The newspapers tell us that the colored regiments continue to come in
for praises for their good work at Santiago, and they seem to have as
good a sense of humor as an Irishman:
The Rough Riders were in a bad position on San Juan Hill at one
time, and it is generally admitted that they could not have held
their position but for the splendid charge of the Ninth Cavalry
to their support. After the worst of the fighting was over a
rough rider, finding himself near one of the colored troopers,
walked up and grasped his hand, saying: “We’ve got you fellows
to thank for getting us out of a bad hole.” “Dat’s all right,
boss,” said the negro, with a broad grin. “Dat’s all right. It’s
all in de fam’ly. We call ouahselves de colored rough riders!”
(Text.)
(1398)
* * * * *
In the long watch before Santiago the terror of our great
battleships was the two Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers,
those swift, fiendish sharks of the sea, engines of death and
destruction, and yet, when the great battle came, it was the
unprotected _Gloucester_, a converted yacht, the former
plaything and pleasure-boat of a summer vacation, which, without
hesitation or turning, attacked these demons of the sea and
sunk them both. I have always thought it the most heroic and
gallant individual instance of fighting daring in the war. It
was as if some light-clad youth, with no defense but his sword,
threw himself into the arena with armored gladiators and by his
dash and spirit laid them low. And yet who has given a sword
or spread a feast to that purest flame of chivalrous heroism,
Richard Wainwright?--Hon. JOHN D. LONG.
(1399)
* * * * *
William H. Edwards, a ‘longshoreman, twenty-five years old, who
forgot race prejudice in his anxiety to be of service to his
fellow men, was awarded a silver medal by the Carnegie Hero Fund
Commission and also $1,000 to be applied to the purchase of a
home.
While the _Arcadia_, a freight steamer, plying between
Hamburg and Philadelphia, was being unloaded in June, 1908, an
explosion in the cargo occurred. Most of the stevedores working
below decks were knocked down and bruised, some being burned.
Many of the workers deserted the ship. Smoke and flames came
from the hatches. Cries of the injured below decks came to the
party of men waiting on deck.
Edwards volunteered to attempt the rescue of the imprisoned men.
Tying a rope to a lighter, he slid into the burning hold, but
could find nothing. Hearing groans he deserted his guide-rope
and bending low searched in the direction of the cries of pain.
After a long search he located Lucius Hubbard, a negro. Bearing
the unconscious and injured workman to the open hatch, he had
him hoisted to the deck and safety, following himself when
assured there was no other person in the burning vessel.
(1400)
* * * * *
The following dispatch from Mankato, Minn., is given by the Baltimore
_Sun_:
With one foot cut off and his legs mangled, Rudolph Elmquist,
an eighteen-year-old railroad operator, crawled a mile to his
operating station and sounded a warning to Mankato, which saved
probably one hundred lives.
Elmquist tried Friday night to get on the evening freight-train
caboose for Mankato, where he boarded. He slipt and fell beneath
the wheels. The freight crew saw him fall and feared he had been
hurt. The train stopt about a mile away and began to back up to
investigate.
The St. Paul passenger train was nearly due and the track was
supposed to be clear for it. As one side of the curved track
is along a high embankment and river, a disastrous crash was
imminent.
Elmquist saw the train backing up the track and tried, waving
his arms, to stop it. Failing to find him in the night, the
freight crew prepared to go forward again.
Elmquist again tried to attract attention, but in vain. He then
began dragging himself over the grass along the track to his
station and reached his key about half an hour later, suffering
torture.
He wired the Great Western operator at Mankato: “My foot is cut
off and No. 271 is coming back to pick me up. She will have to
have help against No. 142, which is due at Mankato in a few
minutes.”
Then he fainted and fell across his desk. He was hurried to a
hospital, where it was said both legs would have to be amputated.
(1401)
See GRATITUDE; LOST, CRY OF THE; RESCUE.
=Heroism, Domestic=--See DOMESTIC HEROISM.
=Heroism in Disaster=--See COMPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE.