cracking OF
steel top'sI sheets, even by the rat
Ting of loose iron bolts fallen into the
hollow steel yards.
To ease the strain on the masts and
lee bulwarks, against which the tim
Der stack pressed heavily every time
the lee side went under, the captain
ordered us to furl the fore and
mizzen top's'ls-leaving just the main
top's'l on her, which was sail enough
for such a wind.
Under that strip of canvas. forti-
fed with double width at head, foot,
and leach-as fine web of mo. 90
storm" canvas as ever unfurled to a
breeze-the ship staggered through
the night with oil bags trailing to
windward and helm hard-down, her
crew Watching on the poop or huddled
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28
BY II. BARRY O'BRIEN.

n YIGHT fell-a wild night if ever
there was one. Under reefed
VI foresail and three lower top
i sails, the ship sped hotfoot
through the black eXpanse,
sweeping great phosphorescent sheets
Of foam away from her bows.
Howling squalls swept over her, one
after the other, shrieking through
her rigging and pelting hail and sleet
on her straining canvas. Every now
and again a fash Of lightning would
light up the storm-wrack overhead,
adding a terrifying grandeur to the
scene.
From the westward huge, white.
crested combers, increasing momen-
tarily in height, Numbered solemnly
past the flying vessel, lifting her high
on their crests. then dropping her on
their backs into the smooth, CLASSY
like troughs, whence the horizon
ahead and astern was hidden by tow
ering ridges Of water.
During most of the night the cap.
tain stood at the pinnacle, coming the
ship, keeping her running straight be
fore the storm. And when, tired and
benumbed from standing in one posi-
ton, holding to a lifeline that had
heen stretched across the poop, he
went below TO sit down and rest, the
officer on watch took his place.
Even now COOKING back on the
creme from the distance of years, the
t,,,nressios.s o. that night are still
.,I.+;6:k clear in my mind-the wildly
osrillatiAg compass card, the great
difficuIty Of keeping ones feet, owing
10 the tremendous lurching OF the
1eesel and those silent figures OF
l,olp,sneu at ones elbow, tOlling IN
cessantlv to check the mad yawlne
of the ship. which constantly threat
aned TO resu1t in her broaching-to.
Once during a terrific squan the
h;nnacle lamps flickered and went out
leaving the helmsmen in darkness
as black as the ace of spades, with mol
even q rift in the murk ahead K
steady the ships head ON.
THE lights are gone. sir! The heht
re cone"' eXcitedly shouted the lee
,vheeT" "a young lumberman), a
though he feared that was the end 0
everything. But Frenchie. who'was a
.ha weather Wheel" never uttered ;
sound. He just snatched off hi'
sou'wester and went on steering-by
the feel of the wind on the back o
his head,
A real helmsman, you Will say
Surely he was that. Never tiustered
never even agitated. he moved tn
wheel this way and that, easing it t
the strain OF the oncoming waves a
though the ship under him was liv'
thing that had to be handled withou
being hurt.
BY 4 am. it was blowing hurri
cane, and the barometer had fallen Il
28.20 inches. The weather was be
coming what sailors would call un
manageable. Despite the efforts AM
skill Of the helmsmen. who had divest
cd themselves Of their oilskin jacket
sgS%fHNFss fsy. ,ss<s@ rs -ssFSs'A 4 - NV
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

fo'c's'le head stood out, stark and
black, like a halftide rock, above a
veritable cauldron Of boiling water.
Between 1t and the poop the main
deck, with it's timber stack, was lit.
orally awash.
I do not think realized at that mo-
ment how near the barque was to her
finish. Had she continued to wallow
in the trough of the sea just little
longer nothing could have saved her.
But already she was feeling her helm
and as the next wave bore down on
her she gamely staggered up to
meet it.
1t was a glorious sensation to feel
the ship lift by the head in sea-
worthy manner.
She lives again! BY Heaven. she
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28
Game Struggle Made Staggering Ship in Overwhelming Se

Last tceek,. in the first Of t,ro ar
ticles. Wr. 0'Brjen recOuRted experiences
in an, old sQHare-riGGer approaching
dreaded Cape Horn az Winter ageQther
ruth a cre10 that. except for 1ICO mem
6ers. Hnel0 nothing Of ships or the sea.
Hdoin0 trained them hastily an the
rndimentS Of SeGm0nship, and hauing
come through tie first big bloU. the
officers prep0red for the most sereYe
test at the Horn. The old qriRd -jdmiaer
ran INTO gate. 1cith a rising sea. and
the upper 'ttezeR-to psaU gcGs torn clear
and carried. like q huGe balloon. far out
ahead of the ship.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28
Poets an

pmUno Mos DM Those bosF 1 Bdt
Unr Hospital CB and % Average TM
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

n YIGHT fell-a wild night if ever
there was one. Under reefed
VI foresail and three lower top
i Y sails, the ship sped hotfoot
Through the hlock nYra rnse
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

A MONG the 5,000-odd patients at
~ st. Elizabeths Hospital, the
"A great Government asylum for
A \ the mentally afflicted at Con-