The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1898, Page 20

20 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 1898. HOW FOUR WOMEN ESCAPED BEING IMPRISONED IN THE ICE Were on Board the Whaling Fleet Now Threat- ened With Destruction at HE few people who knew that four women had sailed from this port on whaling ships about three vears ago have been for them and wonder- uld fare when it mournin, ing how they came to facing starvati “These women went all right enough,” said H. J. Knowles, owner of the whaler Jessie H. Freeman, “but the first winter.” a tale that shows complish when they came bac! And thereby what Jack Tar he makes up I The eight ice-b 1 vessels now in e Arctic the , the Je an, the Belvedere, the arless, the Wanderer, the Jeanie and the Newport, the crews of which number 265. The four women who sailed with the fleet were the wives of ptain Green, Captain Porter of the sse H. Freeman, Captain Sherman and Captaln Weeks. The two children who sailed away were Bert six-year-old son ‘of Sherman, and Doroth Sherman, in pt Port . Porter. The permitting of the women to go north on the whaling ships was 1 a big experiment. It i known that sailo the wives of captair a ship. This is part partly Jack Tar’s come this objection it was decided that nothing should be said to the sailor about the wome sence on boa until the ships had been at s And this plan v bject s or mates on board whole sun spent a winte second t cre rried out their th > compelled children hom n realize tk a piece of 1 vhaler captain more u: world witho And has W shi effectu to th n EFORE her death Willard in a way select suc r in the y carried on by the W. T. U. That she had in mind careful preparation for the calamity which has just befallen the W. C. T. U. there is no doubt. Proba- bly she knew her own lack of strength, or her failing health, better than any one dreamed. She knew too, that in case of her sudden pass ing there would be no one directly ready to take her place, for all the vice-presidents scattered over the °°°°°°°’ " B Mrs. Stevens was vice-president of Point Barrow. | ‘What is the real objection of the sail- to having women on board their a question many might ask. e only way to get a truthful answer to the question is to get a sailor alone and ask him. And then perhaps he won't tell. I had a ta with the women who ed all the trouble before they sail- and, with that rsation still fresh in my memory, t about 1agine how they p e time alter steamed out of the Golden Gate months of the year. When a variation | of the monctony came it was usually in the form of a whale that had been ‘“'sighted” some four or six miles away, | and then the men scrambled into their | | boats and were off. The exciting chase | | was watched by the breathless women | | and children in the ships, for it is not | a sport that permits cf their being any | | nearer, and they scanned the horizon | with anxious eyes to see who secured the big catch. Several parrots went along, and they Revenue Cutter Bear. in Arctic Waters ago. the 1 hi > with captai had been askin privilege for ye been constantly refusing. These four women were with the exception of Mrs. venture so far north. nces are so entirely such a comparison is probab pos. Mrs. of the four. Mrs. Porter fund of ine 1d common 1 think of n of such a racking Int ise. trunk opportunity to study stitch was unde aind into the ham packages, game of food sup] and boxes were packed with rials f E ou might have um whalers hed e 10 A myth of fore females occupied ir ning I fancy they did rery early from their especially in the Each cap- privilege of tak- m on the ¢ thought a great point had been gained, | and owners had And the circum- different that Green was the most robust was a frail looking woman from Oakland, Cal., not well fitted to brave the rigors of such d cruise, Mrs. und to be the life of the fleet, 1id she look the i N rs ago. M went all sorts of fancy work— ; the her- st not to be opened s their we were to be told how to yell “Hip, hip, hooray!” and to sing the “Star Spang- led Banner” when the thoughts of home came crowding too fast. | pianos in the cabins, and the afternoon hours were often to be passed in music and song. And to think that it should all turn out so unsatisfactory. But ask an old salt his opinion of the matter, and he will shake his head and say, “I told you so.” —_— e JACOB LONG, THE OIL WIZARD. nise. All g for the the first, Peary, to ly inapro- Jacob Long, the famous “Oil Wiz- |m‘d" of Indiana, has come into promi- nence again through locating, by his peculiar method, some extensive oil fields in Ohio. He prospected through- | out the oil country recently, and his predictions have been in almost every instance phenomenally successful. Twenty years ago, when Long was in his prime, he was called the “water witch.” Whenever a sawmill or resi- dence was to be built he was called on to ascertain if the place was provided with water. Long was enabled to de- tect the presence of water by means of a forked stick which he carried close to the ground. He held a prong in each hand so that the third prong pointed upward. He claimed that as he passed over the water the prong would invariably point downward. Scientific people laughed at his method, but his judgment proved to be so good that no one thought of putting down a ng north- | well unless Long was consulted. childhood | Some years ago while Long was | searching for water, his stick began to from the | perform very curious antics by turning tr inward and outward. The phenomena e four puzzled Long at first, but after investi- time. In|gation he announced that large reser- not tum- | voirs of oil and gas lay under this land. fur sleep- | The theory seemed so absurd that he six | was laughed at, and his sanity was Sherman vo o in Weeks haustible in antic o steamer 00d to be| pers went | pro- advanced, the mate- | | | | | into them There were | | THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC WHALING FLEET. {They Were All Sent Back Home on Profest of the Sailors, Who Did Not Want to Take Any Chances Against “Luck.” Protest of the Sailors Not Been Complied With the Women Would Now Be Icebound With Their Husbands at Point Barrow, to Which Point the United States Cutter Bear Is Now Bound With Relief for the Imprisoned Whalers. Had the g to convince his and tried to to purchase * home 10ney a part of the land. In this he has been | uns u A short t ime ago he heard that oil ! had been discovered by accident where | he had located it twenty years ago. He has returned to his old home and his | predictions since then have been so ac- curate that he is again beginning to enjoy local fame. MRS. LILLIAN STEVENS, JHE NEW W.G. J. U. PRESIDENT Character Sketch of the Woman Who Has Taken the Place Made Vacant by the Passing of Frances Willard as the Leader of the Powerful Women’s | ted States would be on with no one th Miss Willard had ke and she dangers of s So she office of vic at 1 soon as her was she nominat Stevens to fill itic te urally stepped Lillian an equal | In some ways the new leader resem- D the old for she is earnest, broad-minded and intuitive. Then she knows Mi Willard's work and plans probably more thoroughly than ation of the |any one else, having been more con- arge. As | stantly associated with her than any adopted | other woman In the organization ex- M. N.|cept Miss Anna Gordon, who has At her| v voman save in the vens nat- | sense of being Miss Willard's alter ego. Therefore there is wonderful unani- president of the W. C. T. U. mity around the temple these days. honoring the new president the rank Mrs. Stevens is accepted as president and file of the society feel in a way | without demur, for it is as though she of their late great leader in the caus had been chosen and appointed by a | voice from the beyond. MRS. LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS. the W, C. T. U., and through to take the place made vacant by the recent death of Frances Willard her position has been selected by the organization Christian Temperance Union. it Lest any misunderstandi is well to add that Mrs. Stev ident of the union under the constitu- tion, which provides in article 4 that the officers shall be president, vice- president at large, etc.; and in article 1 of the bylaws, where, under the head- ing of duties of president, it is enacted that “she may also nominate one of the vice-presidents to be known as vice- president-at-large, said nemination to be acted upon by the convention. In case of the president’s inability to act the duties shall fall upon the vice-pres- ident-at-large.” At four consecutive conventions Mrs. Stevens was nominat- ed by Miss Willard and elected by the convention. Mrs. Stevens of Maine has not the same wonderful magnetism which char- acterized her predecessor. But she is very gentle, womanly and withal firm. She is approachable, courteous and well bred, while the quiet dignity of her manner carries with it to the intuitive the conviction of a strong will capable of holding its own. | She is rather small and slight, with black hair in which there is scarcely a line of gray, and deep hazel eyes, which have a way of looking through an indi- | vidual and probing him to a pretty con- | clusive and accurate definition. She is 54 years old, not a pretty wom- an, but vastly better looking than her pictures, which rather give the impres- sion of a hard personality and a fine disregard for appearances. Actually, is misleading. Stevens is a tremendously earn- est suffragist, but so is Susan B. An- thony, and neither deems it necessary to go roughly clad and looking like a guy in order to body forth a proof ot | strong-mindedness. “As fa s in us lies we intend to car- ry out the plans and w es of Miss Willard,” said Mrs. Steven: those for- mulated and adopted at the last gen- eral convention at Buffalo, those of the post-executive committee of that con- vention over which Miss Willard pre- sided, and also the plans made at the | general officers’ meeting held here at the Temple after the post-executlve, | November 11 and 12, 1897. They com- | prise our plans for the entire year, you know. The three principal things, how- ever, are: “1. To work for constitutional prohi- | bition in States not now under prohib- | itory law, and in States which do have it to make an effort for better enforce- ment of the law. “2. To work for increased member- | ship. That explains itself. We need more added unto us. “3. As Miss Willard said, ‘This must be our financial year.’ Last year we worked for the Armenians; this year we shall work for retiring Temple trust bonds. This means the raising of $300,- 000. Do I think we will get so large a sum? Yes. We hope for even more than that. Our whole aiin is to take up the work of the union on all sides as Miss Willard designed it. We mean to go forward. “I shall still keep my home in Port- land, Me., but expect to be in Chicago a good deal,” said Mrs. Stevens, “It seems better that Anna Gordon and I should be in the East together. No not as my private secretary. Don't| speak of her in that way. I shouldn’t want her to be thought of as private | secretary to anyone any more. Merely say that she will continue her connec- | tion with the work. We are trying to keep everything as nearly as possible | as it was. Miss Willard’s faithful ste- | nographer will also stay with Miss Gordon and me. I remain in Chicago over Monday, then go East for a short time and return again. | “At first we were paralyzed with | grief,” she continued, In speaking of | the association’s late loss. *“We did not | really expect the end. I thought she would get better all along, and I sent a cheering cablegram to Lady Henry'| at 6 o'clock of the night when she | passed away at 12. I did not give her | up until five hours before the end came. | “For twenty-three years Miss Wil- | lard and I have been together part | of every year except those which she spent in England. Last spring I went to England as American delegate | to the British Women’s Temperance | Association. I was the guest of Mlss‘ Agnes Slack there, and, yes, I was also | | tivity, and who, according to the ro- | anders, had a wonderful escape from a | | island of Anno Bom, on the steamship | the morning watch, the lookout called, | | cloudlets hither and thither. | max came when we were close abreast at Eastnor Castle with Lady Henry, as | well as in her London home in Pari lane.” This last petition Miss Willard ls-‘ sued was to Yale,” said Mrs. Stevens, musingly, ‘“and her last was to all the Ic official call | al unions to unite in celebrating eal Dow birthday as prohibition day. That is on March 20, and a great many of the unions had | engaged their halls and speakers when | the news of Miss Willard’s death came so the general officers have named that as prohibition day for all time to come. | This honors Miss Willard's last call to perpetuity, and the officers have de- cided to make it also a memorial day for her. As she was a worker for pro- hibition also, it seems a very fitting combination. We are also asking the 2 World's W. C. T. U. to observe the| same day, and they doubtless will. “It is quite decided that the next na- tional ‘convention will be held in Los | Angeles, and about the middle of No- vember. Following that meeting there | are to be large conferences all along | the Pacific Coast.” | Mrs. Stevens is a Unitarian and a | suffragist, which goes far to show | how broad-minded the union is grow- | ng to be. For twenty-three years she | has been president of the Maine W. C. | T. U., and is thus the oldest, in years | of service, of any union president in | the United States. This coming sum- mer she had planned to spend in Eng- | land, but now she has abandoned (hei idea and says frankly: | “I shall stay at home and closely ap- | | ply | president of the Maine W. C. | urer of the National myself to carrying out my plans for the W. C. T. U. and dealing with whatever new work may arise.” Mrs. Stevens was born in Dover, Me., in 1844. Previous to her marriage, at the age of 21, she had been a teach- er. In her husband she found a hearty and sympathetic comrade in all tem- perance and reform work. Their only child, Gertrude, now Mrs. Leavitt of Portland, Me., is also a warm helper of her mother. Mrs. Stevens has been T. U. and for .thirteen years was cording secretary of the N C. T. U, being elected vice-president at large in 1594 ; In 1892 Mrs. Stevens was appoi one of the lady managers of ‘World's Fair and had entire char preparing Maine’s exhibit of chari gnd correction (homes, hospitals, a lums, etc.) which appeared in the & thropological building at the exposi- tion. For three years she was treas- Council of Wpo- men of the United States, and urfm voluntarily retiring from that positic was placed in the cabinet of the coun- cil and given the portfolio of moral re- form. DANCED AND FF the West African Coast, in latitude 3 degrees S. and longi- tude 30 E., les the picturesque island of Anno Bom. Surround- ed by the blue waves, its top | rising proudly and grandly | above the fleecy clouds that float across | the tropical v, girdled about by foam, | rich in tropical verdure, it is like a gem of the ocean. It is peopled by the de- scendants of Africans who were in cap- mantic legend told by the present isl- slave ship, and a not less wonderful escape from the fury of a gale before they found this land of refuge and free- dom. The legend, which serves in leu of history for the people, includes the nar- | rative of a heroic young African girl, who, inspire@ by love of her people, | pure in heart, bold in resolve, and gift- | ed with such talent for dissimulation | and stratagem as might have belonged | to the woman who overcame Samson, laid down her life for her kindred, and | her final act was to liberate them while | her blood was chilling with an insidi- | ous poison. Captain Willlam Brown visited the | Klyde, while he was sailing with a hip's cargo of machinery for the Rothschilds’ gold and diamond mines in South Africa. The island is lonely and unfrequented. Captain Brown had heard of the history of the people and wished to see the island and to listen to the legend of the islanders. He saw Anno Bom looming through the haze off the Wes# African coast one Sunday morning. 1 was walking on the deck,” says Captain Brown, “in pleased an- ticipation of having a wish realized, when, just as it struck two bells ot ‘land, ho!” “Looking ahead I saw a small, black cone, with a turban shaped cloud above it. I was told that this was Anno Bom. | It was about twenty miles distant. The transformation scenes as we rapidly neared the island were beautiful. The rising sun awakened the day wind and wafted the rose and orange tinted The cii- | of the island. Then the dense curtain | of morning haze rolled aside and, full | before us, stood Anno Bom, majestic in | stature and radiant in tropical beauty.” | The people of the island, as they were observed Dby Captain Brown, are physically perfect, large of stature, finely formed and at once strong and graceful. They wore no clothing, with the exception of a girdle. They knew nothing of money, nor did they need | money, for the sea and the soil sup- plied all their simple needs. They have a church in which mass is said by a| venerable padre daily. “From the | priest they learn,” Captain Brown re- lates, “‘all that they cared or needed to | know beyond the limits of their Eden- | | way, perfectly level except where the | who at the fountain’s edge awaited me | freedom, in their valley under BIED TO FREE crater of which is filled with pure water. The depth of this great basin | is not less than 3000 feet. The diameter is 250 feet, approximately. The island- | ers believe that it is the fountain of | the gods. Its waters are crystal clear | and fill the basin to the very brim. | Around it is a natural basaltic cause- water, overflowing, has worn grooves. Below the cone the view was magnifi- cent. “Far below floated the light cloudlets of the trade wind, and far be- neath them glittered the double lines of waves, like an embroidery of daz- zling pearls around the emerald skirt of the island. Beyond was all the dark, deep azure of the southern ocean. Re- luctantly turning from this enchant- ing view, and the mingling music of ocean and forest, I rejoined the guides to drop in two large shells they had brought for that purpose.” The King of the island, seated on a veranda in the moonlight, tc'd Cap- tain Brown the legend of Umzula. The story lacks little in a dramatic way. Jt is given in the words of the King: “Listen, now, my guest and my chil- dren, to what Umzula's father spoke to his son, and my father repeated to me. | The tribe of Kalamba dwelt, from the beginning of the world, in peace arrxld the shadow of Killimanjaro, until, one dark night, when the tribe were all sleeping. Then, when no danger was feared, a host of Arab siave traders fell on our village, and all that they killed not in our battle with them they made cap- tives. There were wooden yokes for | their necks and they were driven with | whips and sharp-pointed sticks—men, | women and children—for many moons, | across deserts and mountains and | through ‘terrible forests and rushing rivers—even the women with little children tied upon their backs. Many died of hunger or of thirst. Many were devoured by wild beasts. Some were killed by serpents. Others were stolen | by other slave men. | At last, at about the second hour of night, they reached a great water. | Next day, from a great ship that lay | near the shore, there came many white | spears and guns. | “These white men had much cloth | and beads and money and chains and she gave her daughter two small ves many bracelets and anklets of heavy the Arabs, they fastened upon the hands and feet of our people. The Arabs returned, rejoicing at all that the white men had given them for the tribe of Kalamba. The white men then | drove us into their boats. We had no | tears left and could only groan. We | called upon heaven to take pity upon | the tribe of Kalamba. The white men | only laughed and forced us down into the inside of their ship. We only knew that it was day when the streaks of | pitying sunlight came in through our | prison door. H “One time our hearts leaped within us when the waters dashed over the . ship, for we thought that our God was | HER PEOPLE. we were planning to beat each other to death with the iron rings in our hands, the women asking piteously to be themselves, with their little ones, the first to be slain. But the white men opened our prison door and drove us up and fastened us with iron rings to the deck. “Once more we saw the sun rising, and beside us we saw a great white cloud that seemed to stand on the water like the white head of Killman- jaro over the plain of Kalamba. A were turning away, thinking it a crue dream, when suddenly the cloud openad and there stood before us a beautiful green mountain, fresh as the valley of Kalamba in the springtime, with very streaks of water rushing down its sides. Frantically we struggled, but the white man’s chains held us and his cruel laugh mocked us as we sat and looked at the beautiful land. “That night Umzula, our daughter, and the betrothed of lunga, once the pride and flower of our tribe, but now the slave of the slava man, crept stealthily from where the slave men were playing with cards; to where ,her mother sat, among her chains and those of her children, and looked alternately at the darkening is- land and the faces and fetters of lLer father ard mother, while her eyes b« - gan to glow as if some terrible re- solve had begun to burn in her brain. She spoke to her mother in a firm and determined tone, that reached every e;ir. and made every slave chain rat- tle 'Oh, mother,’ she said, ‘although the slave men value every slave, even the babes at the breast, as rocks of gold, nevertheless are the slave men as. chil- dren before the slave dance. Only teach me the secret of the kiss of Jeath. Teach me this and to-morrow the tribe of Kalma will dance and sing in great Joy ard freedom in the beautiful land that God has sent in the white cloud.’ “Umzula’s mother looked from her daughter on the chains of her husband, the once proud chief of the Kalamba: and upon Nalunga, sitting, like his chief, with his brow resting on his shackled hands, and then upon the re- mainder of the once happy tribe and then toward the mountain. Embracing | men who were armed with swords and | her daughter and having spoken into her ear secrets known wives and daughters of great only to the chiet. sels containing 2 liquid Umzula | iron, which, after much speaking with | glided away to answer the slave man’'s call. g “Umzula danced the love dance and the white men, with pojsoned kisses on their lips, fell, one after another, sinking into death. Then Umzula, her eyes gleaming and lips swollen and gasping for breath, staggered to her mother’s feet and unlocked her mother’s fetters. * ‘* ‘Oh, my daughter,’ cried themother. ‘why did you not drink of the liquid in the larger vessel to save yourself?’ *“‘Only enough to save my life long enough to save you. Tell Nalunga that Umzula, defiled by the kiss of the white man, dies with her last though him.’ “She fell dead while the chains rat- sike little world, where the songs of OPening the great waters to swallow us | tjed about her, and the sound of the birds, the sound of living waters and of the ceaseless surf waves harmoniz with their own simple hymns and lyrics.” High above the surrounding sea towers a volcanic cone, the extinct up and give us freedom in death. A | trange fever began to rage in us as the groans and wallings of our wives | and little ones sank like fire into our ears and hearts and made us writhe | and hiss like snakes. In our despair | cry of freedom rang in her failing ears. The slavers were all dead. The next day the ship was dashed against the rocks of this island. Over the grave of Umzula is a cross made of all that is left of the slave ship.”