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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1911)
TTTE SUNDAY OREGOXTA. PORTXAT. FEBRUARY 3. 1911. of lEecil Life, wbtee. Tbrtiiln IVtolle ewe Here gelatecl. 5T7V75 BT JOHN riJKKTTI WATKIN3. THE OoTtrnniai'i hero roll for th 7r Just closed bears th names of 11 men black and whit, titled and obscure who, as a reward Tor risking their Uvea to save thatr fellow from horrlbla death In tha water and upon tha rail, have received that ( coveted of official decora tions granted by our countrr tha life- saving medal of honor. Thla order of merit la awarded In threw grades, tha fold, allvar and bronze, tha Xtrat two being presented br th rlecrelarr of tha Treasury for eds of great darloc and elf-acrtflc apon rederal Patera, and tha third ba in presented br tba President himself for tha heroic saving of Ufa upon our rail era encased In tnteratate com merce, ata I whereas tha relative In trinsic value of the gold or allver m-ed-I la aa Index to the opportunltlea for ourage whim tha holder embraced to tba beat cf his heroic abilities, tha leaa precious substance In the bronia rail wajr medal bears no Indication of a Jewr deirrre of heroism on tha part cf Ita wearer aa compared with tha holder of the marlra orr of tha high er category. The railway medal baa no gradee. In I he eyea of officialdom those upon whosa breasts It Is pinned ar all eiuaL One Is at great a hero aa another. And with It gnee a little bat ton bearing tha word "Hero" a badge for everU.iy wear which does r.t arcompauy eren the gold tuedal of your water hero. In awarding one of these national meda!a of honor, up at the Inlted Htatea Capitol, some years back, our "I'ncle Jo Cannoo.' remarked that tha rartltlon between heroism and arrant cowardice Is often of tlsaua paper thin ness. In fact, our psychologist friends have pointed nut that the most timid, responding auddenly to aome paradoxi cal Impulse, are sometimes wont to out 1o In courage all of your professional Vheroea hovering round tha theater of action. lcrolm Is -Not ILatilt- Rut that heroism may also be a con stitutional phenomenon of the nervoua system, and perhaps an hereditary ona out th.it Is In the blood, at least wa often have convincing evidences, and a rase In point Is that of one of our haroea enrolled upon this last honor list Issued by a grateful ItovirntntpL To not a few of our great metropolis denlxena the nam "Hughey" loherty has a most familiar rlnsr. although It was a decade or more ago that ha was being repeatedly ihniM Into tha spot light by chroniclers of his dare-devil rescues, f'.lcven men. women and chil dren owed their lives to him In those times, principally while he was captain cf tli Coney Island Creek volunteer We-saving station, and for pulling tnem o il of the gnashing Jaws of tha demon death, Conarees. by a special act. In 1J0 J, voted lilru a silver medal of honor. Since then. Instead of prosti tuting bis glory hy establishing a Bow ery saloon, aa other local heroes of his tlm have done, he has Ilka the drain maa In Mr. Donnelly's excellent play, Tha Servant In th House" found a racing less ornamental but more use ful than that of manv a prominent cltl an vrtiose life Is dedicated to a less malodorous mission In life. As It was while plying his trade as foreman on the Brooklyn sewer depart ment, some tlm sine, that thla hero heard a cry fur help which one mora unchajned the lion that has ever re posed within his stout bosom. Thla wall that awoka his old -time spirit came from th East River, where) a udd-a wav had washed a lad. unable to swim, from a kg on which ha had been pad. II Ing. Running at tip yed to the nearest the foreman doffed his coat and. w;.n his okl-tlm form, dived into th watrr. Hut his goon angel was not hov ering so near as In th days of past deeds, for hi head on parting th water tru.-h hard upon soma water-logged drift that floated Just under th surface. I'nrolndfnl. however, of the fact that he had Ulcerated his face, h darted 154 feet throush the wavea to th point shirt the helplee child was making hi last frantic efforts to dpfy th peril of tha third sinking." but her a new danger threatened th rescuer, for th hoy with both hands clutched hi throat in th dread "death-lock " Despite this, however. Doherty kept his chsrge afloat and after swimming a long dlatanc with him reached a launch whose occupant )ieaved a Una and completed th rescue. And upon reaching shore with th child th llfriaver discovered for the first tlma that three of hi teeth bad been knocked out by tb driftwood 'wicoun tered when he dived from th do. .V Jlervulee of the t ar ffftl. Aa.l a new national hero who has just com la for th earn reward from th aforementioned grateful government Is young man now plying brav "Ilughey" Dohcrty'a old-tlm trad of captain In a volunteer llfoaavtcg crew. This Is Oeorg Freath. a Hercules of Redondo Beach. iil and his medal of honor In gold has been voted hlra by th commute which its on su;bj cases, for "heroically rescu ing aeven fishermen" from a December hurricane which lately raced off hla sta tion. It appears from tha teetimocy weighed by th commute that th audden no wester caught a fleet of small fishing boats unaware and-sent (hem scurry ing to shore, too lata, however, for a aaf landing. Buirmxjnd by th ominous arrvecli of a s:rn on shore. Captain Freetb harried his crew to th see no. and. undaunted by the waves, which were wasrting reel over in pier, ran lortn atone, mad a spectacular dive from th wharf and glided Ilk a dolphin to a boat that was about to be dashed to pieces upon th rocks of th breakwater. Then, climbing over the gunwale, ha took th helm and safely piloted th boat and Its crew of Jayanes flahermen around the pier to a safe landing upon th beach, But no sooner had he delivered this crew than another boat, containing tw. Russians, was seen to be swamped. So KreelS ran this time to th breakwater, and leaped again into th wavea Th ewamped boat was a half ml! out. but before he had gon half thla dtatinc h met with another Imperiled Japanese boat, which he boarded. Taking th tiller from th helpless helmsman he pi loted thla craft throush th stfrf at rail road speed and tended It safely on th beach. And meaawhil th Russian boat had drtfted near enough to be reewbed bv rope thrown from a pier. Freeth was now hurried to hla quar ter, but hla crew bad ony commenced to rui htu down when th siren's enll caused him to break from them and hurry aga'a to tha beach, from which ha saw two more swamped boats strug gling tur life among th rocks far out One mor ho dived from th pier and ploughed his way through th tempest tesed sea. Reaching ona crew ha placed about each man a life belt which ' kept them afloat until a boat later ' picked them up. - jl. CtuuiMt bather waa da provac- L 'A- '.-raw.--, -i . - WiV f- if-Xjm& m M W Miu II, X( tlon of a similarly plucky deed earned th next reward on th Th scene of the little melodra real life was Spring Iaike. X. J th hero who earned hla place forefront of the atage was Willi Doyle, a citizen of Trenton. hearing th cry that a bather drowning. Mr. Doyle ran a quar a mile to where hundred of pli seekers stood helpless and bopeles upon th esplanade, their eyes fixe upon th mer speck that bobbed I and out of the foam several hundred of feet off shore. Without watting t recover his breath after his long rur or delaying to enlist aid. Mr. Doyl bravely fought his way through srv ral hundred feet of strong current and broken water to where the drown Ing man. caught in th clutches of i "sea pans.- waa going down for the last time. Rut after another desperate struggle against the angry sea, the rescuer, without assistance, brought th victim safely to shore, although his own strength had been expended to th degre that he could not etand after reaching the beach. Ills reward la th golden medal, as It Is that of tha star actor In th next of these thrill ing scene to b described. On a Sunday In October. Captain E. J. Dodg and his son. Wilbur, were standing near their home on ' South Baes Island. JMt-ln-Ray. Ohio, and wer gaxlng out over Lake Erie, whoa waters war being lashed to foam by an angry nor'wester. Th steamer Wayland. of which Captain Dodge was skipper.- lay under shelter nearby, to hide from th fury of th storm. i was not a fit day for any small craft to venture out. and th two man scanned th water with their glass to look for chance venturers who might be less fortunate than themselves. Sodden Klckenlnr; Sight. Suddenly they saw rise upon a bug small yawl, which seemed to bear three men. anj as quickly It dis appeared within a trough of tha angry waters. Elevated upon another wav. It aeemed to hav capaisad. but again It was lost to view. Th skipper, after waiting in vain for it to show itself again, ran to his llttl stsamer. stoked up th fire and with his son Wilbur, another son II. - old and Peter Peterson, a fourth vol unteer, went off to the rescue, through tb hurricane, which held them In peril throughout the run. But although the mmense aras nearly filled their little craft, and almost smashed in Its cabin doors and windows, they kept on until hey sighted three men dieperately clinging to the keel of the overturned yawl. Only after terrific battle werf he men taken aboard and along with ha brave skipper's gold medal came three others. In silver, for hla plucky crew, who, with bulldog tenacity, bod toort by Mm throughout the battle tth the angry elements. Our seen now shifts down to the Panama zone, where gold mednls were lately earned by two fearless employes of th Canal Commission. Some months sgo, while a gasoline boat waa exchang ing a little army of S3 workmen from a tug to a dredge off Perur Island, r.ho helmsman suddenly pushed the rudder hard over, causing a turn so sharp that two men sitting on the thwarts were thrown overboard. On could swim, but the other sank like a stone and the un dertow was so wicked that when he came up for the flrat time he had been washed some 25 feet from tha launch. With such a current running and with the water known to be Infested with man-eating sharks, the case looked hopeless, but while the other occupants of the little boat looked on, chapf alien, Fitzgerald Wiltshire, a Granadian negro ironwork er, without stopping to protect himself by removing any of his clothes, dived Into the angry torrent and swimming under water toward the point where the drowning man had sank the second time, managed, by dint of skillful 'sub marine grappling, to seize him and carry him to the surface: By this time Robert Mellon, an American calker, who hud Jumped off the launch when It was 0 feet from the struggling man, swam tu Wiltshire's assistance, and after an ex hausting struggle arainst both undertow and heavy seas, aided in lifting the vic tim Into a rowboat. vihlch returned him to the launch. But let us get back again to our good old continent. Tragedy Off Prison Point. On an August aXlernoon a rowboat was swamped by a rough sea raging off the Prison Point, San Quentin, Cal., and two of the five men clinging to Its sides be came demoralized when the angry waves commenced to wash over them. Attempt ing in their panic to climb onto the up turned craft, they rolled It over, knock ing not only themselves, bu their com panions Into the -water, where a fear ful struggle took place. One of the five, Quartermaster Guy W. Beck, V. S. N.. kept cool. He called In structions to his companions, but his efforts were In vain and the two who had unwittingly caused the catastrophe sank out of his sight, only to come up far apart. In the waves. However, he made off for the more helpless of the pair and by Titanic efforts managed to keep him up until a boat from the prison arrived and took rescuer and rescued out of the water, in which the three who bad looked-out for themselves met their death. Beck, for this, gets the medal in gold. So much for our new gold brand heroes of the water. Grade Crossing Struggle. Two citlzens-In the past year earned the President's prized railway medal, which seems to mean that the Iron steed Is a more terror-striking foe than the great deep. The first modern St. George of this pah- to br?ve the fury of the steam uraguu v aa wuio . v .... , - - man employed by the Chicago & North western Railroad at Allis Station. Mil waukee. At the grade crossing where he t sta tioned there are 30 parallel tracks, and across this death trap upon a Sep tember day. a woman ventured, unmind ful of th fast approach of a locomotive, that wai . hacking toward the crossing. Confused by the chorus of warning shouts from terrified bystanders, she hesitated at a point where a strlilg o freight car blocked her view of the rails on which the engine approached, but instead of running ba:k in the direction whence sh had come she stepped forward in tha veTy path -of death. Karsten, who had stood hy. leaped to her rescue, but when he seized her she mistook his purpose and commenced struggline with him. Be ing a heavy woman weighing 200 pounds, he had difficulty In dragging her. and as a result of the encounter both were struck by the backing engine. The switchman fell directly between the rails and the whole of the locomotive, except the pilot, passed over his body. But -when the crowd rushed forward io drag him out they were dumbstruck to learn that although hi clothes were ground to rags lie was practically un scratched. The woman feil outside the rails, but. her foot was crushed, and although her predicament at firt appeared lefs serlou" than Karftens ehe sustained Internal in juries from which she dies the same night. In addition to tha medal sent him by President Taft Karsten was given hy the railrond company a new suit of cloth ing, a gold watch and ten days' special leave with pay. From the Teetu or the Iron Hor. The grade crossirg which eomo non progressive commonwealths still permit railroad companlea to maintain In centers of population was the scene of the other act of heroism lately earning the Presi dent's order of merit. Again a woman was crossing" a grid iron of tracks nine abreast this time at a street in McKeesport, Pa., crossed by the Baltimore & Ohio. Hurrying home to cook her husband's dinner, she was making way under two handicaps. In the first place, her fa- was bundled In a shawl which obscured both the view and the sound of a train that cams thundering1 along ready to crush her if she took a step forward: and, secondly, she was a foreigner, un able to understand the warning cries shouted at her by shrill voices rising above the rumble of the Iron steed. Argus-eyed and alert at his post stood Crossing Policeman Robert A. Brendle, with a record as Ions' " Hughey Doherty's for recues of by gone days. And Itrendle stood not upon his going to fetch the woman from danger. Ho went. And he grabbed her with a Samsonlan grab that took her off her feet. Yet before he could lift her from the traek he felt the hot breath of the engine. The engineer and fireman rushed to the side of th cab to view the carnage which they could not prevent, but were astonished to n'ee rescued and rescuer safe and sound on the' clndery ground below them. The pilot beam of the lo comotive struck Brendle.'s coat tail That waa the full extent of the col lision, so deftly did he handle his charge. Of the heroic citizens decorated with the marine medal In silver there are 25, six of them private citizens, one of them a soldier, three of them belong ing to the revenue cutter service, four of them policemen and 11 brave boys of the Navy, varying In rank from ordinary seaman to that of Lleutenant Conimander. Of the latter rank Is Her man O. Stickney, who when a sailor In the Philippines recently fell bverboard from the bridge deck of th South Da kota, knocking himself unconscious by striking a lighter before splashlnff finally Into the water, went down a heaving line Into the sea aud effected the poor fellow's rescue. But. as intimated, the award of this silver medal instead of the gold by no means bears the Insinuation that Its holders are less courageous than those granted the golden order. It signifies merely that the circumstances of tho accident have necessitated less risk upon tho part of the rescuer. One case, however, has arisen in which a person awarded the silver medal felt Insulted and returned It. This sensitive spul was a girl. Later she took wiser counsel and accepted It. ARE WE SORRY WHEN THE BABY GROWS UP? A PER30S would think, to listen to a lot of writers who hav the ear of th public, that a mother simply grieve herself to death when baby grows up to M i man. A person would get th notion, ac cording to th snob sisters and aome others who happened to be born boys, but forgot about It later on, that ther Isn't a slngl thing that a tender moth r asks of life except to be all-ln-all to her baby, to feel th llttl downy head against her cheek: and that th bitterest day of her life Is when sh finds that she no longer suffices for hi every want, no longer, to quote th poetically Inclined among them, fills his horizon from edge to edge with the all-sufflclency of her brooding mother love. Of course, any woman loves to cuddle her baby. But ah Isn't all ruddle. If sh Is. a hen has her lashed to the maat for true tuotherllness. Tou notice that while a hen feeds her babies, ah also teaches them to scratch for themselves. .When you watch your baby growing up, mother, dear, does It make your heart ache? Well. If It does. Just take a serious glance at bow you'd feel If h didn't grow up. If he didn't grow up, bee us th good Lord took him. you'd always grlsv. That's what anybody would do. After a bit people learn cot to speak about It much: but th hurt la ther etllL But. suppos for a moment, that fa should not grow up whll still remain ing In this world. Suppos he should stay right along with you, wearing his llttl wnlt frocks, ank'.e-strap slip pers and his hair box-cut Just fancy tr.at! Other people's chll-Jrsn would grow up- Mr. Smith's horrid big boy In knickers and, cap would com tearing over to get yours they ar th same age. almost to the very week and you'd have to say, "Sh-sh-sh. he's asleep!" And after a dozen years or so you'd catch yourself glunclng at about tha height of his father's shoulder for tb boy and you'd want to think what a help Jlinmle was going to be "His fathe depends upon him as If he were a man and there would be Jimmle. in whit frock and blue ribbons. Dlav Ing with his blocks on th porch floor witn a little pen around hint so h wouldn't roll over tha stepsl Then th time would come when the other boy In the neighborhood would be In eighth grade and get their mothers to help them with that old algebra, and say. "Ma. the classes a-goln to have blue and silver for Its colors am i mat peachy? Say. I gotta nav a oiue tie. ma! Say, ma, what about a silver stick pin? Thafd b great!" And there'd be that baby of youra eating his dinner out of a bottle and saying "Goo-gbo." He wouldn't be on the long, class packed platform, either, when the boys and girls stand up and the principal says that It ha been a fine class ".Non better, perhaps. In certain mat ters, has ever completed the eighth In this school." He'd be In his crib at home, sleeping his sleep of all good babies, with his Teddy bear under hla arm. Then there d be th boys In the neighborhood starting Into high school with their hats up on ona side and down over th other ear, th freshman class colors on their hat bands, socks to match, tlea tbat ahrlek Joyfully, cuffa tore inches wide to their trousers, and a yell In their mouths that would wake th very tombstones out In th ceme tery. Where is th sweet thing you didn't Want to hav grow up? Having th colic, most likely, because Kati carelessly let btm get hold of half a banana and h isn t used to It. And after a bit, when those long and turbulent and short and beautiful four years are over, and th boys go Into business wiUk father or simply; set a j Job down town at the grocery store because they are going away to college In September; when practical, everyday life get hold of them and their mothers are banging on to home Influences by their eyelids and. glad as Ihey can be that they built as well aa they did. ("Because he Is the best boy; a little rough, maybe, and sometimes careless, but as good why, of course, he is!") Where's that sweet, pink thing you kept a baby? Where Is that boy you wanted to have regard you as his only horizon, or you'd feel so bad about It? Come right down to it. aren't you dis gusted with him? Don't you wish he'd yelped loudly ,at you and refused to stay a baby? Don't you wish he'd grown up and been a man In spite of you. you Imitation mother, you? My, my, what a funny world this would be if those theories that are be ing held out to us happened to be true! What a queer, little, half-fledged, pin-feathered sort of thing a mother's love must be, to feel like that! Why, what do we-think we are bring tng that baby into being for, in the 7A m ,.i ii i l ' III f I Ini ; f ill iiiiiti - V WIS Uifc.l) HIMf OH. CKRTAI.M.Y BI T THE WORLD IS WJUAT I ffAUUA3 ABO II. TUB YVOIILU SEEDS fiUJC WAS first place? For. our own comfort and happiness? Well, I should hope not. If any of us has got that Idea In her head, the sooner that one of us gets it out the better, if she Is going to accumu late any true happiness whatever her self arid not make the poor baby's life a burden to him. For her own happiness! Well, that Is about the slimmest, skimpiest, sort of reason I ever heard In my life, to bring a baby into the world for his mother's happiness. ' Of course, she is going to be happy about it. Nobody on earth could help being happy to be intrusted with a baby. Because, besides being- so sweet, a baby Is about tho biggest and most Important thing on the face of the earth. But, if we mothers amount to a hill of beans, we know that our happiness lsn t the reason for that baby s being: not for a minute, not for a thousand, thousand years! That baby Is borne because he is needed. Wo need him? Oh, certainly. But the world Is what I was talking about. The world needs him. It may not treat him very well. Sometimes it doesn't owing to the fact that this poor, silly old world of ours hasn't quite waked up to the fact that It needs babies more than any of the things that it thinks it requires so seriously: that. In fact. If it were not for the babies, the other matters wouldn't amount to a single thing. They would be a mere row of ciphers. It Is only when you place in front of them the significant figure, the baby, that these ciphers have any value. The world hasn't got that fact thor oughly into Its head yet. But it Is learning It is learning and these last few years It seems to be learning fast er than a person had a right, before that time, to hope It ever .would. The world needs the baby. The hu man race needs that mite of humanity to carry It forward Just-that mite's worth. And last, and most important of all. Is that baby's own happiness and use fulness, his own awakening conscious ness of a duty to be performed, and his rising up out of babyhood to do that duty. His personality, developing through years of steady striving; his hope, yearning upward to the best-thine he can ever do. and far.- far bevonrl it- his love, that will bring the world a bit' nearer to the perfect love;, his children. wno snail carry .on the torch an these things ar the reason for that little pink baby with blue eyes that his mother snuggles op close In ber arms- Sorry that the 'baby boy lit growing up? Piffle, vl ho wants Just a mere seed? Tou never-saw one of uk yet who was sorry, down in her heart, that tn baby wa growing up. Ton never saw the woman in your life who would glv a little, tiny, ladylike whoop for th boy-baby to whom she could con tinue to be all-sufficient. SFhe may say what she pleases, but she s always a lot more sensible than she likes to let rou find out. And, oh, It i wonderful to watch a , boy baby grow up to dream dreams of the great and Rood things he will do when he has come to full man size. And It Is the most wonderful thing to watch a baby girl grow up! Why, by the time she Is H Bhe has, to your utter amaze ment, developed human intelligence. Ami It is the most delightful and . marvel lous of all the miracles to watch a girl having new ideas sprout, and making dis coveries about matters and things; and coming to you, big-eyed and solemn, to say, "Mother, I have made up my mind that" And she tells you about something or other tliut you and the sister of Pharaoh both made up your minds to exactly the same way at approximately the same age. It Is the sweetest thing a mother ever had happen to her to think back to the time when this girl was a baby, and how cute she was, and how dimpled and soft; and how her hair curled all over her head m llttl yellow rings and here sh is noV actually thinking actually able to sit up and talk to you like a person! It effects you like It used to when she waa a baby to see how like a grown per son she stretched and yawned and bat ted her eyes. Why, It wouldn't have been half so much fun to have had her stay little, as It Is to see how she grows and grows and comes nearer and nearer to the big world that you camo Into your own self; how she is still your baby, and yet beautiful, most beautiful of all she needs and must have the large and lovely things of God to content her. We to be their only love, their perfect satisfaction We to be their horizon, boonding all their live ?s our boy, our girl? No, a mother's love is not like that. We wouldn't have such a horrid thing happen for this whole, wide world! (Copyright, 1011, by Charlotte C. BowotL) . The Shadow In Science. T. P.'s Weekly, London. It is hard to believe that a shadow is probably the origin of all astronom ical, geometrical and geographical sci ence. The first man wno tixea nis staff rjeruendicularly In the ground and measured Its shadow was the earli est computer of time, and the Arab of today who plants his spear In the sand and marks where the shadow . falls is hl3 direct descendant. It is from the shadow of a gnomon that the early Egyptians told the length of the year. It Is from the sftaaow ai a gnomon that the inhabitants of Upper Egypt still measure the hours of work for a water wheel. In this case the gnomon Is a Ihurra stalk supported on forked uprights and points north and south. East and west are pegs In the ground, evenly marking the space of earth between sunrise and sunset. In a land of constant sunshine a shadow was the primitive chronom eter. It was also the primitive foot rule. Prusslc Acid In Cigars. - London Standard. A German expert says that there I less prusslc acid in 25 cigars than In ona bitter almond.
