318 



aiiEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the offleers were there with many of the passengers. 

 I thought the White Star Company was connected 

 with It somehow. After the party the stewards 

 served to the crew the champagne and wines that 

 were left. I knew that many of them were drunk." 



Let US now investigate a little in regard to 

 the "drink" they had on that occasion, and 

 see what was going on. First and foremost, 

 it was on God's holy sabbath day. I won- 

 der how many even tried to "remember" 

 that sabbath day "to keep it holy." There 

 was a ball following a banquet of some kind, 

 and the captain and officers were there with 

 many passengers — probably the millionaire 

 passengers, of whom there were several. 

 Women were rescued who had on their ball- 

 room costumes that Sunday night. They 

 had the most expensive drinks. I do not 

 suppose the readers of Gleanings even 

 know what a bottle of the best and highest- 

 priced champagne costs. I am glad to con- 

 fess I have never tasted champagne. I once 

 saw a miserable drunken sot, but whom I 

 judged by his clothing and diamonds and 

 senseless jewelry to be a millionaire. I ran 

 on to this poor creature in the smoking- 

 room of a Pullman car. I never even go 

 through the "smoking-room " if I can help 

 it. This man, with his bloated, livid, wrin- 

 kled face, which was in striking contrast to 

 his flashing diamonds, had just opened a 

 bottle of champagne; but his poor shaking 

 hand would hardly permit him to pour the 

 foaming stuff into the glass. With eager 

 haste that made me think of a starving man 

 he tried to get the foaming liquid to his lips; 

 and when he did so he acted like a drunken 

 man catching at a straw for safety or relief. 

 I have seen the price of champagne on the 

 bill-of-fare on Pullman cars. Thank God it 

 is banished from the greater part of them 

 now. I remember seeing it priced at several 

 dollars a bottle. A friend tells me the price 

 is usually five dollars and up. There are 

 thousands of people starving at the present 

 time, not only in foreign lands, but many 

 who, in consequence of the recent floods, 

 are probably suffering from a lack of food in 

 our own nation. Now, what do you think 

 of a man or woman who will drink cham- 

 pagne at such a price when people just as 

 good and jjraiseworthy in every way, near 

 by, perhaps, are suffering for food, or, say, 

 for a drink of milk? No wonder there is 

 war, especially in our great cities, between 

 labor and capital. The Advance suggests 

 that the daily papers suppress the matter of 

 drink on account of the liquor advertising 

 they carry. Let me digress enough to say 

 right here that I am about ready to declare 

 I will never vote for another candidate for 

 President, < iovernor of the State, nor for a 

 public official of any kind, who has not the 

 manliness and courage to come out square- 

 ly against the liquor-traffic. 



Just one thing more about champagne. 

 We read between the lines that it flowed as 

 freely as water. Indeed, these drunken 

 millionaires, some of them probably like 

 the wretch I have described, had all they 

 could drink (of this expensive wine) and 

 more too; and out of the kindness (?) of 



their hearts they sent the partly emptied 

 bottles down to the under officers, kindly 

 remembering the good lookout at his post 

 while they were coming into the region of 

 icebergs. 



But, thank God, there is something to be 

 said in the way of praise for the men on 

 board of that ill-fated ship as well as criti- 

 cism. When they were thoroughly aroused 

 from the effects of the drink they began to 

 look up the lifeboats. It was supposed to 

 be such an impossibility to sink this vessel 

 that the customary equipment of life-savers 

 was cut down very much. I presume few 

 thought there was much danger of the ves- 

 sel going to the bottom — ttvo miles to the 

 bottom. This was a British ship. The 

 crew were supposed to be under British drill, 

 and they were a manly set of fellows be- 

 sides. For safety the women and children 

 were put into the lifeboats, with the excep- 

 tion of a few women who would not leave 

 their husbands. Dear reader, probably you 

 have never been in such a predicament. I 

 have tried to face the question myself. 

 Would Mrs. Root consent to step into a life- 

 boat and leave me to go down? I have not 

 asked her; but I know without asking. 

 She would declare in an instant that she 

 would stand by my side in the hour of trial. 

 My conscience troubles me to think how 

 poorly I have remembered the oath I took 

 to love, cherish, and protect her, before God 

 and man; but when she made the same 

 promise before God, she has for over fifty 

 years lived up to it to the very letter. I 

 might try to persuade her that, for the sake 

 of the children and grandchildren, she 

 should save her life. I might tell her I 

 could swim and keep afloat long enough to 

 be able to be picked up; but I do not think 

 she would listen an instant. Thank God 

 for these devoted, loyal. Godlike women. 

 Mere gratitude to them for what they ha\ e 

 done is the smallest debt we owe them. 

 And those men, something like 1600 of 

 them, showed their manhood and courage 

 by unflinchingly facing death. The band 

 played, "Nearer, my God, to thee," and 

 kept it up until the water was up to their 

 knees. I think one report states that the 

 final strains of that grand old hymn (writ- 

 ten by a woman) were given from their in- 

 struments on bended knees. If I remember, 

 the captain of the ship rescued a baby and 

 got it on board of one of the life-savers. He 

 refused to be pulled in himself, even though 

 there was room. I suppose that he and the 

 rest of them reasoned that, when the men 

 should see them climbing into the boats, 

 others would try to follow, and the boats 

 would be swamped. Some who were saved 

 on a sort of raft made of the broken collaps- 

 ible boat tell us that there were prayers, not 

 only from many who never thought of 

 praying till then, and some who knew no 

 other form of prayer, repeated the childish 

 ones taught them by faithful Christian 

 mothers at the mother's knee. Whatever 

 we may say in criticising the carelessness 

 and the unwarrantable speed at which the 



